Accidental Startup: How this young duo stumbled upon the logistics need of small businesses and turned it into a business opportunity

“If you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

This famous line by Paulo Coelho finds its relevance in the human spirit to overturn the mountains in order to achieve what has been desired. Perhaps, more than anyone else, it fits in perfectly with the indomitable passion of an entrepreneur. For Ayaan Hazarika, however, the universe started to conspire months before he realized his calling. A student of Jamia Millia Islamia, Ayaan had decided to go back to New Delhi following his sojourn in his hometown Guwahati earlier in 2020. But as fate would have it, the outbreak of COVID-19 had forced him to change his plans. And while he stayed back, Ayaan was in a dilemma about his future course of action. After completing an internship at Assam Startup in January 2020, starting something of his own did occupy a spot in his mind. But he was yet to get hit by that Aha Moment until October 2020.

Ayaan’s close friend, Jakiyyah Ahmed, who had also interned at Assam Startup, was facing a challenge in delivering her home-baked cakes to the customers cost-efficiently. That’s when she approached Ayaan with a proposal to tie-up with her as a delivery partner. It was on Jakiyyah’s suggestion that Ayaan decided to give it a serious thought. He shared the idea with Subrota Chetia, who didn’t waste any time in jumping on-board for commercialising the idea. That was the inception of QuickDel – a logistics startup catering to the small and home businesses, especially the home bakers.

It was again Jakiyyah’s network of home bakers that helped QuickDel gain the initial traction. The enthusiastic response of the home bakers opened the founders’ eyes to a need that wasn’t tapped by anyone hitherto. The fact that the home-based hyperlocal businesses cater to a good number of daily orders bring them face-to-face with the need for hiring manpower and vehicles for last mile delivery. Since it thrusted on them an additional burden of meeting a substantial expense, often pushed these home business owners at wits’ end, especially given that most of them are running their ventures singlehandedly without a team. QuickDel comes as a whiff of respite for them, taking complete care of the logistics at an affordable price.

Bolstered by the response, the founders started connecting with home chefs and bakers on social media, acquainting them about their services. Since then, the clientele has only increased. The story flabbergasts all the more when Ayaan informs that they had invested only Rs. 500 to start, which was mostly spent in designing the promotional materials.

Ayaan and Subrota started with a single delivery personnel. Today, they have six delivery personnel working with them on a commission basis.

The startup has further extended its services to facilitating pick and drop of groceries for households. Customers can simply place their orders with QuickDel, which, in turn, purchases the items from the nearby grocery stores and delivers those right at the doorstep. The startup is currently focussing on delivering daily essentials, COVID meals, as well as COVID essentials like oximeters and sanitizers at reduced prices all around the city.

With around 65% of the home bakers in Guwahati availing delivery services from QuickDel, it is definite that the accidental startup has meticulously succeeded in driving the MVP. It’s now awaited to watch how the startup fares from here. Ayaan is candid in his communication about the need for business guidance and handholding from the mentors to push the venture to its optimum potential.

The founders stumbled upon an opportunity and blew life into it by efficiently addressing the need. From here they can only take it further with a meticulously chalked out business model and, perhaps, with sensibly leveraging technology for a smoothened process and greater reach. And the good news is that Ayaan and Subrota are confident and determined to carve their own niche by dint of the qualities exclusive to them.

“We take one look at Elon Musk, hear him talk and think we can never be like him. That we don’t have the qualities that make an Elon Musk or any of the renowned entrepreneurs. But what we don’t understand is that we don’t have to have what they have. We all have our own qualities, our own ideas, making us unique in our own ways, and hence, uniquely capable of achieving wonderful things in life,” the founding duo concludes.

When two young problem solvers are this passionate about the journey, the universe is conspiring perfectly smart to help them book a lavish space among the inexhaustible list of entrepreneurs in the years to come.

Startup rising in Assam, it’s Challenges, and the role of Assam Startup

03SepSeptember 10, 2020 By startupassam

In 2017, when the Department of Industries and Commerce, Government of Assam, picked up the baton to formulate the Assam Startup Policy, its topmost priority was to find a strong and long-term solution to a critical problem of the state – Unemployment. The Assam Startup initiative is the result of imperative brainstorming to develop a model for self-sustenance wherein the youths are empowered to write their own destiny rather than depending on the corporates or even the government to determine their career graph. Imagine if we have a thousand number of youths turning into successful entrepreneurs over a span of 5 years, how many job avenues will they be able to create for a thousand others! But this cannot happen in a single day, a month, or, for that matter, even a year. It’s crucial to overcome some deep-rooted challenges if the dream of an entrepreneurial revolution in Assam has to be realized.

The first and most crucial challenge is Mindset. Ask about one’s notion of an ideal career and most of them will say, ‘I want a job that assures security and a decent salary.’ Entrepreneurship, on the other hand, is about a die-hard passion to take risks in order to achieve impossible milestones. On the contrary, we are mostly averse to taking risks. In fact, risk-taking is often considered a wild vice. But let’s not blame anyone for this. It’s a mindset intrinsic to our upbringing. Most of us have grown up believing in ‘getting settled’ with a decent job for survival. Why take risks and walk extra miles when life could be easy and stakes secured by bagging a decent job? In order to convince ourselves that we are far more capable than being mere survivors is something that would take time, awareness drives, and a few success stories from the local ecosystem.

