$25K/Month – Building an artisanal sustainable textile e-commerce brand in India – Amit Singha of Anuprerna

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hey there entrepreneurs, my name is Sushant and welcome to TrepTalks This is a show where I interview successful e commerce entrepreneurs, business executives and thought leaders and ask them questions about their business story and also dive deep into some of the strategies and tactics that they have used to start and grow their businesses.

And today I’m really excited to welcome Amit Singha to the show. Amit is the founder of Anuprerna, which is an artisan, artisanal, sustainable textile brand. Their mission is to support and empower rural artisans, promote and preserve in East India’s traditional crafts and textile, as well as use of natural and sustainable fabric.

And today I’m going to ask Amit a few questions about his entrepreneurial journey and some of the strategies and tactics that he has used to start and grow his business. So Amit, thank you so much for joining me today at Treptalks, really appreciate and looking forward to

Amit Singha Anuprerna: speaking with you. [00:01:00] Thank you for inviting

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: me.

So you were sharing a little bit about your inspiration to get started with this business. Um, what, um, can you share a little bit about your background and how you kind of really got started? You know, what motivated you to start, um, this textile

Amit Singha Anuprerna: business? Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, as I was saying that, uh, I come from a different background, I did my engineering school.

Um, back in 2011 and then my MBA and I was working in, uh, IT sector, but focused on finance and strategy. Uh, and then this is something is very close to my heart because I have been grown up in a, you know, this rural village in Bengal, which was at once upon a time was kind of paid with artisans. Uh, you know, I have seen them while growing up, but, uh, as the statistics say that over the time that artisans kind of ceased to exist, um, due to multiple challenges, and, uh, I’ve seen my father also work [00:02:00] very closely with this industry, um, and, uh, therefore, like, uh, And at that point of time while I was working, uh, there are a couple of regulation changes were coming up from a government perspective like GST and introduced and that kind of hit a big time on the small scale kind of industries.

And so that’s one of the kind of trigger that we, you know, wanted to try something at that point of time. So I thought, why not kind of try doing something in this industry, being from MBA background, I wanted to kind of, uh, Anything is a challenge. So doing something and in an unorganized industry, organizing them.

Um, that’s what, uh, and, uh, coincidentally, that’s what I feed that lot of B2B industries are being built nowadays. Um, organizing that unorganized sector, which is very hard to kind of, uh, tackle. Uh, so that’s how we started and that’s

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: how we’re still building it. So your business, this, um, this website is. Um, as you [00:03:00] said, B to B business are you are you targeting?

Um, so can you share a little bit about who your customers are? Are they these businesses? Um, clothing retailers that you’re selling to in India? Or are you selling internationally as well?

Amit Singha Anuprerna: Yeah, so we, uh, initially when I started before the website was launched, uh, you know, by the time that I, we formed the company, uh, after a few, you know, weeks or months, I think we started this, uh, website, but, uh, initially we targeted like B2B in the sense of fashion brands.

Uh, you can see retailers and brands in India specifically more from an offline perspective and just to kind of try out whether how much demand is there and then we move to online during, I think, uh, COVID and that time, you know, 2020 end and that’s where the COVID was there and as, uh, I wanted to anyway build and as coincidentally, it was a good time to kind of, I took my time to kind of build this, uh, properly.

And, uh, then the idea was to [00:04:00] target, uh, so what I found that, uh, you You know, if you target B2B, the large scale, you know, B2B client, uh, offline, you can target, but you need a lot of working capitals because there’s a credit period and all those. So, uh, we, uh, because of our model business model, B2B actually works well, but we want to target the small and medium size B2B, uh, players, like it’s can be individual fashion designers.

Um, it can be a small spoil fashion it is, but it is across the day one is international itself. Um, uh, but we welcome everyone in the sense of the new generations kind of designers and brands in India as well. I will focus on slow fashion and sustainable, uh, fashion industry, um, across the globe. And, uh, these are primarily our, uh, kind of target customers who are digital savvy.

We’re looking for something online. Um, and it works like a D2C e commerce market, you know, a platform, but, uh, because, [00:05:00] um, we’re targeting them who are looking for bulk and the AOV, Average Order Value is a little high. So we have like customize a website from their mindset so that they can see some of the feature of the website, skipping and that kind of target segment.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. So basically you are kind of giving a platform to these, uh, rural artisans. So they’re the ones who are creating these fabrics. And are you, uh, I’m assuming you’ve built relationships with these artisans and you’re, you buy from them and then you are basically Putting those products on your website and then you’re selling it to, uh, other businesses who want these kind of products.

Is that how your business works or what is

Amit Singha Anuprerna: your business model? Yeah. So that’s, uh, what I told you is the demand side, how we were selling it. Supply is totally different. We are a manufacturer. Uh, we are not a curator. Uh, so we [00:06:00] have a manufacturing model, which is, uh, not very differentiated. I mean, there are other players out there as well.

Similar, but Um, we have a combination of centralized and decentralized. Uh, we uh, we have a centralized manufacturing unit who sows the raw materials, you know, for the fabrics, what you see, there’s a raw materials that you need. So, uh, what, uh, uh, you know, we source them and when the process them, uh, what do you ensure through that is that we source from reliable, you know, suppliers and, uh, you know, uh, vendors and like process through sustainable kind of processes.

