Meet Siddharth Marupeddi: An inspiration to young entrepreneurs of Vizag

One of the leading entrepreneurs from Vizag, Mr. Siddharth Marupeddi has had quite an interesting 8 years of an entrepreneurial journey which culminated in the founding of Little Master. Launched in November last year, it is an online education platform that contains a large variety of extracurricular courses that children of ages 4-15 can learn. 

In an interaction with Yo! Vizag, he spoke about his journey towards establishing this company. “With tech being a hot sector, I always wanted to venture into it. My aim was to set up a holistic educational platform that bridges the gap between innovation and kids’ learning in extracurriculars. Through Little Master, I wanted to bring a platform to people who wish to exhibit their skills while teaching future generations. Children in tier II and tier III cities can make use of this platform to learn rare courses like origami-making which are not easily found in those cities.”

Following his upbringing in Vizag, Mr. Marupeddi did his Bachelors of Engineering from KL University in Guntur. After that, he moved to Hyderabad where he set up StartAP in 2014. It quickly became one of the leading enablers of entrepreneurial ecosystems in AP and Telangana. Through his company, Mr. Marupeddi supported a lot of budding entrepreneurs from Vizag and other parts of AP, in their ambitious journeys towards kickstarting their startups. His firm helped new startups in terms of investment and mentoring. 

Apart from work, Mr. Marupeddi also enjoys and has been to over 45+ countries. He has also been an active member of prominent organisations like Confederate of Indian Industry (CII), India Global, AIESEC and Climate-KIC. 

About Little Master

With a team of 150 members, Little Master contains extracurricular courses on dancing, music, arts and crafts and other children’s activities. Their website consists of about 40 professional courses which last 6-12 months and 150+ explorer courses that are short-duration. This platform was also recently made available on Google Play Store for smartphone users. 

Startup culture in AP

Mr. Marupeddi also gave his say on the startup culture in Andhra Pradesh. “Andhra Pradesh, with cities like Vizag and Vijayawada, is filled with entrepreneurs in various sectors. While there are a lot of factors that influence the startup culture of a state, AP doesn’t lack entrepreneurial spirit in any way. In my experience here, I have come across plenty of people who are willing to take risks in order to achieve their dreams.”

Advice for young entrepreneurs

Talking about entrepreneurship, Mr. Marupeddi had a few words of advice for any young business minds out there. “As a young entrepreneur, one should always be willing to push their limits. Setting up a business is not easy and takes time, often, years. People need to be patient and stubborn with their ambitions. Becoming an entrepreneur is an adventurous journey, full of ups and downs. While some choose to fly solo in this journey, I personally believe that it’s better to have a team of professionals who are right for your business.”