Talking about success stories, these stories must, very importantly, reflect the kind of impact that they are making in society. Profit-making is just one part of it. For instance, the story of a common man with a degree from India’s top management institute, dismissing offers of executive-level jobs to make homecoming and hit the fields of rural Assam to start a community farming project. Immediately the focus diverts from the amount of money and comfort he missed from a possible high profile corporate job to the amount of good he has done to the community of farmers of his home state. Imagine the magnitude of respect he commands through his efforts and the impact that he creates. Let’s also understand here that apart from security, another very important element attached to a job or career in this part of the world is Respect. Most of us want our children to grow up to be doctors, engineers, professors, or maybe someone holding a coveted position in the administration. This desire does not just emerge from the income considerations, but equally from the kind of respect that these professions command. As such, it becomes important to convey to the people that entrepreneurs do not only make profits but also command an immense amount of respect because of the positive changes that they bring in society and to the economy as bold and ethical leaders. When we talk about changing mindsets, change must be brought, both, in the youths to try and tread the path of entrepreneurship, as well as in their parents to support the decision to take up entrepreneurship. And this can come through extensive awareness campaigns across the length and breadth of the state.

However, even if one has finally realized the amount of money and respect that entrepreneurship can bring, he/she might still pat an argument: “Business isn’t in our blood.” It’s very common among us to say that business comes naturally to someone in Gujarat or Rajasthan, but not to us, with a few exceptions. Perhaps, what they see as a genetic construction is, in reality, a lack of exposure. This brings us to the second challenge: Exposure. One will remain unsure and scared about a thing as long as he isn’t exposed to it.

Talking about the importance of innovative thinking and problem-solving skills for successful entrepreneurship is easy. But the question is how to imbibe the skills when one isn’t exposed to these? In order to stop playing safe and start taking risks without fear of failure, the need is to get exposed to a challenging environment where brilliant risk-takers are playing smart gambles to successfully resolve problems through innovative thinking.

In this part of the world, even if someone thinks of a startup idea, he would, most possibly, bury it within himself without realizing the possibilities of building his idea into a profitable, scalable, and sustainable business venture. Cut to a city like Bangalore, Mumbai, or Delhi, a youth deciphers the commercial viability of an idea as soon as it hits him. He isn’t scared to shape his idea into a business because he is completely familiar with startups and entrepreneurship. He has seen people discussing startups and businesses at the coffee table. He is in sync with the entrepreneurial environment. It is this kind of exposure and familiarity to entrepreneurship that we are wanting in.

Need has been felt for creating a buzzword among the people of Assam about startup and entrepreneurship. The way North East India feels at home with music and guitar, a startup trend needs to be created with a supportive ecosystem so that the youth feels at home with startup and entrepreneurship as well.

However, even if one has the required mindset, it all comes down to being null without the knowledge of doing business. Lack of Business Knowledge is the third challenge typically faced in Assam. As mentioned earlier, being more of a job-oriented community, our interests as well as the academic curriculum are focused more on job-based subjects than on entrepreneurship courses. We must understand that while passion and risk-taking are entrepreneurial virtues, it will end up like a mighty bedlam without strong and levelheaded knowledge of the business. That’s one of the fundamental reasons why a lot of brilliant ideas die down in Assam without making any noise.

It was this understanding that propelled the launch of Assam’s first state-owned incubation centre, The Nest, wherein brilliant ideas are given suitable directions for their best possible execution. Fledgling startups are made aware of the best practices and thoroughly mentored about what to do with an idea and how to develop it into a suitable business model. The IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, having years of experience in building startup ecosystems, especially in the East and North-East India, has been entrusted with the responsibility of implementing the initiative by the Government of Assam. India’s premium institution is vested to impart the much-needed business knowledge, provide intensive mentoring and handholding to the startups so that they end up with the required knowledge and confidence to fly high after graduating from the incubation centre.

With over 5000 young innovators and fledgling entrepreneurs currently toiling in the state to realize their entrepreneurial dreams, the seeds have surely been sown for raising a fertile entrepreneurial landscape in Assam. It’s now up to the ecosystem developers to nurture these young entrepreneurs, support them with adequate resources and infrastructure, and fortify them with sound business know-how and confidence to create local heroes out of them. The good news is that the process has already begun. A unified community of passionate people is emerging gradually that sees entrepreneurship as the common answer to the variegated problems in the state and shares the common goal of seeing Assam emerge as one of the top ecosystems in the country.

While Assam Startup has been conspicuous by its leadership role in creating a startup movement in Assam, perhaps, the emerging startup rising in Assam would fall short of the desired outcome without full-fledged participation from the stakeholders and expert contributions from other key industries, especially the ones working with startups, entrepreneurs, and MSMEs. Activation of EDCs incubation centres in various academic institutions in the state project an encouraging trend in this regard. Premium institutions like the Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE), STPI, Guwahati Biotechnology Park, and Technology Incubation Centre (IIT Guwahati) are sharing the baton along with Assam Startup in encouraging entrepreneurship, scouting for promising startups and innovators, and helping them with resource and research infrastructure for product development and reaching entrepreneurial goals.

By Satarupa Mishra

Startup from Assam finds premium homes for tenants without brokerage

24FebFebruary 24, 2020 By startupassam

4 years back when Jigyan Deep Kalita founded bharaghor.com under Stackcell Technologies, he didn’t have a business blueprint in hand. It’s a non-profit website without a revenue model, connecting property owners to the tenants. The plan was to create a database around which a concrete business model could be worked upon. The quirky data gathering idea yielded perks in the form of humongous traffic generation and gaining people’s trust. Today, the website has 1500 enlisted properties, with 900 registered house owners, and boasting a traffic of 10, 000 visitors every month. This phenomenal response to bharghor.com marked the stepping stone for founding NHomes.