Uh, you know, again, sourcing chemicals and few things, which is again from sustainable vendors, ensuring the certified and everything. So that, um, that is something is lacking from the artisanal production, you know, industry where they have, because of the lack of capital, they don’t have access to the finances and you know, you know, ordering form.

Reliable sources, you know, paying so much money. So that’s what we do from a, uh, centralized [00:07:00] processing perspective. And then we work with this, um, Hallum artisans across rural Bengal, primarily who are close to as well. So they are all working from their homes. So these are home based artisans who has learned the skills of weaving and art, you know, being an artisan from generations.

So they have learned from their forefathers and they have been doing it. Um, the number has been dwindling. For the last decades, a few decades, but still there’s a lot, many, and Bengal is famous for that craft. And so they are looking for employment and stable employment. Something look forward to. So we walk in at that combination.

So we kind of buy the raw materials, we give our designs, we develop our designs and it just outsourced the weaving work, which is the weaving of the textiles to them so that they are not burdened with. Uh, you know, capital allocation or, uh, you know, payment work, so they just give get consistent work and we develop with them along with them.

So whatever [00:08:00] products are produced majorly. 95 percent of them, we sometime kind of work with new clusters and new crops and try new products. Uh, but so far it’s been like that. Uh, that’s how we work on it. Manufacturing perspective. Yeah.

Track 1: And

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: these artisans there, as you said, you’re, they’re still working from their home.

So they’re, they’re not obliged to come to like a certain central factory or something like that. And, um, is the process are like, are they working? Do they have any, um, machinery or are these Products built purely by

Amit Singha Anuprerna: hand. So primarily we focus on hand. I mean, there are few machines who have like moved from hand to machine because of, I mean, over the years, I kind of came into the picture very late, but by the time there has been a transition where the artisans, you know, hand is very, uh, is very generous process and, uh, like you’ll have to put a lot of effort and unless there is a buyer who’s willing to pay for that much.

amount of money. It’s very difficult. So we [00:09:00] work with all kinds of, uh, 100 percent artisans, but we don’t, we work with, uh, primarily handmade, but few, there’s a machine as well involved and they’re all working from homes. And they, the thing is that they don’t need to travel. They don’t need to come to, you know, any facility.

So usually there’s a, there is a like, uh, a business model also already present in that kind of artisan clusters where There’ll be one agent or kind of, um, you call it the master artisans. had experience and have learned over the years. And now they kind of had like a group of artisans. So we have a connected connection through the artisans, through this martial artisan or sometime directly artisans as well.

Um, and because of our, uh, presence in the rural India, heart of rural India, we’re able to kind of connect with them through. The local transport, you know, is usually this transport, uh, you can’t like, you can’t like send by this courier and logistic companies. Sometimes you’ll have to rely on the local transport and that helps if you are located in the right place.[00:10:00]

And that’s what I do, you look, work with the people who are in a rural Bengal who have connectivity too. So they don’t have to travel anything. So they just get the work all, you know, throughout the days. And we just, uh, you know, use the connectivity to kind of connect with them. Yeah. Um,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: is there, so I’m assuming because this is all done hand, you know, by hand, uh, work.

Yeah. Um, which of course, you know, is unique work and, you know, it’s high quality products, but does that put a cap on the kind of, um, quantity that you can produce to sell on a given month or a, or, or a given year? Um, because it’s not like, uh, automated processes, like, yeah,

Amit Singha Anuprerna: through, through machinery through, I mean, in a sense that, uh, so we work in slow fashion industry, which is not a huge quantities and, uh, demand, you know, slow fashion means that the process [00:11:00] is slow.

So we always kind of disclaimer is that. Uh, it’s a handmade industry, so we don’t, can’t expect, like, it’ll be processed in within a few weeks, so it’ll take five, six weeks to kind of develop them, and that’s what our customers kind of understand and kind of, uh, trust as well. Um, yeah, so, uh, the thing is that we work with a lot of artisans, so we, we do deal with, uh, you know, large, large orders as well.

So we, uh, whenever the larger door comes, we can distribute the work to larger number of artisans. And, uh, yeah, the productivity usually is kept from an artisan level you really, but, uh, that’s what, like, there are a few crafts we work with, which it’s a very time consuming stuff. And we kind of work in a model.

We work with artisans to know the, what they feel that the right amount of, you know, uh, what is the right amount of compensation they should get for the amount of effort they’re putting in. So, yeah. And that kind of decides the pricing. So it’s very difficult to kind of have a standard pricing. So you work in a, in [00:12:00] that kind of way.

So, um, that’s what we have a very transparent kind of communication with our buyers as well.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. So, yeah, I mean, so to me, it does seem like in a way you are kind of, um, providing a platform to these artisans, even though you’re employing them. Um, but you’re basically your value add is that you are bringing, uh, bringing the products of these artisans together in one channel, like on one website, and you’re helping to market and sell that.

Um, so you, you’re definitely creating demand for them and, um, or demand for their work.

Amit Singha Anuprerna: Um, yeah, it is a sustainable element, so sustainable productions along with artisan production. So these are ethical and sustainable. That’s what we call it. So usually that’s missing from an artisan if we just curate from them because they don’t have the capacity.

That’s what you see a lot of Indian, you know, that, uh, if you see Indian garments from artisans in. Find the [00:13:00] majority ss and that’s usually artisans make and buys and create the saris and that for Indian customers. But then there, the what goes behind making the saris, nobody knows. And, uh, so what do we do is that we take over and we do only fabrics and textiles, um, for, for for the time being.

