Teamwork is the key! A Talk by Harsh Jain
On August 22nd, 2019, DAIS hosted Mr. Harsh Jain, the founder and CEO of Dream11, India’s biggest fantasy sports game.
Mr. Jain has a degree in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Columbia Business School. Bringing together his love for sports, gaming and technology, Mr Jain launched fantasy sports in India with Dream11 in 2008. Due to the immense hard work of Mr. Jain and his team, Dream11 has grown exponentially and now offers fantasy cricket, football, kabaddi, basketball and hockey to its 7 crore sports fan base. Participants can create fantasy teams and enter competitions to compete with other sports enthusiasts, and ease of usage and engaging nature of the platform has made it extremely popular, with Dream11 being a very familiar name to most sports enthusiasts.
A lifelong fan of the Indian Cricket Team, Mumbai Indians and Manchester United, Mr. Jain is also the chairman of the Indian Federation of Sports Gaming, ensuring that the rights of consumers of fantasy sports platforms are protected.
Mr. Jain shared with the students the importance of passion in the journey in every endeavour, particularly entrepreneurship. He talked about his struggles on the path to success, and how his relentless efforts and love for his enterprise kept him going when hope seemed to disappear. He spoke about the importance of failure in entrepreneurship and how it is the best indicator of success. He impressed students by discussing the various aspects of his highly successful business venture, highlighting his perseverance to reach that level. He also discussed his vision of taking Dream11 to the next level by focusing on providing a holistic and personalised sports experience to all Indian sports fans.
He fielded many questions from students on how he continued when he felt as though there was no hope, describing the importance of having a support system to encourage you when you are down. He also gave advice to students interested in technology on how to integrate this with their interests in order to create a successful venture that they will always be passionate about. This was followed by a discussion of the importance of teamwork and collaboration of ideas to have a successful business. Students were enthralled by his relatable manner of speaking, as well as his expertise and passion.
Mr. Jain’s candid and humorous talk was as informative as it was inspirational, making it very successful with the students. His values of perseverance and passion served as a motivation for many students to pursue their passions, making this session a very memorable part of the Leadership Series.
- Eesha Bodapati