Platform Feature: BlueTie

About the Platform.

BlueTie is the result of the entrepreneurial brainchild of our founder brother duo – Kalyan Garud and Kunal Garud, to provide a platform that allows professionals to network with an objective. As a serial entrepreneur and the Former CEO of Shrooms Creatives, a media agency based in Mumbai, Kunal realized that the biggest roadblock in the professional world today was the lack of a platform for professionals to network and collaborate with a purpose in today’s ‘connected’ age.

The platform’s novel features are conceptualized to increase the efficacy in the way we network today. Shifting focus from building a network to actual networking is necessary, and that’s what BlueTie enables by eradicating the hurdle of building bridges with people beyond your individual networks.

The Mumbai based company is a team of over 36 members, excluding the leadership team comprising of global advisors- Sweden based Jorgen Nilsson, CEO, Zenterio, UAE based Khalil Mohd Al-Hindwan, VP, TransSys Solutions who focuses on all aspects of global expansion for Blue Tie Global, Founder & Executive Director Kalyan Garud who leads the future course of the company envisioning the Industry and the Brand ecosystem, Kunal Garud, Founder & CEO and the seed of the idea of BlueTie, CMO, Vibhav Shetye and CTO, Lalit Deshmukh.

Whom do we cater to?

We cater to all those progressive professionals looking to network and collaborate in India and is looking to expand soon globally.

What do we offer to our consumers?

We strongly believe that networking is the solution to most of our professional problems. However, networking is effective only when you have the access to those professionals who are both- capable and available to collaborate with you, with the supported ecosystem working in your favour. This is what BlueTie as a platform enables. BlueTie’s algorithms provides you access to relevant professionals with the essential information about them, thus enabling effective networking, even beyond the individual network.

Some of our core features include-

1. Objective Based Networking – Users can meet and network with the right professional for every objective. You can choose your networking objective and access professionals who share a co-relating objective at that moment.

2. Get Searched Precisely- Allows users to choose their fortes (Skills, Certifications, Software expertise) and get searched by those who are looking for the exact same skill set.

3. Go Beyond Your Individual Network - Professionals can now access other professionals whom they do not directly know and who lie beyond their individual networks, in an approachable manner.

4. Acknowledgment - Effortless acknowledgment system so professionals can do more with their time.

5. Networking, without Network Building - Once on BlueTie, you can start networking directly the moment you join, without the hassles of building & maintaining an individual network.

6. BlueTie Pin – A Professional Contact detail for all your professional communication without sharing any personal information thus minimizing spam.

What motivated us to start up?

I began my entrepreneurial journey with Shrooms Creatives- a digital advertising agency, immediately after my post-graduation in Business Management. It was then that I observed that professionals today spend huge time in only building connections than utilisation of it through actual networking. That’s when the idea for this venture, Blue Tie Global Pvt. Ltd., sprouted. We identified the need of shifting the focus of professionals from only building connections to actual networking, that too with specific objectives.

As our belief goes - networking solves most of the problems, professionals simply needed a platform that considers all the factors which enable effective networking. BlueTie thus was founded to address this gap and imbibe objective based networking, based on mutual synergies. You can meet and network with professionals who complement your objectives and are also willing to collaborate with someone like you.

What's in the name?

Reflecting professionalism, a Tie is a wardrobe accessory that brings the look and feel of any formal attire and leaves a lasting impression of your personality. The colour Blue, on the other hand, complements professionalism and is globally accepted signifier of depth, stability, trust, wisdom, confidence and intelligent.

BlueTie, as a platform that brings together mutually symbiotic professionals, is thus named basis this anecdote.

Also Read: Platform Feature: LWT

How do we see Social Media?

Social Media is one of the most important tools for any business today. It allows brands to not just communicate its message but also listen to what its users/ consumers have to say. Basically, it is the only platform which facilitates 2-way communication between the brands and its audiences.

Sales - certainly is crucial, however, it is equally important for brands to use social media to listen to what its audience has to say in order to serve them better. You can stay in touch with them 24*7, you can sell, communicate, study and evolve, that’s the power that social media brings.

Currently, we are....

8 months into this journey, BlueTie is currently a network of over 1.7 lac users with 1 new user joining every 70 seconds, round the clock. This for us is a sign of acceptance and encouragement from our end users. And while we have a strong consumer base across Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Ahmedabad, and Delhi, we are rapidly expanding our market across the country and the global expansion is on the cards too.

The team, on the other hand, is a group of 40+ passionate professionals coming from different backgrounds and bringing in the best from their areas of expertise. Our largest team is the Product development team, given the immense focus on constant technological innovation. The second important team is the marketing and communications team that ensures proper education of the product to our users in the language and through the platforms that they are most comfortable in. We then have a team dedicated to ensuring a good User Experience. Their role is to ensure that they assist the users in their journey from onboarding the platform, defining their objective to meeting their objectives. They ensure good engagement with the users throughout the product life cycle. Apart from this, we have an R&D team which works in conjunction with all of the other teams and defines the exact roadmap and channels every team’s energy in the direction of the same to ensure success.

Our biggest challenge was..

BlueTie comes with a fresh and focused philosophy of bringing effectiveness in the way professionals network today. Professionals on the currently available platforms network on assumption basis, meaning, you first spend a long time in conversing and meeting to gauge the potential of the collaboration. However, on BlueTie, you only come across those professionals whose mutual synergies match with yours. Professionals can begin networking right from the moment they sign up on BlueTie.

Networking, is not an option and educating the users to shift their focus from only building large connections to actual networking is one of the major challenges.

We want to dominate the world by..

Being hugely inspired by Google, BlueTie arranges the world’s professionals in such a manner where they can access, network and utilise each other’s expertise, making them more productive and successful.

Our focus is primarily on two things:

1) Establishing new networking avenues: Our roadmap for next quarter thus includes new avenues where people can network in innovative ways, which are not currently available.
2) Optimising the current avenues by considering the factors that ensure effective networking.

Every roadmap item has a differentiating point leveraging on mutual synergy and an attached B2B monetization model which ensures opening up of revenue channels periodically. This is a highly scalable business nature, and opening up new revenue channels is assured to drive high revenues.

We’re making moolah by...

Once a user joins the BlueTie, we cater to all of their networking requirements at different stages of their professional journey. Our subscription plans basically enhance the discoverability, increased scopes of collaborations, convenience and access to other exclusive features.

In terms of investments, we have until now raised over 1 Million USD through seed and angel investment.

Our What The **** Moment

Well, BlueTie is meant for professionals to find their fair share of opportunities. We remember this one time we see one of our team members engrossed in his phone. When asked what was so important it was a quick reply saying that he’s discussing a new job opportunity through BlueTie. Well, we definitely didn’t see that coming!

Industry as we foresee

Information Technology has evolved rapidly in the last two decades, resulting in talents from different sectors to migrate and contribute to the industry, making it one of the leading one's today. This is the same case in Digital space too. Looking at its vast scope for rapid growth, it sure is the next big thing.

With newer innovations, every little move of ours on these platforms can, not only bring you bigger and better results, but also help you in initiating meaningful conversations with your audience, learn and grow from their feedbacks.

Lastly, are you hiring?

We are always open and welcoming to smart and passionate professionals who understand the nerve of this generation and want to join us in this endeavor to redefine networking