While living a life of privilege and legacy, it is difficult to think that Shloka Ambani, a Princeton graduate and daughter of popular businessman, Russell Mehta, will be cold-calling NGOs and visiting unfamiliar places in Mumbai with Google Maps. But that is exactly how she and her co-founder, Maniti Shah, brought their vision to life, by building ConnectFor, which is proudly called ‘Shaadi.com for volunteers’. Bridging the gap between volunteers and non-profits, the journey started not with an investment pitch or gala launch, but with a passion and scribbling across whiteboards. In a recent appearance, Shloka Ambani shared more about it in detail.
Shloka Ambani went door-to-door before launching ConnectFor
Shloka Ambani recently made a rare appearance in The Masoom Minawala Show, with her co-founder, Maniti Shah. She recalled how they got onto the task to begin ConnectFor back in 2014. The elder daughter-in-law of the Ambani clan admits that they didn’t have a typical beginning but a ‘scrappy’ start where she simply asked Maniti to read a book on startups. They sat down with a whiteboard and just wrote a few tasks on it, which marked the beginning of ConnectFor. Recalling the same, Shloka said:
“Maniti and I started out really scrappy. I was like Maniti, you have to read this book about startups, and we started this whole conversation about a minimum viable product. When we started on that whiteboard initially, it was literally like, ‘Find 15 people, find 10 NGOs and make connections’. It was the beginning, like the nexus of how we will find what area we should go to and how we will reach them, breaking down that process.”
The idea was simple but powerful because it stemmed from Shloka who had taught in NGOs before, to fill the gap between high volumes of non-profits in India and volunteers who were looking to do their bid for creating a difference. They decided to fill this empty, complicated and fragmented space. Shloka and Maniti, who came from a privileged background, had no clue what was waiting for them. Still, they continued their journey to visit every non-profit they onboarded in different parts of the city, which gave some inisght for them to incorporate. Sharing how she visited door-to-door herself, Shloka said:
“We literally went everywhere from places like Deonar to Chowpatty to Shiv Ji Nagar and one in DN Nagar. I think it was so eye-opening for us that every time we came back and added a note to our whiteboard, this is what we are gonna do next. But a lot of it came true.”
Shloka Ambani did cold-calling and volunteering when the right people were not available
In the same conversation, Shloka Ambani shared that they visited more than 100 NGOs in just 20 days by using Google Maps, and printed the description of their work on an A4-sized paper to share. She called and pitched their ideas to big NGOs, who were sceptical towards them. However, Shloka and Maniti believed in their idea. When one of the volunteers wasn’t available for non-profits, the Princeton graduate herself rolled up her sleeves and stepped in. No PR playback or entourage, they were just two women trying to bring an idea to life to create a difference. Recalling how small non-profits excitedly joined with them, Shloka said:
“The smaller ones were really excited about our idea, and one of the first NGOs we signed, used to work with children of s*x workers, and we were excited that they came on board. They needed 10 or 115 volunteers for everything. From working on their website to coming out and taking classes on weekends, they needed people with different skillsets. When we couldn’t find a volunteer like I volunteer, I would go and teach them creative writing.”
Shloka Ambani and Maniti Shah turned their vision into a one-stop solution for volunteering in India
The idea might have started small on December 5, 2014, but since its launch, ConnectFor has grown beyond its initial vision. They started with doing a match-matching service between non-profits and volunteers, which has not turned into a fully automobile, pan-India moment. They ensured to measure ROI and impact at every point. Maniti revealed that they have catered to over 1 lakh volunteers, have 1000+ non-profits onboard, clocked 18,000 hours of volunteering and have nearly 150 school groups, colleges and rotary clubs with them. The main success, they were able to save 21 crore of NGOs by just connecting them with volunteers. As a result, they have now become a one-stop solution for volunteering.
What do you think about Shloka Ambani and Maniti Shah’s journey from scratch to building ConnectFor?
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