Having smartly identified the market need for a comfortable house to stay, Jigyan started working on the model around a brokerage-free principle. The idea was to find well furnished houses to the tenants without charging a fee from them. In the process, he developed a model targeting property owners and offering hassle-free property management services.

NHomes takes properties on lease for 11 months, finds suitable tenants, and takes complete charge of maintenance.

“NHomes is a management company looking after the properties of the house owners,” Jigyan summarizes.

They sign an authorisation agreement with the property owners for subleasing the house and immediately take charge to find apposite tenants. The pre-onboarding process involves thorough background checking of the prospective tenant, police verification and documentation, followed by a formal meeting between the property owner and the tenant. The startup takes care to spruce up the property with basic amenities before the tenants are given final access to the house.

In case of any repair issue during mid-stay, the startup bears complete responsibility of tending to the issues through their registered vendors at various localities of Guwahati.

“As a house owner, you are relieved of all the responsibilities. On the first day of every month, you have the rent amount in hand. And the rest is taken care of by us,” explains Jigyan.

“It’s a win-win deal for both the parties. The tenant gets a well-maintained service apartment without paying any additional amount as brokerage. The house owner gets the rent on time without worrying about maintenance or the hassles of finding a suitable tenant,” Jigyan further adds.

Understandably, the startup has set a benchmark for property selection. They have an uncompromising standard test to ensure best properties for tenants. That’s one reason why they exclusively target premium apartments with base rent starting at Rs. 15, 000.

NHomes offers both unfurnished and furnished houses. The furnished variety comes with a customized deal wherein the tenant can choose from a list of furnishing items for a cost fixed against each.
The startup does not accommodate short-term stays. They have fixed a minimum lock-in period of 6 months, failing which the tenants must pay a penalty amount.

Since the launch in 2018, NHomes has onboarded 45 properties in Guwahati. The number is increasing by 5 every day.

Despite an encouraging response, the startup has had its own set of challenges. One of the biggest challenges has been tenant verification and sieving the fair parties from the frauds. Jigyan calls the instance of a decent-looking tenant party, who, on deeper investigation, was found out to be a serial conman.

However, the most critical challenge was to see through the initial days with crunch capital until becoming a profitable venture. Jigyan had raised a seed fund of Rs. 10 lakh from a local angel investor, a major portion of which was expended in setting up the office and paying salaries. The urgency to become profitable was a task.

“Our initial focus was on surviving for the first 5 years, come what may. I had spent 4 years planning for my startup. There was no way I would have let it go waste,” the founder says.

An IT engineer by profession, Jigyan believes in the effectiveness of setting short-term goals and taking one step at a time. That’s one major factor that keeps him from scaling up at the moment. His present focus is on leveraging and consolidating technology in order to set the process right. Jigyan is, currently, working on developing a prototype app that would help streamline the process.

In a world of multifarious business mantras, Jigyan swears by the time-tested rule – Customer satisfaction grows the business. “To begin with, it’s better to focus on a small customer base and spoil them with the best of services, making them come back every time and even bring new clients. And for this to happen, I have to set up an infallible, user-friendly technology platform to ensure smoother interactions and quick services for our clients.”

Jigyan’s goal for the next 2 years is to get 250 properties in Guwahati on board and then scale up. He is also contemplating on building a B2B model, targeting corporate, banks, and insurance companies.
A no-brokerage model that blows fresh air into the regular property management business, NHomes shows excellent potential to mark its presence across the country. But, as Jigyan says, ‘the priority is to strengthen the base with dependable technology; scalability won’t be a problem.’

A fundraising at this stage is crucial to developing the technology platform. The startup will soon be sanctioned the monetary remunerations it had applied for under the My Assam Startup ID (MASI) by the Government of Assam. Jigyan is also in discussion with the investors, which is expected to convert into the necessitated investment very soon.

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By: Satarupa Mishra

Honing a Problem-Solving Mindset

30Jan By startupassam

A photograph recently made rounds on social media of a few kids carving out a carrom board in mud and playing to the heart’s content. Cut to the usual scene in households, the child aggressively holds out against the parents who refuse to buy them a board game. This isn’t confined to the kids alone. How often do we see people around us whining over a problem? When was the last time we thought of working out a solution to a problem than cribbing about it?

Problem-solving attitude isn’t a mere leaf out of a Psychology textbook. It’s a life skill that accelerates success chances for individuals and enhances the overall quality of life in a society. It’s a problem-solving mindset that leads to world-changing innovations. For avid readers, imagine the world if Johannes Gutenberg did not work on the constraints of woodblock printing and invented printing press, enabling mass production of books!

The usual tendency, especially in this part of the world, is to feel victim to the problems without realizing our intrinsic contribution to it. The fact that one raises a cry over a problem than doing something to resolve it further adds to the woes. Smartness is to train the mindset for finding a solution than getting overwhelmed by it.

The perks of a problem-solving mindset reflects not just in personal life, but in the growth of a nation as well. A small country like Israel with population lesser than the capital city of our country is an apt example of this. Despite sitting on the hotbed of international disputes, the quaint country decided to divert its attention to identifying and resolving problems of global intensity so much so that it has emerged as the startup capital of the world, breeding over 6000 startups that impact employment and revenue around the world.

