Member Spotlight: Naveen Chathapuram, Director/Producer

Are you a dreamer, risk-taker, or doer?

To do what I do, you have to be a dreamer, a risk-taker, and a doer. But, inherently, I would say I’m a dreamer. There is risk involved when following through with your vision, and that scares some people. Risk, then, becomes an inevitable part of the achievement process, and the only way to minimize your risk is by doing.

I think once you invest in the process, which involves showing up daily, figuring out what needs to be done to accomplish that next micro-step, and adding up all of those micro-steps, you’ll come to a time when you’ll have to take a leap. This is the greatest risk, because that’s when you can fall. But, you can make sure that even though your leap looks risky to everybody else, you have the determination to make it to the other side.

As fellow entrepreneurs, we would love to hear about your business.

There are three parts to my business. Primarily, I am a filmmaker and a producer. So, one third of my time, I’m working on evaluating, producing, and financing scripts and then, ultimately, making the film— Pre-production, production, and post-production.

I spend a third of my time helping other filmmakers make their films. So, in this role, I break down the script, create a schedule, build a budget, raise financing for the project, and consider the logistics required to get the film completed. And then, once it’s done, I help them with distribution to news networks.

The last third of my time is spent as an advisor and consultant for companies that are the confluence of media, finance, and technology. They could be a mediatech company or a fintech company that’s getting into media, or one like LIT, a company I recently helped launch. LIT is a 24/7 live streaming entertainment news network with a lot of ambition. It’s been a very exciting couple of weeks.

Who is your typical customer?

An ideal costumer for the advisory side of my business is someone who has a positive deal flow in the media, finance, and technology space. Individuals, corporations, or companies associated with mediatech or fintech reach out to me, whether it’s for advice on their rollout and/or growth plan, their technology, or their relevant market. If they are looking for investments or have funds to invest, I can make introductions and connect people together.

On the film side, my clients could be writers, crew members, investors, distributors, vendors— really anyone who is associated with the business or wants to be associated with the business. For example, if someone works in marketing, digital marketing, or social media marketing, they could all reach out to me.

What are your top tips for entrepreneurial success?

Resilience is one of the ingredients for success. Back when I was getting into the business, I didn’t know how important perseverance and resilience are to success. Let’s go back to the dreamer, risk-taker, and doer question. I think that if one of these three things feels unnatural, then that area is specifically what needs work. If risk-taking comes naturally to them, but they don’t dream enough or they don’t do enough, then I would say those individuals need to work on that. And, if they are doers, then they need to work on the dreaming and the risk-taking.

Also, you need to have a vision— a clear path or destination of where you want to be—and know that the higher your goal is, the higher your risk is. The only way to mitigate that risk is by being a person who is in the trenches and does not give up until he or she has made it to the other side.