In the pre-final year of my college, I was doing everything that I loved — building, creating, and scaling. A couple of my friends and I were working on building CampusBox, an open-source creative network for people to share their creative work, connect to other creators on the platform, and…
Technology, Development and New Delhi: Interning at SocialCops
I have been fascinated by the government for as long as I can remember. Across the two decades of my life, this childish fascination has continued to persist, a facet of my personality that I have come to regard as an irrational obsession. It manifests itself in a number of…
My Journey as a Growth Marketing Intern at SocialCops
After graduating from a rather nondescript college in MP, a brief stint at my own startup and working as a freelance designer, I finally made it to a respectable business school in Delhi. As soon as I finished my second semester’s final exams, getting an internship was my first concern.…
450k Lines of Code & 130 Data Sets: 1 Year as a Data Analyst at SocialCops
It was a sunny March afternoon when I walked into the parking lot of the swanky Waters Edge Hotel in Colombo. SocialCops’ co-founder Varun and I had just given a presentation amongst a group of policy-makers, civil society members and decision-makers at a #DataForSDGs conference held by the United Nations…
A Year in the Life of an Account Manager at SocialCops
Right after completing my graduation in Statistics, I joined the Market Analytics team at one of the Big 4 accounting firms. I wanted to get a head start on analytics tools and techniques, and I thought it would be the right place to do that. However, within a year of…
Our Sales Team Is Scaling Up. Here’s What You Need to Know.
On a normal day, our co-founder Prukalpa’s calendar looks like a complex mosaic of calls and meetings. The other day, she started off her morning with a couple of calls from home, one with a pharmaceutical company followed by one with an FMCG company. She then set off on an…
Founders’ Staff: Big Responsibilities for Big Impact
I landed at SocialCops in a fairly nontraditional way. I found the company by Googling “data-driven tech startup Delhi” — true story! — and immediately knew I wanted to be a part of the organization. I considered other roles within the company, but with the patience and counsel of the…
Data for Impact Fellowship: Invest Yourself in Impact
I felt the weight on my shoulders lift off, as the wheels of the plane did the same. The stress and sleepless nights from the previous month suddenly seemed to exist only in an abstract life. I was ready to move to India. Fast forward a week and I’m walking…
What People Operations Means to Me
“You were born to be a camp counselor” is what my mom told me in a recent phone call. That comment took me back to working as an actual camp counselor during high school summers; my time as a Freshman Orientation leader, welcoming new students to the university and helping…
Our Co-Founder’s Reflections and Learnings from 2017
Last year, we went through incredible growth and hit some amazing milestones. As we wrapped up the year, I took to Twitter to note down some of my most important learnings from 2017 about how to build and scale a company. Without further ado, here they are! In 2017, our…
Are you doing the “right thing”? Lessons and dilemmas of an early employee
As I was closing the chapter on 2017, I realized that I am about to turn 26 next year. Oh, I panicked. I panicked at the thought of turning 30 in the next four and a half years, and the worry about what legacy I will leave by then. I…
My First Month as a Data For Impact Fellow
I vividly remember my journey back to Jodhpur after my two-day interview with SocialCops. There was an intense sense of excitement, uncertainty and self-doubt. I had a decision to make, and a pretty big one: What to do after graduating? I had already been offered a full-time role with Accenture…
Tapping the Untapped Sector of Offline Data Collection
My Journey to SocialCops “At its heart, engineering is about using science to find creative, practical solutions. It is a noble profession.” -Queen Elizabeth II Being a self-proclaimed maths geek and computer lover from my school days, I wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t become an engineer. I…
9 Signs You’re an Intern at SocialCops (or Perhaps Should Be)
1. You own a single pair of formal pants, which you wear only on special occasions such as interviews or your cousin’s wedding. 2. You like to hack — make things, break things, and learn along the way. Hackweek, Hackathons, and coding sprints are just a few examples of the…
I Rejected a Cushy Big 4 Consulting Gig to Make Big Impact at SocialCops
“Why?” I was sitting in a well maintained office on the 4th floor of a commercial building in downtown Boston. It was July. I was slightly sweaty as my suit was a bit too warm. My eyes glazed over as I tried going through a lengthy Excel test document. As…
Hackathon 2017: Building a Better SocialCops
It was 9 pm on a Friday, a time when most offices would be dead — no overhead lights, no persistent hum from the AC, no ringing phones. The perfect picture of calm and quiet, save occasional car horns trickling in from the nearby road. On June 2nd, this was…
