"It's the Right Mindset That Makes a Successful Entrepreneur."

Want to become a writer at Eat My News? Here is an opportunity to join the Board of Young Leaders Program by Eat My News. Click here to know more: bit.ly/boardofyoungleaders

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

The Souled Store is everyone’s favorite friendly, neighborhood store. We are India’s largest online brand for official merchandise of all your favorite movies, TV shows, cartoons, and sports teams.

We create and curate stunning designs and print them on all sorts of equally stunning products - from t-shirts, shirts, hoodies, boxers to backpacks, mugs, pins, and many more.

Since we began in 2013, we have come a long way. Although we have grown from an online store to establishing our presence offline, our core values have remained the same. Our goal is to give our customers something they will love, something they can use to express themselves, and something to put a smile on their face.

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

The Souled Store was born on June 7, 2013, with a single intention - creating a one-stop destination for everything pop-culture. As pop-culture enthusiasts, my co-founders and I realized that there was no good and trustworthy outlet/website to shop for authentic fan merchandise in India.

The only options were sub-quality fakes or expensive imports from the US where this was a $ 100 billion industry. Thus, to solve this inefficiency and create this untapped opportunity in India, we came up with the idea of selling licensed merchandise in India at affordable rates.

We spent a few months refining and validating the idea. The three of us pooled in money from our very humble savings and got a basic e-commerce website done by a service company. We sold around 100 t-shirts within the first week.

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

When you start your own business, you have to be ready to face hundreds of challenges. Name an obstacle and we’ve faced it. From unprofessional business ethics by suppliers to fighting counterfeit merchandise - we have seen it all and worked our way around it.

Keeping the business afloat through the lockdown was a major challenge for us. Overnight the revenue went down to 0 but fixed costs didn’t. We were well geared up for the IPL and the summer which is the boom period for our category.

But just like every entrepreneur, we doubled down on our bets and took a business loan against personal guarantees. We’re literally all in just like we were when we started 7 years ago.

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

Most people think this is a skill set. Either coding or business management or something of that nature. It's none of this. It's the right mindset that makes a successful entrepreneur. You need to have a ”whatever it takes” attitude.

It’s the right frame of mind that makes a business agile in the face of adversities (and there will be many). The ability to look at things objectively and to use the passion as the fuel but not the decision-making process.

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

Number one would be unit economics. If your business cannot make a profit on every sale (keeping overheads aside in the beginning), or if you can’t see a clear path to profit on every sale, then is it even a business in the first place?

A lot of start-ups burn money on the wrong aspects copying the Amazon and Uber models. And the reason those models may have been successful is that they had to create deep behavioral changes that needed a cash burn to incentivize the consumer.

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

There are three things:

Build the right team. If I could go back and give advice to myself, investing in the right team earlier than later is the way to go. This will allow you to look at the big picture and less on the day today.
Unit economics. I check the profitability of the company on a daily basis and make sure that the correct changes are applied wherever possible.
Co-Founders. A lot of businesses break up or have friction because of the wrong co-founders. Find someone you can trust and someone who can question you with the right intentions in mind.

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

The first thing to remember that most businesses don’t require a huge investment right off the bat. In fact, that’s the approach that I think has given us success. We need to go big in anything. Start small, see if it makes sense, work out the kinks, and then go big.

Even today, if there’s a new category, a new idea, we always start small and follow the above process. So initially your focus should be to have a scalable, repeatable and profitable business model. Once you have that model in place, persistently aim to work on the same model on a daily basis.

Potential investors see a solid business giving you better valuation than a non proven model.

- Vedang Patel

Co-founder and Executive Director of The Souled Store

- Interviewed By: Anurag Jaiswal