Raghav Verma's Second Innings

Raghav Verma is the cofounder of the Tiger Global funded tea cafe chain, Chaayos. It has 16 outlets across Delhi NCR and Mumbai. Chaayos has been operationally profitable at each of its outlets, within 3 months of opening up and the unit economics have been positive. However, his success with Chaayos is fueled by a failed entrepreneurial venture.

Back in 2012, he cofounded an online education startup called PrepSquare. The startup was however shut down in 2013. “There was a certain sense of naiveté with which we approached things back then. We believed that building a product would be enough, and students would come automatically. We believed the price point of INR 2000 would be a no brainer, given people paid as much as INR 2 lakh for classroom coaching. But we underestimated the time and money it would take to build a brand and get customers onboard. We realized that we were probably too early in this space,” said Raghav.

This, however, did not budge him from co-founding Chaayos with Nitin Saluja. The idea was Nitin’s. “It was a simple idea; in a chai drinking country, there should be a place to step outside your home and get a freshly made cup of chai to your liking. It was not the first time that someone had tried to start a chain with chai at the centre, but I think what we did right was to stay true to the way chai is consumed in the country. The initial response was fantastic and we have just built on it from there,” said Raghav.

His learnings from PrepSquare helped him build Chaayos – distribution of responsibilities within the team, definition of long term vision and being very clear about positive unit economics. One other major learning was to talk to many people, not only within the food space, but across categories and startups. We tried to operate in stealth mode in PrepSquare, but realized later that learning from people’s mistakes made more sense than reinventing the wheel each time. So we reached out to many people in the industry and were mentored by many of the senior people,” he added.

(taken from inc42.com)

India's Most Celebrated Entrepreneur!

India too has its share of rags to riches heroes. And Dhirubhai Ambani is one of the best known among them. This founder of Reliance Industries was one of the three sons of Hirachandbhai, a school teacher, and Jamanaben. He also had two sisters. An anecdote from his childhood is that he once bought a tin of groundnut oil on credit from a local wholesaler and sold the oil in retail on the roadside. He earned a few rupees as profit from this transaction. Apparently, during weekends when his school was closed, he used to set up bhajia stalls at village fairs to make ends meet at home.

According to R-ADAG, when he was 17, he went to Aden (now Yemen) in search of opportunity, and worked as a dispatch clerk for A. Besse. That was in 1949. A couple of years later, the company became a distributor for Shell products and Dhirubhai was promoted to manage the company’s oil-filling station at the port of Aden. It was here that he dreamed of setting up and owning a refinery, which he later realized with his petrochemicals venture. After returning to India, he started his first textile mill in Ahmednagar. Though his businesses were a huge success, there were also issues regarding Ambani’s control over stock exchange. His detractors accused him of illegal or unethical transactions and acts but an investigation by the RBI did not find any evidence of it. By 2007, the combined fortune of the Ambani family stood at $60 billion, making Ambani’s the second richest family in the world.

(taken from yourstory.com)

The Flipkart Story!

A quick look into any success story shows a path breaking idea at the heart of the tale. Flipkart is no exception. It is not the idea itself but the conviction to convert ideas into action and action into results is what defines a true success story. Measured by that yardstick, Flipkart has been a hugely successful. Back in 2007, when Flipkart was launched, Indian e-commerce industry was taking its beginner steps. Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, who were working for Amazon had an idea to start an e-commerce company in India.

One can easily call that a risky move. In a country where people have various tastes and preferences, an ecommerce start-up will always have enormous challenges. In India, people often prefer to shop in person and buy goods they see and like. Today, thanks to Flipkart, e-commerce has become one of the fastest growing sectors in India.

Flipkart began selling books to begin with. It soon expanded and began offering a wide variety of goods. Innovating right from the start, Flipkart has been home to few of the striking features of Indian e-commerce. Flipkart was the first to implement the popular ‘Cash On Delivery’ facility, which every online shopping website in India offers as an option today.