Why I Moved to the Startup World to Drive Better Governance in India
I’m not quite sure when, where, or how I developed a keen interest in the issue of governance in India. Maybe it was from my love for social science classes in school or my father’s interest in politics and development. Perhaps it was the inspiring texts I read as part…
An Insider’s Peek into Life in the SocialCops Data Team
At SocialCops, data is at the core of all our decisions, from small decisions like changing the header image of our website to big decisions like empowering policy makers with the correct information. We never take a step without consulting our friend, data. This means that the Data Team at…
A Week in the Life of a Policy & Governance Manager at SocialCops
My name is Akshay Gujar, and I joined SocialCops as a Policy & Governance Manager in August 2016. Before SocialCops, I was part of the 2015 Maharashtra Chief Minister’s Fellowship. Fascinated by the role data can play in improving governance and policy and inspired by blog posts such as these,…
24 or 42 — It Really Doesn’t Matter
The ground slips out from under me and suddenly I am airborne when I really should not be. I land hard on a dusty bare field with a few sprouts of grass. That hurt and definitely did not look elegant. I have just been body checked by a 24-year-old girl.…
Why My SocialCops Interview Was One of a Kind
What are the things that come to our minds when we think of interviews? They’re scary and they’re hard, but with the right technique and amount of preparation, they can be conquered. However, my in-office SocialCops interview convinced me that interviews can throw you off your game and reveal who…
7 Common Myths About Working With the Indian Government
Ministry. Secretariat. Collectorate. Panchayat Samiti. Sir. Madam. Sir. Madam. Meeting. Field Visit. Presentation. New Delhi. Nagpur. Noamundi. These are the words around which my life revolves currently. At SocialCops, we work on a large number of projects with the government. Typically, our data platform helps some of the most important…
How SocialCops Keeps Me Motivated — Monday to Friday
Seven months ago, I was a data scientist at a big-data analytics firm. In my nine-month stint there, I was introduced to big data and the tremendous decision-making capabilities that it brings to organizations, both governments and corporations. I was convinced that data-driven decision-making is the need of the hour…
What Infrastructure Demos Taught Me About Telling a Complex Story
One Friday in late January, I was in the middle of what I thought was a normal Friday demo at SocialCops. With the Growth, Data, and Business teams out of the way, it was time for the engineers to take the stage. First up was Chetan Bhasin, who works in Infrastructure at SocialCops.…
Engineer Differently: My Experience as an Engineer at SocialCops
The central question of any startup is not how to attract talent, but how to get the best performance out of that talent. This is crucial — every day at a startup brings new challenges with limited time to respond. Coping with these challenges while building products to impact a…
A Day in the Life of a Graphic Designer at SocialCops
According to tradition, I am supposed to write an article on a day in the life of a graphic designer at SocialCops. However, being a designer at SocialCops is better defined as a lifestyle than by a single day’s work. So I must start at the beginning — scratch that,…
Giving Thanks for My Job — A Non-Traditional Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving has always been a wonderful, albeit somewhat predictable activity for me — I meet my family, tease my little sisters, eat great food until I hurt, and talk about what I’m thankful for. Once I check all the boxes, I can collapse into a food coma. Thankfulness has always…
A Day in the Life of a SocialCops Data Analyst
I did not have a traditional college experience. While studying at Grinnell College, I spent a year living in Pune, Delhi and Mumbai, where I completed two internships, learned Hindi, traveled the country, and studied Economics at St. Stephen’s College. This year inspired me to leave my home in Kentucky…
TGIF: What SocialCops Does on Fridays
Friday Demos are the one time in the week that the SocialCops team stops executing and sits back to have some fun. On Friday at 6 pm sharp, we put our laptops away and focus our attention on the projector screen that makes its way down for its two hours of…
My First Week as a Resident Entrepreneur at SocialCops
My name is Richa and I recently joined the SocialCops team in a “Resident Entrepreneur” role. Seriously. I was told to create my own title when I joined, and so I did. Having worked as an associate at a consulting firm for two years conducting primary research and randomised controlled…
Expecting the Unexpected: My First Week in Business Development at SocialCops
Given my experience the last time I interned, it was no surprise I decided to come back to SocialCops. Unlike the first-day jitters when I entered in March 2014, I thought I knew the drill this time around. After all, there’s only so much a place can change in a…
Himsagar Fellowship Travelogue: Six States. Five Months. Solo Travel.
