Apeksha Rathod

A few months after the #karo experience, she decided to join the Enterprise India Fellowship, and shared, “The people are so nice. It gives a positive vibe. When I worked there, I could see myself doing things I never imagined I could. My goal is to become a person who’s not afraid of anything and make a difference. I think enterprise can help me get out of my shell and help me meet new people and how to talk to them.” 

Throughout the fellowship experience, Apeksha gave it her all to get out of the shell and built new connections by working on 8 projects including 2 client projects with Amrita Kaur – an Ayurvedic Chef and Instagram Influencer and Ruby Jhunjhunwala – a Ceramic Artist, who is the Proprietor of Adipa. 

Apeksha brought with her, the enthusiasm to work with little children and started her fellowship journey by co-founding #karo playdates with her fellow Partners, Mrunmayee Padgimwar and Yukti Gupta. This project brought the #karo mindset of ‘learning by doing to parents and their bonds with their children. They organized spaces to curate and conduct interesting workshops for the little ones where they learned new concepts while spending time and connecting with their parents. 

Although Apeksha knew what she cared about and passionately worked with projects that involved children, she was always open to different opportunities to learn and grow. One such instance is when she jumped on a chance to work with Ruby Jhunjhunwala, Proprietor of Adipa, a renowned ceramic artist in Pune, to help her promote her tableware pottery. So far, this was her most favourite project. The scope of the project was to create a landing page for the business and help curate an experience: make & take. Here people could come to the workshop, create tableware with their hands with guidance from experts and take it home once ready.

Apeksha went way above and beyond the scope of the project. She did her research on other ceramic artists and how they go about their online businesses and pricing, created the client’s website by finding strategic ways to display the multiple products effectively. She also worked with the business team in curating the ‘make and take’ experience.  

“Apeksha worked with me on promoting tableware pottery which I started making in my studio only during the lockdown. I was very impressed with clear focused thinking and project planning. Despite never having any exposure to ceramics she systematically jumped into learning the special nuisances of handmade pottery. Then did market research of price points and our clients before finally making a small website for our products. She also arranged the photoshoot and displayed herself and enthusiastically learned how to edit and prepare the images. Apeksha is an amazing team player with confidence and quick to take action,” shared Ruby Jhunjhunwala.

The one month project turned into a 3-month journey, and by the end of it, Apeksha was offered to join the Adipa team to continue working to strategize and expand the business online.

Parallelly, to continue working with kids, she also started a personal project to curate programs for 4-6-year-olds, where sessions are designed to help develop the logical & creative skills of the child and to help them develop holistically.

Before joining the fellowship, Apeksha had shared that she wants to come out of her shell and talk with people. One year later, she feels that she shares, “I have always been a reserved person. I wanted to get out of my shell. After working on multiple projects with multiple people, I feel that I have become bold & fearless.”