Two Idiots

Prabhkiran Singh was born and brought up in Ludhiana. His father was businessman and mother is housewife. 

After Class 10, he went to Kota for IIT coaching. He had no idea what is IIT, but went just because his friends were going. He later came to know importance of IIT, so he became serious and studied hard for it.

He got admission in IIT Mumbai, he opted for civil engineering- not the most preferred branch but he was excited because his dream was to go to Mumbai. 

1st and 2nd year completed fairly routine. Then 3rd year came the time for internship. At that time students start thinking  

"what should i do in life?" While most of batch-mates were choosing technical jobs but he was on a completely different trip. He applied to first company which came on campus “Deutsche bank” but did not get shortlisted. He decided from that day to stop applying to jobs and start something of his own.

 But he was confused where does one start? One day he came across book called “stay hungry stay foolish” in which their was a success stories of entrepreneurs from IIM Ahmedabad. Then he got inspired and then he start reading “Polyester prince (Dhirubhai Ambani’s story)” and many other inspiring books. 

First thing you need to start a business is a business idea.

He spent 3-4 months looking for killer idea. But almost anything he thought had already been done or didn’t excite him. Around that time, he travelled 2-3 train journeys. He tasted my different flavored lassi and then he caught the fancy idea. He was fascinated by "Starbucks story" and he thought he can do something similar with lassi. He convinced his best friend Himanshu Dhiman to work on this idea. But they had no idea to start and how to plan business and have no logic's.

During summer break, they raised ₹2 lakh from friends and family and with that they thought to start an outlet. Then both decided to start, Himanshu contributed (₹5000) and Prabhkiran contributed (₹3000) from their pocket money. To buy cheap mixer, blender and some utensils. They roamed up and down the streets but it was ranged high so they decided to buy with ₹2 lakh deposit. They tried to sell from IIT gate but place was reserved for hawkers who pay to BMC, so it did not work. Then they deal with newly opened cake shop whose business was yet to pick up. There was small space outside shop so they deal to pay owner ₹6000 rent. They deal to give ₹2000 advanced and said “once we start earning, we will pay you the rest” shopkeeper agreed !

They started frantic experiments on lassi and made their friends to taste and reviewed and finales the menu with 4 flavors lassi- "chocolate, strawberry, rose and grape (ice cream optional)". Stainless steel table would cost high so they improvised with old computer table and covered with sun-pac board. To make attractive they printed graphics of Punjab and lassi on sun-pac board. 

 Named their shop “Khadke Glassi”,  They did publicity with help of Facebook and mouth announcing. But at the end of 1st day they found income of just ₹1100 so Himanshu decide to quit but Prabhkiran pulled him not to quit. They where having practicals till 5 pm so they open shop only between 5 pm to 10 pm. Initially they found difficult to communicate and few back-mate did snigger, but many thought it was cool. And many people told- “hum log to bolte rehte hain, tumne kar ke dikhaya !” All that boosted them. But after few days there friends got busy and stopped coming. And income dropped. Then they were facing exams so they decided to hire someone but it wasn’t easy without any income. They thought they would continue by serving for week but did till 42 days. 

On 14 march 2010, The times of India, Mumbai edition, carried a story titled “IITian scores with Lassi bar”. Overnight khadke glassi become famous. This news reached Ludhiana in a dramatic fashion. Prabhkiran’s brother was doing MBA he got this news and he told his brother “You are useless fellows”. This parents were shocked and they scold him and told him “ is kaam keh liye bheja tha tujeh IIT ? Aur hamein khabar ahkbaar se miley ? 

If you have money, you can build big business. Otherwise, you have to build it yourself.

Prabhkiran’s dad was businessman and when rabhkiran was in school his dad had to suffered big loss and had to shut down business so his dad want him to do job. But Prabhkiran’s dad realized there was a bright side to the story. He thought “bachcha bhatak bhi sakta tha per usne kuch to seekha” Prabhkiran told his dad not to worry this is for fun he will ultimately take up a job. 

