Shubhra Chadda’s chic design and intuitive business sense are behind the magnetic pull of her India-themed lifestyle brand and souvenir store, Chumbak. Read more here: https://www.outlookbusiness.com/speci...
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#Entrepreneur #Design #Business #Business #OutlookBusiness #OutlookMagazine #OutlookGroup
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NewsTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC]
00:10 Hi, I'm Shubhra, I'm a co-founder at Joomla!
00:27 [MUSIC]
00:28 Make happy is pretty much our vision statement, right?
00:32 It's what we live by.
00:34 The entire brand from the design philosophy to how we approach our
00:38 customers to how the stores are laid out or even the color palette that we choose.
00:43 Everything is done keeping that ethos in mind.
00:47 [MUSIC]
00:51 I am a Air Force kid, my dad was a fighter pilot in the Air Force.
00:56 So I pretty much changed eight schools in my life.
00:59 Every year or two years, we were in a new,
01:04 not even a city, an Air Force station.
01:08 And it was nice because it's a very mixed sort of crowd and
01:15 the kind of people you meet are very, very diverse.
01:20 The other thing about growing up was that we stayed in these smaller Air Force
01:26 stations which were back and beyond.
01:29 Literally, sometimes Vivek and I, when we talk and
01:32 we talk about movies that we read or some of the books,
01:35 I had no access to any of that, right?
01:38 So a lot of the childhood was playing outside, exploring the outdoors,
01:45 going around with my mother.
01:48 A big part of it was being exposed to the crafts.
01:52 In Pooj, we would go to villages and actually see arts,
01:58 crafts people and the shawls and I loved buying that stuff.
02:04 So it was a lot of outdoors and getting deep into India.
02:12 It was a lot of exploration.
02:13 It was hard in some parts because every two years, you were sort of
02:18 moved away from your comfort zone and put into a new place and said,
02:22 "Okay, right, now make new friends."
02:24 But I think at some point, it started becoming fun
02:29 because you're meeting new people every time,
02:32 you get to see new places and once you've experienced that,
02:37 then I think by nature, you become in some sense an explorer.
02:43 As a kid, we all sort of dream about what we want to do when we grow up.
02:53 A big part of my dream was to do something on my own.
02:59 At that point, I didn't know it meant entrepreneurship,
03:02 but I knew that I wanted to, in some sense, have my own venture.
03:07 And for me, the dream was to start something that was small, it was cozy.
03:15 I wanted to be surrounded by things that were pretty, that were arty.
03:22 Journey of Chumbak started from very early on.
03:26 So from the time I was young and the travel,
03:32 the fact that I got to see so much of India,
03:36 the fact that I got to see crafts being done by craftsmen at the ground root,
03:44 and somewhere I got inspired by that.
03:50 The fact that I did a course in B.Com with Travel and Tourism
03:55 and felt the need to promote India as a tourist destination,
04:01 the passion to travel,
04:05 all of these things were a build-up to Chumbak.
04:08 The idea for Chumbak started when I was an adult.
04:12 We had just started traveling, Vivek and I had just gotten married,
04:17 and we were beginning to travel internationally.
04:22 And every time we'd travel, we'd bring back a fringe magnet.
04:28 And one day I was just sitting on a weekend and admiring my entire collection,
04:33 and I realized that I had nothing on India.
04:36 So I'm like, "But why don't we have a fringe magnet from India?"
04:41 And so I said, "Okay, I must change this."
04:43 And I went around looking for something, but I couldn't find anything.
04:47 I mean, even the things that were available, I just felt like we could do so much better.
04:54 As an Indian, I wouldn't be proud to put this on my fridge
04:58 when there were such beautiful magnets from across the world.
05:03 So I said, "Okay, so let me start doing this."
05:07 And, you know, got the first couple of samples going,
05:13 and I thought, "This is it. I'm set. I can do this."
05:16 So I walked up to my boss and I said, "I want to start this,
05:21 and I think I want to take a break and do something on my own."
05:25 And he sort of started asking me a few questions
05:30 and nudging me towards a business plan.
05:33 Like, "So how many magnets are you going to sell?
05:37 Where are you going to sell them? Where are you going to source them?
05:40 What is your margin going to be?"
05:42 And at that point, I kind of realized that I wasn't ready for this
05:46 because I didn't have answers to a lot of his questions.
05:49 And India wasn't ready for it because the airports weren't ready.
05:54 We don't have museum shops where souvenirs can be sold.
