Preeti Gupta Shah is the Founder of Copper Pages,  the largest Online Yellow Pages for the South Asian community abroad, .She is a  CPA, and a graduate from Univ of Illinois with a major  in Accounting and a  minor in Marketing.  Preeti worked at Arthur Andersen in Auditing and Consulting, and has been in the internet space for over 10 years, including consulting for multinationals such as Schering-Plough and working for dotcom startups as well as founding Copper Pages.

Lokvani talked to her about Copper Pages, and the idea behind it.

How did you start off with Copper Pages? Why Copper?
I was planning a nonprofit South Asian event and was spending hours every evening tracking down friends who had recently had weddings and trying to obtain the contact information for their caterer, DJ, photographer, printer, and other South Asian vendors. After a while I began wondering why a wealthy community such as ours, which maintains close ties to cultural roots and avidly consumes South Asian products, does not have a proper Yellow Pages to efficiently find business listings. And so CopperPages was born. 

 I used “Copper” because it’s a Yellow Pages for South Asians, and South Asians have copper-colored skin.  Also copper was historically a precious metal in India so it has cultural connotations as well.

Give us some statistics of Copper Pages, in terms of reach, number of units etc. Do you have a print edition too ?

We have over 250 categories and 100,000 listings nationwide.
It is only online because the print version would get outdated quickly as we get new listings submitted every day.  Also the online platform allows for very advanced search capabilities such as searching by category, keyword, name, zipcode, and coupons.

Is this your first venture into entrepreneurship ?

I only work on one idea/company at a time, but this is my 3rd venture, that is why I call myself a serial entrepreneur.  I tried my first venture at the age of 21, right out of college, while working a full-time job. I would get home around 8 PM and start my second shift - as an entrepreneur - sometimes pulling an all-nighter, then having to be alert at work the next day. It was the first time I ever drank coffee, but it was worth it. I was in Import-Export and managed to sell to retailers such as Macy's, bootstrapping on family loans and on the verge of losing my capital investment several times. After that I’ve always been a full or part-time entrepreneur because once I went through the exhilarating process of taking an idea in my head and turning it into a money-producing reality, I was hooked. Being an entrepreneur is creatively fulfilling, from advertising to hiring to designing to fundraising to sales to debugging to accounting – no job can be a challenge in so many ways.

What qualities make one an entrepreneur? Are they special skills that come in handy?

You have to be 1) Jack-of-all-trades in that you are comfortable with the various aspects of a business and not just stuck to one role, 2) Very creative and adventurous, this is not for those who want a steady paycheck and can’t deal with uncertainty, 3) Persistent.  Many people have great ideas. Many people can get excited for a few months and strategize and sacrifice a few weekends during the “honeymoon period”. Most people can’t sustain it over a long period of time and accept the non-glamorous work along with the fun part.

 If you were to do it again would you do it differently?
I would have tried moving to a place like Boston or Silicon Valley to be among fellow entrepreneurs.  I think the Midwest, where I spent most of my life, was not the best place to find capital or business partners. My biggest wish has always been that I find an equally enthusiastic business partner because it is difficult to operate alone, that is something I would have changed.

What are your other hobbies or interest ? 
I am very interested in music and dance, I ran a part-time dance school for 3 years which helped with seed funding for CopperPages.  I taught a combination of Bharatanatyam and Filmi dance and had over 60 students and 4 locations.  I have taught on and off for over 20 years, and hope to continue for many more.

Any last advice to all those entrepreneurs who may be thinking of starting a business?
I often get asked by people if they should start something of their own.  If you want to try your first business, and decide that you only want to risk X amount of time and money before you quit, that’s fine, there is nothing wrong with setting a limit to your losses. At least you’ll never look back and regret that you didn’t try. However if you really want to be a successful entrepreneur, if it's really your dream, then realize it might be years before you have a normal life again, so choose something executable that caters to your passion and strengths, then go for it, stick to it, and make it happen, no matter what it takes!

 To know more check out http://copperpages.com/

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