At BR, our aim is to bring to our community some of the unique and compelling stories from the startup ecosystem. As part of this endeavour, we interviewed yet another promising young entrepreneur – Pratyush Dev Phukan, for an interview with BrilliantRead. Let’s read about his journey and the way forward!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Pratyush;
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey, please;
Hello, this is Pratyush Dev Phukan. I have been into entrepreneurship from past more than 3 years now. When I was 16, I started with a small food-tech business. I used to work both as a founder and delivery man. It was working out but after 8 months my business started to deteriorate. I shut down the business to pay all the expenses. After a few months, I continued my hustle and travelled to some villages where our traditional garments are produced. This was a part of R&D. I managed to convince some people and launched my 2nd startup and again started my journey. It really did well and people came with me and we were able to generate good revenue but after successfully running it for some months I had to come to Chennai and gave the charge of my startup to some of my trusted people.
Being bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, I can’t resist myself from starting out no matter the number of failures I see. I started something in fin-tech space which ran for a few months and had to shut due to regulatory constraits. Eventually, after a lot of research, experimentations, hit & trial runs and travelling to different places and understanding the garment industry finally launched our refurbished fashion startup. Today the business is valued to be over 3.5 Crores.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
It’s because I always want to create something, have something for the people and do something for the people.
How do you find the industry/niche that you’re in?
From the everyday problems I saw with my friends getting difficulty with their choice garments, their sizes and price factor may get a good fashion sense. So I wanted to do something about this problem. So I moved to places like Tirupur, Surat to export garments which we can sell in our online eCommerce platform with customizations but didn’t work out. Then in Chennai, I talked to almost more than 50 tailors one by one to convince to work but too eventually didn’t worked out. Then I went in search of a manufacturer in Chennai and after some 5,6 searches I met my Cofounder and we finally started our Refurbished fashion startup.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
When you have big dreams in your eyes you can’t feel lazy or asleep. Every morning is a new beginning towards creating something great. Also when you have the passion, dedication towards your vision you will always wait to wake up and get to work
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
There have been many challenges in the journey. Starting from parents rejecting of doing a startup, failing in the first startup and eventually being left with Rs 30 for your living and at that time you don’t know where to go. Being going through bankruptcy to being all alone you always need to fight when you have great dreams to build and do something for the people.
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
I am an emotional person. Business needs to have emotions, not personal, obviously, but business ones like concern for quality deliverables, client satisfaction, targets & roadmaps, you planned & how you will achieve it, etc. Money is obviously the priority but I believe if your value creation process is right for others, the money will automatically come as an outcome of it.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
Learn to fight alone. Hangouts, drives and reading books, watching videos.
What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person?
In my journey so far what has helped me immensely is the lean methodology. Learning to fight alone has been a great move in my life to grow.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
There are a few and you can learn it on your way up. As long as you have a growth mindset it is not a problem and always try to work on yourself, invest in yourself and create value for yourself.
What advice would you give to someone starting out?
Just start with anything you have just start your beautiful story. Learn to take risks. Get started. If you find no one start alone you will find many in your journey many will come and join you. Always dream big that doesn’t cost you anything and always take advice from the right person. Have the faith that your go big one day
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.