And uh, there we bring the sustainable element so that we know that what’s going on while making, because who is doing transparency and everything. So that’s where it will be.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Um, are you, are you the primary founder of this business? And, um, what kind of investment, um, go into starting, uh, this business initially?

Amit Singha Anuprerna: Yeah, so yeah, I primarily and I’m handling this business. Um, uh, so, uh, from an investment perspective, uh, so initially before starting this company, Anuprena, I was working, uh, through my father a little bit trying to understand, like, so he had a different kind of market segment, [00:14:00] Indian, Indian domestic retail.

Uh, which is a lot price price conscious and also, um, and then I slowly, I kind of started understanding and targeting different kinds of client segments and all. And I, like I say, our company incubated from my father’s, you know, whatever it was, uh, she, he was doing. Um, so from an investment perspective, uh, we didn’t have to invest a lot initially because we work in a pre order model, if you see on our website.

Where, uh, we are, um, you know, clients are happy to kind of, uh, provide pre orders for fabrics and it takes time. So we develop, we continue to develop different, uh, you know, designs and samples, uh, and launch on our product we launch on our website, but we don’t launch in a huge quantity. So we launch in a small number and people are welcome to pre order them in a large quantity and that’s why we get advanced.

So. So investment are coming primarily through the customers itself, and that’s, that’s a good investment in no debt, [00:15:00] no equity sharing. So you get Through the, um, you know, client itself and that works in a, you know, from a scalability perspective, there’s probably a gap, but we wanted to kind of try that out and see that how it works first.

And that’s how like the investment initial investment, you can say, like, okay, and there’s very little investment from a personal side.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: How do you, um, is there a demand? So can you talk a little bit about the fabrics that you’re producing? I mean, I see on your website you have, um, merino wool, you have bamboo, you have cotton, you have some different kind of silk, um, linen, um, yeah.

Can you talk a little bit about your, the products and, um, do you find there is a, the, I mean, I’m, I’m assuming some of these fabrics, uh, especially like Merino wool or linen, maybe silk, uh, probably has demand in international markets as well.

Amit Singha Anuprerna: [00:16:00] Yeah, there’s a huge demand for this kind of products. Uh, first of all, um, we, uh, so what do you see is what you’re selling about the material?

So material we did in natural fibers. And no polyester, no plastic related products, so 100 percent natural fibers. Um, so that’s why I like woven garments and woven fabrics. And, uh, so that’s from a material point of view. We started with, uh, cotton, linen, usually silks, which is like a little more. Also, the materials are more indigenous to India.

This is cotton is kind of produced in India. Few things like wool and all, usually linen is usually not, you know, produced as a raw material in India. Very important, but we have tried because there’s a demand. We have tried different kind of New product, trying to add a new kind of products like hemp, banana, bamboo is something we’re trying to kind of develop.

And usually, uh, if you get the raw materials, we are not expert in the raw material productions. We get that with our vendors and then the artisans will weave it. One more thing that we evaluate is that, um, we work with a lot [00:17:00] of hand spun, uh, uh, fibers. So which is called khadi in India, which is, uh, you know, instead of mill made cotton.

You work in handspun cotton, which is called khadi and cotton and silk. So that adds a lot of character. Uh, texture to the fabric, which is you don’t find anywhere in the world. And that’s gives obviously the employment to the hands, you know, hand spinning industry. And, uh, there’s a lot of partisan involvement in that as well.

Um, so that’s a value add. And second is that, uh, from, apart from the raw material, we work a lot of crafts that are also very indigenous to India. You own in, in, like, in, we work with being also very indigenous to Bengal itself. I can see the names of Jambani and there’s a very unique kind of craft.

There’s very famous in outside, you know, uh, in the slow fashion industry outside India also. And, uh, whenever they, so we try to, what do we do it more than the product, we try to sell the process and the people. So once you go to the, find the product, you’ll find that how it’s been made, who has made it.

You know, what is the, [00:18:00] um, socioeconomic situation in that artisan clusters where it’s been made, uh, what goes through the, you know, the craft and the process, how much time it takes so that to kind of make, uh, our clients and users aware of what is the, you know, uh, main process behind this. And that’s something is very lucrative.

I think it’s very interesting, intriguing for our clients. Um, so there’s a definite demand for this. Uh, I see like people asking for specific, even though Uh, you know, the very specific kind of Indian crafts are looking for, and that’s how people find us online.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Is there a Alibaba equivalent to kind of like a B2B marketplace in India where you kind of advertise or put your.

Business and products out there so that other, you know, it’s easy for B two B businesses who are looking for these kind of products, whether it’s India or internationally, to be able to find you, or is it completely purely driven through your website and your website [00:19:00] marketing?

Amit Singha Anuprerna: Yeah, I mean, there are a lot of.

platforms out there. Alibaba is one of them. Even Alibaba keep on asking like, I think probably 10 12 years back, probably you can ask that probably Alibaba was one of the major, you know, platform that people had to use to kind of promote because, uh, from B2B perspective, even for this kind of product as well.

Uh, and there are still uh today also there’s a lot of I think platforms out there we get approached by international B2b platform that’s coming up probably new platforms are launching and they say that you want to promote your product Uh, we have tried one or twice one thing that we I personally don’t you know Kind of believe in that there’s a lot of work out there.

