The answer to 'the ultimate question of Life, the Universe and Everything’? - 42. Anyone who has read the cult classic 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' (if you haven't yet read it please do, you can thank me later) knows the recurring theme of 42 in the book.
42 (age) was the answer to my recurring itch to start something of my own, where I could put my ideas to test (without corporate silos or stepping on toes), where merit trumps perception and where you are wholly and truly accountable. Luckily my co-founder (and Life partner Vaishnavi Sarma) shared the same idea.
It's been exactly six months since our startup Orange Espresso (orangeespresso.in) went live, a design based and wellness focused stationery and lifestyle brand (and no the letters 'a' and 'i' in stationery don’t stand for AI, though that might help with valuation 😄). We started work on the startup only in end July 2024 and full time only after my last day at my previous org on 31st August.
However the real start for us was 5th November when we launched our D2C website - everything before we actually started selling to the public was just theory and hypothesis.
While there are many posts on entrepreneurship journeys, a few observations from my side as a middle aged entrepreneur (coincidently I turn 43 today):
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If you want to start something just do it, stop thinking / talking about it (to yourself, to others). Better to have tried and learned (I don't say failed because if you have learned something new, its never failure) than not try at all in fear that you wont succeed.
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As an entrepreneur you trade certainty (or as my fellow entrepreneur friend Anurag Yadav says, Illusion of certainty) for freedom. I am now relatively poorer but free 🙂. I now realize that freedom is much more beautiful than a company car and free fuel.
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The best thing is no one to tell you what to do. The worst thing is no one to tell you what to do.
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While it always makes sense to do what you know (ie start something in the industry you have worked in for many years - in my case auto), its far scarier and much more fun to dive into something you have never done before - in our case D2C retail.
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There is no average day for an early stage entrepreneur; one day you are on top of the world (so many orders!) then next day you’re in the Sahara desert wondering why you left your cushy corporate job! Entrepreneurship teaches you the need for emotional balance like nothing will.
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To build something meaningful and beautiful takes time, the biggest problem is your cash pile doesn’t have that much time. Running out of runway (esp if you don’t believe in scaling through perpetual discounts) is every startup’s nightmare and is ours as well.
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Patience with results, Impatience with action, is key. We waited for 57 days for our first ‘Stranger’ customer (someone who didn’t know us from any past interaction) and then suddenly in the next two months we covered 20 of India’s 30 states with our products.
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You will learn depth like nothing else, whether it’s the intricacies of logistics, building your tech stack (and know when to say no to the million SAAS guys who will chase you with their solutions), managing irate customers (you cannot just ‘delegate’ it to your customer care team here – you are customer care) or managing your ever dwindling finances
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In corporate you die 5 days and live during the weekends – half your time goes in travelling to and from work. In entrepreneurship you live and die everyday – I willingly work on all 7 days – but its my choice and my time – I sometimes go for movies on Wednesday afternoon 😊.
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You will realize who are your true supporters (among both family and friends) when you embark on this journey especially for a business that is so 'simple' and 'small' as stationery. As long as we meet our purpose of helping our customers finding their balance (much needed in this crazy world) and express joy through design, we will be fine.
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Starting up has been the most intense experience for both of us - managing as a nuclear family with a 5 year old is not easy but is immensely rewarding especially when my 5 year old 'creates' his own brand called 'Mango Espresso' (I even had to design a logo for it ) and tells us about his imaginary shipping issues with company x (a pre IPO platform which has pathetic customer service).
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Played well, you can get the best work life balance despite being always ‘ON’. You get to pick up and drop your kid to school, the best time to bond with your kid (all those stories of the school day), you can attend all the school functions without guilt and always be there for your kid. One of the biggest perks of being your own boss.
All said and done entrepreneurship will give you the highest highs and the lowest lows in your professional life but will be (and is) the most satisfying part of your professional life. Why do I keep saying professional life? – because life is not only work but so much more.
To conclude, what I have learnt is ‘life is not what happens to you, it’s what you make of it’.