The instance also corroborates the intrinsic relationship between startups and problem-solving attitude. Startups are disruptive players owing to their unique trait of thinking out-of-the-box solutions to widely bothering problems. And this out-of-the-box thinking is the result of creative bent of mind, logical thinking and passion for solving problems. Perhaps, in a state like Assam that has just begun considering the formidability of entrepreneurship beyond the traditional reverence for a government job or a career in medical, teaching and engineering, the foundation of a strong startup culture lies in developing a knack for problem solving than raising hue and cry about it.

With academic intervention, knowledge sharing and leadership training, the goal wouldn’t be a real bear to achieve. The startup initiative by the Department of Industries and Commerce, Government of Assam, in association with IIM Calcutta Innovation Park as the Knowledge Partner, is a right step towards the direction. The Avant Garde incubation centre in Guwahati, Assam Startup – The Nest, has been in operations since 20 January 2019, rigorously grooming the fledgling startups to blossom into uninhibited problem solvers and leaders. The first batch of 52 startups are drawing closer to the end of 6-month incubation period. And apart from raising funds, the top performing startups from the batch are expected to metamorphose into leaders who can lead by example as relentless problem solvers and torchbearers of positive thinking.

Greater problem-solving skills instill a confidence to pull out of the most impossible of situations through creative and logical thinking and effective decision making.

While we sing paeans to the problem solvers, it also brings us to the necessity of being one as well. Whether planning to startup or trying to deal with life’s hiccups, the most important way to start is to look at problems as an opportunity to self-challenge and grow in the process. Enumerating below 5 key steps to hone a problem-solving mindset.

Take Responsibility

“This isn’t my problem. Why should I bother about it?”

Running away from a problem is when you add to a problem. It’s hard, but learn to admit to a problem and take responsibility for it. Tell yourself that it’s your problem and only you are responsible for resolving it. Once you learn to do that, congratulations, you have laid the foundation of leadership.

Stay Curious

Once you take responsibility, you feel obliged to probe into the problem. Here enters the role of curiosity.

Here’s an issue affecting you. You want to find out a way to resolving the issue. But before taking a step for resolution, you must know the problem inside out. You have to go deeper into the problem and reflect on its root causes and ends. Curiosity might kill the cat. But it’s surely a blessing for humans.

Identify the Goal

When faced with a problem, a common reflex is to run immediately for a solution. However, the ideal way of dealing with a problem is to first decide on the desired outcome. Understand the deep nature of the problem to determine the ideal situation you’d wish to achieve. Once clear about the ideal goal, you are in a better state to understand and execute the problem solving process.

Stop Blaming; Be Objective

When I say take a probe, I mean an objective examination of something that’s been bothering personally. The worst option is to start blaming a third party for it. While it’s a boon to feel personally about a problem, getting emotionally swayed to aggressively blame others for it is a major turnoff. Remember, by blaming you end up draining yourself emotionally. Perhaps, you can devise a solution to stop the ones responsible for a problem. For instance, how often do you blame the citizens and the local administration for reckless vehicle parking habits in the city? Does it help? Or does it stop the ones doing it? A bunch of guys from Assam decided to find a solution to it instead. They quit their corporate jobs and founded a startup, Parking Rhino that strives to convert unorganized parking into organized parking lot through IoT automation products.

Listen; Reflect; Resolve

The biggest and one of the most common mistakes committed is to reflect on a solution and seal its efficacy without taking opinions from a third party. While a problem might be bothering you personally, empathising and listening to other’s plight from the same problem can offer better insights and more dimensions to finding a solution. And once you have ideated or designed a rough sketch of the solution, it’s crucial to get it validated by those looking for a similar solution to the problem. In short, listening to the people in your surrounding is as important as self-reflecting for a solution. The efficacy of your problem-solving mindset will be determined by the number of lives your solution is able to impact. And for that one must be open to criticisms, self-questioning and reworking on the solution to find the best way out.

To put it all in a nutshell, the grassroot trick to developing a problem-solving mindset is to believe in oneself of being capacitated to be a problem-solver, to be absorbent of the surrounding, to be able to analyse free from pre-conceived biases and to feel integrally responsible for solving the problem. And these qualities are as true for any regular individual as it is for a startup entrepreneur.

By: Pranjal Konwar

COO, IIM Calcutta Innovation Park

New Year Resolves for Better Productivity

31Dec By startupassam

Every time Earth finishes a lap of 940 million kilometres, people greet each other to celebrate it. They create a long list of resolutions to enjoy the next lap peacefully.

Some resolve to stay fit, some want to grow in wisdom and intellect, while others wish to find peace.

And then there are people with deep-rooted passion for devising solutions to bugging problems and bring about positive transformation in the process. The world acknowledges these people as entrepreneurs. They are always thinking and thriving on a proactive approach. They love accepting challenges, solve real problems, wish to grow at lightning speed and build things from scratch.

“If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins,” said Benjamin Franklin.

While unbridled passion must be the driving force, the passion would yield wonders if harnessed by dedicated resolve to organize the work and plan reasonable strategies for greater productivity in a more relaxed and enjoyable work environment. Here are a few points you can take cues from.

Smarter Marketing, not Larger

Smart business sense is to look after the pennies. With unknown economic territories ahead of us, this has now become more important than ever. One area of business where thousands could be wasted when hundreds could take you further is marketing. Social media is the most cost-effective way to drive brand awareness.

Invest in consultants and training sessions to help you cover the basics. It’s important to learn about the efficiency of micro-targeting. Focus the spending purely into targeting where your audience digests content and news. Don’t look to reach large numbers, look to reach relevant numbers.

