In our latest interview, we spoke to yet another passionate entrepreneur Navin Prajapati to understand more about his interesting journey as an entrepreneur so far. He is the Founder & CEO at SabkaMandi. Navin has worked with corporate majors like Accenture, Colgate and Credit Suisse before founding SabkaMandi. He is also a Chartered Accountant by profession. Let’s find out more about his exciting journey and the way forward!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with him:
Tell us a little bit about yourself, your background and your journey as an entrepreneur thus far, please;
I am a small-town boy, raised in a small town near Kolkata. Being raised in such a humble background have taught me about hard work, integrity and never give up attitude. I relied on my hard work and dedication which got me through my education. I am a Chartered Accountant by profession, but always had a nag for technology. So I joined Accenture after my CA instead of getting into any big fours, with the core objective of understanding more about the implementation and integration of technology and business. After working on a similar process automation project with Credit Suisse, I joined IIM Calcutta. IIM Calcutta was a life-changing experience for me, as it taught me that even a small-town boy can transform the industry if he believes in his solution. I have been a big fan of successful businessmen who come from humble work, their story inspires me every day to contribute more and more towards my startup.
SabkaMandi started as an idea resulting from the frustration of the retailers, distributors and the sales team of companies who all felt helpless because of the inefficiency of the system. India is a unique country and when you talk about distribution networks, it has its own well-established-year-old ways of doing things. But the stakeholders have now realized that the system may work, still, the ways of doing things must be upgraded. This is where SabkaMandi comes into play.
When we talk about any industry in the country, everyone is dependent on the distribution system, with the same decades-old order taking process. While everyone wants to retain the trust of the existing system, they want an upgraded order taking mechanism.”
The idea came when I was working for Colgate on a sales role, talking to existing distributors, salesmen, retailers while also finding ways to reach out to the new retailers. I realized that the distributors and retailers want a digital solution. What people are not seeing is that the salesman is frustrated with the work that they are doing, and they feel their skills are not being utilized properly. Instead of improving their skills, they have become order taking machines. Simultaneously, they are getting more interesting and flexible offers from startups like Swiggy, Zomato etc. The skill gap created in this class of workforce is a major industry changing problem that will come to haunt many players in a distinct future. After talking to stakeholders, I realized that there must be a digital solution that gives freedom to retailers, distributors and more importantly the salesman to work more on demand generation.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
I am a huge salesman at heart, I understand businesses instantly. So, when I came out of my Bschool and I saw how the sales were happening in the industry I was shocked. But what transformed my entire stand on the distribution network was the advent of startups who are more like e-wholesalers, who are challenging the existing distribution network. See the distributors operate on a very thin profit margin and if the e-wholesalers are able to take out even 10% of their business, the business will become unfeasible, and the entire network of companies will come crashing down. Millions of people will be unemployed, lakhs of distributors will go out of business, thousands of companies will struggle to survive. How can someone let that happen if they have a potential solution with them? So, I decided to work on my solution dedicatedly and help companies to digitise their existing distribution network. We want to fight for the survival of the existing distribution network and various stakeholders associated with it, thus allowing diversification of income and long term stability of the economy.
For me life is a simple equation, you spend most of your life working, so enjoy what you do and you will have a happy and peaceful life, so I am upgrading what I love.”
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
The biggest motivation factor for me is the faces of happy users and customers. I get up every day with a sense of satisfaction that I have changed the life of a few families, few families are able to run their shop more efficiently because of SabkaMandi. There are distributors who are getting the additional business, and there is additional money for few families because of SabkaMandi. There cannot be a higher purpose than to help families survive during this challenging phase. We get up every day because we know that there are 100s of retailers who are dependent on us, we know there are 100s of distributors who are waiting for us to bring them on board and we also know that there are companies who are hoping for us to succeed and help them digitise their distribution network to support the interest of their distributors
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
Every business has risks. The biggest challenge a founder will face is the journey from idea generation, to launching it for the pilot with paying customers. It is not about the size of the payment it is about getting the first set of customers whom you can sell your vision. I started working on this idea from December 2018 onwards. B2B was a new space and a very few engineers or mentors knew what the challenges of this space are and how this can be solved. So, I did a lot of research, took help from my alum network to get in touch with the right mentors. Then I involved one of my close friends, Sourav, who I knew was excellent in building technology.
The challenging part is to build a team that may not be perfect but is the best of the lot. With my business acumen and my ability to understand technology, which I got from my earlier days of being a tech consultant, I was able to visualize the entire system and data flow. With his strength in building platforms, Sourav was able to build the platform quickly. I invested a lot of time in doing market research, talking to distributors, building my support team. And finally, in the month of July, we landed our first set of paying customers and we were ready to move ahead with the pilot launch
The entrepreneurs’ journey is very different, it is like sailing through tides on a small fishing boat, every day you have new challenges, and after every steps the challenges are completely different. The initial challenges were more into testing the product and now the challenges are more into building team, and few days from now we will have new set of challenges. But what is important is that you should have the right set of people around you who can guide you and help you go through this journey.
