This is the story of two students in University of Delhi. Happy studying Statistics and Literature with bit monotony was their life. ‘A’ was really passionate about cakes and chocolates. She could bump into any bakers at any hour of the day. It was the only thing she cooked with lots of grace while she was at home. And ‘S’, her dearest friend loved experimenting and encouraging ideas. ‘A’ baptized her virtual Bakers store as “Indulgilicious” with the slightest idea of this coming true. Then comes A’s cousin, the enthusiastic, the illumination and an entrepreneur. ‘A’ blabbered her dreams (Indulgilicious) to him, which would have happened sometime in the future she was not sure about. But her cousin, so like himself, became really serious about the whole thing and they had a long discussion on the same issue. ‘A’ was big time inspired and full on motivated. Then what?

She chucked an internship at a high profile Mathematical institute, lost every chance of recommendation by them, then blown by friends and so on. ‘A’ told ‘S’ about the whole scene and ‘S’ was very supportive, encouraging and even more excited than ‘A’ and promised to be an equal partner in the new business which did not exist. It was 27^th Feb 2011 and the idea commenced.

Guys, I am talking about nobody else but Anchal (myself) and Shagun, from the neighboring hostel and a friend since graduation (we are post graduates nowJ).

Unbelievable it was! I and Shagun sat the next afternoon to plan out things including the recipe, dishes, etc. None of us were aware of business techniques, so please excuse my non technical writing here. Out for shopping, no money, weird plans, nothing on papers…. we bought every ingredient and dishes required. Fortunately my hostel had a microwave, so things seemed to be easier.

PN: We paid extra 12.5% at every store to get the bills. We were loyal to our customers as well as government rules. Second morning of March on the Shiv Ratri, we baked our first cake as a trial. Trust me, I was shit scared but Shagun was optimistic about the taste. And, the taste turned out to be awesome… BUT…. the cake was as hard as a stone. I was very depressed but Shagun was in good spirits and then we realised that the microwave we had used didn’t have the “Convection” mode which is used to bake cakes. Let me list a few more problems we had faced:

1. We planned to buy an OTG, and checked Tata Croma and finalised the model. But we didn’t get permission from the hostel authorities to keep an electrical appliance.
2. Renting a flat was the next idea. Though expensive, we still had to stick to this because there was no other way. Grishma supported with financial help.
3. Getting in touch with property dealers and assuring electricity and water throughout the day was really tough.
4. Meanwhile, our friend Shweta came up with the idea of baking in a cooker. Awesome idea, we bought a cooker too.
5. Hotplates in hostel could have been used but the regulator was not working.
6. We sneaked in a gas cylinder in Shagun’s hostel room finally to carry on with our plan.

We also bought chart papers and colours from Nayi Sadak, Chandni Chowk, sim card, mobile handset (borrowed from a cousin). We made teasers by 10th of March but we had to slow down because of my mid semester exams and my parents trip to delhi and then further delay on account of Anna Hazare’s fast which was supported by Shagun. Came 8th April, when we had put up the teasers on the under graduate hostel boards with the help of Puja and Rashmi. Messages started buzzing in on our new number. People were pepped about the name… then we had put the posters, we covered all undergraduate college hostels of DU in North Campus.

Then happened something which none of us had expected….. Calls started coming for orders. God, calls after calls…. we became too busy overnight. We also made a delivery at 6am for a Stephen’s girl. Amazing time it was, we managed to cover the entire cost we had incurred……From buying stuff to taking calls, baking cakes to washing utensils, managing stock to delivering cakes and to handling finance and so on was done by me and Shagun. In all probability we have put our final semester exams on stake here, we await the results.
Colour code followed by us was PURPLE and SILVER. We made cake boxes using purple-silver handmade papers.

The idea behind Indulgilicious was simple; we aimed at HOSTELERS who wanted homemade cakes to be delivered at their doorsteps @ reasonable price. It was a pain that we ourselves felt being out of home in a hostel world for years. We were successful in delivering the same and feedback from most of them delighted us, this motivated us to continue working.

