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The Serial Founder | Hitesh Dhingra @ The Man Company
166 Plays4 years ago
“It pays to stay authentic and talk to millennials in the language they understand” - Hitesh Dhingra.
Hitesh Dhingra is the founder of The Man Company - an exclusive men’s only grooming brand. He is a 4x Entrepreneur who has been a pioneer across various industries. Right from starting an eCommerce site, a dating site & now The Man Company, Hitesh has a proven track record of identifying unmet consumer needs and capturing the early adopters market.
In this episode of Founder Thesis, our hosts Akshay & Saurabh are in conversation with Hitesh to learn more about what it takes to capture the millennial market.
Key takeaways from the show:
- How to bootstrap and save resources.
- Generating VF Funding.
- How to connect with the Millenial consumers.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Founder Thesis Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
HD Smartcast You are listening to an HD Smartcast original
00:00:23
Speaker
Hi, I'm Akshay. Hi, this is Aurob. And you are listening to the Founder Thesis Podcast. We meet some of the most celebrated sort of founders in the country. And we want to learn how to build a unicorn. Hitesh Tingra. A lot of you are wondering, who is Hitesh Tingra? And we have never heard of him before. But he is a pioneer.
00:00:51
Speaker
He started an e-commerce website alongside Flipkart and eventually that venture got sold to Flipkart.
Hitesh Tingra's Early Entrepreneurial Influences
00:01:00
Speaker
He started a dating site in a country full of matrimonial sites way before Tinder entered the country. And his current venture is a direct-to-consumer brand targeting men. Here's the fascinating journey of Itesh Dhingra.
00:01:21
Speaker
So Hitesh, the first thing which we want to understand. Entrepreneurship, you know, is it by design or by accident? And do you remember about your childhood and if there were signs of it?
00:01:44
Speaker
Well, I think Bachpan say, obviously I never thought that I'll be an entrepreneur. I wanted to be a pilot while growing up, so took non-med and all that stuff. But then I always saw my parents. So my mother has been a banker for almost 40-45 years. My father was working with IFCO in a marketing department.
00:02:08
Speaker
They used to plan, be it in real estate or I think I must be 10 years old and they were planning to set up a factory to manufacture pens. So they were doing a lot of R&D, etc.
00:02:22
Speaker
But beyond that, I never thought honestly that I'll be an entrepreneur.
Experience at ESYS and Learning the Industry
00:02:30
Speaker
I was super excited by the startup ecosystem as well, at least.
00:02:44
Speaker
So within four years, they became a billion dollar revenue business operating in 30-35 countries. So I was super excited to see their growth chart.
00:03:02
Speaker
I think in my mind, I knew my limitations. My parents won't be able to fund my project or at least I need to earn, pay them back and then probably over a period of time start something on my own.
00:03:26
Speaker
So I think it took me almost three, four years to kind of take my first leap into a startup world. So from campus you joined ESYS. So tell me about that journey. So ESYS was the, I still remember 13 company to visit the campus, right? And I didn't appear for first 12 companies because I wanted to give my 100% and then join ESYS. I was, I think, too excited by their journey.
00:03:55
Speaker
and especially knowing that all the founders were from my MBS to school. So I waited for that company. Fortunately, I went through. I got a job, joined them in June 2004 in their Delhi office. But within a month and a half, they decided to move me to Singapore, which was their headquarters. To Singapore, I think 60, 70 people were working in that headquarter.
00:04:24
Speaker
And I had to interact with almost all of them on a daily basis. So Chivo Finance, so Yateco, so Easez was an IT distribution company. And that time, they were working on a project to launch their private label, desktop and laptops. I even learned how to assemble a laptop or a desktop.
00:04:49
Speaker
The first project was built in the factory, so it was built in basement. I assembled 50 laptops and we kind of supplied it to a retailer in the UK. So I think it had an amazing experience there.
00:05:04
Speaker
I was working very closely with the founders, the CEO. And I think that kind of played foundation of getting into entrepreneurship. So I could understand that emotional roller coaster, right, that he was going through because working closely with them. And that kind of prepared me, right. And Jovokita, MBAK, I think that started booming, right. So that started giving me courage. Now I think I can probably take a risk of getting it full time into entrepreneurship.
Return to India and Role at Kwasa Media
00:05:34
Speaker
So, what happened say around 2006? Yes, in 2006, I had to move back to India for personal reasons. My father was really unwell. One of my friends from my college days, he was starting an online advertising agency called Kwasa Media. So, they just started it. So, he started with his boss Manish, which
00:05:57
Speaker
And he mentioned about it. I got excited because of the online advertising and plus a startup. So instead of looking for a job, I had a bit of saving. Let me give it a try for six months and let's see.
00:06:15
Speaker
So I joined them as a founding member. The Vahape, I was managing a lot of affiliate marketing. I didn't know anything about online advertising. So for first three, four months, I just learned how it works, how Google makes money. So I did a lot of affiliate marketing for hotel.com, booking.com, just to understand the ecosystem here. ROI, Kaseyota, KAT, Kaseyota, LTV, Kaseyota, etc.
00:06:40
Speaker
And I think, so that's when we decided that we can probably set up, we wanted to set up a contextual advertising network in India. And I took the lead and started Tyru, which still exists. It's an online advertising network.
00:06:55
Speaker
So just in simple language, what is a contextual advertising network? So contextual advertising means, let's say, as a brand, as a men's grooming brand, we identify, let's say, 100 keywords. Could be grooming, could be beard, beard growth, anti-dandruff. I mean, we identify 100 keywords. And as a brand, I would like to show my ad to wherever these keywords appear.
