Manasa Grandhi and Krishna Dosapati of Clockout on building a social ecosystem
November 2, 2021
Describe your business in a few words:
At Clockout, we're passionate about building a social ecosystem tailor-made for post-grads and young professionals so that they can meet new people in ways that are exciting and comfortable. On our app, users can build their network and find community in ways that make sense - attend fun socials, get involved with non-profit junior boards, join young professional sporting leagues and create interest-based micro-communities! We’re really excited to redefine the way our generation comes together by focusing on why social media was created in the first place - to help people connect and share real experiences.
What made you take the leap to start your own business?
After entering the workforce a few years ago, we realized how difficult it was for ourselves and our friends to meet new people, pursue our hobbies and get involved within our communities. We identified a real problem - young professionals are constantly in transition - they move to new cities, change careers, develop new interests and often grow apart from their existing networks. But this problem got exponentially worse post-Covid since many jobs moved remote and while people tried to turn to other social apps, they didn't feel seen.
In the middle of the pandemic, we decided to be the change we wanted to see and started to build a multi-faceted community to truly celebrate friendship and foster authentic connections for young professionals.
What is the biggest challenge you have encountered along the way and what did you learn from it?
As perfectionists, we quickly faced the harsh reality that we can't control everything and get the outcome we always want. It's important in the face of adversity to really focus on the big picture and keep each other motivated/inspired! It's also really important to let go and come to terms with the fact that you can't do it all and learn to delegate!!
What have you achieved recently that you'd like to celebrate with our community?
We're celebrating our official launch on the App Store in NYC! As of today, we're 4000+ members strong and are excited to continue building. We hope to cultivate a truly inclusive community for young professionals - follow us on our journey, there's so much more ahead of us!
What's next for your business? What can we expect to see over the next few years?
We have a lot of ideas up our sleeves that we'd like to make a reality in next few years. Our goal is to create a true social ecosystem for young professionals and expand Clockout beyond NYC to every major city in the US over the next couple of years. Eventually, we'd love to take our concept global and bring people together in a very tangible and positive way!
What excites you about being Entreprenista League members?
We're so excited to join this strong entrepreneurial community of kind, inspiring BOSS ladies! Often, building a business can be an isolating journey so we're thrilled to build each other up and be cheerleaders for one another! Let's show the world what we can do!