I remember sitting on what was then my first train journey on the Fellowship – the Mumbai-Delhi Rajdhani on the 4th of January 2015. Winter in Mumbai was at one extreme in comparison to the one that awaited me in Delhi. Anything below 20 degrees Celsius was unnatural for an inhabitant…
Android Analytics to Enrich Data Collection On Field: My Hack Week at SocialCops
My name is Tanay. I’m a third year computer science major in Manipal University and, after three rounds of interviews, I joined SocialCops as a summer intern. You join SocialCops with people expecting a lot from you. Varun Banka, our co-founder told me on day 1 that you’ll be working…
From Traditional Marketing to Digital Marketing in a Startup: My Learnings
Life is quite different 35,000 kilometers away from where I was just 10 months ago. I think the competitive environment in University instills the idea of a perfect job awaiting you as you step out into the world. But the truth is far from that. I stumbled upon my first…
Work and Travel, Learn and Touch Lives: A Month in the Life of a Himsagar Fellow
Yes, I’ve spent the last four months traveling to Bihar, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Odisha meeting over a hundred NGOs working across a myriad of issues. And yes, I’ve been doing all of it on my own. Quick rewind: I chanced upon the Himsagar Fellowship some months ago when I…
Shipping an Internal Real-Time Dashboard: My Internship at SocialCops
It all began in November 2014 when I got to know about the openings for internships at SocialCops. I was initially hesitant about applying, given my college was still running. But, after exploring their work, the hard problems they’re looking to solve using technology and their super awesome work culture,…
Google Search: “Travel jobs”…. How Elita Almeida Found a Cure to Her Restless Feet Syndrome
“Tum ho kahaan ki?” (“Where are you from?”), he asked. I was puzzled. Should I say Patna or Delhi or Mumbai? I was in Muzaffarpur in Bihar speaking with three NGOs on a late January afternoon. Beside us, a team from the NGO were sifting through reams of paper. I…
Why I Chose a Startup Internship in my First Semester Winter and Why You Should Too
A hard disk full of 1080p videos, high-end games, riveting music collection, a cozy room, a garam garam cup of tea and all that you could possibly find on your college’s Intranet is what most people look forward to when winter vacations come close. But, what if you could finish…
Why I Left My Swanky Westin Office to Work in Client Management for Grassroots India
College kids – a naïve bunch of youngsters that run purely on skill, caffeine, and an insatiable hunger to make a mark. It’s been 3 months since I officially graduated — not long enough for me to be overcome by the cynicism that all those preceding me have succumbed to; not…
Why We Do What We Do: Our Learnings From a Pilot Study in Taoru
Be the change you wish to see in the world. A few years ago, I read this quote while walking and holding the hand of the children I used to teach. It struck me so deeply that it has kept me going to this day. Change is a long process – one…
My Summer Internship: What Google Won’t Tell You About SocialCops
This summer was different – different from the other lazy lousy summers where I would just sit back and relax. Being a first-year student, I wanted to experience what is like to live a “corporate life”. I was sure I would try to intern somewhere this summer. I spoke to…
My Internship Experience: Why SocialCops Makes You Want to Drop Out of College
On my first day as an intern, the first thing that struck me when I entered the SocialCops office were the oddly-positioned black and white photos with seemingly nonsensical captions on one of the walls. I was wondering whether this was some kind of voodoo thing until my attention was…
The Google Glass, Raspberry Pi, and My First Hackathon
4 weeks into my internship at SocialCops, we realized that the office had too much hardware that wasn’t being put to much use.”Let’s organize our own internal hackathon” was a random idea that someone suggested and, with that, Hackathon #1 was organized right here at our basement office in Malviya…
What It’s Like to Work at SocialCops
I started to work for the young and vibrant SocialCops team as a Partnerships lead about two months ago. I came on board at a time when SocialCops was in its early phase of expansion after a few successful pilots. It’s been one hell of a experience to be on the SocialCops…
What the “God of Cricket” Sachin Tendulkar Taught Us About Building a Startup
This 24th of April, the team at SocialCops would like to celebrate Sachin Tendulkar. It has been a few months since India’s biggest sporting icon bid us farewell. After a brief period of uncertainty, Indian cricket has moved on. In a country which has a habit of finding heroes, it has not taken…
My First Campaign #my SHElfie: Behind the Scenes
Just 3 weeks ago, when I was finding my way to the SocialCops office in Malviya Nagar, I remember how inhibited I was with petty worries. Will I be able to contribute? I’m still a university student from a pure commerce background. I’m not a tech genius. Will they let…
From Idea To Funding: What Not To Do After You’re Struck With Your Billion-Dollar Startup Idea
I recently had someone message me and ask me to connect them to “VCs” to fund their “idea”. About a year and half since I started conceptualizing my startup, I was struck by the naïveté of such a question – almost beginning to laugh. Then a visit up memory lane…
Why We Do What We Do
Doing startups for the money is not a great idea. Perhaps doing startups to be remembered or become famous is a better motive. Perhaps not. A better motive still would be a desire to change the world. We believe that the only good reason to do a startup is because…
What You Should Know Before You Pitch Your Company at a Global Level
SocialCops was a finalist at the Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition (2013) held by the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. We came out as winners for the Information and Communications Technology prize and in the process we’ve learnt a LOT. I’m trying to summarize my learnings with what we…
What You Should Know Before You Give Your Startup Pitch at a Global Level
SocialCops was a finalist at the Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition (2013) held by the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. We came out as the winner of the Information and Communications Technology prize. It was one of my initial successes as an entrepreneur and, in the process, SocialCops has learned a LOT.…
Voices in the Head of a Middle-Class Aspiring Startup Founder
I am an average 20-something university student from a middle-class Indian family. In my final year of university, I was bitten by what they call the “startup bug” and I dreamt of being an entrepreneur. Around me, my batchmates were applying for jobs feverishly. On the other hand, my co-founders…