I mean, for example Um, we’re not the right vendors for them, but one example would be new age platform B2B is a fair if they are, that’s, that’s one of the, you know, but they’re not in India at the moment, I guess, uh, as a vendor, they don’t accept from India, I guess, but, uh, they’re, you know, So they are a finished product.

We are [00:20:00] not into finished product as well. So that’s why otherwise finished product. There’s a lot of marketplace in India outside. Um, but from a fabric perspective, that’s not much on platform. We, I initially launched before website was Etsy. Uh, that’s actually a good platform to not for B2B from a B2C perspective to connect and see that, you know, um, it was good.

Like we, I, we have good reviews through that, which we utilize to kind of promote our platform right now. But, uh, whatever cell we are doing primarily for 95 percent of family to a platform, it is very minority. We don’t sell any other platform. We reach out to them. The connection we made to our website and then we sometimes transit clients transit through online or offline.

Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: But you don’t have any, any interest or plans into getting into like a finished product kind of a business. We do. Where are you? Okay.

Amit Singha Anuprerna: We are doing already. So our new platform is about to be launched probably in a month [00:21:00] or two. And that’s like, uh, like I’ve been working for a long time. Uh, so this is the first platform I built.

It’s fully custom made. Uh, so, um, the new platform we’re launching working with a, you know, developers, a group of developers. So that’s something we, uh, want to kind of bring the whole supply chain in from like fiber to fashion. It’s a complete thing and that’s more customizable in nature of how and it’s a different kind of, uh, features and we are launching it to test out the market.

Uh, but we already do finished product for a lot of our clients in a small quantity. Uh, again, if there are B2B, so from the textiles, people love our textiles. We develop any kind of products that you want, you know, develop. So that’s something already doing is just, you would find few products already there, but it’s not marketed, uh, at marketed that much, you know, uh, at the moment, uh, we’re trying that out.

We’ll be promoting and marketing that once we launch a new platform. Okay. So there’s a [00:22:00] speed and it’s a, uh, the convenience and speed is little lacking in the current platform that I feel, and that way, one of the reasons why I haven’t done any marketing per se. Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Um, so is this, uh, is this kind of a custom platform or are you using like some sort of, uh, um, ready made like a WordPress or something like that?

Uh, what, what, what platform, what technology is it

Amit Singha Anuprerna: made on? Custom PHP, uh, platform fully the one you are seeing it. On a framework of p h P, that’s, uh, been used. But what we’re uh, launching is like, initially I didn’t know when I started, like, and what kind of platform, new platform right now have much better idea.

So we’re launching something in Angular and, uh, spring Boot, uh, you know, uh, as a backend and I mean, uh, yeah, have been iterating for a long time. It’s taking a lot of patience, but, uh, this is a very difficult, I mean, uh, I mean, there’s not a straightforward platform that I want to do. Usually for e commerce Shopify is the best, but we have a lot of [00:23:00] features like, uh, in a sense, pre ordering, sample ordering, swatch ordering, and then customizing in terms of like, if you want to like add additional of dye or something.

So. We are launching a custom platform in that. Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. No, that makes sense. I mean, even in your current website, I would say it’s, uh, reasonably good. I mean, the user experience seems pretty Right.

Amit Singha Anuprerna: So,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: um, what is your team look like right now? Of course you have one aspect of your business where you’re employing the, uh, the artisans, but besides that, um, are you, do you have like a marketing department or, you know, someone helping you out with other aspects

Amit Singha Anuprerna: of the business?

Yeah. So we are not a very big team at the moment in a sense. Uh, we obviously, uh, artisans part of is their manufacturing part of is there. So from that point of view, we have someone, uh, who comes from Madison background, who had done textile engineering, who looks [00:24:00] after the artisan production part of it, uh, who has a, you know, uh, from either dying and processing, we have a team there, uh, who’s been headed by someone.

And this guy also had that. And the artisan production unit and like manages the whole artisan systems. And then we have another for, um, you know, a team, full team for fulfillment and QC and everything. So that’s, uh, on the ground and admin, everything is there. But apart from that, we have, uh, like, uh, a designer and a more of a merchandiser who is helping in the sense of that, um, finished products.

Um, right now it’s more minimal kind of connecting to, um, you know, buyers and, uh, asking their what the problem. So that’s something we want to automate on the website itself. Um, and a platform that we haven’t like done any lot of paid marketing, probably basic web tried and tested a little bit within India, uh, so we have a digital marketing.

Uh, like I also involved in that, like look after, I [00:25:00] have one, one or two person over that. And, uh, it’s mostly, uh, yeah, mostly this, uh, we have a lot of people in the manufacturing, uh, because we are involved in that. Um, but yeah, brand building and something to be, it’s not, we haven’t focused a lot on that.

Uh, but we do have like from a design and, and we have external, obviously, uh, the four developers are working right now. Uh, so that’s, uh, as a external agent, but, uh mm-hmm. works on leads exclusively on this. Yeah. But how,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: how do you, um, how do you, uh, what is your primary customer acquisition, uh, strategy?

How do you Uh, I mean, I’m assuming that once you have a, a, a customer that’s buying from you, I mean, it’s a long-term relationship, so I think, you know, uh, How do you go about finding these businesses? Like, are you, uh, I mean, are you doing any marketing or is it mostly like some sort of a [00:26:00] sales endeavor where you’re going on LinkedIn and contacting different businesses, uh, and sharing about your products or, or, or do they kind of when do the search on Google because your site is optimized, they can, they’re able to find and look at your

Amit Singha Anuprerna: products.

