#VoicesOfCommunity featuring Avica Bedi, a college student who moonlights as a firebrand entrepreneur! Chief Operations Officer & Co-founder at Campus Drift, Avica Bedi, sat down with us for a heart-to-heart about her startup.
“Campus Drift started in March 2016 and it has been a great journey so far. With Campus drift, I am trying to fill the void left out by the dearth of great consumable content for youth, specifically college students. There is not an opportunity for them to spark conversations or to create connections outside the boundaries of their specific universities. I see an opportunity in making a great, friendly "college" outside the boundaries of individual colleges. I have created a portal named Campus Drift which is operational for students and by students. It’s an interactive, communicative and informative environment for the students of all the major universities in Delhi and we have recently expanded to Mumbai. The goal is to become an ultimate youth brand by introducing various other streams (e-commerce, educational courses, events etc) along with student media. As I entered college, I observed a complete change in lifestyle. To cater those needs, I started this venture and everyday when I wake up and get ready for my classes, I remember the need I felt. The need to communicate, voice out my concerns and to be connected.”
“I have had an interesting journey so far. I was a medical student in school, which means i studied biology plus math along with physics and chemistry. When I cleared IIT- Mains (the will to become an engineer was created inside me through my successful engineer cousins), I had a complete change of mind and I decided to follow my passion. My passion had always been literature. I was an avid reader, debater and writer since 14 years of age. I joined Delhi University-Motilal Nehru College to be specific-and started my college journey in English Honors in 2014. Currently, I am a student of third year now and I have topped my batch in the last two semesters. I have done a lot of experiments but hey, it's great since I carry knowledge of every field with me now!”
“I got introduced to this field through an internship. The internship was with a DU specific media firm and I got selected as a marketing intern. Later I was promoted to HR Manager due to my communication and leadership skills. That is when I thought of creating a platform which unified the community of "students" and provided all that a student needs, no matter from which university they belong to. My family was used to my changing preferences. They somehow coped up with the fact that I did not want to be an engineer and just asked me to give my best in whatever I do. When I started, everybody believed it to be a short term thing but after so many months and such exponential growth, they are more confident about me than I am about myself!”
“The hiring process was the most challenging thing when we started. I overcame all those with the help of my co-founders and the belief we all had in our vision. We showed people how we were different in execution of our ideas. we entered the market with a university level competition in collaboration with Forever 21 and it was a rage among people. After that, there was no looking back and the credit for this goes to my amazing team of Campus Drift and co-founders.”
“ I would like to see myself helping and investing in great ideas. And of course, I'd want Campus Drift as the biggest and the best youth brand of the nation (and the world). I have mentioned that I am a literature buff so I love to read books. Music soothes my mind and is an effective therapy as well. Fun for me is my work since it has everything I always secretly yearned for, so I believe I have fun all the time.”