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in 2013, Rahat Kulshreshtha was just another graduate student sharing a cramped dorm room filled with textbooks, takeout containers, and a versatile DJI Phantom One drone charging in the corner.
At the time, Kulshreshtha was an aspiring Bollywood director struggling to make ends meet in his part-time job making music videos. He never thought the drone he rented to get a cool aerial view of an Audi on a fast highway would one day become the centerpiece of his potentially revolutionary sports tech company. Quidich Innovation Labs.
Co-founded with his then roommate, Gaurav MehtaThe startup they created as a school project has grown into a global broadcast technology enterprise using cutting-edge drones to bring fans the closest thing to a stadium experience they'll get from the comfort of their couch. theirs.
The company, whose name is a tribute to Harry PotterThe fictional Quidditch game enhances the spectator's viewing experience with a bit of technological wizardry, explains Kulshreshtha. The duo recently debuted ICC Immersive application for cricketthe second most popular sport after football, with over one billion devoted fans. A VR extension for Apple Vision Pro, the app launched last month to coincide with the T20 Men's Cricket World Cup (the first to include events hosted in the United States), enabling online viewers to watch matches in a 3D virtual space, as if they were on the field with the players. The unique 360-degree nature of cricket, in which players can hit the ball in any direction, including behind them, means that this app not only enhances the existing viewing experience, but adds a whole new dimension to it. . Because of this, the technology is particularly suited to cricket compared to other sports, although Quidich has partnered with major athletic events such as Hockey World Cup in the past. They are currently working on expanding the app to other platforms, such as Oculus. The ICC Immersive app proves what Kulshreshtha has been saying for years: Society is tired of two-dimensional broadcasts and virtual reality is the next evolution of sports viewership.
The Creativity vs. Commerce Conundrum
Deciding to strike out on your own is difficult for any entrepreneur, but even more so for someone like Kulshreshtha, who always dreamed of a creative life making films. Struggling between artistic expression and business pragmatism, he finished school and embarked on a ten-day soul-searching retreat in the quiet solace of Northern India's Ladakh mountains. It was there, while sitting alone on the shore of the tranquil Tso Kar Lake, that Kulshreshtha found the clarity to commit to Quidich.
“I realized that it doesn't have to be an either-or choice entrepreneurship or creativity“It's entrepreneurship and creativity”, remembers Kulshreshtha.
Since that epiphany, Kulshreshtha has embraced the symbiosis of creativity and commerce, not separating them. Many of the skills he acquired as a filmmaker, he has learned, are directly translatable to the growth of his company. An example: the art of storytelling.
“When I look at the next big business opportunity, I'm thinking, 'I need to tweak a strategy together and then present it as a compelling story to investors, customers and our internal team,'” says Kulshreshtha. “There's so much storytelling that you can do with technology that isn't happening right now, and when we identified that, we went completely to a sports tech company.”
Commitment breeds trust
With a new sense of assurance that he could grow his business without selling his soul, Kulshreshtha's confidence skyrocketed. On his way to a conference in Las Vegas, he organized an extended stay in LA, determined to present his drone-driven VR innovations to Apple. The only drawback? No one at Apple had agreed to see it.
After a few days of nonstop networking (and a touch of “serendipity,” as Kulshreshtha puts it), he finally found an acquaintance at Apple who suggested having breakfast.
It wasn't exactly a breakfast of champions. “We met for two hours, but I spent maybe 15 minutes talking about work”, complains Kulshreshtha. “I never got around to showing him the video we created to demonstrate everything we wanted to do in Vision Pro.” Kulshreshtha turned it into a learning experience and polished his pitch, hoping to get a second chance.
Fortunately, that chance came just a week later. His contact from the morning in LA indicated that the ICC had just approached Apple, which wanted to popularize cricket viewership in the US by offering a stunning immersive experience. Kulshreshtha took the next flight to Dubai, this time with the promise of high-level meetings with ICC officials. By the time he left, they had agreed to partner on the Quiddich-powered app.
As Quidich has grown into a global enterprise, counting Bundesliga AND LIFE Golf among her clients, Kulshreshtha and Mehta maintain their ethos of combining creative and commercial success.
“People debate whether your job should be your passion,” says Kulshreshtha. “But we're convinced that when you mix your passion idea with your day job, work doesn't feel like work. And the quality of your work goes up a lot.”