Yeah. So mostly through, so as I said, there’s a, uh, I feel that we, from the website. Performance perspective, um, mainly for my mobile, uh, performance, not that good. So I haven’t done any paid marketing, uh, initially plus is B2B. So the Instagram and paid marketing, I’ve tried Google, it works a little bit, we haven’t done much.

We’ll be doing that. Uh, and it works a lot on finished products. So once we have that done, that’s how I add boost to the marketing, you know, the, whatever it means, but so far it’s majorly been through email marketing, wasn’t the good channel and SEO, uh, fully SEO. So we have a lot of content that we release and try to kind of, and a lot of people find us through this Google search organic search and email marketing.

We have like reached out to it. Um, and there are people who have initially [00:27:00] founded us through that, like who’s the right customer segment and list. Series of like automate emails and yeah, we keep on updating and that’s what been so far. But we’re going to like, uh, uh, drive the paddle for marketing probably from next year onwards.

Um, but once we have that full fledge, uh, Offering to a platform there. Okay

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: um what in terms of competitor like Um what you’re doing, of course, it’s an interesting business model Do you find that this business model is kind of replicated by others also? In india, are they also kind of employing other artisans and having this created like do you have competition?

Uh a direct competition in in this kind of a business Yeah,

Amit Singha Anuprerna: competitions, obviously, textile and fashion as an industry, there’s a lot of competitions out there. Uh, we are very niche kind of [00:28:00] segment with artisanal textiles. Um, and we do only fabrics, you know, not any other products. So, um, from a B2B focused perspective, there are a few players who are out there.

I mean, from a small scale, there’s a lot who are regional kind of, uh, textile manufacturer, work with artisans. They go to trade fairs, you know, internationally and find customers. And what we don’t, we don’t do trade fairs much. We have probably done once or two. Um, through online focus. When we’re trying to kind of scale and build a scalable model, um, there’s only a few customers out there, a few competitors out there who are, uh, in B2B segment and we’re trying to using technology as a tool to kind of scale.

Um, yeah, but we, we are, uh, in the sense that we have the manufacturing angle of working with Bengal. So if they take off, take about. Working specifically Bengal and Bengal artisans Bengal crafts and something and using tech to kind of grow and target this onto medium customers. There’s [00:29:00] this very limited, I think, out there in that that that kind of industry.

We’re trying to create something different in the in the terms of offerings. Uh, but there are competitors right now coming up in the in the sense of using trying to take to kind of organize this There are a few very good companies that have been built in probably the last three, four years. Is there, I

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: mean, from a price point perspective, I mean, I’m not very familiar with the textile industry, but from a price point perspective, this kind of a product, because it’s hand woven and it is a little bit more niche.

Um. I’m assuming that this is more of an expensive or more costly item than like a regular textile that is built through factory machines and things like that. Um, how do you decide how to price these products?

Amit Singha Anuprerna: Yeah. So, I mean, it’s, it’s, uh, expensive than any factory made. And, [00:30:00] uh, but, uh, from a quality of the perspective, then our customer understand that, uh, it’s much more different and much more unique, uh, from a characteristic perspective, because, uh, they’re also in a way kind of selling to the end consumers.

So, uh, they’re able to convince them there’s, uh, Specifically demand for this kind of, um, uh, so, uh, how we price is mostly, as I said, that we work with artisans, what the fair price for them. So we kind of has to respect that. Uh, we, uh, you know, and when we get at the margin margin on top of that to, uh, sustain ourselves and, uh, we try to kind of keep this competitive.

So, uh, in a sense, if, if you find this kind of product, so we are B2B in that. So we want to target B2B who. Obviously won’t pay as much, you know, for, uh, because they have to kind of make the product and sell it to the end consumer and buy in the right price. So we try to make it competitive and in a way that we try to provide incentives and buy bulk quantity.

And [00:31:00] that’s why, like, we’re coming up with, like, we already have the pre order model. So pre order, you get a discount. Now we’re coming up with a new platform, entire pre ordering model. So the more you buy, the more discounted it gets. Um, you know, so that’s way we’re trying to the prices. So that gives us to ability to kind of keep manufacturing and give more employment to the artisans.

Um, the most stable, uh, work we can give with the artisans, we can make. Have a better pricing that

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: it can offer to the like? So I’m assuming that, uh, do you have like a central warehouse where all the product comes and you kind of warehouse it? Or is it more like, uh, you know, the customer orders it. You, you transfer that order to the artisans, they create it and then it’s shipped out directly to the customer.

How does, how does that, that work? Not essential.

Amit Singha Anuprerna: Fully, fully central warehousing in the sense we, we produce and process raw, we buy the raw material, we process it in our [00:32:00] central warehouse and then send it to the artisans, artisans make it and come back to the warehouse for further processing. And then we, uh, we have a lot of in stock fabrics and textiles that we store, uh, and then again, it goes to, so there are a lot of artisanal chains that are out there.

So it’s sometime depending on the product. So if you’re making probably a printed, you know, uh, hand printed shirt or something, we, if we are talking about a finished product. So that start from a bulk quantity that start from like buying the raw material as a yarn. Um, and then, uh, you know, going through the dyeing process and send it to artisans for weaving, then come to the textiles and then process and finish it.

