Hatchfactory gives women the wings to fly, assists them in becoming entrepreneurs
Believe it or not, when it comes to entrepreneurship, there is a behavior pattern across genders. According to industry experts, while men are keen to invest in high volume money transaction business like the hospitality sector, real estate, adventure tourism etc, women are keener to start up in the field of designer products in an area which interests them.
It is said that there is a thin line between entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs. So in 2013, Cherian Joseph tailored a business model to enable entrepreneurs and their aspiring counterparts bridge this gap. With a background in business consultancy at a multinational company for seven years, Cherian started Hatchfactory.
“It was the inherent desire for people to start up that made me sit up and take note. I came across innumerable people, both men and women, to want to start an independent venture and we thought of giving them this platform,” says Cherian, Founder and CEO of Hatchfactory.
The promising platform
This venture was particularly interested in taking forward the entrepreneurial talents of women in the field of art, design and fashion.Therefore it introduced a first-of-its-kind women E-Commerce entrepreneurship herCALL in 2014. A unique sustainable business model in the e-commerce space of designer products, this solution is meant to cater to the needs of two sets of audiences.
First, people who are already product owners. They would have started their entrepreneurial journey in the designer product industry. The second set are the aspiring online retailers, women keen to embark on their journey of entrepreneurship.
Hatchfactory provides independent branded E-Commerce stores for product owners as well as aspiring entrepreneurs with all professional features. In this, product owners get unlimited online retailers as their extended selling arm and aspiring entrepreneurs get unlimited designer products which are virtually sourced and ready to sell in their E-Commerce stores.
“Our team manages the entire IT infrastructure, eStore management, product updates, logistics, payments, customer support and backend operations,” says Cherian.
The name of the venture
Interestingly, the name Hatchfactory has an interesting genesis. One can ‘hatch’ their business and convert it in a’ factory’ mode of operational sustainability.
Incubated and launched at Startup Village in Cochin, Kerala, Hatchfactory created success stories of women entrepreneurs in India and UAE.
CEO of Startup Village Pranav Kumar said in an earlier interview that Hatchfactory is a unique approach towards women entrepreneurship to create a pipeline of entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs which makes the entire ecosystem sustainable by itself.
The brand apparel, Vismay, recently has extended their partnership towards this noble cause of social entrepreneurship. Hatchfactory has a dream – to create 500 women entrepreneurs in the ongoing financial year.
Women beneficiaries so far
Hatchfactory took off in full form in September last year and there has been no looking back thereafter. Right now they have 17 women members onboard who have subscribed to an annual membership. If they are satisfied with the results and want to continue, they can renew their membership model after the first year.
“The idea is to help these entrepreneurs with the background support enabling them to concentrate on the sales part. We want to put them into a profit-making mode,” says Cherian adding that women apparel and fashion accessories are the fast moving products, with Indian ethnic apparels being the most preferred product. The idea is to give them a readymade platform by clearing the various bottlenecks in starting up in the Indian scenario and giving them freedom to concentrate on the sales part.
“By the end of the year, they would have got a fair understanding of the startup ecosystem and then can decide on the future course of action. The other advantage is that the inventory keeps changing every month, so that their stock looks fresh always,” says Cherian.
