Exclusive interview with Debodyuti Das Mandal, CEO & Founder of Captain X
Mrs Debodyuti Das Mandal, CEO & Founder of Captain X receives the Global 50 Glory Award 2021 for achievement in Online Fantasy Sports. She loves to research and explore new things rather than doing conventional work. Here’s an exclusive interview with Debodyuti Das Mandal:
Please tell us a bit about yourself.
Myself, Mrs Debodyuti Das Mandal. I belong to a middle-class family in West Bengal. I have completed my graduation in English, Hons and Studied MBA in HR. I have worked as a permanent staff in the Education Department of Government from 2013 to 2019. I have resigned from that job in 2019 and joined Captain X as Chief Executive Officer. Because I always want to involve myself in various creative and challenging things rather than doing conventional works.
Apart from working in Captain X, I am a trained singer and passionate cook.
What were the challenges that you faced initially and how did you overcome them?
In the case of any start-up, especially when it involves high-tech technology like online fantasy sports, initial funding is a very essential part. As I mentioned earlier that I belong to a middle-class family and don’t have any business back up, my only capital was my salary and my savings from my previous job. I had to spend every penny of that very strategically to manage each area of the business starting from manpower to technology to launch Captain X. It is very natural to understand that my salaries and my savings were not enough to start this kind of high-tech Company. But, I invested all of my savings keeping in mind that a single failure in a small thing could have been devastating. This was not only a business-related challenge but also a tremendous psychological challenge for me. The post-launching period was more challenging. Again without funding only applying strategy and planning, we survived in the market, compete with such popular existing companies and successfully achieved a huge amount of appreciation from users and this is satisfaction and motivation.
What has been your most significant achievement?
The early traction of Captain X was not only an achievement for me but was a huge motivation. Within the first 15 days of launching, we had achieved 1000 downloads applying only organic marketing. It should be mentioned here that the majority of these 1000 downloads were done by original and genuine users apart from our known circle.
How do you come up with new ideas?
I am basically a research-oriented person. I love to explore new things in every aspect of life. As research is a natural liking for me, I spend a lot of time researching about the industry, trends, buzz, new marketing strategies & planning, not only in the whole day but sometimes even the whole night. My love for research and exploring new things leads my mind to creativity.
Who is your biggest inspiration?
Though it seems a bit weird to listen the truth is my only inspiration is one of the greatest mythological characters ‘Draupadi’ of Mahabharat. From my adolescence when I came to know about her, I explored more and more about her life and traits. I follow her and try my level best to adopt and possess her boldness, fighting spirit, intelligence and personality.
Whenever I can overcome any crisis and can able to gather some new learning experience, every time that boosts my confidence and motivates me to keep going.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Being a CEO of a start-up company, it is very much challenging to balance personal life and professional life. But the challenge is thrilling also. Apart from handling every matter of Captain X, I love to manage my household properly and prepare favourite dishes for my husband. For relaxation, I spend lots of time with my husband by simple chit-chatting or watching crime-thriller. I always try to make a monotonous day special by including some creative and exciting ideas or events daily. By the way, this is really tough.
Who do you look toward for advice?
My husband Mr Abhishek Mandal is my primary advisor and support system for me. As he is an employee of the Reserve Bank of India, he can’t involve in Captain X directly, but he is a passionate sportsman and has a huge knowledge of Online Fantasy Sports. So, he always encourages me to move forward and never lets me give up.
Whenever I try to find some new ways for Captain X, my younger brother Mr Durbadal Das always helps me by providing some unique ideas.
I would like to offer a very special thanks to Mr Parth Trivedi who is a mentor like a figure for me. He helps me by providing his valuable and experienced guidance to identify difficulties related to business matters and always shows me the way to overcome them. I receive constant motivation from him.
How do you define success?
For me, success is not only achieving something but how many times a person bounces back after a devastating breakdown.
What are your growth plans for the next 12 months?
As of now, we have included only Cricket in the Captain X app. We are planning to introduce more sports and some hyper-casual games within a year. We are also planning to introduce some exclusive in-game features for our users. We are working on many more different types of plans right now which we want to introduce within a year. We are also working on a procedure to bring 1 million-plus user within one year.