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
I am a man of integrity and I stay honest to my words at all cost. I don’t make commitments easily, most of the time you will hear me saying will think about it and let you know. But if I make a commitment, I will make sure I stick to it. For me, business is all about emotions. You have to know the EQ of your users and customers, you need to know their psychology and mindset. As startups are all about changing the old habits, it is very important to think emotionally and put your self in the shoes of the users/customers. As it is said to learn about your listeners before going for a speech. Similarly, it is also important to know about the users before you start building your startup. And trust me if you are connected with the users emotionally, you are on a path to make money.
It is sad that people run after valuation and fundraising before connecting with their customers or users, and they end up struggling to make money. I am a big fan of Steve Jobs, and he was the best when it comes to connecting with the users emotionally. He was way ahead of the curve as he knew what will help his customers, and he built that before us even realising that we need it. It is all about making the life easier for your customers. This is the primary role of technology, to make our life easier.”
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
First thing is to have a very strong support system. You should have a group of people, friends, mentors, advisors, experts, who can give you timely advice on how to grow. Also, mostly you need to take good care of your health. I spend one hour in the morning exercising and meditating. I have a healthy food routine and avoid junk foods as much as possible. I also read and play brain treasures to maintain my focus and improve my mental health along with physical health.
What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person?
The one strategy that I will point out is robust planning and playing scenarios in my head again and again. This keeps you 2-3 months ahead of your team. And being a CEO it keeps you prepared for the most difficult situation. Trust me the difference between the leader and the manager is clearly visible during the tough times. The managers will cry over the fact that they don’t have options and you will have to find a solution in the domain which is not your expertise just because you are the leader and everyone is looking forward to you.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Integrity & transparency – You have to be a man/woman of your word, you have to be transparent about your plans and thought process. If people are risking their careers, investors are putting money in you then you are either 100% committed or you are not committed at all.
Know your customers and users – This you would have heard multiple times, know your customers and users as much as possible, as they will support and help you grow
Plan and re-plan – Always have a detailed plan for your business, there is no harm in changing it after every day, but if you don’t have a plan or a target, you will not push your team and you will not be able to go towards a particular direction.
What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
Firstly build a strong team, you may not have a co-founder, or an operating team or a tech team, what is important is to have a strong support team.
The journey of an entrepreneur is a challenging one and it is not possible to take that on your own.
Also, focus on research and having plans, it gives you a road map which is very essential for growth.
Plus, sharpen your problem statement as much as possible. And talk to as many industry experts as possible, find out people from the startup world, industry, VC space etc who can hear you out and give you quick feedback. Having said that also be aware of people you are quick in accepting your concept, will talk about fancy things, all to take an advisory stake in your firm, be careful at every step of your journey.
What is your vision?
SabkaMandi in 4-5 years of time will digitize the entire distribution ecosystem. The ecosystem will be streamlined to such an extent that there will be a free flow of data and all important information will be available at the click of a button. This will allow everyone to take quicker and data-driven decisions. We have already started the process of hiring raw talents and creating the groundwork for expansion into other states.
Once we are present in all the pin codes of the country, it will allow companies to reduce their carbon footprint a lot. Currently, one all India FMCG company has around 5000 salesmen working for them, they travel on an average 15-20 km per day to take orders. This gives us 3.12 crore Kms per company. Now consider the fact that there are approx. 5000 FMCG companies in India, if we just consider 100 companies, it comes down to 312 crore Kms. And almost half of it is spend on only taking orders. What we want is to reduce this so that companies can only focus on demand generations and order taking becomes a completely digital process. It is a long journey ahead but what we believe is we have taken the right step towards a gigantic transformation.
According to you, how important is it to be updated with technology as per your industry sector?
The technology has become the driving force in all the industries currently and the existing players should try and change their processes along with the technology. As you know the barriers to entry in most of the sectors are coming down because of technology and if you don’t take advantage of the new technologies available in your industry, you start playing the catching up game, which is costlier than trying out something new
As the founder/CEO, what is your opinion on the current landscape of startup culture in India?
The landscape for a startup will always be challenging as it takes time to convince people to try something new. Something which has never been done before and something which is beyond their imagination. But because of the lower internet charges, people have started using the internet a lot and it has helped the startups in a dynamic way. Also, the ecosystem should be created to reduce legal compliance requirements for early-stage startups, it is a costly affair which takes a lot of time of the founders.
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