Lochan Narayanan had always been interested in the areas of psychology and people development but 20 years back, she was not aware of many options, because of which she ended up taking the traditional route of completing a BBA and then an MBA program. This resulted in a Sales role but at every crucial point in her career, Lochan continued to seek clarity and support. She tried to answer the question – ‘What should I do next?’ but in the absence of any customized guidance, she ended up taking generic career advice. In 2019, when she started working as a career coach, she realized that there were a whole lot of other professionals like herself who had faced similar dilemmas at different times in their career.
That is what led to the genesis of OfExperiences, a platform that builds, develops and equips professionals who are undergoing career transitions by running niche cohort-based programs for them across career stages, and providing them with relevant information, personalized guidance, and real connections to help them navigate through their transitional phase.
OFExperiences also acts as a bridge between such professionals and organizations that are looking for similar talent. Not only does Lochan’s brainchild help organizations with ready talent, but they also provide valuable behavioural insights that enable the organization’s talent hiring and development efforts.
For Lochan, giving shape to her dream has not been as easy as getting the idea itself. It took some time to design the right business model and several experiments, market explorations and positioning exercises to get to the root of it all. While building awareness is a recurring challenge, I-WIN’s accelerator program has provided a unique combination of workshops, mentors and networking opportunities.
Lochan feels that the network with other startups has been very encouraging and has opened up conversations for potential collaborations. We hope Lochan and OFExperiences can capitalize on each opportunity that comes their way!
This is one of the sixteen stories to introduce you to the current cohort of start-ups being incubated under I-WIN, I-Venture @ ISB’s flagship program for women-founded and co-founded start-ups.