Deciphering Digital Success

Start-ups are extremely popular among passionate youths these days, though the struggles are infinite. Citadel speaks with the founders of HATS OFF, a digital advertising agency that grew from 3 to 30, in a time span of just five years, carving a niche for themselves in the world of ‘social media’. It is indeed an inspiring story!

- Sakina Godhrawala

Hats Off Pvt Ltd, founded in t he autumn of 2011, is a digital marketing agency that provides solutions to dormant problems in the world of digital marketing. Rendering services like social media marketing (SMM), search engine optimization (SEO), Wikipedia page creation and maintenance, web and mobile app development and design solutions, the organisation takes up digital advertising jobs of any scale and nature.

Three promising youngsters, Shabbir, Hussain and Taher, came together and started a new venture in the field of digital marketing five years ago. Little did they know that it would transform their lives completely. Back then, Shabbir was a full-time employee at a Nokia store, Husain was a film director and photographer, and Taher Mandiwala was employed with Cisco.

On being asked about the idea behind starting Hats Off, Shabbir says, “Before starting Hats Off, I was employed at a Nokia store for almost four years. While at it, Hussain called me up and asked if I would be interested in starting a new business. Back then, I was not keen, because I had a definite goal in my mind. However, I did not let go of the opportunity that walked towards me and decided to join hands with Hussain, without any clue of what I was getting into.”

Co-founder and Business Development Manager at Hats-Off, Hussain Habib, who was the first among the three partners to come up with the idea of starting a digital marketing agency, says, “Few of the business ideas cropped up before venturing into digital advertising. We also contemplated on those business ideas, but it required investment, and we wanted to do something with least or minimum capital, because we didn’t want to borrow money from our parents. That is perhaps one of the reasons for opting for the business of digital marketing.”