After the initial stint, constraints like finance, space and an end to college life stopped us from continuing the same. As of today I am working with an analytical company now and saving money every month to come back with a bang. Shagun is likely to start preparation for civil services exams.

Last few months made us learn a lot in terms of organising, planning, time management, firefighting, jugaad etc. Those really were the most adventurous days of our life. We promise to come again and serve the hostellers to re-live our 5 years of hostel life … forever.

Waiting for the dream to come true soon….

Anchal & Shagun
IndulgiliciouS

Its not a secret that I started working right out of school at the age of 15 and that partly explains my bonding and feeling for young entrepreneurs (heck, any one who is starting up). When I started as a school kid selling stuff over Baazee (now eBay), there was a good offline connect to it. I had to source the good from the local market, market them online, get the orders and then pack and ship it out myself. I can be certain that I have learnt more being a eBay Power Seller than what I learnt in 5 years of college. Interacting with 000s of online shoppers across India, across different states, speaking different accents, I feel I have also been a mini call center marketer myself. While my LinkedIn profile proudly claims that its passion that drives me and the love for gadgets / technology / silicon chips that pushed me to do things right from retail to media, it really didn’t start that way. It developed over time. The single most influential driver for me to startup was Money. Yes Money. I wanted more money to spend than I would have ever got as pocket money and I wanted to buy small luxuries for myself that I couldn’t have afforded without earning it myself. Add to that a little of love for gizmos that excited me. My journey begins…

Walking down the lanes of Manish market and dealing with the most ‘badnam‘ dealers in Mumbai is a tough training for a 16 yr old kid (in 2003). I always thought that I was lucky to get started with a relation in this market, but then I could see the roots of this in my upbringing. I was brought up in a somewhat pampered environment but at the same time with a lot of discipline (don’t mistake that for organized, I am more messy than an average hostel kid at IIT). Honesty was drilled into me, but then when a 15 year old starts business, you know money pulls you the other way? I see so many people around me start with business today and it at times hurt me to see the kind of manipulation or shortcut they take. I don’t really blame them for that, I have seen hints of these in me, and may be I got lucky with the right people teaching me the right things at the right time. It isn’t hard to stick to values when in business, its just that the other path looks so much easier.

I remember attending a talk by some CXO of Shoppers Stop at Raheja college during my 1st yr of BMS. This is where I picked up a great learning. Something that remains with me still. He spoke about ‘having real feeling for your customer, being there to serve them’. And after that day, perhaps the innocent, little kid in me was clear on what business he wants to do. How he wants to be at business…

Some of my best teachers / friends / inspiration have been people whom I got close to while selling them some thing. I might be a poor business guy when it comes to profit making. Some say I do business to make loss, but when it comes to winning a customer, I rate myself A+. Here my friends I want to highlight the power of true feelings and honesty. At my work I have to deal with a number of dealers, retailers, service providers, institutes and students. I meet all of them with a similar clean approach. This might not always give me a deal that I want, but what it gives me is two very crucial things a) people who value you as an individual b) a silent confidence in your dealings that cannot be challenged.

The path I am encouraging you to walk may not always be easy friends. You got to be unreasonable at times. Last year out of the blue  I received a hate mail from someone who had transacted with me back in 2005. According to him I had cheated him back then  (he hadn’t received the product he ordered) and I could see his emails written to me when I was 18 … they were some of the finest abuses someone has every sent me.  (A mild version of those below.) I had chosen to discontinue a dialogue with him back then, but he came back 4 yrs later and this is the best I could do for him. Send him a digital camera to make up for his loss. The response I receive at the end of it, is something that drives priceless energy into me.

I might not yet be a 100%, but I am still hurt to see young ones around me with this ‘quick money’ thinking. I can smell it in young business men very often. Its not that I want to prove you wrong, its not that I hate you, its just that I feel you are meant to do big things. Create huge empires and make a real difference and all this maintaining your values. The value of being a human, one to another! How about getting into a business conversation next time with an aim to give a honest 100%? Working to meet the needs of the one you serve before you serve yourself?

