Tamanna Gillani is the founder of Quarterpillars Media LLP, a Pune-based digital marketing agency that grew out of a simple frustration and a clear purpose. She started the business during the lockdown with one designer and a firm belief that small companies deserve marketing that is structured, effective, and affordable.
Today, Quarterpillars Media is a 30-person team serving clients across six industries worldwide.
Quarterpillars Media specialises in creative strategy, social media, content creation, influencer marketing, branding, and performance marketing. The agency’s focus is practical, as Tamanna builds systems so founders can get predictable results without getting pulled into the daily noise of marketing. She explains,
“We don’t just provide creative work — we structure campaigns, build processes, and offer end-to-end solutions that make marketing easy for startups and established businesses alike. Our focus on accessibility, structured systems, and keeping pace with evolving social media trends sets us apart from other agencies.”
Learnings of the Past
Before Quarterpillars Media, Tamanna was in fast-moving sales & marketing. She worked and interned at BookMyShow and LazyPay, gaining early exposure to marketing, operations and business strategy.
In 2017, she founded Little Pillars. Tamanna’s earlier venture taught her a lesson she could not ignore. The previous job roles taught her how to scale service design and manage on-the-ground logistics, and skills she carried into her next project. As a founder running kids’ experiences in hospitality, she realised she had never properly branded her own business because she could not afford an agency. That gap became the seed for Quarterpillars Media.
Parallel to this, Tamanna built a presence as an influencer, learning firsthand what makes social content work. She worked as an influencer while building her businesses, which gave her a front-row seat to seeing how brands succeed on social platforms. When the pandemic hit and many small brands lost access to agencies, she saw a bigger market failure. She decided to fix it by creating a service that blends creativity with clear process and convenience.
Tamanna is also co-founder of Tain Evenings LLP, a networking platform for entrepreneurs active in 12 cities and planning to expand to 30 next year.
A Competitive Edge
Tamanna and Quarterpillars Media know how to navigate early-stage scaling and transform your brand purpose into quantifiable outcomes.
What sets Quarterpillars Media apart is that it was built from the founder’s own pain points. Tamanna stays hands-on with strategy and client relationships, and the team treats each brief as a business problem to be solved, not a checklist to be ticked. The result is marketing that feels human and performs consistently. She asserts,
“Quarterpillars Media is unique because we combine strategy, execution, and convenience. We understand that social media and marketing are for the youngsters, and the future of digital engagement lies with young minds. Staying up to date with trends, platforms, and audience behavior is critical, and we integrate that knowledge into every campaign.”
Walking on a Tightrope
Tamanna started young and with very little runway, so earning credibility was the first hard test. Convincing clients to trust a founder in her twenties meant she had to work twice as hard, be extra clear in her proposals, and let early results do the talking.
Delivering meaningful social media outcomes on shoestring budgets was another constant. She learned to be pragmatic and prioritise the channels that move business metrics, design lean experiments, and measure what actually affects client revenue or leads.
Scaling from a one-designer operation to a 30-person team brought growing pains, too. Hiring the right people, creating repeatable processes, and holding creative standards while expanding meant long nights and many course corrections. Mentorship and gritty persistence helped her bridge those gaps.
Hitting Milestones
“For me, success is measured through client results, team growth, and the convenience we provide in our services.”
Even though the journey has been long, there is much for Tamanna to feel proud of. Quarterpillars Media grew from a lockdown experiment into a 30-member agency serving clients across six industries and multiple countries. That alone speaks to how the early takeaways were turned into systems and trust.
She landed the agency’s first UK client, proving the model works beyond local markets. Performance marketing work translated into measurable admissions growth for education clients, and influencer campaigns were run across 15 Indian cities with coordinated execution.
Most important to Tamanna, the business now delivers real convenience and results for founders who need marketing that simply works. Turning a team of creative strategists and managers into a reliable, strategic partner for clients is the achievement she measures by client results, team growth, and sustained trust.
The Plans Ahead
Tamanna plans to take Quarterpillars Media beyond India while keeping the boutique agency’s soul intact. She wants high-end brands everywhere to access strategic, ROI-led marketing, and at the same time continue helping small businesses that have limited budgets but deserve great creative work.
For Tamanna, the growth of the company will mean being practical and people-first. She will invest in the team, lean on mentorship, and fold AI into everyday workflows so the agency stays fast, measurable, and useful to clients.
The Takeaways
One of the major lessons Tamanna has learned is that persistence is what matters most. She says that there will be days when doubt creeps in, but faith in your idea and in the work gets you through.
Outside of work, she is unabashedly social and a big foodie. She loves discovering new cafes, catching up with friends, and traveling. Balance, she believes, keeps creativity alive.
Tamanna also acknowledges that mentorship changed the game for her. Advice from experienced guides helped refine her approach, avoid common mistakes, and accelerate growth. For her, entrepreneurship is a practical craft. It is about finding simple, repeatable solutions for unpredictable challenges and building systems that can scale without losing heart.
Her advice to other young entrepreneurs is simple and steady. She says,
“Stay persistent, trust your instincts, and maintain faith in your journey. Focus on solving real problems, provide structure and convenience to those you serve, and embrace the challenges along the way. The determination to keep moving forward—even when answers aren’t clear—is what makes all the difference.”
