The goal of Hardly Hustle is to provide inspiration, drive and motivation in a 10 minute read or less. What you see is what you get. This is hot off the press without an editing team.
I am a mechanical engineer by education, product guy by profession and a sports enthusiast by passion...
Sameer Kanva is up.
Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Sameer Kanva and I am the founder of Champhunt. Champhunt is a reward based community by a cricket fan for cricket fans. We are going after massive audience of 2.5B global fans including 1B fans in India alone. Imagine fantasy football meets with Instagram in the cricket world -- thats us!
But on top of it, we are a reward based community. That means whatever activity you do in app, well, you get rewarded for it. We launched our android app in march 2023, and within a very short time, we acquired 71k+ users with minimum marketing spend.
Our current average engagement time stands at 1 hour 40 mins which is 200% more than industry standards if you compare it with Instagram and Tick Tock. We have started with Cricket but we are here to stay and potentially grow into different sports like baseball and soccer.
What did it take/how did you get started?
Cricket has a long history of loyal fans since the 16th century. However, fans and their needs have evolved and yet the solutions have not. A recent study said that the average age of a fan is 34. This young audience means they're connected with the game via different social media platforms on their mobile device.
Now, the problem was these users do not have a unified platform to connect with each other and share their experiences. They discuss the game on various platforms like Whatsapp, Instagram or Twitter. The data is scattered everywhere.
There are a couple of platforms who tried to build a community but they are not able to engage the user for more than 6 minutes per day cause they failed to gamify the experience. Its an even bigger problem for businesses because they have to invest heavily on marketing on all these platforms to target the same audience.
TV commercials and influencer marketing is way too expensive for small businesses, so they are missing out on the huge audience. Big companies like Dream 11 and a few more spent $3,600 per second for about 60 days during the world cup 2023 in India. Thats where Champhunt comes in picture!What does the future look like for you and your business?We have gotten solid early traction where the user base is growing organically. Users are engaged for more than 1 hour 30 mins every day, which is generating a lot of content.
We are currently tapping into the audience in India, however we will be soon entering the global market including USA, UK, Australia and other cricket playing nations. We aim to reach the 5M user mark by end of 2024 to generate $10M of revenue by Q4 of 2024.
What drives / motivates you on a daily basis?
I am a mechanical engineer by education, product guy by profession and a sports enthusiast by passion. I breathe cricket and been a loyal fan all my life. Being a small town boy I know the hunger behind an aspiring sport professional who doesn't have enough means to peruse the dream and thats what keeps me motivated.
What advice would you give someone interested in doing what you do?
I would tell them to be patient, remain always hungry for more and be consistent -- you will definitely get there. The journey is lonely and difficult but its beautiful, rewarding and satisfying so just hang in there!
What has been the hardest part of your business journey?
The hardest part is to put together passionate and crazy teammates who believes in the mission and who trust your vision. Once you find your tribe, then its all worth it.
How have you managed burnout thus far?
I have a very strong support from my wife. Having a strong support from your family is very important. Whenever I feel low, she motivates me, reminds me about the great things I have achieved so far and assures me that she has my back. That helps a lot!
What are a few resources that you'd recommend?
Learn what a founder should not do by watching recent web-series like "WeCrashed" "Super Pumped" and "The Dropout"
The STATS
List the founders
Sameer Kanva
How many hours a week do you work on this hustle?
Almost 65-70 hours a week
# of Employees?
8 full time, 2 consultants and 3 interns
When did you start?
Jan 2022
How much did it cost to launch?
$45000 so far
What were your funding methods and ballpark amount raised?
I have raised $25k from a angel, rest of it was self funded
Annual revenue?
Not provided.
Projected revenue?
$10M by end of 2024.
What's the #1 thing you need right now?
Raising Money