Then I send it to a printing cluster, artisan clusters, who does the prints, and then it come back to us. Then we work with our in house and we have all the tie up with other, you know, stitching units. You can say that we make the end products. So it goes through multiple supply chain. It takes time. And that’s one of the areas we’re trying to kind of bring in a little bit of technology to kind of, um, uh, you know, consolidate and kind of, uh, [00:33:00] bring a lot more transparency and organization to the, to the kind of supply chain so that.

You can track on a real time, you can add a lot of quality, uh, you know, checks, uh, through the real time basis. And that’s something we’re trying to do as a next step. Um, but yeah, that’s how the supply chain works.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Where do you spend most of your time as, you know, someone who’s kind of managing all these things?

different processes. Of course, you know, there’s some complexity into, uh, everything where, what, what do you think about on a day to day basis as the, the, the business owner? Um, are you focusing mostly on customer acquisition? Are you focusing mostly on, you know, process improvements? Uh, are you focusing more on, you know, as you said, uh, creating the more, more of the, uh, the fashion out of the fabric kind of new product development kind of a thing.

Um, yeah, what, what, what do you focus on and what’s most

Amit Singha Anuprerna: important for you? Yeah. So I, uh, I work from Bangalore and the main [00:34:00] manufacturing offices, uh, you know, located in West Bengal. Uh, so here I have a few people who only focus on sales and marketing. Uh, and, uh, so I focus personally on sensitive marketing, obviously, uh, that part of it talking to the, you know, customers if needed to, and understanding, um, because B2B is not a huge client at the moment, so I can kind of give attention to each of the clients, the comments, and, uh, apart from that, I focus a lot on developing processes around, you know, each of the, uh, it’s can be, uh, each of the like, uh, organization, uh, functions, like HR, marketing, uh, you know, admin accounts.

operations. Uh, so trying to kind of build out processes. And then the third last part is that, uh, tech technology. So that’s something I’m very, uh, that’s something I enjoy. And I’m, uh, very closely work with a group of developers. You can say like, like of a product manager role. Although I’m not into the technology much, but I’m trying to understand and kind of [00:35:00] getting better at it.

So, uh, that’s something I work very closely as well, developing and that we’ll keep on like working on that. We’re trying to bring technology in this sector. It’s the differentiation that there are other competitors were making it, but, uh, that’s also, we’re trying to kind of use it.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: What do you think about, um, business and entrepreneurship in India now?

I mean, it seems like India is growing and there’s like, you know, there’s new blood and, you know, the new generation is kind of, uh, leading the way through technology and, you know, the new way of doing business. Um, do you see, um, India making it easy for entrepreneurs to start and grow businesses within India?

Uh, do you see more young people thinking about going, becoming, or choosing the path of entrepreneurship rather than, you [00:36:00] know, Going and finding a job, which may be relatively difficult or, um, what does, what does India look like for the young generation? I mean, I think Indian population is still relatively young, uh, from a demographic perspective.

Um, Yeah. What do you think about where India is right now in terms of, uh, how entrepreneurship is viewed and, and people having an appetite to start their own venture rather than looking for a job?

Amit Singha Anuprerna: Yeah, definitely. I mean, India is like, uh, I mean, um, when I, obviously being an entrepreneur, being in the startup ecosystem, I’m very close to kind of in that community.

And if you listen to other people out there, it’s. It is written on the wall. It’s like barely evident that India’s growth in the next 10 years is going to be absolutely something which is, uh, you know, uh, you know, from a competitive competitive to the other global. [00:37:00] Uh giants out there. It’s going to be very interesting and people are betting on india across the world and I’m part of the you know, bangalore is a very place of the startup ecosystem.

It’s the silicon valley of india and uh, And it’s it’s a lot of positive energy that you find being the young democratic, uh, you know, and A lot of entrepreneurs are born and it’s startup are blooming, blooming every day now in India. Um, obviously during COVID actually has been a lot more, uh, I think there’s a, from a startup perspective, the funding winter kind of happening for the last one and a half years, but, uh, still there’s a lot of positive energy that kind of drive you to, you know, in the path of entrepreneurship and, uh, everyone is bullish about India, how that’s growth.

And we see from a infrastructure point of view. Not, uh, like, not like realistic as an infrastructure, but from a technology as an infrastructure that’s building out there in the [00:38:00] sense of, I mean, I mean, I, I’ve just traveled to UK uh, recently. Uh, my partner kind of stayed there and, uh, uh, in the sense of, uh, use of like, uh, payment industry, u p I that has come in India and, uh, A lot more has come and the kind of facility that we get like, uh, in, in a city like Bangalore, you can do anything at home, like you get everything at home, like in the sense you don’t, um, think of anything.

And it’s just comes at home, like that kind of facility. And that’s kind of, um, and it’s what’s possible because of that, uh, API and bringing up that basic technology infrastructure that’s being built. It’s so easy. Like, I don’t know if probably I’ve heard if I’ve spoken to Indians, but, um, you know, you don’t need to carry a wallet anymore.

Bangalore is, I mean, from like, just say the street vendors was probably even beggars are asking through, you know, scan and QR and then that’s what, that’s what the scenario is in [00:39:00] India. That’s like another level because, yeah. Internet is so cheap in the sense and that’s what like Reliance has done the geo and reliance.

So they have made the cost of internet like negligible. It’s like, so in that respect, the amount of innovation is coming through internet and technology and the number of people, the 500 million people are, you know, on internet right now. So that’s, that’s absolutely, that’s something to look forward to.

