Revathi Roy

Designation: Founder of Forsche and Co-Founder of Viira Cabs
Business idea: Women’s Fleet Taxi Service.
Started on : March-2007
Previous work experience: Proprietor, UP-VC Windows
Started business at: 47 years
Initial investment: Rs 8 lakh (from friends and family)
Revenue @ Present: The company has a revenue of 60 lakh a year from the taxi service and the academy and broke even earlier this year.
Insiration Quote: Swami Vivekananda’s message that "one needs vision more than eyes" inspired to hit out on her own and shape the business up.
Role model:  Eleanor Roosevelt, the former first lady of the United States is her role model, she worked to enhance the status of working women. Roy also want to empower women through For-She.
Challenges faced:  Not only financial, Revathi had to face personel tragedy as her husband after long illness went into a coma and passed away few months just before the company was set to be lanched, with no job,no bank balance,huge bills to pay,all assets sold,three children to bring up and her age then 47 . Also she did not have any idea of the transportation sector or the public transport field which she had choosen.
" Inspiration was the need to make a living!"

About her Life:
Revathi Roy is a rally car driver, born in Karnataka married into a Bengali family.  She is a doctorate in Economics from the University of Toronto in Economics.

She did SWOT analysis of herself and got to know that her best skill is driving. Her passion to drive became the source of sole bread earner. Roy: "I love cars and I love driving. I have always been the designated driver for my family and friends" and that's how the idea got stuck ....A driving school for women and later took shape as a full fledged taxi service for women. Having taken firm decision and stick to her goals she steps out of her house right after 4 days of her husband's death to take care of her children. She had bolted herself in a room, a book given by friend on Vivekananda Swamy inspired her to get back her life on track. "Inspiration was the need to make a living".  Mother-in-law stood by her, she
agreed to send her on one condition that she should step out of the house as a married woman with a big bindi on her forehead and wear colorful dress. She bought a cab and drove herself first day, the second day she took her mother-in-law in her backseat so that it should not look empty. A big salute to her courage and amazing attitude which kept her going even in her days of struggle. She extended her service by adding one more cab to her service , she managed to barrow 8 lakhs from her family and friends as a seed capital. She did not get any help from banks.  Banks will look for business projections, collaterals and repayment ability before granting the loans.
Now comes marketing,publicity tack ticks ...she began looking for advertising agency in Mumbai which would promote her on credit even before she had arranged her cars. She found ubiquitous through a local dial-up service and struck a deal for logos and print advertisements in local papers worth Rs. 5 lakh. If she could pay back the money within three months,she would pay half the advertising cost; if she failed to pay it back within six months,she would forfeit her idea and business to the ad agency.

Advertising started in Jan/2007 announcing the launch of ForShe in March'07.  Two second hand cars were contributed by a friend. But she got her first customer only in May'07.  A samaritan gave her 5 lakh through
which she cleared advertising overheads,taking 50% discount.  With the remaining amount Roy setup an office in garage, she would fill the fuel and send the cars for publicity without any passengers. Roy herself drove a taxi for 10 months, later some of her customers some senior citizens helped her buy 12 more cars. 
Now Roy has many taxis running on the roads of Mumbai, Life had taken a sweet trun and everything started looking up.  ForShe became talk of the town coz its 'for the women by the women' many venture capital companies started approaching her to take a dig in her attractive biz one such company is Oasis but due to various VPs and their tales Roy found difficult to work together soon she was jobless again. Revathi once again went through a failure.

http://www.liveomagazine.com/article/life-is-a-highway-the-story-of-revathi-roy-177.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WaS-55AF50
http://www.entrepreneurindia.com/interview/start-up/non-techpreneur/By-Women-For-Women-27/#goComment