Planbuk is a start-up created by Advanced Mechanical Engineering graduate Suraj Santhosh Kumar.
Suraj graduated in 2022 and he is a Mechanical Engineer on the Graduate scheme at Smurfit Kappa. He also operates his start-up business Planbuk from the UoB Elevate start-up incubator in Birmingham city centre.
We caught up with Suraj to find out more about his business and find how it is giving users more control over their experience with tailored advertisements.
Suraj: What do you want to do with life? Over the course of many years, I've pursued the answer to this question,
although the answers kept changing as I grew older, the core of it remained to
be wanting to help people. Having had very little help growing up, I had to help myself in most instances
which taught me that the best way to help someone is to teach them how to help
themselves. As the saying goes, ‘Give a man a fish and he'll be content for a day, teach a man how to fish
and he'll be content for life!'.
although the answers kept changing as I grew older, the core of it remained to
be wanting to help people. Having had very little help growing up, I had to help myself in most instances
which taught me that the best way to help someone is to teach them how to help
themselves. As the saying goes, ‘Give a man a fish and he'll be content for a day, teach a man how to fish
and he'll be content for life!'.
I have been working on an idea of having a project management app for
individuals that also doubles as a learning platform that entails mini lessons
that people can go through, contemplate and get an actionable task list that can
be used to enable active learning.
In my opinion, the best way to really learn is to apply it to life and practice rather than the passive act of reading or consuming
information.
information.
Planbuk combines these aspects of learning and doing and helps
people stick to develop themselves and excel at life. At Planbuk, we empower your life skills, help you achieve your goals with our innovative task management app!
people stick to develop themselves and excel at life. At Planbuk, we empower your life skills, help you achieve your goals with our innovative task management app!
The university has been really helpful and B-Enterprising has been
an excellent stepping stone to learn how to professionally go about being
an entrepreneur.
an excellent stepping stone to learn how to professionally go about being
an entrepreneur.
Thanks to the UoB Elevate incubator programme, I have been fortunate enough to
meet a lot of business owners and learn from them and discuss my ideas with
them. It was also amazing to have one on one support sessions with (coach) Ana Madan, having
left each session with new found directives and recourses. I have found B-Enterprising to be an excellent support system that any budding entrepreneur
would find valuable and incredibly supportive.
meet a lot of business owners and learn from them and discuss my ideas with
them. It was also amazing to have one on one support sessions with (coach) Ana Madan, having
left each session with new found directives and recourses. I have found B-Enterprising to be an excellent support system that any budding entrepreneur
would find valuable and incredibly supportive.
More recently the university is also helping me to acquire
much needed help in finding interns. It has been a
challenge juggling a full time Mechanical Engineering job along side my start-up. However, I believe that great things require great sacrifices. Another challenging
aspect is to keep my self motivated when there is no signs of gratification as
building a business is one of the biggest delayed gratifying things out there.
What is the best part of running a business?
For me, the best part of running or creating my own business is that I get to speak
to so many people and work alongside some of them and learn from them along the
way. I have met some of the brightest minds and been lucky enough to speak to
so many successful people who managed to create something out of nothing
I wish I knew that having
capital is not a pre-requisite to work on building a business and that ideas
can be developed even before requiring capital.
What's your biggest takeaway from starting a business?
Over the last few months I have looked back to see how much progress that I have made. I
have learnt that it is vital to keep going back and keep showing up and keep
taking steps no matter how small as it is a net sum game and everything adds up
over a period of time and most times it makes us proud. It has been quite an
interesting journey with a lot of learning along the way.
have learnt that it is vital to keep going back and keep showing up and keep
taking steps no matter how small as it is a net sum game and everything adds up
over a period of time and most times it makes us proud. It has been quite an
interesting journey with a lot of learning along the way.
The Planbuk website is now live! You can find out by www.planbuk.cc
We are currently
starting development of our mobile application. We would be quite interested to
speak with people who are interested either to join the team or to support the
business. We are currently advertising for interns so if you would like to join as an intern please visit the B-Experienced Internships webpage.
starting development of our mobile application. We would be quite interested to
speak with people who are interested either to join the team or to support the
business. We are currently advertising for interns so if you would like to join as an intern please visit the B-Experienced Internships webpage.
With thanks to Suraj Santhosh Kumar
Introduced by Bob Lee
Introduced by Bob Lee