Inspiration comes from Workplace

It might sound simple; it might sound unimportant. But neither is true. Your work environment has a huge impact on your energy, motivation and inspiration – three characteristics you’ll need in abundance to launch a startup. Walk into any office in the country and you’ll see loads of unnecessary papers, overcrowded desks and a general mess. Take action and declutter your office by trying to take your work online. With the rise of cloud-based services such as Google Docs, sharing working documents has never been easier. What’s more, the cloud has been utilised across industries and some services even allow you to take your accounting spreadsheets and numbers purely within the cloud.

Focus On the Employees

Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group said, “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”

His words have proven right time and again. Companies with amazing employment policies are known to have better productivity and growth rate. People need appreciation for their work. Keeping employees motivated and appreciating them for their efforts is important. It makes them want to do better.

Be open to sharing authority

While the birth of an idea may happen in individual minds, the growth of the idea depends on the co-operation of a collection of minds that believe in that idea. So, rather than being a one-person army, involve others in the discussion and work together.

Make Business Planning a Weekly Event

Planning is vital for a healthy, growing business. Business planning lets you take stock of what worked and what didn’t and helps set new directions or adjust old goals. Reserve time each week to review, adjust, and look forward—or even better, make business planning a part of each day. Not only will this help avoid costly mistakes, but you’ll feel more focused and relaxed as well.

Give Back to the Community

There are all kinds of worthy organizations that make a difference to the community. Those who give are most prone to receive. Resolve to find a cause that matters to you and give what you can. Make this the year to serve the community. Be a mentor, volunteer, or make donations to the groups trying to make the place you live better.

By: Ayaan Hazarika

Startup from Assam blows new life into indigenous weavers

09NovNovember 9, 2019 By startupassam

Despite the onslaught of machine-made textiles, India’s timeless legacy of handlooms has stood strong against the test of time. According to the 2011-12 report by the Ministry of Textiles, over 43 lakh people in the country are engaged in weaving and allied industries. Handlooms worth US$ 355.91 million were exported in 2017-18. While retail giants like Fabindia have been ruling the roost, linking rural weavers to the urban consumers, relatively newbies like GoCoop and the Khadi Cult are creating noteworthy ripples as well. Following a similar model, a startup from Assam is trying to put on show the jaw-dropping variety of the Assamese handloom before the global purchasers.

Bolkol was launched in 2018 with dual motives of uplifting the economic condition of the indigenous weavers as well as promoting local handlooms among global consumers. When Purabi Medhi, a small-town artisan from Barama in Assam, was struggling to find a lucrative platform to promote and sell her hand-painted sarees and mekhela chador, she approached Krishnarjun Das, the co-founder of Bolkol, seeking help. The startup didn’t just offer her an online platform to market her products, it had also provided the initial hand-holding in terms of internet literacy, online marketing and selling, and product photoshoot, etc. Since her first stint with Bolkol in 2018 till now, Purabi has sold her handmade apparel worth over a lakh.

“Apart from claiming a higher share from selling, big retail platforms do not offer any personalized support like customized marketing guidelines, product photoshoot assistance, etc. We, on the other hand, believe in building a personal bond with the rural weavers to not just get buyers for their products, but also help them grow self-reliant in terms of mastering the marketing mantras,” elucidates Krishnarjun.

The startup’s hand-holding efforts have also won it a collaboration with the Handloom Textiles and Sericulture Department, Government of Assam, under which, the startup will impart product promotion training to the weavers.

For all the marketing assistance provided to the weavers and artisans, the startup keeps a 10% commission from every product sold. Since 8 months of its operation, Bolkol has managed to rope in 3 clusters in Assam and 12 individual weavers.

The startup has, lately, completed an order for 30 Assamese gamusa by a party from Pune, who had approached them after watching the honourable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi sporting a gamusa recently. “It was an emotional moment for us. The party had searched for the gamusa online, but the prices were exorbitant. That’s when they approached us. After delivering the products, they had sent us photographs wearing the gamusa. Indeed, it was one of those ‘chest swelling with pride’ moments! That’s exactly why we started this venture – to tell the world about a rich aspect of our culture, i.e., weaving,” says Pranjal Kalita, the second co-founder.

Understanding the need for value addition to the model, Bolkol has also come up with its line of apparel, with slogan T-Shirts leading in popularity. Encouraged by the demand, the startup is gearing up to launch a production unit at the upcoming Handloom Park at Barama in the Baksa district of Assam. “We are planning to share the fabric samples with reputed fashion houses across the country. Drawing bulk orders will be a big boon for the weavers,” explains Krishnarjun.

Founders, Krishnarjun and Pranjal, however, do not wish to confine the startup to handloom alone. They have opened the gates for handmade jewellery makers and miscellaneous indigenous product artisans as well. The latest inclusion has been the biodegradable bamboo straws made by village artisans. Interested buyers may go to their website and place an order.

One might conclude that what Kashmir Box is to Kashmir, Bolkol might emerge as the same for Assam. But, the founders refuse to restrict themselves to Assam alone. Their upscaling goal is to take the model to the other North-Eastern states, gradually encompassing handloom weaves from across India.

By: Satarupa Mishra

Startup from Assam recreates Farmville-like experience in real life

10OctOctober 10, 2019 By startupassam

Everyone with a Facebook account must have come across Farmville, a farm replicating social network game. The player farms a land, raises livestock and gradually builds an estate. A startup from Assam is recreating something similar. The only difference is that this isn’t a digital game, but a real-life experience.

Abhinab Shyam, an IIM Indore alumnus, decided to bid adieu to an ambitious corporate job in order to join his father for a farming initiative in Assam. But his idea was to take the farming experience to the urban dwellers. Agro Origin took shape around this idea with a slight twist: Bringing urban dwellers to the farmlands.