05:59 So the distribution channel wasn't ready as yet.
06:03 When you sit down and you sit and talk to your parents
06:10 and you say, "Okay, what are the things you want to do in life
06:13 and what are absolute no's?"
06:15 So the things that came in absolute no is I hate physics.
06:19 So there is no way I'm going into engineering.
06:22 I do not want to be a doctor.
06:24 I do not want to, you know, do anything that is extra analytical.
06:32 And very early on, I knew that there was a very creative side to me,
06:39 and that needed to be part of my life.
06:41 Since those are the things I had very clearly outlined,
06:44 this option which combined BCom, a regular BCom degree
06:49 with a vocation in travel and tourism was offered by Mount Carmel.
06:53 And that's something that really excited me.
06:55 The course that I did in Mount Carmel, BCom with travel and tourism,
07:03 it was a very interesting course.
07:05 And what made it interesting is the professors we had.
07:11 You know, a lot of conversation around tourism in India.
07:16 When I passed out, I really wanted to do something in that field.
07:19 I wanted to promote India as a tourist destination.
07:25 That was my mission statement, almost like a life statement.
07:30 And that's what I wanted to set out to do.
07:34 But when I passed out and I started looking for opportunities,
07:38 I couldn't find any.
07:41 So right after college, I joined KPMG.
07:44 I joined it because the part about not working in one office or in one company,
07:54 but being exposed to many different businesses was quite exciting.
07:59 Because you are working day and night.
08:01 I mean, pretty much had a toothbrush in my bag
08:04 because I didn't know when I was coming back home.
08:06 So you build great friendships.
08:09 It was also great exposure because, you know,
08:14 someone that young interacting with very experienced people,
08:18 very senior people gives you huge exposure and also a great sense of confidence.
08:24 So those are the things that really work.
08:27 But after a couple of months of working there,
08:31 I really started questioning what I wanted to do in life.
08:37 And I realized that the core of it, the work per se,
08:44 the main work wasn't something that would make me happy doing for the rest of my life.
08:50 So the Gujarat earthquake had happened and there was an NGO in Bangalore.
08:54 They were working with the craftspeople in Gujarat.
08:57 A lot of them were displaced.
09:00 A lot of them had lost their livelihood.
09:03 So we were working with them saying, don't worry for this year, we will support you.
09:09 And at the end of it, we did an exhibition.
09:12 We brought them over to Bangalore and really gave them the income generation means
09:16 to go back to the crafts and not abandon.
09:19 So I would do that in the morning.
09:21 So then in the afternoon, I would take my bike and go to Bharatiya Vidyabhavan.
09:28 I was doing a course in PR.
09:30 Right after that, after the course, I would drive to Nirvana,
09:36 which is a production house in Bangalore.
09:40 That possibly was one of the most interesting years of my life
09:44 because I really got to explore so many different things.
09:49 But at the end of it, none of this was income generating in some sense.
09:56 And my dad had given me a time frame and said,
10:01 great that you're taking this time off, but at the end of the day,
10:05 you have to stand up on your own two feet.
10:08 And the opportunity with NetApp came about at that point.
10:13 And NetApp was starting their operations in India for the first time.
10:18 So there was a country head, there was a sales manager,
10:22 a pre-sales manager and me.
10:25 So I was pretty much, you know, doing everything else.
10:30 And it was great because again, it was a small setup.
10:34 And that's really where I learned what it takes to start a business.
10:38 The plan went on the back burner and NetApp happened.
10:46 Then I moved on to Nortel for two and a half years.
10:49 And then Samara, my daughter, was born.
10:52 So I took a break from work. I was a full-time mom for a year.
10:56 And that's when I started getting a little bit restless.
11:02 But I also knew that I wasn't ready to join a full-time job
11:08 and join the corporate world.
11:10 So Vivek and I had a talk and, you know,
11:14 we realized that now, I mean, then,
11:17 would have been a great time to start something.
11:20 And obviously I had not stopped talking about that,
11:24 about Chumbak and the idea.
11:27 And, you know, somewhere I think there was this need that
11:32 let me just get it out of my system, you know.
11:35 I don't want to live with a what-if.
11:37 When I got into it, I really got into it.
11:40 So every morning I'd wake up, you know, I'd have things to do.
11:45 You know, I'd plan my day around Samara.
11:49 But also, you know, I wanted to accomplish all of these things
11:54 and the satisfaction to tick off things that I had set out to.
11:59 So it almost became like an obsession.
12:03 At the beginning, it was just focus.
