At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. As part of this endeavour, we invited Debodyuti Das Mandal for an exclusive interview with us. Debodyuti is a Serial Entrepreneur and Founder and CEO of Draupadi’s. Let’s learn more about her background, journey and advice for our community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Debodyuti:
Could you please talk us through your background and your journey?
I’m a First-generation Serial Women Entrepreneur. I was born and brought up in a middle-class family. My husband is an employee of the Reserve Bank of India. I am happily married and live in Kolkata.
I have completed my Graduation in English Hons. I have cracked Govt Job in the 1st attempt and worked in the Education Department of the West Bengal Govt. as a permanent Teacher and successfully worked there from 2013 to 2019.
But I left my secured Govt job & started my Entrepreneurial journey. I accumulated my 5 years’ savings and launched Captain X (An online Fantasy Sports Company), my 1st Start-up in 2021.
I have successfully run the operation of this High-Tech business in Bootstrap and acquired a lucrative number of user base within 1 year by applying low-cost and no-cost marketing strategies. After running it for 1 year now I stopped the operation & I am into upgrading the application with many more attractive games and trendy features. Soon, we will come back with the fantabulous and trendy version of Captain X.
Currently, I am into a food and beverages industry with a very impactful and unique concept, named Draupadi’s. In Draupadi’s, we will provide All Major Indian Regional Homely Thalis under a single roof within a pocket-friendly budget specially for Intra-state and inter-state migrants. For now, we have started with Bengali cuisine from Kolkata.
But gradually, we will introduce more regional thalis one-by-one & expand our business across the Country. We have started this since January 2023. And again, in Bootstrap and again by applying very tactful and calculative low-cost and no-cost marketing strategies Draupadi’s become profitable within 1.5 years since launching by gaining many amazing appreciation and continuous faith from the customers and achieved more than 50% repeat customers.
Now I am about to launch soon my 3rd start-up in e-commerce export. I have completed an Honorary Master’s Degree in Womanpreneurship from Grace Ladies Global Academy, USA.
I have proudly received the ‘Nation-Wide Award Under 40 2022’ in January 2022 as a Promising Entrepreneur by Business Mint, India’s Rising 50 Dynamic Femina 2023 by GlantorX and ‘East India Women Leaders’ Award by World Women Leadership Congress and EIILM, Kolkata.
NB: If you ask me a one-liner about me, I will say: I am not passionate for my work, I am OBSESSED for my work.
‘Draupadi’s’ is such a unique name; talk us through more about it, please. Our audience would also love to know what kind of problem you are solving?
First of all, as a woman, I consider the mytho-queen Draupadi as my role model. From my point of view, she was a combination of fabulous beauty, sharp intelligence and purified courage. Apart from this she was a skilled culinary artist and had vast expertise in the field of cooking. I am also a devotee of Lord Shri Krishna. So, for my food start-up, no name can be more suitable and appropriate.
Food is not a luxury, it’s a core necessity. And we all know that the impact of food affects not only our physical health but also our mental health and productivity and our work life. Moreover, home and regional food give us the feel of safety & comfortability.
India is a powerhouse of multiple regional cuisines and people who are staying outside from their state are deprived of their regional foods for a long time. Most of them (students, newly employed etc.) don’t have much time and equipment to cook their regional food by their own and can’t afford expensive regional food from different big restaurants on a daily basis, which leads to dependency on a fast-food based diet causes weight management problems, mental health issues and many other physical health issues, especially among migrant youth, `tendencies of skipping meals that leads to nutritional imbalance and non-adaptability of local foods which creates a disturbance in productivity and work life.
To solve this problem, I wanted to build Draupadi’s. Because without having proper comfort food consistently, no one can move a single inch in their life. Nowadays specially post COVID, people are desperate to go to every part of the country for their job, study and survival. In this situation, availing their authentic homely food in any state outside their region at pocket-friendly budget will be really a boon for them.
Despite the challenges, what keeps you going when things get tough?
When the time becomes tough and I face challenges, “Challenge” itself triggers me to move forward. From my point of view challenges are the powerhouse of various new lessons and every challenge is the other name of new opportunity.
So I acquire lessons from one challenge to combat and win another upcoming challenge. Apart from that, if we think differently, challenges and tough times always spice up our life, without them our life will be boredom. Isn’t it?
What are the three most important lessons you have learned in your life?
1. The whole journey from birth to death is a learning process. This learning helps us in all various fields of life even in our entrepreneurial journey. So, we should always be open towards the learning process throughout the life and acquire lessons whether it will be from the universe or it will be from an innocent toddler.
2. As I mentioned earlier that I am a devotee of Lord Krishna, so I learned from the life that we should focus only on our hard work, not on results.
3. Plan B for Plan A is not always enough. We always need to create a backup plan for the Plan B also. Most importantly we should become more than enough self-dependent so that we ourselves can become our back-up.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
> Always open towards the learning process
> Have faith in others but do not follow blindly
> Focus on your hard work, not your results.
> Always remember every problem has a solution, you just need to find the right key for the right lock.
> Become a combination of impatience and patience persons. Because, the different situation demands your different personalities. Apply the appropriate one tactfully.
What advice would you give students and young professionals who want to have a successful career?
Finding the right passion from where they receive a ‘real kick’ and be focused & determined on their passion and their goal.
Always remember, it is natural to face problems which can divert you from your goal, but it is your duty to stay focused on your dream.
Last but not least, what about your journey makes it satisfying/exciting?
An entrepreneurial journey is all about a learning process. It is really satisfying to see myself embarked on a journey which gives me knowledge, achievement, appreciation from customers, recognition and last but not the least profit.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