Fusing the concepts of micro-farming and kitchen garden, Agro Origin offers fragments of farmland to the urban residents to grow their own crops, free from hazardous chemicals. Customers can rent a piece of farmland on payment of a subscription fee. Once a micro-farm is subscribed, customers get to select their own crops. The startup offers a wide variety of seasonal crops such as leafy greens, tomato, French beans, carrot, cauliflower and broccoli, among others. Following the plantation phase, the farmers are entrusted to manage the crops and keep the customers in loop about the crop status.

Abhinab launched a Proof Of Concept at Bortari in the outskirt of Guwahati on 22 September’19. The land has had been under cultivation – banana plantation to be precise – for the last 12 years, managed by Abhinab’s father. This has been one of the main reasons for choosing the plot for POC. As Abhinab says, “We are accustomed to the area. Apart from the scenic surrounding, familiarity of the place is something, which, we thought, would score for us at the POC stage.”

30 families have been roped in as clients for the POC, utilizing 1.5 bigha out of the 15 bigha farmland. Each family is rented a 600 sq. ft. of land on payment of a monthly subscription fee of Rs. 1,999 that includes costs of seeds, manure, soil preparation, farm management, crop harvest and home delivery. Though managed by farmers, micro-farm owners are free to lay their hands in the farm proceedings, spend hours in the field and experience the farmer’s life. After all, it’s an inexplicable joy to grow one’s own food!

“Whenever you visit your micro-farm, we will make sure that you forget all your problems and enjoy farming,” Abhinab assures.

During the launch of the POC at Bortari.

The founder has plans to install a live kitchen and a mini library in the coming days. The idea is to offer a unique, unwinding experience to the customers amid a tranquil, agrarian setup with the assurance of growing healthy food of one’s choice. The pivotal motto of Agro Origin is to ensure a transparent ecosystem where the customers can trace the source of their food. “Usually, we do not know where our food comes from. So, despite the tags of being ‘organic’, there remains specks of doubts regarding the claims while making expensive purchases of organic fruits and vegetables. At Agro Orgin, we are trying to assure complete traceability of the farm produce that form the mainstays of one’s food habits,” Abhinab explains.

The startup currently targets dwellers in Guwahati, addressing the urban pain points of chemical-infested vegetables and fruits and the tumultuous lifestyle distanced from the serene essence of countryside.

Despite being at the POC stage, Agro Origin has inspired an impact as a good number of people who had moved to other cities in search of jobs are making a homecoming in order to get involved in the project. Considering that farming hasn’t been a lucrative activity, with the predominance of middlemen and a volatile market adding to the woes, a good chunk of the population from the rural areas have been consistently outfluxing to the bigger cities in search of rewarding opportunities. Abhinab’s initiative, with a 60:40 revenue sharing model, comes as a gleam of hope for these migrating people to come back to the homeland and pursue an activity they are akin to – farming. The startup is expected to make use of its network of 300 farmers for project engagement. As Abhinab says, ‘Agro Orgin strives to build a transparent community of producers and consumers and help connect to the roots.’

Interestingly, renting out micro-farms wasn’t something Abhinab had initially thought of. Early on, the startup founder had contemplated working out a model for rooftop farming targeted towards urban dwellers. But, later on, with inputs from the mentors at Assam Startup, he tweaked the idea for the current model.

A first-of-its-kind idea in Northeast India, replication of the model in other parts of the region can help usher in a metamorphosis in terms of the easy availability of healthy food among urban dwellers as well as improving the condition of the agriculture-dependent population in the semi-urban and rural areas. The pleasure of living a Farmville experience apart.

By: Satarupa Mishra

Startup at Majuli opens door to Digital Nomads

21SepSeptember 23, 2019 By startupassam

Imagine a workspace somewhere on a river island! You working on the laptop while basking in the sub-tropical winter sun on a carpet of soft grass, against the faint flapping sound of waves hitting the bank! With the concept of digital nomads taking a grip of the millennials across the globe, Dipmoina Dowarah made a smart move to establish Okegiga Homes on the world’s largest river island, Majuli, particularly targeting this new age group of world travellers.

A wanderlust himself, Dipmoina gave up his well-settled corporate career to build a resort at Majuli in order to cater to the globe trotters, backpackers, wanderers, and digital nomads.

“I have been the crazy guy in the family. When I decided to quit my job to fuel my passion and do a startup, they thought I was putting an axe on my own foot,” says the founder.

Derived from an African word, meaning ‘mountain’, Okegiga Homes was founded by Dipmoina Dowarah and Madhumita Devi on 26 November 2017. The idea of this one-of-a-kind resort had hit him while travelling to Majuli during one of his backpack expeditions. While camping there, Dipmoina fathomed a huge potential for setting up a permanent campsite there. Initially, he had booked a piece of land and set up 11 local-style camping tents fixed on bamboo platforms with hay root ceiling. Encouraged by the demand for a place that can meet the needs of the backpackers and digital nomads at Majuli, Dipmoina Dowarah purchased a new land by the Lohit river and established the resort.

Okegiga Homes is spread across a lush area of 5 Bighas with the river on one side and wood on the other. The accommodation facilities consist of the traditional Bamboo Cottage, Swiss Tents and Camping Tents fixed on bamboo platforms. Apart from budget-friendly accommodation for indefinite stay durations, the resort also offers ample of space for car and caravan parking and self-cooking facilities. Like Dipmoina says, “A lot of these globe trotters prefer putting up in their own caravan and cook their own food. We make the necessary arrangements for the same.”

