Think QUALITY T-shirts, think Inkfruit!

Promises are like crying babies in a theater, they should be carried out at once. So the geekonnet team is back to keep one of my promises.You must be wondering why i used geekonnet team. Yes, you are right I got a new partner to help me cope with the overwhelming response you guys have given me. Thanks a lot again.

Coming back to the point, I promised earlier to make a new elaborate column about Indian startups. I am delighted to inform that here is the first successful endeavor of the geekonnet team.

 Think QUALITY T-shirts, think Inkfruit!

Inkfruit is a place for people to submit, discover and buy amazing custom t-shirt designs created by artists from around the world. So if you feel any hidden designing talent within you, log onto www.inkfruit.com., know the current theme, start designing a t-shirt right now and submit your design. If you win, inkfruit will print your design on a T-shirt and you get 5 T-shirts free, to gift to your friends and family. In parallel your designed T-shirt will be launched in the market for online sale. The best and the most exciting part is that all the T-shirts will carry the name of the designer.

Yes, I am also as excited as you guys are and I too wanted to know more about the people behind inkfruit. So I grabbed the opportunity to write about the company as soon as I got a call from them. Here is an excerpt from the three hour conversation we had with one of the founders of inkfruit. I ask you all to hold your nerve and read through long post. You will definitely get benefited if you are thinking to have a venture of your own.

THE PERSON

Kashyap Dalal, Age 27

Civil Engineering, B.Tech.  I.I.T. Bombay, 2002

Master in Business administration I.I.M. Lucknow, 2004

Worked for Hindustan Lever Limited (2004-2006) 

Q&A

We (The Geeks): How did you get the idea to start inkfruit?
Kashyap (The Fruit): We (I and Navneet) went off to watch a movie. I was wearing a Tantra T-shirt. So was the person sitting next to me .. This kind of started off one of our bitchin sessions about not getting any exclusive t-shirts in India. Thats how we started thinking about doing something in this space. How we came up on the exact model is quite a long story .. 

The Geeks: How long have you been in business?
The Fruit: We left our jobs around Dec 2007. Since then we've been working on Inkfruit. 

The Geeks: What is your niche market?

The Fruit: We offer t-shirts with outstanding graphics created by the best designers across the world. This is through an online design competition where we have regular participation from the best in the design world. Owing to the diversity of the design contributors, our collection offers something for everyone! There is a very high probability that everyone will like something at Inkfruit. Buying a Great T-shirt is not an accident anymore. 

The Geeks: Who are your competitors?
The Fruit: In the Offline space, players like Pepe, Lee, Tantra etc. Internationally, players like threadless, designbyhumans, splittheatoms, etc. Within India we have sites like Myntra and Pringoo who deal in customized t-shirts. There is some overlap with them as well. 

The Geeks: How do you differentiate your products from that of others?

The Fruit: Our key differentiator is our model of involving customers in the design process. We have people from all over the world designing for us and thousands of people vote on the submissions. This ensures that the t-shirts launched under Inkfruit are the best designs ever! We are dedicated to promoting the artists behind these great designs as well by recognizing them on the t-shirt.

The Geeks: How do you advertise your product?
The Fruit: We mainly do this through helping our users spread the word about their designs. So if you have your design selling on Inkfruit, you can send across mails to others about your T-shirt available for sale. We also do relevant offline activities like being present at relevant college fests etc.

The Geeks: What obstacles have you overcome?
The Fruit: Starting a company is quite an interesting experience. Small things like registering the company are quite tricky in India - we were stuck with the wrong guy doing it for us and stretched on for like 3 months! Its actually been a series of minor obstacles that we have overcome over the last year and a half. Can't think of any that would be fun to talk about. :)

The Geeks: What are the rewards of owing own business over a nine to five job?
The Fruit: The two scenarios are not even comparable! The amount of involvement you have with your own business is Complete in every sense. The line between professional and personal life kind of thins away. And the thrill you experience on overcoming obstacles and celebrating good news is much more intense!

The Geeks: What background skills, knowledge and experiences help you in your business?
The Fruit: Having worked in Levers, the nuts and bolts of sales and marketing were already known to me. This surely helped. Apart from that Navneet had experience in operations which helped a lot as well. But apart from these, starting a new company is a lot about applying common sense and just taking things as they come.

The Geeks: Are there ways you could use technology to improve your business?
The Fruit: Definitely. We are completely focused on improving the user experience on the website by doing innovative things. One thing we are working on is to give our customers sms alerts about their order on our website to track the shipment. We are also working on social media applications to help our users stay more connected.

The Geeks: How many retail outlets do you have and where are they?
The Fruit: We have already started 3 retail outlets in Bandra, Churchgate and Colaba in Mumbai.

The Geeks: Considering that a similar e-Commerce website called billoreilly.com was hacked recently how much security for credit card information etc. are you providing for your customer?
The Fruit: Our online transactions are managed by ccavenue which is presently the most secure transaction gateway. Inkfruit does not store your credit card or online bank account information . So hacking doesn’t seem a problem for us.

The Geeks: Where do you want to see yourself 5 years down the line?
The Fruit: Well, that is tough one to answer. 5 years down the line we want to see a range of products (tshirts, posters, bags) under Inkfruit. If things go well we hope to launch exclusive inkfruit stores at select locations.

The Geeks: Any suggestions for future entrepreneur?

The Fruit: I'm sure you have heard this before - but succeeding in starting a company is all about great execution and quick execution. We have learnt it the hard way that quality and speed of execution are most important. You can't compromise either one! Apart from this, holding your nerve at the right times is important too. Every startup goes through a phase where things will took mighty tough - you just have to walk through it and do your best.

If you have any suggestions for inkfruit feel free to pour in your valuables. Write as comment both positive and negative views about Inkfruit. I will forward your comments and suggestions to the owner of the website. And yes If you think that I am missing something if you wanted to know about the venture mail me/comment your questions.  My email ID is ranjeet@geekonnet.com. I will try to include those questions in the forth coming interviews.

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