That’s why, like, there’s a lot of NRIs coming back to India and a lot of from esteemed organizers. Institutions like IITs, um, you know, they are coming back from, you know, from outside and trying to develop something, being an honest man, they’ll see the growth and, uh, and I’m also very bullish about at the same time.

Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: That’s, that’s awesome. That’s, I mean, that’s, that’s great to hear for sure. I think there’s, I think there’s a lot of excitement around India outside of India as well. I think, you know, people have seen what China has done and I think now people see [00:40:00] now it’s India’s turn. Yeah. So, so yeah, there’s definitely a lot of excitement now.

Where do you, where do you see your, your business in the next 5 10 years? What are your goals for your business within the nine, you know, what is your vision for your business in the next 5 10 years?

Amit Singha Anuprerna: Yeah. So, uh, as I said that we are trying to kind of build a B2B sustainable supply chain around artisanal textiles and products.

Um, so we are trying to organize this, uh, supply chain. Uh, so right now it’s only focused on one category and a few artisans that we’re working with, but we want to kind of… Um, you stick to kind of, uh, consolidated the supply chain and provide from fiber to fashion everything in that, uh, you know, uh, supply chain.

And, uh, that’s what, uh, I’m trying to build at the next step. Uh, and we’re trying to create a platform where, um, uh, obviously with artisans and this Indian craft as a core, we want to grow, but also want to utilize [00:41:00] a lot of collaborations model where working with, uh, designers. across the world to collaborate and launch new products through our platform.

We want to, uh, create products inspired from, um, inspired from like artists and, uh, you know, painters and musicians or something. So that’s something I personally want to develop. So that’s what, uh, something I’m trying to create a different kind of model of. Creating products and launching products, uh, with that artisans at the core.

Um, so, uh, but, uh, this is something again, a new MVP for, for me, in the sense of for us, in the sense of how the customers respond. So, uh, I’m really looking forward to the next phase, which is going to start very soon. Um, so far it’s been a, uh, it’s a good profitable journey, but it’s been slow, but we want to kind of scale from for.

Yeah,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: in every entrepreneur’s [00:42:00] journey, there’s always mistakes made, lessons learned, failures. What have been some of your kind of lessons learned through your own entrepreneurship journey? Have you made any big mistakes and, uh, or learned some lessons that you can share with the next generation of

Amit Singha Anuprerna: entrepreneurs?

Yeah, so, uh, I mean, there’s a lot to learn. I know this day zero only. It feels like there’s so much thing going on. Um, I mean, one thing I enjoy, obviously, not just, uh, as a entrepreneur, as in the startup ecosystem, I love to kind of understand and what’s happening in every industry. And, uh, yeah, so that’s what, uh, I really love.

And from a mistake perspective, obviously you need a lot of patience and, um, that’s because it takes time to kind of build something, uh, unless you are fully focused on it from the start, unless you have a background or some, uh, people look up to, or you are in that ecosystem from the start, uh, my.[00:43:00]

Entrepreneurship journey, although I initially started the business was not thinking of building a startup, but now I’m thinking and I’m getting into that ecosystem of startups and founders and entrepreneurs who are like building and scaling in a large, you know, creating larger impact. So, yeah, so that’s something I keep on kind of learning and I keep trying to keep in the ecosystem kind of get motivated from.

Um. One, one, uh, advice that I, I like, uh, have learned from, uh, and I’ve heard from actually is I’m trying to kind of ingrain in my daily routine is like focusing on one person improvement in your daily kind of work. So don’t think about what is going to happen in. You know, five, 10 years, that’s something you have no control of.

Mm-hmm. But if you can do one person improvement, that can mean anything. If you do a small thing, which probably might look like it’s nothing, but if you can focus on one person improvement from that perspective, and I’ve heard some of the founders, you know, and , [00:44:00] they think of that, uh, that actually helps.

And that’s something, yeah. You’ll feel like, it’ll feel like it’s somehow like end up creating a result. Obviously. It, it’ll see the results somehow. It’s not directly correlated, but it helps. Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, I think small little incremental improvements over time can really add up and, and I mean, even little things like, you know, if you make some little change in your customer service process, and that gives a better experience to the customer.

I mean, that changes small, but over time, I think that can really lead to a good experience for the customer. So yeah, I think that’s, that’s great advice. Um, Now I’m going to move on to our rapid fire segment in this segment. I’m going to ask you a few questions, quick questions, and you have to answer them maybe in a couple of words or a sentence or so.

Uh, one, one book recommendation for entrepreneurs

Amit Singha Anuprerna: and why? Yeah. So, um, I was not in the habit of reading a lot of books. Uh, but, uh, right now I’m reading a couple of books, but one book that I really love it all [00:45:00] loon shots. Um, I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard of it, but, uh, it’s by an author, which, um, it’s called, um, it’s called Sapi Baikal.

I’m not sure, but he, he’s a very unique author who had, was a physicist, then went to McKinsey and then launched his biotechnology company or something. So he talks about, um, he talks about loan sorts in the terms of how that crazy ideas or like, um, crazy ideas, which only foster in a, in a, in a different kind of environment, which, uh, you know, doesn’t thrive in a larger organization.

Uh, which helps you to win where your diseases, they talked about health segment, you know, country war science is a lot of, so that, that book, I really love it. And I recommend to people, uh,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: uh, an innovative product or idea in the current e commerce retail or tech landscape that you feel excited about.