Not just accommodation, the resort also meets the experiential needs of the guests to see around the island and get a first-hand experience of the tribal lifestyle. Besides, in the wake of a demand, Dipmoina connects the guests with suitable parties conducting adventure activities across Northeast India. The idea is to offer at-home services fused with pleasurable holiday experiences at affordable prices to fit the bill for backpackers and working nomads.

It’s rather surprising that the challenges threatening the startup in the initial days were less financial in nature and more social. Coming from Moran in the Dibrugarh district of Assam, Dipmoina was faced with the arduous task of winning people’s trust at Majuli. He was looked upon with paranoia during the initial days, whereas, setting up a business there made it pivotal to build local support. Unbridled by resistance, the startup founder persisted patiently until the friction subsided.

“Sometimes, it’s better not to respond. I believe no problem can persist for a long time. Rather than trying to convince people with dialogues, I kept doing my work. And today, I am very much a part of the locality,” the founder elucidates. Perhaps, that’s a quintessential startup attitude to persist through the daunting times of inception and create a fertile ground for business through smart work.

The startup has had 2 operational seasons so far, drawing domestic tourists as well as foreign travellers from the US, UK, Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia, Netherlands, Israel, Japan and Australia, among others.

From an impact perspective, Okegiga Homes has managed to create job opportunities for the local residents, making room for permanent and seasonal employment for both the educated and skilled workforce. The engagement of the daily wage earners is almost constant at the resort. Besides, the startup is making major impact in terms of drawing global attention to the cultural seat of Assam, Majuli, thus creating a conspicuous buzz about the rich Assamese heritage and culture among the foreign as well as domestic tourists. Dipmoina summarises the experience of the travellers in one sentence: Once at Majuli, one can never forget it.

Having said that, the challenges aren’t over yet. Ironically, Okegiga Homes’ biggest USP, the location, also poses as a major constraint. Majuli is a traveller’s paradise from autumn through the winters. Demand is at its peak from October to March, thus generating decent monthly revenue (figures held back on request) during the operational season. But given that flood is a serious issue on the river island, tourist footfall in the summers and the rainy seasons is almost next to nil. Naturally, Okegiga Homes is restricted to seasonal operations. Although Dipmoina utilizes the 6-month off-season to travel extensively doing market research and spending time on R&D, pursuing the trend threatens to kill his business. He admits the need to chalk out a 12-month model.

“Though I have managed to recover the cost of building this property with the 6-month model, I do understand the threat on sustenance if I do not convert it into a scalable model,” he admits.

A proud Assamese taking delight in hosting such one-of-a-kind resort on the world’s largest river island, Dipmoina’s ultimate vision is global expansion and to establish similar resorts in major island nations like Sri Lanka and Indonesia. But as of now, he is contemplating establishing similar resorts in summer destinations like Meghalaya, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand in order to convert into a 12-month model. And that would require the bootstrapping startup to raise funds.

Assam Startup – The Nest is currently engaged in helping the startup work on the business model to make it more scalable that would consequently make it more investment-ready.

By: Satarupa Mishra

North East Startup curates Trips with a Cause

14AugAugust 19, 2019 By startupassam

If the core value of entrepreneurship is creating leaders who can engineer a social impact right from the grassroots, startup from North East India, ChaloHoppo is trying to do just that.

Founded in 2016 by 4 young men – John Raphael, Nishant Sinha, Chetan Jalan, and Devraj Barooah – ChaloHoppo isn’t just another travel company trying to woo tourists to visit the traditional locations in North East India. It spots offbeat places in the North East and curates activities that are quintessentially local, which the tourists can experience only in this part of the country. Apart from conducting trekking expeditions and holding campsites, ChaloHoppo organizes unique activities that allow tourists to get a first-hand experience of the North Eastern lifestyle.

From arranging football match between tourists and Khasi boys in Meghalaya and organizing storytelling sessions with the locals around the evening bonfire, to involving visitors in hand-fishing in Ziro, mask-making in Majuli, and pitha-baking in Balipara, the startup is always bustling with novel ideas to offer authentic, out-of-the-box experience to the travellers so that they go back carrying a chunk of North East India in their hearts.

As John says, “Our vision is to bridge the gap between North East India and the world. Travelling is the best medium to achieve the same through the creation of authentic local experiences.”

*ChaloHoppo campsite at Jakhama Village, Nagaland*

The most crucial aspect of ChaloHoppo is it’s community involvement model. The startup ties-up with local partners at every level of execution. For example, the startup’s permanent campsite at Jakhama Village in Nagaland that acts as the basepoint for the Dzukou trek, is entirely managed and maintained by the local land owner, while ChaloHoppo takes care of the sales and marketing, with an equal profit-sharing between both the parties. The campsite that also hosts tourists attending the Hornbill Festival in December has a team of around 25 locals running it. “They are the real heroes while we are just there, assisting them if they need any help,” John says. The same applies to the campsite at Ziro, Arunachal Pradesh as well.

Not just the campsites, the local involvement is conspicuous in every activity that the startup undertakes. Every trekking expedition that ChaloHoppo leads is accompanied by a local representative, thus offering constant revenue earning opportunities to the latter. The startup works with a vision to bridge the gap between North East India and the rest of the world. And they have got on board the people of the region in realizing their vision. In the process, the startup has also been impactfully addressing the problem of unemployment in the region.