Also see: My Wish

A dear friend and one of the finest people in the tech circles that I move around in is Mr Vivek K & here is a gem from V!

My experiments with Colors.

Life ain’t fair. Neither am I.  On numerous occasions in the past 23 years, I have reminded myself of this statement.  I am 23 years old.  I have lived in Jaipur,Delhi,Mumbai and Pune.  I belong to a middle class family.  I am studying pure sciences.  I am working in technology startup.  I have a great social circle.  I am also a LEO.  And yes, I have a “fairly” dark complexion.  The last line adds a pinch of black to the entire picture. I say it form my experiences, that the  world has 2 kinds of people – The Dark one’s (like me)– and the not so dark one’s.- This includes the whites (all shades), the browns, wheatish, and my lighter shades.  It’s a different world altogether when looked from the eyes of a black skinned person. I will share some of my experiences – some good, some bad.

Considering that my grandfather is no more, I am probably the darkest soul in my family – both Paternal and Maternal, when it comes to color. I studied in 4 schools- Adarsh Vidya Mandir – Sirohi, St Paul School – Sirohi, Seedling Public School – Jaipur and Maheshwari Public School, Jaipur – and without fail I was the darkest student in all the classes. So the TAG – blacky came naturally to me.  I have collected some very funny names all this while. Here are some of my favorites – Invisible After Sunlight (IAS), Kallu (klue,callu,klu), Kalia (I wish I was born in the Pre Sholay Era), Nigger, Nigero, Nigga, African, kalz, kalua. Lara and Black Mamba are the latest addition to the list.

It was probably in 3^rd standard I had my last fight with a guy who was 10 may be 15 “shades lighter than me” regarding one of those above names. I had almost killed him.  I gave up after that.  I realized that I was no hulk who could beat them all or Abraham Lincoln/Nelson Mandela who could not teach the world a lesson about Racism.  I decided to give up – Give up on every single remark ever made about my complexion. (The world complexion sounds very “Britsh but – The place where I belong to, people like calling it Color. It sounds even better in when called “Rang”. )

I don’t know if I should blame my color – or the color of the fairer breed or the era when I was a student or Sholay or may be the city where I lived – I could never gather the confidence to go on stage.  The only memory I have of going on stage was for a fancy dress competition where I was dressed as a joker – yes they painted me all white. The only time I ever went on stage after that was on my 16^th Birthday because all the birthday boys (I did my +2 from a boys school) were given a Birthday Card on stage.

Along with my color came the limited range of colors I could choose to pick my clothes. 3 shades of blue, 2 shades of green and anything that is Grey, yes that’s all you would find in my cup board. For me the color palette was always limited to Grey- Green-Blue. I always use to wonder why the costume designer in Telgu Films got orange shirts and red pants designed – Was he genuinely serious? Or did we miss the humor?

At this point I would like to introduce my family. Since I am the darkest one in my family, the entire family tried every possible fairness cream – Fair and Lovely, Garnier, Ponds, The_Cream_From_Dubai, even Amway. By the time I reached 8^th standard, I revolted. Then came the desi products – Besan, Multani Mitti. But as you can see, nothing literally nothing seemed to work on me.  My family gave up against God’s wish of maintaining my dark color. Though the odd phone calls and advice about the_new_cream_of_vaseline come in till date.  I could sense that their concern for my skin getting a shade or two lighter was absolutely valid – They probably believed that even if hell would break loose no “fair” bride would accept a black groom. At the age of 13 there is very little that I could do. I retained my stand. Actually, I had no options.

By this time I had my first crush in school. It took me over 10 years to confess it to her. Back in 8^th, I had assumed that black guys are destined to die single. Who in this world would fall for a black guy leave apart marrying him? My faith in my assumption was so strong that the thought of talking to the girl never crossed my mind. Though the circle I hanged out with had a lot of girls but I believe they were all friends with me because they thought I was “too safe”. Around the same time a cousin of mine introduced me to Sidney Sheldon. I picked up on reading. After reading 3 of those novels and confirming with my cousin I had assured myself that the jargon – Tall Dark and Handsome was a valid term and had no sarcasm attached. Though I continued to be skeptical about its validity in city I was living.

