Female entrepreneur | Saumya Vardhan, Founder of Shubhpuja.com - WeAreTheCity India | Events, Network, Advice for Women in India

I grew up in New Delhi and moved to the UK in 2003. Prior to launching Shubhpuja.com, I was a seasoned operations and technology consultant and worked at KPMG and Ernst & Young in London. I am an MBA (with Distinction) from Imperial College, UK, an MSc in Operational Research from Lancaster University, UK and a BSc (Honours) in Statistics (College rank #1, Delhi University rank #2) from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University.

I am now a professionally qualified Vedic Astrologer and a, currently pursuing higher studies in the scientific methods of Vedic astrology. I am also a part of the 12 member Pro-Tem Executive Committee of LSR College responsible for creating a worldwide alumni association of ELSAs.

Tell us about the company Shubhpuja.com

I always wanted to do something unusual that in someway contributed to the betterment of society. These days the world is becoming too individualistic and I strongly believe in the ancient Hindu philosophy, which preached that man is a social animal and has a role in upliftment and betterment of society. Thus for self-contentment and inner peace, finally shubhpuja.com was launched in December 2013.

Shubhpuja.com is a religious e-commerce platform that specialises in offering customised puja packages (festival puja, wedding puja, antim sanskar puja, paatha, japs and kathas, grah pravesh, mundane etc.) and astrological services (Vedic Astrology, Numerology, Vaastu shastra, Gemstone therapy and palmistry) to individuals and corporates who do not have adequate contacts or time to organise pujas themselves.

We help our devotees to organise the religious ceremonies in a hassle-free manner by offering complete puja samagri kit (depending on the type of puja, fixed flat rates, a muhurat consultation and a convenient location (Home, office, factory, temple etc.)

Why Shubhpuja?

Everyone wants special blessings, however most people don’t understand which mantras are being said and why nor do they know if a manta is for long life or any other specific objective. Finally most are spoken in Sanskrit which the majority of of us don’t follow. So, we don’t really understand what is going on in the puja and why we should be doing it.

At Shubhpuja.com we help you understand and become a part of the puja for more blessings. We also tell you what are the essentials versus what are nice to have in a puja. And we the customise the puja as per your horoscope and your own requests. Shubhpuja guarantees authentic and professional services delivered by educated and expert professionals from revered institutions (Kashi, Benaras, Allahabad etc.)

We have a network of astrologers, numerologists and vaastu consultants in India along with tie-ups with all the large religious organisations, educational institutes and highly revered priests from Benaras, Ujjain, Haridwar and other parts of the country.

Our target market is current, well-informed young consumers who are quite involved in their business or jobs and who find it difficult to organise their rituals and ceremonies themselves. Thus we act as a medium in performing the puja or other rituals on their behalf by giving them the accessibility and convenience of online services. We also create interesting content on our blog and Facebook site to educate young people about science and the facts behind the five thousand-year old Hindu traditions.

What drove you to become an Entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurship has always fascinated me. My entrepreneurial learning really started with conceptualising and setting up regional airlines in India while working in my father’s venture, Star Air Consulting – a turnkey aviation consulting company that specialises in setting up greenfield regional airlines. I always wanted to set-up my own venture. Thus, while living in London I was closely following the start-up scene in India and the growth of the ventures started by my friends back home.

A personal incident happened when one of my close friend’s fathers passed away in Delhi, with most of the family members living abroad, and in the time that it was going to take them to get back home all the arrangements had to be made. It was disturbing to see that there was no help available to the grieving family to arrange for all the necessary elaborate rituals that we follow after bereavement.

It was then I discovered a need for an online service that would offer the convenience of arranging religious ceremonies and performing rituals by genuine educated priests, Vedic astrologers, Numerologists, Vaastu consultants etc. I decided to tie-up with the top Vedic educational institutes in Delhi and Benaras and other religious places.

These days there are many preachers who take advantage of ignorance of the public, especially young people who may not have the knowledge or the time to learn about these sciences, regardless of how deep inside they believe in it. I felt there was a need in the market where science and fact-based services could be offered to customers.

I try to solve the above problems and provide adequate solutions for everyone’s religious needs through Shubhpuja.

What has been your biggest challenge in achieving your success?

I have a few key challenges I’d like to mention.

a) Access to highly qualified PhD level candidates who are normally unavailable to people for consultation and organising these spiritual and religious ceremonies who follow scientific and vedic procedures as described in the Vedas

b) Making the public aware of a qualified vedic and highly educated astrologers and pandits. In this industry, any person who claims to be an astrologer/pandit can be treated as an expert since we do not want to enquire about their educational qualification and experience.

c) Changing people’s mind-set about making a booking and paying online for such services in advance

d) Defining a set price for a customer who ends up taking our price as a reference price to negotiate with another local pandits in their area.

Personally, it has been a huge learning curve stepping from finance to the religious industry. I had to go back and revise my high school knowledge of Sanskrit to understand this industry and to further improve my knowledge of Vedas and classical Vedic astrology in a short period of time, I decided to study advanced Vedic astrology and now I am a professional astrologer.

What has been your greatest achievement so far?

Time will tell but I don’t think I have achieved it yet.

Who has been your biggest inspiration?

I always look up to my father, a well-known aviation expert and a serial entrepreneur for any advice or guidance. He has been a great inspiration and support.

How do you balance your work life and home life?

Getting out of my comfort zone is where I have always tried to test my capability and hidden potential. A never-ending list always prevails yet I try my best to spend time with my family and friends experimenting with new restaurants in the city and working out every morning. The constant support from my near and dears inspires me to perform well at my work and their cooperation helps me to maintain a balance.

What advice do you have for women starting out on their own?

I will suggest that they should always to have faith. Believe in yourself and find your own happiness. Women today are no less successful and capable than men, in fact they are often far ahead managing both the household as well as their professional careers. In my opinion faith in oneself and faith in the Lord are required to face the hurdles of life and achieve your dreams.

Can you recommend any organisations or networking groups that have particularly helped you on your journey?

My friends and family and my professional network have been most helpful in my entrepreneurial journey so far.

We have been actively promoting our company through social media – Facebook, blog and twitter. We have found Facebook to be the best medium to reach our audience both in India and internationally.

If you could ask for one thing to help propel your business what would it be?

Of course funds and a good team!

What does the future hold for you?

So far with God’s grace we have had a great response from our clients in Delhi NCR. Apart from India, we have had excellent client response and have customers from Russia, USA, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK.

In the next two years, we are looking forward to seeing the change in devotee’s mind-set about making a booking and paying online for such services in advance. We plan to make Shubhpuja.com an equivalent of Shaadi.com in the religious e-commerce market. We plan to increase our sales team to reach out to a wider audience through our online and offline marketing channels.

India is known as a spiritual and holy destination for foreign travellers and we would further like to promote that concept by offering them authentic, scientific and convenient services that are exclusively available through Shubhpuja.com

About Saumya Vardhan

Being highly inquisitive and ambitious, my seven year stay in London could not content my craving of doing something for my own society, thus coming back to India was one of my best decisions. My inclination towards keeping the Vedic roots intact and spreading the scientific lens of perceiving our culture has helped me to achieve my dreams. Being away from my own country and missing my deep-rooted culture helped me grow and begin this exclusive venture. Happiness is my biggest asset, thus I believe in self-contentment and inner peace more than anything.