Shashank Singh (Pilani, ’06) is the co-founder of Poshn, a digital platform that empowers the buyers, sellers and the agents of agricultural commodities. Prior to Poshn, Shashank was the co-founder of Appsfly.io, an integration platform that provided the companies a way to integrate multiple services on the platform. 

Please tell us about POSHN and the journey.

Poshn is a b2b platform, which enables procurement of bulk groceries & FMCG commodities.

We have had a roller coaster ride since our business launch in Jan 2021. We started as a commodity and price discovery commerce platform and scaled the platform we witnessed that our buyers wanted beyond a discovery platform-”an end to end fulfillment platform”. Listening to our customers and constantly striving to solve their core challenges has been instrumental to our growth.

Where do you see POSHN 5 years down the line?

5 years is a very long time in the journey of a startup. However if you ask me where I would like Poshn to be eventually, it should be the one stop shop for all bulk trade of groceries & FMCG.

What is the mantra that keeps you going on the most difficult days?

Believe that the problem that we are solving is a true one and trust in the partners with whom you're on the journey to solve this.

How have our previous leadership experiences helped you in leading teams with diverse people?

Each experience with people (be it leadership or not) teaches you about how you engage with them. We all are inherently different and appreciating this fact is half the journey done. The other half is about aligning the team about the end goal, which means reaching there, can very well be different. Working across geographies and setups has taught me this.

Who is your role model, somebody you've always looked up to and has impacted your life the most?

I see my grandfather as my role model. He has influenced my formative years a lot. His ability to filter out noise and staying focussed on what is important has always been the success mantra for me.

While at BITS, you were the Head National Sports Meet. In what ways has this role helped you in your life?

Heading the National Sports Meet was the first opportunity to undertake as a leader at such a scale. The role taught me the ability to forget about my previous decision and the impact it had, especially if it did not work out the way I thought. One should trust his instincts and be ready to take the next bold step, despite the previous one being a failure.