12:07 It was making a list of things, all of these.
12:11 Who, what, how, where.
12:14 And one, you know, breaking them down into different steps
12:18 and just cracking them one by one by one.
12:20 So if you start thinking about everything at one go,
12:23 it gets overwhelming.
12:25 But the minute you break down something into smaller parts
12:29 that you can accomplish,
12:31 things start looking a lot more achievable.
12:34 Overall, I mean, the encouragement was huge.
12:38 What I was unsure about was how the outside world,
12:43 the people I'd have to deal with in business,
12:46 would react to the idea and to the products.
12:50 So in that sense, I remember the first conversation I had
12:54 was with the VAT officer who came over to our house
12:58 and I was registering the company as a sole proprietorship.
13:02 He was like, "Madam, there are many women
13:06 who apply for this license
13:09 and most of the time, it doesn't work out
13:13 and it's a wasted effort from their side, from our side
13:17 and it's very disheartening to see that.
13:19 So please, you have to promise me,
13:22 at least in year one, you'll do at least 2-3 lakhs.
13:25 Then only it makes sense to put in this effort."
13:30 So I looked at Vivek and I'm like,
13:33 "I think that should be pretty manageable."
13:36 And in the first 6 months of Chumbak, we were breaking.
13:41 So I managed that.
13:44 I had a challenge in understanding
13:49 what it takes to run a business
13:51 because I was absolutely new to the retail field.
13:54 So it was a lot of information gathering,
13:58 a lot of knowledge gathering,
14:01 a lot of asking people who were doing this already
14:05 what would be the best way to do.
14:07 So we said, "India is ready for good-looking products,
14:13 mainly gifts, that one can take back and represent India."
14:17 So we said, "Okay."
14:19 So I use a phone case every day,
14:23 I use a poster, I use a coffee mug,
14:26 I wear very boring-looking boxer shorts.
14:30 How do I make all of this interesting?
14:32 How do I add design to my everyday?
14:35 From morning to night, I would map everything I used
14:39 and I would say, "How do I add design to this?"
14:43 And by design, when I add design, I add fun,
14:48 I add a smile.
14:50 So the first one and a half years,
14:53 when we were selling to other places,
14:56 it was always a little bit of a struggle
15:00 because there's limited money
15:03 and you're trying to decide, "What do I invest it in?"
15:07 Do I do five more magnets or can I do one bobble head?
15:11 Can I do that two designs of phone cases
15:14 that I really want to do
15:16 or shall I introduce cushion covers?
15:19 It was always a struggle between money and what I wanted to do.
15:23 I was very clear that I didn't want to make products
15:30 that sat on boutiques, on shelves,
15:33 and that were high-priced.
15:36 I wanted designs on everyday products
15:40 that could be used by everybody.
15:46 Even the distribution channel that I first chose was that.
15:50 A lot of it was in the airports,
15:53 it was in the crossword, the Reliance Time Out,
15:56 it was in the little design stores
16:01 that were in every city
16:04 where young people would go to find something different.
16:07 In the first year, we closed with 60 stores
16:15 that we were selling into.
16:17 The second year, we had about 110 stores.
16:21 I think that was a time when we really had a heart-to-heart
16:25 about where we wanted Chumbak to go.
16:28 So we said, "Either we can keep it small and like a design label
16:32 or we can truly make it a brand that would go places."
16:39 That's when we first started going out
16:42 and finding investors to invest into Chumbak.
16:46 The idea at that point was simple.
16:49 We wanted to do more of what we were doing.
16:52 So we wanted money to put into distribution,
16:57 we wanted to extend our product range,
17:00 and we wanted to hire a professional team.
17:04 So that's where the money went,
17:06 and Bharti Good Feed Fund,
17:09 that was our first funding once we had investors.
17:16 We really could start thinking about the product line
17:20 in a much more robust way
17:22 where you're actually thinking about the customer,
17:25 you're thinking about the experience.
17:27 At that point, slowly the vision for the company was taking shape.
17:31 We said, "It is a lifestyle brand.
17:35 It is a brand that caters to a certain TG
17:39 and who loves design,
17:41 who loves something unique,
17:43 who loves something different.
17:45 And we don't want--
17:47 It's not restricted to categories,
17:49 but it's restricted to the person and what they love.
17:54 So if our TG likes this, we will do it."
17:57 So when we first got our investment,
18:01 we started with pop-up stores across the country,
18:06 and we said we want them in high-traffic areas
18:10 where, you know, as customers go past,
18:15 something catches their attention or catches their eye,
18:19 and they come to the booth and they buy.