Barring the initial challenge of building trust among the people, ChaloHoppo has had a fairly smooth journey. The fact that they have been able to dissolve the most common inhibitions among people travelling to North East India by ensuring safety, hospitality, and relatively smoother journeys while providing quintessential local experience has helped ChaloHoppo stay ahead in the race. Perhaps, that’s the reason that the startup has been able to gain formidable traction in the 3 years of its operation sans raising a fund. With the founders having a strong base in Mumbai, they have been able to draw a good number of tourists from the city, besides Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Kochi and Ahmedabad. The startup is also initiating B2B tie-ups with companies in Asia and Europe to spur the flow of foreign tourists in the region.

ChaloHoppo had earned a revenue of Rs. 2.4 crore in 2018 and strive to close it at Rs. 3.9 crore in 2019. Their landmark achievement has been to become, probably, the first company to start fixed departures to Mizoram. “We have identified small villages in Mizoram that can offer wholesome experience to the travellers,” John reveals.

Apart from curating trips and organizing local flavoured activities, ChaloHoppo also plans to aggregate homestays in the region. They have already identified a few homestays, whom they try to promote on a pan India scale and get bookings in exchange for a cost. As John quotes, “We are trying to get people to book those homestays against a cost deposited by the homestay owners. The owners get to earn revenue while we keep a fee for promoting and connecting them with the tourists. It’s a win-win situation for both of us.”

However, the startup is yet to go all out with the homestay project. “Converting homes into homestays is a lengthy process, requiring thorough training of the locals to ensure hygienic and sound stay for the tourists. It would also demand an infallible back end infrastructure, R&D, and a strong marketing team on our part. We intend to go about it assertively, which would require a hefty fund,” the founder explains.

In fact, fund has been one of the reasons for ChaloHoppo to have applied for incubation at Assam Startup – The Nest. The startup has had fruitful networking opportunities and interaction with the mentors at The Nest, which could help them realize their homestay project in the days ahead. The founders are upbeat about the emerging startup culture which the Assam Startup initiative is trying to build in the region. Like John says, “Getting a platform like this really helps to build an atmosphere where everyone is trying to help each other grow, which we had lacked earlier.”

By: Satarupa Mishra

Startup from Assam eyes on becoming India’s largest brick manufacturer in the next 10 years

24JunJuly 16, 2019 By startupassam

Three young engineering graduates from Guwahati, David Gogoi, Rupam Choudhury, and Mousam Talukdar, are creating ripples in the construction market in Assam with their innovative and low-cost brick manufacturing startup. Unlike the usual red clay bricks, Zerund bricks are made of cement, fly ash, organic chemicals, and plastic waste and are available at prices 15-20% lower than that of the regular bricks available in the market.

“Our main cost of production is cement. 60-70% of the raw-materials are waste products alone. The NTPC is offering us fly ash for free as a gesture to support our innovation,” says David Gogoi, one of the founders of Zerund Bricks.

They have designed a 3-process machine that shreds waste plastics into microbeads which are used in the brick making mixture. Use of plastic augments the tensile strength of the bricks and also shores up resistance to water absorption, thereby dismantling any possibility of dampness in the constructions.

Tiny honeycombs are shaped inside these lightweight plastic embedded bricks that act as air bubble insulation sheets against extreme heat and cold penetration.

Incorporated in September 2018, Zerund has been certified by the National Test House, the Public Works Department, and the Assam Engineering College. In fact, the founders had started working on the prototype in college as their 7^th-semester project.

At present, Zerund is operating from a single manufacturing plant at Azara, Guwahati. Interestingly, it was a fully equipped plant at the time they took it on lease.

“We didn’t have to incur an extra expense to set up the plant. We only needed people to man the machines, which cost us lesser than a lakh. The operations costs were sourced from the operations itself,” David says.

Encouraged by the cost-efficiency of working on an existing plant, the startup has decided to follow the same model of integrating and accelerating working plants in the future as well. They are currently in talks with a few parties across the state over plant procurement.

As David elucidates, “The parties will get a chunk of the profit from the plant. But we will have complete control over sales and operations. That way we will be able to protect our technology as well.”

David believes that their startup is blessed by a divine intervention which has been able to steamroll the rough patches in their journey. At a time when they were showed the door at financial institutions during their embryonic days, a couple of senior alumni (businessmen) from the Assam Engineering College showed up with a keen interest in their startup and agreed to invest.

Within a span of seven months from the day of inception, Zerund has sold bricks worth Rs. 32 lakhs. Currently, the demand for their bricks exceeds production. As David says, “For the next two years, we shall have no sales crunch.”

Although the startup primarily has a B2B model, the founders aren’t giving up on B2C either on ground that the latter assures a better cash flow.

With clients spread across the states of Northeast India, the Zerund founders’ goal is to grow into India’s largest brick manufacturer in the next 10 years.

Asked about the current constraints in the business, David is quick to state that the constraints are opportunities to flourish. However, being in a capital intensive industry, they would need formidable funds to expand. David reveals about their aim to acquire 10 more plants over the next 3-4 quarters, which would require funds of around Rs. 15 crores.

An incubatee at Assam Startup – The Nest, Zerund hopes to gain in terms of deeper business acumen and productive connections from the state-owned startup incubation initiative of Assam.

It seems that the startup founders have learnt the ropes well when they say that they are here to focus on business and earn money instead of devoting time in becoming social media heroes. To summarise in David’s words, “We don’t need thousands of people to know about our business. We don’t aspire to be social media heroes either. We only need a few good and resourceful people who are genuinely interested in our products and can contribute to the growth of our business.”

By: Satarupa Mishra