Sandeepan Mohanty is currently pursuing the NUJS diploma in Entrepreneurship and Business Law and has done B.A. LLB from Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Patiala. He is practicing in the Orissa High Court for last 2 years. Apart from this, he also offers advisory services to several startups based out of Bhubaneswar.
Over here he talks about his experience with the NUJS diploma course, and how it is helping his career. Over to Sandeepan
ON BEING INTRODUCED TO THE COURSE
I was a practicing lawyer at the time of joining the NUJS diploma in Entrepreneurship and Business Law. Many Startups were approaching me for advisory services. Even though Startup boom was catching up in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, but there was still a dearth of law firms or professionals in Orissa who were specializing in startup advisory. Since I was always inclined to ameliorate my contributions to the society by leveraging my knowledge of law, I thought what could be more apposite than offering specialized advisory and consultancy services to the small yet dynamic Startup ecosystem of my hometown. I was prompt to cash in on this opportunity and was quite determined to help my fellow entrepreneurs/startups build a robust market for themselves without the hassle of being exposed to a plethora of legal issues and impediments faced by them in doing business, which pose a potential hurdle in their journey of success. However, to bolster the quality of my services, I was looking for a virtual mentor who would be willing to offer me the requisite assistance and guidance throughout my endeavour. Interestingly, when I got to know about the diploma course being offered by iPleaders, I was thoroughly convinced that this course was not only apt in catering to my mentoring needs but would also provide me a comprehensive and specialized knowledge on startup related laws. In fact, opting for the diploma course is one of the best things that could have happened in my professional life.
ON STARTING MY OWN VENTURE- ‘THE STARTUP OKEELAW’
This course has played a major role in shaping my career graph. It has given me the fillip to expand the scope of contributing to the society as a lawyer. The course has helped me start my own startup consultancy firm by the name ‘THE STARTUP OKEELAW’. The firm focuses on offering specialized legal consultancy to a wide array of service and product based startups. The firm also provides a wide gamut of allied services including obtaining various IP (Intellectual Property) registrations and other regulatory and compliance support as well. Some of the notable clients include:-
8i Creations – A website strategy & UX consultancy and makers of accounting software
Kode Konductors – A mobile apps development. Graphic design and Web development service provider
SakRobotix Lab Pvt Ltd – a first of a kind venture in the field of educational robotics, embedded system, Machine vision, electronics & industrial automation
Eidolon Innovations Pvt Ltd – a one of a kind tech firm providing global solutions to the key areas like Defense, Space Technology Research and Efficient Renewable Energy
DropYou.com – A first of a kind bike rental service company operating in one of the most preferred tourist place named Puri at Orissa
ON HELPING FRIENDS AND RELATIVES BUILD A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS
This course has been like a torchbearer in helping my friends and relatives build their business. With the help of the course, I was able to assist my school friends Mr. Rohit Pansari and Chetan Agarwal founded venture named ‘Qlivery’- a logistics support service provider focusing on last mile delivery domain. Apart from carrying out the documentation part, I now look forward to use this course to help them in their funding/investment activities. I feel proud to be associated with one of the most promising startups in the logistics sector based out at Gurgaon.
Qlivery (http://www.qlivery.com) ia a hyperlocal on-demand delivery services which uses a combination of technology & logistics to enable a person or business to get anything delivered at a time of their choosing. It connects customers and businesses to its network of on-demand helpers who purchase & deliver the requirements from any restaurant or store in the city. The motto – Qlivery will make your life more convenient by taking care of your shopping needs while you focus on more important things. From daily grocery to food from your favourite restaurant to medicines during an emergency or even the newest iPhone – we’ll get all of them to your doorstep in super quick time. Qlivery now handles 1000+ orders a day and is expanding at a rapid pace.
ON THE OTHER BENEFITS OF THE COURSE
One of the many USPs of this course is its customized and industry specific syllabi. The syllabus has been so meticulously designed that it provides a bird’s eye view of the entire gamut of laws involved in a Startup business in a flash. Moreover, the course is so strategically created and is so handy that when a client comes up with a particular issue requiring a more detailed approach, all I have to do is to look up for at that particular issue and I am ready with a pertinent solution.
Over the time, I have realized that this course has tremendously enhanced my drafting and negotiation skills. I have also been able to offer an entirely different level of services to my client be it advising them on the business structure to follow or be it mitigating their prospects of entering litigation by adopting better and effective drafting techniques.
The periodical webinars provided by the Course are also an add-on to the already rich with information modules. Webinars have helped me identify and update myself with various areas which keep cropping up now and then in the startup advisory space. These webinars have also made the course more interactive and have added an entirely different dimension to online learning.
More specifically, the module on ‘Raising Investment’ helped me a great deal in successfully advising a startup looking for seed funding.
I also benefitted a great deal from the module on arbitration and dispute resolution. As part of my practice and startup advisory work, I’m flooded with a variety of issues pertaining to the efficacy of arbitration mechanism and how to deal with arbitration matters that ultimately ends up at the Court of law. However, this course acts as a perfect primer on the subject and I have been able to leverage it to enhance the quality of my advisory services on these issues.
ON FINDING A PLATFORM TO NETWORK
Nevertheless, this course has provided me a wonderful opportunity to network with a battery of highly talented and successful legal professionals working in the startup space across jurisdictions. This course has helped me to reach out to one of the best in the business kind of professionals to affiliate with them and hire services being rendered by them in niche areas of law. The iPleaders network makes it easier to approach the right kind of people from different fields.
Ipleaders club indeed is a wonderful source of mentoring for young and budding startup attorneys like us. Since, it has a wonderful network of lawyers around the country from different fields like patent attorneys, litigators etc., the peer mentorship networking concept gets a totally new dimension and interaction amongst the peer becomes smooth, easy and highly enriching. I have personally used this service and found it very helpful.
OVERALL IMPRESSION
I am of the opinion that the course has catered to all of my needs in grooming myself to be a better transactional lawyer. I’m really impressed with the course structure and design and found all the modules to be very effective and insightful.
I would recommend this course to all the fresh graduates who intend to start their litigation career in smaller jurisdiction as compared to metropolitans but still fancy to be a transactional lawyer as well at the end of the day. This course is a must for such budding lawyers who though cannot afford formal full time training but need to be essentially trained on these aspects. This course will promisingly give a new dimension to their career.
Moreover, since the course is available online, it is easier to access it anywhere anytime and learn at one’s own pace and convenience.