In the first few years of its existence, Flipkart raised funds through venture capital funding. As the company grew in stature, more funding arrived. Flipkart repaid the investors’ faith with terrific performances year after year. In the financial year 2008-09, Flipkart had made sales to the tune of 40 million Indian rupees. This soon increased to 200 million Indian rupees the following year. Flipkart targets to hit the one billion mark by 2015. Going by their ever increasing popularity, it does not seem like a farfetched thought.

Back at the time when Flipkart was launched, any e-commerce company faced two major difficulties. One was the problem of online payment gateways. Not many people preferred online payment and the gateways were not easy to set up. Flipkart tackled this problem by introducing cash on delivery and payment by card on delivery in addition to others.

The second problem was the entire supply chain system. Delivering goods on time is one of the most important factor that determines the success of an ecommerce company. Flipkart addressed this issue by launching their own supply chain management system to deliver orders in a timely fashion.

Flipkart also acquired few companies like Myntra.com, LetsBuy.com etc., to better their presence in the market. With the entry of Amazon.com in India, the competition between the companies has seen many takeovers. Flipkart’s journey from a small book e-retailer to India’s largest e-commerce platform inspires a generation of start-ups.

In a country where stereotypes are common, Flipkart managed to break the norm and change the ecommerce industry in India for ever. Flipkart’s story proves that if you have a great idea, and you are a doer and not a thinker, success is not far off.

(taken from successstory.com)

The Story of Samuel Walton, Founder of Walmart

This American entrepreneur who built a small grocery store into the giant Walmart supermarket chain, amassing a fortune of over $23 billion, grew up during the Great Depression.

He had numerous chores to help make financial ends meet for his family as was common at the time. He milked the family cow, bottled the surplus, and drove it to customers. Afterwards, he would deliver Columbia Daily Tribune newspapers on a paper route. In addition, he also sold magazine subscriptions. During his college, he worked various odd jobs, including waiting tables in exchange for meals. After graduation, he joined the US Army during the World War II. After the war, he left the military and started managing a variety store at the age of 26.

He took a loan to buy his first store, and thanks to simple innovations in business, he soon bought his second store. Within 3 years, his sales volume grew to $225,000. The first true Wal-Mart opened on July 2, 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. The rest is history. Forbes ranked Sam Walton as the richest person in the United States from 1982 to 1988. At the time of his death in 1992, he had 1,960 Wal-Mart stores, employed 380,000 people and clocked annual sales of about $50 billion.

(taken from yourstory.com)

“Never thought of myself as an entrepreneur”

Dhiraj C.Rajaram's story of building a multi million dollar firm MuSigma started in 2004 is a very interesting and inspirational one.

Read Story here

Inspiring Entrepreneurship Story - Elevate!

"In 1998 I was a copywriter/account manager at a small ad agency in NYC. I liked what I did, but working in jammed quarters with ten people (and one stinky bathroom) and being told when to show up and when I could go home was getting old.

I was just twenty-seven but knew I was doing good work for our clients and that I had some talent. Then I noticed a freelancer coming in and out of the office on his own schedule yet doing pretty much the same work as me. He'd come back all tanned from the Hamptons and would do his work while he was there.

I was so envious. And then I found out he was making way more money than me.

But then I realized my envy simply meant I wanted more freedom for myself. So I didn't get mad... I got smart. I took him to lunch, asked how he got started, and once I kind of understood the first few steps I quit my job.

I didn't have any clients, I had never taken a business course, I was cash-poor and in over $15,000 of credit card debt. But I somehow knew I could hustle. And it was just more painful for me if I had stayed at that job and never known what would have happened if I didn't try.

I stopped at Staples on the way home and put a new printer-fax machine on the last bit of room I had on a credit card. I printed business cards that said I had offered marketing communications services. I attended any networking meeting I could find. I asked for referrals. I met a lot of people but nothing was happening. And I was getting tired of ramen noodles.

When I didn't have the money for my next rent payment on my tiny apartment, I was getting nervous all this wouldn't work. But one day, after praying for guidance, the phone rang. One of the agency's clients had looked up my number. They said they had no reason to stay with the agency if I was gone. They became my first real client--one that at least paid for my rent, groceries, and Metro card.

And from there, you couldn't stop me." -- Ali Brown, founder & CEO, Elevate.

Moral: Believe in yourself!