4th Generation Startup
My journey started when I left Chennai and came to Hyderabad. It was a chance to learn new things from different people. I had just completed my B.Com but wanted to study further instead of taking up a job. My parents supported me in my decision. This gave me the confidence to join a B-School.
I started my MBA course in Hyderabad. Since I always liked trying different things, I thought of using an old business plan and try scaling it up with the use of new techniques. I tried implementing the marketing and sales techniques taught in our classes.
The business that I started was IBS T-shirt and Hoodies. T-shirt business was the most common business idea colleges. My business model was simple. To create a brand, sell the product and generate revenue. The target group was students.
This venture was a good use of the strategies we learnt in classes and gave us a practical view of the theory taught to us Startup was started to implement the class room lectures. It also was an everyday learning process of the nitty gritties of handling a business.
We started marketing on social media. It got us good visibility. Word of mouth promotion and loyalty bookings also helped us keep our margins. My Partner and i used to sell these T-shirts through various channels. It was our experiments of testing all the ways we could get maximum reach and visibility.
The graph of our knowledge kept increasing with every transaction that we made. We found out different platforms to promote our products. Some of them were G-mail, Whatsapp, Facebook and Instagram.
Offline marketing was tougher but a very enriching experience. We used to meet various communities. During this period the clubs and activities were a major boon as we could reach a group of like minded people easily.
We were able to get a good amount of orders and we manages to sell our products to 1000+ students in the span of 6 to 8 months. It was truly amazing to see how our efforts had paid off.
Official handover from 2nd to 3rd generation with mentor - Jojo Mathew George .
This was a venture that i wanted to pass down to my juniors. For us the first and second generation it was not to make money but for the experience in creating a brand. How to use knowledge we learnt and implement them in practical situations.The money that we earned was just a cherry on the ice-cream sundae.
Handover - 3rd Generation to 4th Generation
After the hand over to the third generation, things changed. The market that they got in their hands was a situation completely different from ours. Although they didn't have the struggle to establish the product, they had growing competition in the market. Their challenge was to make the brand stand out and keep its head above the rest of the ventures.
Payments - Cash vs Paytm
Digitizing of the product was the focus when the 4th generation took up the venture. They automated payment options so now that even though students didn’t have money in their wallets, they could use Paytm to make payments.
As for me, I got a job in a startup company called Xanadu Realty. I enjoy the work I do here. I still carry the lessons I learnt in my little business in college and they help me a lot and today I feel “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” –Steve Jobs.