18:24 So a lot of the product was also in that.
18:26 So it was quite impulsive.
18:28 It was high on design.
18:30 Then slowly, you know, as the pop-up stores were growing
18:34 and we were getting a lot more new first-time customers coming in,
18:40 we felt like somewhere the brand in their mind was quite high,
18:46 but the product was--
18:49 You know, where we were servicing them was slightly lower.
18:53 So they were ready to spend more with us,
18:57 but the kind of product we were giving them was a lot cheaper.
19:00 So we said, you know, "How can we change this?"
19:04 And were we ready for a large-format store?
19:09 So we said, "Let's experiment with that."
19:12 At that point, we had just closed Series B,
19:15 and we said, you know, this would be a great time
19:18 to see how we can scale up our retail format.
19:23 So we chose this store that we're sitting in right now in 2012,
19:29 October 2012, with a large-format store here,
19:34 which had accessories and home together.
19:39 After a year of running this format,
19:43 we realized that, you know, people--
19:46 Like, in our heads, there were a lot of questions on, you know,
19:50 will people accept a higher price point?
19:53 Will people accept a new category with--
19:56 You know, what kind of PG would invest in homes?
19:59 So there were a lot of questions like that,
20:01 but our customers just took to it naturally.
20:04 I think a lot of questions around product
20:07 comes when we look at our customer.
20:10 That's really the way--
20:12 Our philosophy in deciding what the company should do.
20:15 So, you know, she's a young girl.
20:20 Yes, she has--
20:22 You know, she's probably started working for the first time.
20:25 But what she's most passionate about is her wardrobe, right?
20:31 And what she wears. I mean, that's a big part of her life.
20:34 It's a big part of her social life as well,
20:36 because a lot of conversations are around, you know,
20:40 what you're wearing, you know, where are you picking it up from, etc.
20:43 So how do we get closer to her?
20:46 In 2013, October of 2013,
20:49 we launched our first range of apparel and fashion.
20:55 So it had not only apparel, but it had, you know, jewelry,
21:00 it had footwear, it had fashion bags and wallets,
21:04 and it also had watches.
21:06 And at that point, we said,
21:08 we have now completed the entire story,
21:11 and we can truly call ourselves a lifestyle brand.
21:15 But there was one piece missing,
21:19 which we have now completed.
21:21 So April of this year, we launched our beauty.
21:25 And at this point, we have launched the personal care part of it.
21:29 So we have moisturizers, soaps,
21:33 a bit of, you know, scrubs and body butters.
21:38 But let's see, I think this is just the beginning.
21:43 Chumbak has built this reputation of being a great design company.
21:52 People recognize us for a very distinct look and sensibility.
21:59 And I'd love to take this internationally.
22:06 A lot of us have great ideas.
22:08 A lot of us feel very passionate about our ideas.
22:13 Just give it a try.
22:17 Because the last thing you want to live with is a what if.
22:21 You know, what's the worst that can happen?
22:24 It will say, it's still better than not doing it at all.
22:28 I think a lot of it depends on why you want to be an entrepreneur, right?
22:34 If you want to be an entrepreneur because you have this idea or passion,
22:38 by all means, you should go out there and do it.
22:42 Because it's not easy.
22:45 It's a lot of hard work.
22:47 It's a lot of, you know, questioning.
22:51 A lot of times where you feel like, why did I even start on this journey?
22:57 And you have to pick yourself up and do it all over again.
23:01 But if you have a true passion, you know, that passion will get you to get up in the morning and turn up again.
23:08 So the objective or the driving factor, why you want to be in entrepreneurship is the most important thing.
23:17 A big part of entrepreneurship is, it's a roller coaster.
23:23 There are going to be huge highs and equally huge lows.
23:28 How do you make sure you don't get carried away by the highs and the lows?
23:35 How do you make sure that somewhere you can stay stable, even when things are looking bad or things are looking super good, right?
23:44 So, you know, one of the things Vivek and I keep telling ourselves is we don't celebrate enough.
23:50 But I feel like that's, you know, that detachment or that idea to distance yourself from those things is what keeps you going.
24:03 Because then the highs are not super high and the lows are not super low.
24:08 You're focused on what you have to get done and the milestone keeps changing.
24:13 And you just, again, make your task list on what you need to do for the next milestone and you go after it.
24:19 [MUSIC PLAYING]
24:22 (upbeat music)