I was academically superior than a lot of my batch mates – probably that was the reason people did have some respect for me. Or wait it might have been pity also – You never know.  As my school came to an end – thanks to everything around me – events, people, friends and family and my color – I had developed a shell around myself . The world I lived in had very few people – handpicked people who never thought twice before talking to a black guy.  My color and not my potential had decided limits for me.

Life moved on but my color did not. Probably I was enjoying being black – it added an element of distinctness to me.  I could be identified with ease in a crowd. While this  feature at times can be quiet helpful, it can prove to be detrimental at times.  For instance in a class of 150 students – the professor would be able to recall your face distinctly and can ask you awkward questions during the exam -” I didn’t see you after the first week of the semester, where have you been ?” For most of my friends, I invented “Black Humor”.  Now I believe that I did.  With college almost coming to an end, I don’t think I have to take more of this. I want to believe that my color is behind me but something inside tells me that the worst is yet to come. I have always had these questions intriguing me -

Why is black equivalent to being dangerous/bad/ugly ?

Why would they sit next to the white guy on the bus even if seat next to me is empty ?

Is having a dark complexion such a taboo ?

What is it with the fair skin that attracts all of you ?

Why do people frown when they see me with a fairer girl ?

Why can’t you love the dusky girl in your class but keep stating at bipasha basu’s wallpaper ?

By the way, the date on my computer screen is 15th Aug.  Are we really free ?

P.S

We live in a country obsessed with Fair Color. The fairness and beauty product market as trends have it is close to 2500 CRORES.   These are times when Sharukh Khan wants to get fairer by using fair and handsome, John Abraham needs Garnier Fairness Cream to impress a dusky beauty and Shahid Kapoor spends one minute on his Fairness. (CAN YOU BEAT THAT – ONE ENTIRE MINUTE !! ).  We also live in times when every girl in the US wants to meet the tall, dark and handsome  OLD Spice Man. Quiet an interesting era -isn’t it ?

Originally posted on Room No 368 – By Vivek Khandelwal

——– 22-8-2005 From ANkur Agarwal to Tassavur Shaikh (Toxic)

Ok Officer !!
I shall give you a briefing of wht we faced so far in the war ground of Materials Management.
We moved forward to the Creative Motors Fort in Andheri.

We attacked their Service Center. BUt we came to know that their leader (mr Kamlesh Shah) is hiding in the showoom.

ps: Yes back then I didn’t knew the difference between Hero Honda and Honda

An email titled: Study Shows High ROI on Face-to-Face Meetings

While this was some newsletter sent to marketing / sales junta & I don’t even need to open the thing and read it.  The idea is pretty clear: no matter how much you rely on IM, FB, Twitter – fact remains that nothing replaces Face to Face conversations. And I strongly seek that value in any relationship. I have attempted hard at times to keep up with my contacts and as far as possible I would race the bike to meet up in person. Again that has some relevance with the Friend Matrix (sorry, a lot of things for me revolve around that, in a sublime manner though); though I fear I won’t be able to describe very effectively but here is an attempt.

Anyways, when I asked Are we friends? the keyword stressed was TRUST. Making yourself available for a face 2 face meeting in many ways comes under that. (If I am avoiding a meet, that certainly means lack of trust!)…

Update: Comments on this piece on Facebook… really takes the discussion forward

]]> http://annkur.com/2010/02/face-to-face-conversations/feed/ 1 http://annkur.com/2009/09/interesting-conversation-entrepreneurship-innovation-startup/ http://annkur.com/2009/09/interesting-conversation-entrepreneurship-innovation-startup/#comments Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:42:20 +0000 Annkur http://annkur.com/?p=709 @arpit105 and @ankeshk had a great conversation going on Twitter the other day. With the awesome two discussing brainy business stuff, this makes a good read! so here Is the chat with some of my tweets thrown in the mix. read on…

arpit105: “Good enough tech” Awesome article! http://tinyurl.com/ljsy2c (via @ankeshk @annkur)

annkur: @arpit105 @ankeshk this is the entire funda behind Wespro and chinese mp3 players.