One person Siddharth Munot always come at Khadke Glassi to drink chocolate lassi. He was also in same year and same branch but different hostels. But they weren’t friends. Even Siddharth was more interested in business than job. So, he even started trying his hand at different things. Siddharth started learning to make website and realized to make money from Google Ad-sense. To do this, he set up a virtual game where prizes were awarded to visitors at random. The site was called “internetpaise.com” and it started getting traffic and it become hard to manage. He got too much mails how to participate and what are rewards and he got frustrated and shut it. He started taking physics classes at Pace Academy, near IIT coaching centre. He enjoyed and earn (₹20,000 per month). He takes 7-8 hours classes. Then he start buying domain names and he plans and projects many idea and don’t even go home at vacation.

Same time Prabhkiran’s lassi business heated up and senior from IIT like concept of Khadke glassi and agreed to invest in business. Investors gave (₹50,000) to open outlets at Galleria shopping centre. It opened at June 2010. Business was going good but in monsoon it goes down so Prabhkiran decided to take break and shut down the outlet. People discouraged them. Prabhkiran was too positive “yeh nahi, Kuch aur sahi”

Then Siddharth and Prabhkiran teamed up and started for a social initiative called "Purani jeans and T-shirt" the mission was to reach out people to donate old clothes and to sent at NGO, Goonj.

Siddharth also experimenting with a website he’d created called “bewakoof.com” there people share their bewakoofi and others can rate it. To promote this website, Siddharth had created a T-shirt which he wore on campus. Folks loved the t-shirt and wanted to know “Where can they buy it?” Then he thought this is good business and in October they (Siddharth and Prabhkiran) got into T-shirt business. Many orders came from hostels. Boys convinced one of their juniors to help out. Soon they met two IITB alumni who were in same business. They decided to join hands with them and registered a new private limited company. Partnership lasted 3 months, due to compatibility issues. It was back to square one. 

Siddharth toyed with idea of ‘online career consulting’ as a business. Siddharth work one month on his idea but within a month he backed out. 

Again Siddharth and Prabhkiran started T-shirt business. They took up two BHK flat in pawai and served from home and office. 50% orders were coming from IIT Mumbai and some friends from other college. They also started to pitching to companies. Not just T-shirts but any requirements such as bags, badges, trophies etc. They were best and lowest cost supplier in Mumbai. Company has single employee and no clear vision of funding it wasn’t easy. All there profit went towards deposit of the flat(₹1 lakh). At starting it was even hard to find money for food. 

Business improved and started generating ₹2 lakh monthly. Then they start finding investors and talked to many people but they got disappointment it was big challenge to convince the vision for youth brand. Finally, they met an IIT senior who understood and took quick decision and he was Gujarati business class he could see “idea me kuch dum hai”. Printing got started but many headache came in front for dealing.

“Inspired by JAM magazine,they started a Bewakoof magazine with funny quotes and articles but later they decided to build only through Facebook. 

In December famous Mood Indigo festival at IIT Mumbai was around so boys booked a stall for 15 days to sell Bewakoof merchandise. They were not sure about stock so they printed 300 T-shirts with 7 designs. And surprising entire stock sold out in two and half days. People loved so much they gave their number and address to deliver and also paid in advance.

Then this young entrepreneur thought to develop website so they can sell all over India (that time e-commerce was not such a craze). Finally they decide to launch with many designs. Bewakoof.com went online at 10 feb, 2012. When they started, they had sale of ₹1 lakh a month, now the monthly sale is often in excess of ₹1 crore. They hired peoples for company. 

The Bewakoof Facebook page is updated 15-20 times and share many humor including political but they got couples of warning from Facebook then they avoided religion or any topic where people easily take offence. 

On April Fool’s day, Bewakoof.com offered a small discount and they got 10 times the orders. By march 2014, Bewakoof had added a range of new products - boxer shorts, pajamas, sweatshirts and variety section for girls. Even funky phone covers and laptop skins. 

                  

Moral : Mehnat toh karna padega. Just keep doing, always motivate yourself ! Experiment more. You have to keep implementing on your ideas. Hard work pays!