Amit Singha Anuprerna: Yeah. So one thing I think already spoke about is that Indian tech [00:46:00] infrastructure that’s coming up, obviously that you pay, I told you, uh, which is about the payment. And another thing that’s coming up is Wayne DC, uh, which I’m not sure if you’ve heard of the open network, uh, uh, this implies, uh, commerce.

So that’s actually democratized, democratizing, uh, payments commerce and everything. So probably that’s one of the, this very unique to India and that’s, uh, haven’t happened. If it’s not copied from anywhere else. Um, uh, so, uh, probably, uh, so I’ll talk a little bit about when they say in the sensor you pay is you probably know that that’s something a open source, uh, payment infrastructure, everyone can come up, you know, uh, join in.

So as a, uh, payment, uh, banks and like receiver, give her a beyonce, then it’s free. And if you’re going to be using it, there’s a number of the volumes is happening is like, uh, astronomical. Uh, similarly when we see that’s being in a more of a testing phase, but there’s something where uh, You don’t need to rely on amazon and flipkart.[00:47:00]

Uh, you know big big players for commerce anymore So this is anyone can join. This is like open source, uh system where um Um, you, uh, as a seller can join in any platform. So you can set it as a joint in Amazon and people can buy from, you know, some other platform, you know, uh, so, and the logistics is not has to be driven by Amazon, but it can be any place.

A logistic player can join individually, sellers can join individually, even a normal kid and ask or can join and sell in a, you know, pay team or, uh, you know, so that’s an open system like networks. And that’s what’s happening in India. Yeah. Yeah. And that’s, there’s a lot of new tech that’s coming in and the launch of Aadhaar and everything.

Um, yeah, that’s, that’s, I’m really kind of intrigued by what’s happening in an infrastructure format, you know, what’s happening in the tech ecosystem.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: The name that you said for that second thing, can you repeat

Amit Singha Anuprerna: that? O N D C. O N D C. Oh, and DC. Okay. Yeah. It’s, it’s, it’s something, yeah. It’s a new thing that’s coming up and it’s [00:48:00] still in a small state stage.

Uh, it’s getting, you know, it, it’ll kind of, uh, like everyone has to be, it’s a Democrat in everyone. You won’t get like, um, being a, from Amazon or Amazon won’t get like added kind of features. You know, a small kid in a store will have the same power as a mother, you know,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I’m going to, I’m going to check that out.

Yeah, for sure. Um, a business or productivity tool or software that you would recommend or a productivity

Amit Singha Anuprerna: tip? Yeah. So from a tool perspective, I recently kind of came up with notion, uh, from productivity and I really love it in the sense of how you can use it to, uh, you know, document your processes and, uh, you know, work with the team.

So, yeah, I mean, the newest tools coming up, uh, notion, I’ll recommend definitely everyone. I mean, it works in every industry, I guess.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: A startup or business. Um, in e commerce, retail or technology that you think is currently doing

Amit Singha Anuprerna: great things. [00:49:00] Yeah. So one startup, uh, in my industry, so we’re talking about competitors, I, uh, I mean, so only one startup that has like scaled astronomically in textile industry in natural fibers is, uh, it’s called Reshamandi, uh, is based out of Bangalore itself.

They have grown to 2, 000 per revenue in three years. That’s something I don’t know how in textiles and they’re using tech to, uh, organize the whole textile fiber ecosystem from farming. So from the farmers who like produces to the end fashion and they are like getting into everywhere and they’ve done it in three years, brilliant company that I also look up to.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Um, one networking tip for building and sustaining valuable professional

Amit Singha Anuprerna: relationships. Yeah. I mean, uh, you need to find a smarter people who [00:50:00] are smarter than you and you need to find the right ecosystem. So, uh, I mean, it’s, it’s happened organically. If you start finding them, looking out for them and it happened in Bangalore, I’m part of a couple of, uh, you know, ecosystems, uh, online and, uh, in offline also, I keep kind of getting into.

So, uh, finding these people who was a set of founders and, uh, you know, even investors and everything. Um, so that. If you keep finding them, you’ll find a stumble upon a lot of tight ecosystem. So I am part of this social entrepreneurship ecosystem and the startup ecosystem in India. So you can easily find them.

I think there’s a groups everywhere. Okay.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Final, final question. Um, best business advice that you ever received or you would give to other

Amit Singha Anuprerna: entrepreneurs? Yeah, I tried the same thing. I think what I said to you is one person improvement that actually working for me a lot, because I need a lot of patients.

Sometimes you will kind of lose patients that I don’t know where [00:51:00] it’s going and what, how long because I also have been, you know, having a lot of patients kind of working on a new platform and taking a lot of time but it’s just they have to go on like you have to focus on the small improvement.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Well, uh, I mean, thank you so much. Those were all the questions that I had. Thank you so much for sharing your story, uh, for sharing your entrepreneurship story and also, you know, the ways you’re kind of, uh, helping your business grow. Um, if anybody wants to find you or get in touch with you, what’s the best way to do that?

Amit Singha Anuprerna: I think LinkedIn.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Well, thank you, Amit. Thank you so much for joining me today at TrepTalks and sharing your story. Really appreciate it and wish you all the very best in your future business plans. So thanks again and wish you all the best.

Amit Singha Anuprerna: Thank you so much. Thank you, Sushant. It was an honor to be here and speak to you.

Thank you.