Spotlight: How Vijay Nihalchandani built trust through content, not just reach

New Delhi: When Vijay Nihalchandani first stepped into the hospitality business nearly a decade ago, content creation was not part of the strategy. It was only years later, amid an industry-wide shutdown, that content emerged as a decisive business lever. Today, Nihalchandani, popularly known online as “Idea Man”, commands a community of over 1 million followers on Instagram, built around finance, business and everyday money decisions.

Speaking on Spotlight, Nihalchandani reflected on how his entrepreneurial journey shaped his digital presence, and how content gradually moved from being a marketing add-on to a core growth engine across his ventures.

“It’s been nine years with Trivenities. When I started, it was just a listing model because I saw a problem in the market,” Nihalchandani said.

The problem, he explained, was structural. Hotel owners were investing heavily in properties but struggling to gain visibility in prime locations dominated by established players. His early work focused on listing and managing hotels across online travel platforms, a move that quickly delivered results.

“The property that was not even sold for Rs 3,000 was sold out 100 per cent two months later at Rs 7,000,” he said.

Over time, Trivenities expanded its footprint across cities such as Ujjain, Indore, Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, eventually managing more than 2,000 properties. But the momentum came to an abrupt halt in early 2020.

“Hospitality was impacted much earlier than other industries. Bookings dropped from January itself,” Nihalchandani said.

With traditional outreach proving ineffective, he turned to content creation during the pandemic. The decision was practical rather than experimental.

“Cold calling and old marketing techniques don’t work anymore. Content creation is a new technique,” he said. “I thought I should make videos and integrate my company at the end so that I get more leads from hotels.”

Starting without a team or formal scripting experience, Nihalchandani posted long-form videos on IGTV. One of them unexpectedly took off.

More than expanding reach, content addressed a deeper and more persistent challenge for him: trust. As an agency founder, he often encountered hesitation from potential partners unfamiliar with his work, making credibility difficult to establish early on. Content helped bridge that gap by offering repeated visibility and context, allowing audiences to understand his thinking and approach before any business conversation began. Over time, this familiarity reduced scepticism and shortened decision cycles, as clients were already aware of his work and perspective by the time they engaged.

That credibility eventually enabled Trivenities to transition from a largely B2B operation into a consumer-facing hotel chain. “Earlier, only hoteliers knew us. Now customers know us too,” he said.

Parallel to hospitality, Nihalchandani’s digital identity grew around finance—an area he says emerged naturally from running a business.

“I didn’t choose finance. Finance chose me,” he said. “As I grew my business, my liabilities grew—taxes, insurance, home loans. I became curious about how everything works.”

His content often addresses common financial blind spots, particularly mis-selling and complex products presented without transparency.

“People are sold policies to fulfil monthly targets,” he said.

Seeing these practices repeatedly pushed him to take a more public, educational approach. Rather than keeping this knowledge limited to his own decision-making, he chose to share it openly—breaking down complex financial products and highlighting common pitfalls for a wider audience. The response, he said, was immediate and measurable.

“People commented saying their home loan interest dropped from 9 per cent to 7.5 per cent after watching my video,” Nihalchandani said.

A key reason the content resonates, he believes, is timing. “I was buying my first house, my first car, taking my first term insurance. Someone watching is probably doing the same thing.”

For creators, Nihalchandani stressed the importance of treating content as a long-term business, not a short-term visibility play.

“Every content creator should think like a business,” he said. “Views go up and down. Visibility goes up and down.”

His content operations now involve researchers, writers, editors and managers, with videos planned nearly a week in advance. “Behind every video, there are five days of work,” he said, adding that accuracy is non-negotiable, particularly in finance-related content.

Despite the scale, relevance remains the biggest challenge.

“Everyone has a phone. There is no entry barrier,” he said. “The audience has limited time, so staying relevant is the toughest part.”

Nihalchandani also spoke about his experience on Shark Tank India, where Make My Payment gained national attention. “The biggest advice we got was that one person should focus on one business,” he said.

He chose to decline several funding offers that followed the show. “Money alone is not enough. If the investor doesn’t understand the business, it creates long-term problems,” he said.

On artificial intelligence, Nihalchandani views it as an assistive layer rather than a creative replacement.

“I use Gemini and ChatGPT for ideation and structuring, but the voice has to stay human,” he said.

AI is also embedded into his hospitality businesses through dynamic pricing systems.

“A hotel grows in two ways—more bookings and higher average room rates,” he explained.

As the conversation closed, he emphasised that usefulness, rather than visibility alone, determines whether audiences continue to engage. Consistent value builds repeat attention, strengthens credibility and creates a durable foundation for both personal brands and businesses.

“That’s what builds trust, and trust builds everything else,” he said.

View the full interview here: