21fools goes the Gandhigiri way this Independence Day

Founded by Divyanshu Asopa, 21fools is a rather unique startup in a sense that the company is completely driven by happiness. "We believe in making meaningful products and sharing experiences to make this world a happier place. Under the same umbrella of this vision we have a greeting card and magazine team," says Divyanshu.

Based out of Mumbai, 21fools is a small team of people who believe in the power of happiness and continuing their efforts from last year of putting a smile on every soldiers' face, they have the initiative running this year too. This year, 21fools is going the Gandhigiri way and isn't asking customers to pay for it. Anyone can send a greeting card/rakhi to the soldiers and pay according to their wish.

How?

Step 1: Go to the website www.21fool.com. See how many cards and rakhis you want to send to soldiers posted on the border. The cards are priced zero and you can pay what you wish.

Step 2: 21fools will dispatch the thank you cards and rakhis to five Army Headquarters – Pune, Jaipur, udhampur, Lucknow and Kokatta.

What was the response last year?

"It was the first time when we were doing this initiative and were very nervous about the response. The concept was new and people were sceptical about the whole idea. There were many things about which people were worried but inspite of this, we managed to send 1670 cards," says Divyanshu.

How did they get in touch with the army?

It took a lot of time and effort to reach out to the right people in the Indian Army for approvals and getting approvals was pretty tough last year as there are strict checks in place. 21fools got help from people on twitter who made the necessary connections.

"After the last year initiative they asked us to keep the initiative going for coming years and that helped us a lot. But instead of getting permission from the HQ in Delhi we had to get permission from all the 5 HQs so it took us a lot of time to write them individually and wait for the approval letter. But the wait is worth it," says Divyanshu.

Being a small startup, 21 fools hasn't advertized the initiative and a lot of onus is on word of mouth. More about the initiative on 21fools.