Today we’d like to introduce you to Bhargav Patel.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’ve worked in AdTech/MarTech in one way or another for my whole career. The first company I founded was IQM Corporation, a global media buying platform empowering marketers to use data to make better buying decisions. I spent the last decade growing IQM and recently stepped down as a CEO, remaining as Chairman, to give me more time to work on my latest venture, Genuine. IQM saw a lot of success — we were listed as the 21st fastest growing company in the US by the Financial Times and 2nd amongst advertising and marketing companies in NYC by Inc.500. I particularly loved working with our proprietary AI-driven audience intelligence engine, which gave advertisers access to more accurate planning, forecasting, budgeting and targeting, which are notoriously complicated for full funnel optimization. Programmatic has solved, to a greater extent, the Awareness funnel, but engagement in the funnel is still the most difficult part, which is largely controlled by social giants and walled gardens. That is something I’m excited to explore more at Genuin, where we’re incorporating AI for engagement and providing a platform to support in-house engagement by communities to provide a better experience for everyone that are looking to become a brand or brand that is looking to grow beyond and drive engagement movements within communities that creates long-lasting impact.
My newest company, Genuin, has three core facets: build, grow and market your communities. Community builders and Brands can leverage Genuin’s community solution, which sits within your brand’s own app or website and gives your consumers, customers, employees, and stakeholders a whole new way to create and keep engaged in communities of the area of interest of topics that matter the most in bite-sized video format. AdReels is our interactive social video ad format offering advertisers a way to create interactive video ads that engage your audience so well that they forget they’re consuming an ad. It’s one of the marketing tools we offer to help brands market their community. And the community platform allows any creator or individual to create interest-based communities centered on bite-sized videos. It’s like the best parts of Reddit and TikTok, with AI-driven content creation tools with a Shopify business model. I’m able to use my international background to work with the best teams across India, the US, and Europe, and initial feedback has been very promising (we were recently featured on Yahoo Finance and Business Insider, too).
My career has been focused on a drive to innovate and bring digital platforms to brands in new and exciting ways. As an entrepreneur, you never know what opportunities lie around the corner, and that’s what keeps life interesting.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No entrepreneur’s journey has ever been completely smooth, and it’s actually the tough times that bring us closer to success. Due to the nature of the industry I work in, we constantly have to be on top of changes in the regulatory landscape, both from the government side and from social media platforms themselves. This could be anything from new ways of protecting customer data to the use of AI in a privacy-protected manner. It’s not a struggle as such, but it’s definitely something that has the potential to affect my business.
And any time you start a new business, you always go through a number of pivots until you land on the path you want to pursue. We’ve been working on Genuin for a couple of years now and have explored a bunch of different angles and focuses before the platform became what it is today. I have always believed in the power of video and camera that is going to power the next generation of internet and consumer experiences. There’s always a lot of market research involved, endless conversations and surveys, which takes time and money, but eventually gets you closer to your goal. For less seasoned entrepreneurs, it can be stressful spending time developing proprietary technology, but I’ve seen first-hand how it can transform your company, so I know it’s all worth it in the end.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Genuin?
Genuin is a fully integrated suite of short video and community-based consumer engagement products. Essentially, we’ve built a platform that allows brands to connect with their audience in engaging, interactive ways, and for individuals to connect with each other on the topics that most matter to them. We use AI technology in our products to provide a unique offering that allows creators and brands to reach their audience in game-changing ways.
Genuin for Brands is our unique embedded community solution, which sits within your brand’s own app. AdReels is our interactive social video format offering advertisers a way to create interactive video ads that engage your audience so well they forget they’re consuming an ad. Combined, they provide a unique way of creating value for consumers whilst increasing loyalty, reducing retention costs, and building lifelong brand advocates.
What matters most to you? Why?
In a work context, I’m most passionate about innovation and doing things that no one has done before. Anyone can start a company, but for me the real driver is in doing something totally new and novel. When we pitch Genuin’s offerings to brands, for example, there’s nothing better than when they tell us they haven’t seen anything similar on the market. That’s when I know I’m doing something right. The social media, brand community and content landscapes are changing drastically year on year, and so it’s a challenge to always ensure we’re staying ahead of the curve. I’m looking forward to seeing the opportunities that AI will bring us in 2024 and beyond—we’re incorporating some exciting capabilities in the Genuin platform at the moment, which our users are loving, so stay tuned to see what’s next!
On a personal note, spending time with family and friends is really important to me. It’s easy to get caught up in the hustle, working 24/7 to get things done, but I have two young kids, and I want to spend enough quality time with them and my wife. Work will always be there, but kids grow fast, so it’s important to me to assemble a great team who I trust so that I can achieve a semblance of life balance because work is part of life, and when you work on your passion, work doesn’t give you stress, it gives you a journey of a lifetime learning.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.begenuin.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/begenuin/
