Today we’d like to introduce you to Rudransh Arora.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
From a young age, I’ve always been very ambitious. It sounds crazy when I think about it now but back when I was in middle school, I was so interested in legos that I attempted to build a 7-foot tower in my living room. Although it ultimately shattered before its completion, the project was a fun undertaking – one full of blood, sweat, and tears that resonated with my ambitious nature.
Watching Shark Tank, my favorite television show, ignited an entrepreneurial spirit in me; listening to Mark Cuban’s clever insights about technology and hearing Mr Wonderful’s humorous “constructive criticism” inspired me to explore a plethora of different business ideas. From selling hot chocolate on Halloween to cleaning cars, I tried it all.
During my Sophomore year in high school, to take my passion to the next level, I enrolled in the Young Entrepreneur’s Academy – an MBA-like program that takes youth through the process of starting a company from ideation to execution. That same year, I also pursued an internship at Nanban Ventures, a private equity firm. As an intern, my job was to research leads (Seed round, Series A, Series B, and Series C companies) and make investment recommendations to the investment team. After pooling my knowledge from both experiences, I came to the actualization that a lot of successful startups in today’s business ecosystem leverage technology to optimize currently available products or services – and that’s exactly what I aimed to do when I founded my own company, WorkBee.
WorkBee is an innovative platform for all things holiday that empowers customers to purchase holiday decorations, find, review, schedule, and pay for installation services with community-reviewed installers. I worked with my friend and partner, Sarthak Dhawan, a junior at Liberty High School who is an intern at State Farm, to create the app and launch the business.
I founded WorkBee because I identified a problem in the marketplace affecting my local community – purchasing the right holiday decorations and finding a reliable, responsive, fair-priced installer can be a wearying project. Too often, they respond erratically, miss appointments, and are difficult to communicate with due to a language barrier. After identifying this need, I decided to optimize the process of installing holiday decorations by leveraging technology to create a business around our innovative app, available on the Apple app store.
You can learn more about WorkBee at www.workbeeholidays.com
After achieving a proof of concept, this summer, I pitched WorkBee at the YEA Saunders Scholars Competition and won the title of “America’s Top Young Entrepreneur” after competing against 500+ entrepreneurs from 32 cities over multiple rounds. The title came with $8,400 in investor funds and a $30,000 yearly scholarship.
Over the past few months, we have grown the platform to over 1000 users, partnered with local design franchises, and have earned over 5 figures in revenue. Our success has come to fruition in multiple ways. Besides winning the title of America’s Top Young Entrepreneur, I also won second place in the nation out of 400+ competitors at the Business Professionals of America Entrepreneurship competition. Most recently, Sarthak and I have won the United States Congressional App Challenge, the most prestigious prize in student computer science. Over the next few years, we hope to grow the business and take WorkBee to the next level.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Although the business’ success has been evident through its awards, sales, and demand, one of the most prevalent challenges that WorkBee has faced has been order fulfillment. Due to the pandemic, the supply chain is facing shortages and the cost of material has increased. Unfortunately, this problem has prevented us from serving every single interested customer because it is difficult to keep our most popular decorations in stock. One of the biggest takeaways that I have had from this is that it is more efficient for WorkBee to focus on the service side rather than the supply side of the holidays because there are fewer external factors to account for. In order to mitigate the negative effects of the challenges brought on by recent supply chain bottlenecks, we have pivoted our marketing and pricing strategy so that we can serve our customers better.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
When I’m not working on WorkBee, I’m always looking for ways to give back to my community. As the leader of the Frisco Mayor’s Youth Council and avid member of Congressman Van Taylor’s Congressional Advisory Council, I have learned a lot about the issues impacting our country and community. Over the next few months, I hope to leverage my position in these councils along with my internship with City Council Woman Angelia Pelham to work with local city officials to explore the implications of implementing innovative solutions that can better our community. For example, I am currently working alongside Frisco city officials to set up a program that aims to create a network of local organizations to give citizens a safe place to go during power outages that occur during extreme weather conditions.
I am also passionate about impact investing and disability advocacy. I am a team member of the “Future of Disability” initiative, an organization that aims to change the narrative of disability by presenting disability from the standpoint of opportunities via technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship by shining a spotlight on disabled innovators.
I am honored to announce that Mayor Jeff Cheney proclaimed September 21, 2021, as Rudransh “Rudy” Arora Day in the city of Frisco. I am extremely grateful for the support that I have received along my journey and strive to pay my community back through my business and community service. I’m always looking for ways to grow and new ways to change the world through my endeavors.
Contact Info:
- Email: rudy.arora04@gmail.com
- Website: workbeeholidays.com
