Wowing that entrepreneurial dream

MEET YOUR ENTREPRENEUR

As you enter the offices of Wow! Hyderabad "� a city-based magazine, you are greeted with a broad smile from the charming young woman who makes no bones about the fact that she loves to talk. "My colleagues tell me that I talk too much," she points out with an impish grin.

Much talk or not, Deepti Reddy, is definitely being talked about in the city today. The Hyderabad-born, New York-bred mother of two, moved to the city when she got married at eighteen to Satish Reddy, the son of Anji Reddy of Dr Reddy's fame.

"Having lived in New York for a major part of my life I realised that Hyderabad did not have any city-based portals or magazines. So after I finished my postgraduation in business administration, Sunaina Raju "� a friend of mine and I, came up with the idea of starting a city-based website. That did not make a great beginning then, as Hyderabad was not very internet-savvy in 1998," Reddy says.

"As soon as the website was wound up, the idea of launching a magazine struck Satish and me. Therefore, in December 2002, we launched Wow! Hyderabad as a means of letting people know what the city was all about," Reddy points out.

And what about choosing a name like Wow! for a city magazine. "Wow! is the word that comes to my mind when I think of Hyderabad and so that's how the magazine got its name," Reddy says.

Wow!, which has content on the city, its lifestyle, its people and its events, made a decent beginning with a circulation of about 7,000 and now on the verge of celebrating its second anniversary, has seen its circulation grow to about 17,000.

"What sets it apart from other magazines is its penetration. Some people believe that the magazine is just for the Page 3 crowd, but we have seen Wow copies being even picked up even around the streets of Charminar," Deepti points out.

"An initial investment of Rs 10 lakh set the ball rolling and now with further investment the magazine is evolving to create a niche of its own," Reddy says. The magazine is also available for non-resident Indians in the United States and the United Kingdom at $32 and £18 respectively.

Having tasted success, Reddy now is setting herself a bigger agenda. Plans are afoot to create similar concepts elsewhere in the country. "There are plans to launch similar local magazines in Chennai, Bangalore and other southern cities too. But nothing concrete has been finalised as yet," Reddy indicates.

Life has turned a full circle for Reddy, and she is set to ride the website bandwagon again.

"Things have changed now. Hyderabad is not what it was ten years ago. This is the right time for starting a website for the magazine," Reddy said.

"This website is totally different from what I had initially started with. This is based on the magazine and by the end of this month it will be able to provide an online subscription facility also. So now overseas buyers will have to spend only $9.99, instead of $32 on the magazine," she adds.

Online shopping is another area that Reddy is looking at. "We will be starting with flowers and cakes and will move on to other gift items later," Reddy said.

This apart, Reddy plans to enter the merchandising segment in the near future too. Without divulging further details, she concluded, "There is no dearth of ideas for diversifying, isn't it?" Clearly there aren't!