Whimsia - An Entrepreneurial Journey (ISB Alum 2009)

Company: WHIMSIA CUSTOM WORKS (P) LTD.

Founder: Kunal Verma, Managing Director, Whimsia

Education:

MBA, ISB (Class of 2009)

Engineering, IIT (Roorkee)

Work Experience:

Texas Instruments

Aplion Networks

From the horse’s mouth:

If there is one thing I always wanted, it was a shot at doing something of my own. While this was always a thought there was no concrete action around it until my stay at ISB. I had gone into the MBA program thinking that I wanted to start something of my own and it took me several months of deliberation, primary market research and some soul searching to finally make the decision.

In December 2008, which was around Term five at ISB, I think, I had made up my mind that I am going to start out on my own. Dabbling with a few business ideas for a while helped me narrow it down to the idea of Customized Apparels and Merchandise for the Indian market. Several trips around the country meeting suppliers, potential partners and customers helped me understand things better.

WCED had started a program for helping entrepreneurs in their journey by supporting them in multiple ways through the EDI program. This was also a critical factor for me and I finally decided to take the plunge, applying to this program for support.

When Whimsia started, the idea was to have online retail combined with an offline sales channel. Some months of ground work and offline sales convinced me though, that it was better to postpone the online part for a while. Given the e-commerce readiness in our country, coupled with the investments required in technology, team and inventory, put some severe cost restrictions. Today, Whimsia creates and provides a wide range of customized apparels and merchandise to Companies, Colleges, event management firms and other clients that need such products in bulk quantities.

I had bootstrapped the business, starting with a paltry sum when I had done my first product order and I was soon able to multiply that number through offline sales. Early cash flows help when there is no external investment involved. There is always the dilemma of profit versus revenue in a bootstrapped business and one has to take a call as things progress. Working on low margins can starve a business for cash but high profitability means giving up some low margin sales. There are different management theories supporting either approach. For me, only one theory mattered: survival, followed by growth.

There are also external conditions that one has to factor in. In my case, it was the rising commodity and fuel prices which adversely affected my business in several ways. A typical month sees cycles of business development, managing operations, ensuring consistent quality levels, keeping costs low, managing finances and paying salaries.

The journey is long and rough but interesting and very fulfilling. While one has to plan ahead, you never know what lies in the distant future. The key point is to be an entrepreneur and not a slave to any particular business.