It was in early 2016 that Rahul Maheshwari, a creative professional, found himself locked in a house by a client for close to four hours. The demand was simple – deliver the project material in exchange for the client’s pittance, and not the previously agreed amount. Things turned uglier, but an important lesson was learnt – that in spite of the scale of your work or the amount, have your legal and other paperwork in place.
This incidence made Rajshree and Rahul put their heads together and dig deep for a solution, and it was here that Tranxact, a document creation and management tool, providing legal and invoicing framework to creative professionals, took shape.
“India has the largest freelance community (15m+), and a large part of it is coming out of colleges and self-taught projects where there is a culture of learning from mistakes. At Tranxact, our problem statement is simple – freelance creative professionals lack resources (both monetary & infrastructural) to manage their business paperwork”, says Tranxact Founder Rajshree Sharma.
Tranxact’s features include generating contracts, e-signing, maintaining a repository of documents, scheduling invoices and keeping a track of the payment, among others.
Excerpts from an exclusive interaction with Rajshree Sharma of Tranxact:
Background of Promoters
I am a graduate from the prestigious Lady Shri Ram College. I was formerly the country President of BloodConnect Foundation, one of India’s largest youth run NGO in the field of voluntary blood donation. With this stint, I carry an experience of leading a team of over 200 across 15 cities.
Founder & Director of Artist At Work Productions, Rahul Maheshwari recently had his first exit with LA-based South Asian dating app Dus, where he was the Co-Founder. He’s also the Country Manager (India) for DateTix (ASX : DTX). Working closely on product development, user acquisition and marketing, he has built a considerable repertoire of collaborators globally, from Europe to the U.S.A., expanding their brand outreach and growth in reaching out to their target users with innovative, content driven campaigns.
The initial period- the challenges & the ecstasy of quick wins!
Much like others starting up, we had the issue of carrying our own set of presumptions and biases on what we wanted to provide. To counter this, we evolved a practice of developing our offering with the users, and not for them. User participation by way of feedback has been an active part of our journey and continues to be so.
The journey so far!
It has been a great learning experience, more than anything. The start-up community in the country has established many avenues for sharing of ideas and resources.
Strategic Alliances & Partnerships
We are currently incubated at Startup Tunnel, and are a part of their third cohort. Further, we have a partnership with AD Chambers, managed by Mr. Anish Dayal, Advocate at Supreme Court of India, and a leading media and entertainment lawyer.
The future, as you see, 3 years from now in terms of scope & scale of your business enterprise
In three years, we see Tranxact as the go-to tool that every creative professional relies on for business needs, and one they trust to take care of their collaborations. In terms of scale, we see ourselves expanding globally, and across other ecosystems. We are also open to venturing into AI-backed contract review and analysis.
The feelings on getting the first big order / contract for your company
We launched about a month back, and in the initial growth stage, seeing repeat users is a marvelous feeling!
