If You Don't Know Something, Then Learn About It

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1. Tell us more about your company and your journey.

Let's begin with the parent company Dropout Dudes Media Private Limited, which I co-founded with my school friend Anshumaan Vishnu.

Dropout Dudes Media is a platform for youth, startups, Entrepreneurs, and Dropouts to guide them towards a skill-based startup ecosystem and creating awareness about why one should not drop out of school/colleges without having some useful set of skills.

We encourage and inspire youth by sharing the real-life success and struggle stories of famous dropouts and entrepreneurs with them.

After getting a huge and positive response from youth, dropouts, and startups on Dropout Dudes, we realized that customize merchandise related to Entrepreneurship and Startup is still not easily available in the Indian market.

To fill this gap, we came up with our exclusive online-merchandise startup named Startup Style. It is a one-stop solution, or you can say a dedicated platform for all the customized merchandise requirements of Startups, Bloggers, Marketers, Freelancers, etc.

From retail to bulk SS have a wide range of products like pens, t-shirts, notebooks, corporate gifting, and other essential coworking requirements. Me being a studious girl from a science background never heard the term "Entrepreneurship" till I entered college.

At the same time, my school friend, Anshumaan Vishnu, who was a computer fanatic since his childhood, was working on his startup which was a renowned college media portal in Delhi University and other universities.

When I heard about his startup, it interests me, and I started helping him out. After some time, I was clear with my passion and goal, and we decided to start something of our own, and that is how the journey originates.

2. How did you come up with this idea and go about executing it?

Anshuman and Me brainstormed a lot about what should we start with, which should be related to youth and must encourage them towards the startup ecosystem.

Because we were aware of the Indian Education system and we knew that students like us need career guidance and the right counseling to choose their profession.

We wanted them to think Entrepreneurship is also a career option and if by any chance they're going to drop out or want to start something of their own, they must know its all aspects. We wanted a unique and catchy name for this idea; thus, Dropout Dudes happened.

When we started Startup Style, there was no dedicated platform for startup founders, freelancers, bloggers, digital marketers, etc. from where they could get premium quality merchandise, specially curated for them at an affordable price. So we fulfilled that gap with Startup Style 1.5 years ago, and the rest is history.

3. What has been your biggest challenge that you faced, and how did you overcome that?

When we started Dropout Dudes, we were clear with our goal, but we found it challenging to convince people for the same as till now people only talk about success and not failures.

So we wanted to make people aware of the dark side of entrepreneurship and being a dropout so they can learn from others' mistakes. For that, we first understood our audience and their behavior, and then we curated content accordingly to aware of them in the best way.

While in Startup Style, the biggest challenge was for us to give people premium quality merchandise at an affordable price. For that, we have done lots of market research, we checked lots of fabric quality, talked to multiple vendors, and then came out with the best one.

We started with few designs and categories in the beginning, but we kept them Startups and Entrepreneurship centric. To do it full-time, we have to give our all the time in this venture, and I decided to leave my 9-5 job to follow my passion.

But the biggest challenge was to convince my parents for this and manage the funds. For that, I assured them that I want to do this so badly, and I will give them the salary by doing some freelance projects. Finally, they gave us a chance, and we gave us 100 percent to it.

4. What do you think are the most important qualities of a successful entrepreneur?

I think the most valuable qualities of a successful entrepreneur are:

A strong will power
Never give up attitude
Curiosity to learn new and productive skills
Kind and composed behavior towards the team members and the customers

When I came into the world of Entrepreneurship, I was very new to it. I learned a lot in my startup journey from my co-founder, my team, circumstances, and my failures.

One thing I learned is - it is very comforting to think about doing business or entrepreneurship, but when you actually do it, then only you know how tough the road is. Many times, it comes in your mind to give up on your dreams as nothing is working out.

But that is the time when you have to decide - to give up on everything or not. To sustain in the startup ecosystem, you must have a strong will power to face the failures and criticism. You have to be kind towards people, and you have to be composed while making any strategy to be successful.

5. What are some of the most important factors for running a successful business?

In my opinion, some of the most important factors for running a successful business are:

A problem-solving idea with complete market research and execution plan - It is easy to come up with a unique startup idea. To execute it properly, you must do your market research and learn from your competitors that how can you make this idea worth for your targeted audience in a fruitful way.
A team of like-minded and dedicated people who understand and supports your vision - It is not essential to have a big team. You can start with a small but dedicated one.
A never give up attitude towards failures and willingness to learn from your mistakes: If you don't have strong will power, you might end up losing too soon after a few failures.
Must-Have knowledge about the correct usage of Funds and Investments: Many startups fail because they don't know how to use their funds. They come up with the idea, start burning cash in the form of rewards, cashback, marketing, etc. without thinking about necessary investments and ends up shutting their businesses when the cash flow disrupts. To run a successful business, you must know when and where to invest.

6. What are your tips for the first time and aspiring entrepreneurs?

In the startup ecosystem, there are two kinds of people: One that will criticize you regarding your job or idea and the other who will support and guide you. If you want to enter in this ecosystem, you must be emotionally and mentally tough to face those people. Criticism is essential as it helps you to grow and improvise.
Don't start something because it is fancy or trend. Do it to create a difference.
If you don't know something, then learn about it. As an entrepreneur, you have to evolve yourself with time.
Don't wish for overnight success. Just work on your idea to make it successful. It is never easy to achieve success, but if you have the confidence and the will power to make things right, it will eventually happen.
Keep faith in yourself, your idea, and your team. Even if people are criticizing your idea, but you have enough confidence in it, make them believe in your idea through your work.

7. How can one overcome a hurdle of lack of funds when starting up?

Lack of Funds is one of the biggest challenges almost everyone faces initially in the startup ecosystem. Many times, aspiring entrepreneurs ask us that they have an idea, but they don't have funds to execute it.

In my opinion, before starting something, you must have a plan for the next 3-4 years. Start with small and then expand accordingly.

If you have some savings to start your venture, then it is best to start it as bootstrap. Do not invest all the money initially. Invest only where it is necessary and test the market. If you don't have savings initially, then it is better to pitch your idea to someone who can give you seed funding.

For that, there are multiple startup accelerators, incubators, government startup policies, and plans to help you out. Ask your friends, relatives, or family to invest some initial amount of funding in your startup which you can pay them later.

Never rely on a single income source instead try to make multiple ones so that you don't have to face a lack of funds. Try to learn some productive skills that can help you to maintain a sustainable income source.

Like in my case, I learned digital marketing which not only helped in the marketing of my brands online, but I also earn via freelance projects. When you have multiple income sources, you can think better and invest strategically to grow your business/startup.

- Divya Gupta

- Interviewed By: Anurag Jaiswal