Urja Neurgaonkar
Hello, I am Urja Neurgaonkar, CEO of LinguaPoint.
I am a Commerce graduate (in Entrepreneurship) from Symbiosis University and I am also currently a final year law student. Apart from this, I hold a Diploma in Business French from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Centre Paris.
Company Name: LinguaPoint
Location: Maharashtra, Pune, India
Operating since: 2019
Instagram: @linguapointpune
Tell us all about your company. What services do you offer?
LinguaPoint caters to French-language translations and training, along with corporate training in Spoken English.
The company was established on March 8, 2019. with the idea of providing activity-based learning and creating a love for learning languages. Over these [nearly] three years, we have successfully completed legal, technical, document and general translations for our clients (like Estech), trained over 100 students, and also provided corporate training in spoken English.
We aim to inculcate more languages in the future and provide translations and training, all under one roof.
How did you get the idea or concept for your company? What was your mission at the outset? Was there anything in particular that inspired you to start at the time you did?
Being an entrepreneurship student, the field of business fascinated me. Hearing various entrepreneurs talk about their ventures made me think of having a startup. I was always passionate about French language and wanted to challenge myself by doing something in it. So I thought of coming up with LinguaPoint. From a girl who was kind of lost in today’s world pondering upon what to do, to starting my own company at the age of 21 when I decided to follow my passion, many questioned my ability and my idea of having my own business but I decided to give it a shot.
Growing up, did you always intend to start your own company?
Growing up, I never thought that I would have a startup. In fact, my mentors at Symbiosis always pushed me and tried to induce this idea of having a startup. But in my last year of graduation, I got a backlog and was depressed by it. That’s when I learnt that failures are stepping stones to excellence (by creating new opportunities) - that’s when I decided to get out of my comfort zone and start a company.
How have your past personal & professional experiences helped you to run LinguaPoint?
Before starting LinguaPoint, I was working at a company for a short duration but that experience actually helped me to learn how a business functions. Apart from this, my dad is an entrepreneur; hence, I had grown up seeing him working for his company. This environment helped me to think out of the box and taught me to take risks and handle them too.
What is the biggest obstacle you've had to overcome?
When I started off, I had no investors and no funding. So I decided to start the company on a low budget. Whatever I had earned through freelancing, that acted like funding for my startup. Post registrations and procedural work, marketing was a problem as I had to pay various platforms to advertise my business. Hence, I learnt how to market my own company through social media and decided to cut down as many expenses as I can. That helped me to survive in the initial days. I didn’t opt for having a company website since I was working on major cost-cutting. But luckily mouth publicity and self-marketing helped me to get through corporates and get clients.
What's your definition of success? Do you consider yourself a success? If not, when will you?
Success comes with smart work. Success is not just achieving your goal but it is about making a mark in today’s world. I believe that we create our own limits. I would not say I am successful as there is a lot to achieve but that does not mean I am not happy with what I have achieved to date. For me, success is a constant process, a process which is more like an inward journey of constantly challenging yourself, shaping your skills, and making the best version of yourself that can give back to the community.
Have the women around you helped you to rise? How?
Yes. My mother, grandmother, and my mentor have been my backbone. They have always taught me that a woman helps and respects other women and their ideas and never pulls them down.
What are some of your future plans? Are you working on anything else right now?
Currently, I aim to expand LinguaPoint by marketing it more and creating a firm base which can help me in the future.
What advice would you give to a woman starting out in your industry or starting her own company/organization?
Start early and do not give up! Never think of others as competition as you are your own competition. Have a good business plan and start networking with like-minded people and the people from your industry from the initial stage as that helps you gain a lot of insights about the market.
Describe yourself in ONE word. Resilient
Complete this sentence: "To be a girl or woman today is..." to be kind, courageous, and strong enough to shape your dreams into reality.