Submission for WAT Awards 2012

1. Social Media Entrepreneur of the Year
A WAT Awards Submission

2. About Social Wavelength
• A Social Media agency founded in 2009 operating out of
Mumbai
• Founded by Sanjay Mehta, Hareesh Tibrewala and Mihir
Karkare, we’re now a 120+ member team managing 50+ top
brands
• With the second round of funding we plan to expand
operations and set up offices in Bangalore and Delhi

3. The Entrepreneurs
• An early internet entrepreneur with 11 plus years of
experience
• His first venture was with Alpha Electric Group as a
director in an electrical mfg. and marketing business
• He was part of a 1000 people operation, one of the largest
internet business in India called Compare InfoBase as a
• COO
Sanjay Mehta
Joint CEO • Prior to Social Wavelength he was the Cofounder of
Homeindia.com, one of India’s first e-commerce ventures
along with Hareesh
• Strong traits include great marketing and business
development abilities and also to identify and adopt new
technology to benefit the various businesses he is part of

4. The Entrepreneurs
• A bachelor of engineering from VJTI and a Master of
Science from The University of Southern California, USA
• Started his career as a partner with IFCM counsellors, a
human asset management company
• Second venture was with Sanjay as a
Cofounder, Homeindia.com, One of India’s first
ecommerce ventures
Hareesh Tibrewala
Joint CEO
• Later he also was the President, Jesons Industries Limited
– a $45 Million enterprise
• Strong skill sets include business strategizing, organizing
and team building along with operations & workforce
management. He also has HR & Finance capabilities.

5. The Entrepreneurial Duo
• As a duo both Sanjay and Hareesh have a considerable
amount of experience in serial entrepreneurship. They come
with an expertise in this arena and have the leadership
abilities to set up and manage successful entrepreneurial
ventures – Social Wavelength & HomeIndia.com being a
couple of them.

6. The Entrepreneurial Duo
• Their strength lies in the approach of spotting opportunities
early, as in the case of HomeIndia.com, a previous venture
they Co-founded, it being one of India’s first e-commerce
ventures and Social Wavelength, one of the earliest and now
largest Social Media agencies in India.

7. The Entrepreneurial Duo
• They demonstrated how risk-taking pays off when there is a
strong vision and perfect execution with a dash of persistence.
This got them the Red Herring Asia Top 100 award for best
startups; not to forget the second round of funding received
by collaborating with investors.

8. The Entrepreneurial Duo
• From a team of 10 people in 2009 and 2 small offices in the
suburbs of Chembur, they planned for the growth and
scalable model of their organization, and today they have a
5,000 sq. ft. office in Vikhroli with over 120 members under
various verticals.

9. The Entrepreneurial Duo
• They ensured effective execution with the help of planning
and implementing perfect processes, especially in this model.
Blending an agency and a KPO model to ensure maximum
creativity and efficiency was reached.
Agency KPO
Social Wavelength

10. The Entrepreneurial Duo
• Entrepreneurs with a dynamic sense of thought, Hareesh &
Sanjay often are speakers at various summits. With a deep
understanding of the space, they give it back by sharing their
knowledge in seminars, events and various forums.

11. Entrepreneurial Stint @ SW
• Being entrepreneurs of Social Wavelength, the largest social media
agency in India, they started off with a handful of employees about
three years ago
• A few brands like Channel [V], Skyscape & Lavasa were the firsts
• Since then, the company has grown manifolds with over 120
employees
• And added about 50 brands including Intel, Star
TV, Havells, Shoppers Stop, Force Motors, Lodha Group, Reliance
Communications & Idea Cellular to name a few

12. What’s Special About Them?
Spotting Early Opportunities
• They pioneered the Social Media industry in India by stepping into
the space early and building clients and their own team.
• A vision to build a scalable model ensured that the resources and
processes would take care of as many new businesses.
• It’s difficult for smaller agencies, usually with small and compact
units, having the ambition of a large organizations and then deliver
that ambition. Hareesh and Sanjay ensured it was possible to create
a scalable model right from the get-go to avoid such situations.

13. What’s Special About Them?
Risk taking ability
• A lot of people in the industry were not thoroughly convinced
about the relevance of Social Media in India back then. Much
against the tide, they took this challenge on and had a futuristic
vision to take a firm stand on this decision and make this journey
successful.
• Being the staunch internet entrepreneurs they are, both of them
took Social Media in India by storm after they founded Social
Wavelength.
• They took a risk of entering the space at an early stage without fear
of failure.

14. What’s Special About Them?
Strong Execution
• They had the vision. But planning and executing this journey over a
period of 3 years was the key, which they successfully managed.
This was proven when they won the Red Herring Asia Top 100
startups award in Hong Kong.
• With high ambition and larger goals, it was essential to map and
build a team with meticulous details to ensure that a proper
structure to the organization was built. Our approach towards
ensuring use of new technologies ensured smoother execution.