ankeshk: @arpit105 hey buddy? hows work and Pune et al?

arpit105: @annkur I agree. I wonder what it takes to strike such an opportunity. How do I find one? @ankeshk Any clues?

annkur: @arpit105 @ankeshk I always put myself as the consumer n see. Bt that can be so wrong as we r power users,visualize the mass market consumer

arpit105: @annkur True. Being power users, we tend to think everything is mandatory. So, for which areas/products are we mass-market customers?

annkur: @arpit105 thats worth a thought. But todays power user, tomorrows mass market.

ankeshk: @arpit105 Find any industry. Select the top 1 and 2 product. List their qualities. Come up with the anti-product with opposite qualities.

@arpit105 Make sure the anti-product has the potential of a mass market. Or switch the industry…

@arpit105 Basically – a co. can distinguish only on price / product features / service / accessibility / overall experience… (contd)

@arpit105 Dominoes didn’t go for product differentiation. They went for accessibility differentiation.

@arpit105 Starbucks focused on the ambience and the overall experience to distinguish itself

@arpit105 And walmart went for product range and price differentiation

arpit105: @ankeshk I differ. If you select top 1/2 products, you may miss the opportunity of trying out a completely new approach. Think Pepsi/Coke

@ankeshk It is not so simple. ‘Anti-Products’ may never become market leaders. The point is to satisfy few needs that top products don’t.

@ankeshk Question is: How does one efficiently find out a big enough opportunity of solving such a need? Ethnography is one way. What else?

ankeshk: @arpit105 the goal is not becoming market leaders. The goal is creating new markets. No?

@arpit105 With Pepsi/Coke – you do the anti-product thing. And come up with Vitamin Water. And sell to Coke for $$4Billion.

@arpit105 Ethnography and research not really a good way of doing things as Steve Jobs tells us. People dont know what they want.

@arpit105 But if you want to start with consumers and not product positioning then this quote helps “Todays extreme is tomorrows mainstream”

arpit105: @ankeshk No. Creating new markets cannot lead to a market leader. You have to be mainstream-with-a-difference. iPhone is a phone too.

@ankeshk Vit Water story may work when the incumbents are desperate enough to buy anything they can’t kill. Oligopolic markets are not so.

@ankeshk Agree. If people knew what the want, product would be already be there in market na?

@ankeshk “A disruptive technology, often enters at the bottom of the market, Then grow in power and sophistication to eclipse old system”

ankeshk: @arpit105 A disruptive technology is almost always an anti-product technology… iphone is as anti-nokia as possible…

annkur: @arpit105 @ankeshk this discussion reminds me of victor maniackam’s speech at #ssmum. Remember the bit where he said .. reading a gals mind?

ankeshk: @annkur missed that ssmum – but I agree – if @arpit105 can read gals minds he can easily find a few big ass opportunities

arpit105: @ankeshk Well, if only I could read girls’ minds!! I read in 10th “Wherever women are concerned, unpredictable always happens”

annkur: @arpit105 @ankeshk request your permission to publish this conversation of ours on my blog plz

ankeshk: @annkur hahaha sure – no problem with me. But if @arpit105 learns to read gals minds – I want in!

ankeshk: @arpit105 I’m a big fan of Maslowing too. But I’m at a loss at how to use it to come up with a big opp. The choices are vast…

arpit105: @ankeshk Even I can’t fathom that. People say that the most innovation occurs when founders are users. How many products can one use?

ankeshk: @arpit105 There are more systematic approaches to innovation too. Eg: TRIZ. But users will know more about problems that need solving…

arpit105: @ankeshk I never heard of TRIZ. But this looks interesting. Of course, this doesn’t solve the problem too. Otherwise we wouldn’t be discsing

annkur: @arpit105 @vivekk @ankeshk tweaking and tweaking until it gets through. No hanuman will come in my dreams and tell what will work

arpit105: @annkur Of course, no Hanuman will come. But if tweaking could alone suffice, it would be trivial. Question is: how to shift the paradigm?

annkur: @arpit105 oh you need to have some vision and direction to begin with. Dunno how to define that, but you never know where you end up…

arpit105: @annkur Vision and Mission can be about mundane things. Here we are talking about breakthrough innovations, that too ones which work

annkur: @arpit105 reminds me of the Paymate guy who got the idea when he had to make a small payment to a friend but had no chq, cash or atm

arpit105: @annkur Awesome example! That’s the thing I am talking about. That’s the origin of most innovative products. #ssmum rocks!

ankeshk: @arpit105 Oh TRIZ is very interesting. Very technical too. I got a book on it if you wanna read…

arpit105: @ankeshk Is it? Then I would need to read it. It did seem interesting on Wikipedia. Will borrow on thin book from you when we meet.

ankeshk: @arpit105 you know the story of how Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was made?

arpit105: @ankeshk No I don’t. Read the Wikipedia entry just now. Not much clues there of anything very deeply interesting.

ankeshk: @arpit105 The artists asked: which are 4 hot current trends?

@arpit105 1. Cerebus the aardvark was a cult classic comic of the time. Its about a pig superhero who drinks and cusses. Misfit animal.

@arpit105 2. Ronin is a hit comic by Frank Miller. Ninja movies do well too. Ninjas.

@arpit105 3. Daredevil is a hit too. Its about a blind mutant whose other senses are heightened because of radio active exposure. Mutants.

@arpit105 4. The New Mutants is another comic doing very well. Its about teenage mutant super heroes under going training. Teenage. Mutant.

@arpit105 Mix the 4 trends. And you have teenage mutant ninja misfit animal undergoing training. Create it and voila – you have a hit.

@arpit105 Mixing already existing hits = recipe for a big hit opportunity too.

arpit105: @ankeshk Wow! Thanks for so much gyaan. Seems great products are built by deriving from strong social trends/changes + tech to enable it

@ankeshk completely agree. Mixing is origin of innovation. iPhone = touch tech + need for intuitive UI. So what trends are you mixing today?

ankeshk: @arpit105 oh my startup is all about mixing 3 ecommerce apps out there right now with 1 more twist. But too early to talk about it in public

arpit105: @ankeshk Awesome! Am curious to know! Will discuss in private!

ankeshk: @arpit105 (The authors of TMNT did send out 180 PR kits after their first issue too. Hit product needs aggressive marketing to succeed too!)

arpit105: @ankeshk Disagree. Disruptive products cause disruptive usage. They would do best through WoM: “I used it, found it great. Would you try?”

@ankeshk Landmark Education is an example of a disruptive technology. People who have gone through it, can’t talk enough about it.

annkur: @ankeshk @arpit105 WoM cn be backed with some nice media. Making good into Killer!

ankeshk: @arpit105 WoM can totally be hacked. Tipping Point + Made to Stick = WoM. No disruption necessary.

@arpit105 Also – Landmark Education does follow Toastmasters / Tupperware model to add fuel to WoM – no?

@annkur I think media is an essential element in WoM – they are still the biggest influencers out there!

…. certainly not the end

I was left as a mute spectator for most part of the conversation …. Arpit, Ankesh – you guyz rock!

And also to all my friends who are Social Media fans… An amazing video!

If you are unable to see the video – Go Here

Via

– Veronica A Shoffstall / Jorge Luis Borges

After a while, you learn the subtle difference

and between holding a hand and chaining a soul,

And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning

And company doesn’t mean security,

And you begin to learn that kisses aren’t contracts

And presents aren’t promises,

And you begin to accept your defeats

With the grace of a woman,

not the grief of a child,

And learn to build all your roads on today

Because tomorrow’s ground is too uncertain for plans,

And futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight

And after a while, you learn That even sunshine burns if you get too much.

So you plant your own garden

and decorate your own soul,

Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.

And you learn that you really can endure…

That you really are strong

And you really do have worth

And you learn

and learn…

With every goodbye, you learn.

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