00:07:24
Speaker
So, as an ad network, we had more than 1000 publishers, including bloggers. It was a self-serving, right? So, we had advertisers target the keywords, identify the keywords, and identify the keywords.
00:07:49
Speaker
So it is exactly the same way like what Google does, right? So we thought we could be the first one to kind of lead the way and especially targeting SMEs, educating them. So that's what we did.
00:08:05
Speaker
Okay. So then what next? I think after working with Tyru for almost one and a half, for two years, one day I met my boss from ISIS, right? And I met him to pitch Tyru for their business. And he mentioned that e-commerce, USMaze is booming like anything. So these were
00:08:39
Speaker
So we can do it together. So we ended up joining back ISIS to help them in setting up their e-commerce.
Setting Up E-commerce and Challenges at ESYS
00:08:46
Speaker
So we started with Singapore because it was headquartered in a small country. So we were kind of the first e-commerce site after Dell in Singapore too. So this was in 2006, 2007.
00:08:55
Speaker
few e-commerce companies focusing on electronics.
00:09:01
Speaker
And so I obviously helped them in setting things up there. Then India, we launched e-commerce in seven countries. And in couple of countries, it started doing well. So India, Singapore, Malaysia, it started doing really well.
00:09:19
Speaker
ran it for almost three, three and a half years, but then ESIS got into bad shape. I think they had some, I think legal issue with one of their partners or Oski, where they say their complete working capital got blocked and they decided to just focus on their core business. And that also, I think they started, I mean, packing up in a lot of countries. So as a result, obviously, I mean, we had to shut down that business within ESIS.
00:09:46
Speaker
But because I was too confident about e-commerce opportunity in India, I thought, I mean, this was more of an accident, but I thought this could be the right time to continue the momentum and start something on my own.
Launching Let's Buy and Initial Challenges
00:10:00
Speaker
So that's what I think gave me an idea for Let's Buy. So launch Let's Buy in 2009, July. So what was the original idea with which you launched Let's Buy and how did it evolve?
00:10:10
Speaker
So Lesba launched this in LA, I think India made an e-commerce ecosystem. So there were a few sites like eBay, India Time Shopping, India Plaza, but all of them were marketplaces, right? So especially electronics, laptops, these are expensive buy, right? So you want to be sure that you want to be sure that you want to be sure that you want to be sure that you want to be sure that you want to be sure that you want to be sure that you want to be sure that you want to be sure
00:10:34
Speaker
But because existing platforms were marketplaces, they never had any control over the inventory. What is being sold? So Blackberry phones were open without warranty, right? So there were a lot of customer issues. So let's buy an idea. We will work directly with the brand owners.
00:10:51
Speaker
or their authorized distributors, right? So, we won't really become a marketplace. So, it was more of a stock and sell model. We used to get the order. We used to either procure it from let's say Samsung or their distributor and then ship it to the customer. But every product was going through our warehouse, right? Which made sure quality here, warranty here, CD pack here, product proper here.
00:11:15
Speaker
So that's what we did. And we started working with, I think it required a lot of effort because we, as an e-commerce company, mandate the e-commerce company. So it was just like in the US and India. So we had to convince a lot of these players to give us some exclusive products. So I remember Samsung's new Corby launch which was their first smartphone.
00:11:37
Speaker
So we ran a pre-order on Let's Buy and it was a huge success. So after that, Samsung also kind of got confidence. So that's how we started. And I think we kind of bootstrapped it for one and a half years. After that, obviously we raised our first round and I think grew from 70 lakhs a month to almost 28, 30 crores a month within a span of 12 months.
00:12:01
Speaker
So when you started Let's Buy in 2008, I imagine at that time, none of the ecosystem would have existed the way it existed today, be it payment gateway, be it logistic support. So how did you manage all these challenges? What were the key takeaways from it? I still remember our website was about to launch. So we had a launch date, I think somewhere in August 2009.
00:12:27
Speaker
but payment gateway was still not integrated because ICSA was taking time. So I had to sit at their office for two days just to get the payment gateway up. And I pleaded with them, Kia, we have a deadline, we have to go live because there were some commitments made to some of the partners like Samsung, Microsoft, et cetera. And after sitting at their office for almost 10 hours a day for two days, I managed to get the payment gateway up.
00:12:53
Speaker
Even logistics, I still remember that time I used to stay in Kirti Nagar, West Delhi, and our office was in Patel Nagar. So any order from West Delhi, I used to carry it in my car and kind of deliver it. So I think that's what we did. What really worked well for us, and it was kind of a blessing in this guy. Because we were bootstrapping, I didn't have much salary to pay. I ended up hiring a lot of people, management trainees from tier two MBA institutes like Amity, APJ, et cetera.
00:13:23
Speaker
right and these guys i mean they didn't have any ego i mean they they wanted to work they wanted to learn i could mold them the way i wanted and they were working about 12 15 hours a day right so it was a small team of 12 13 people but i think they were giving it all right and that really worked for us as as a bootstrap company i think that that was probably the
00:13:45
Speaker
Vice's decision I made to hire freshers from tier two institutes. And I think even after that, I mean, in my all my ventures, I made sure that I continue to do that. So we don't prefer people from IITs. We give priority to people from tier two institutes who are more hungry, right and who don't have so they
00:14:06
Speaker
will not probably switch jobs for a few thousand or a few lakhs. If you're from IMS, you have an opportunity cost. So if startup is not doing well, it is for the people from TO1 Institute who start looking out for a job because they have a good opportunity cost.
00:14:23
Speaker
So, I want to understand more how you bootstrapped an e-commerce company. I mean, e-commerce companies need a lot of capital for customer acquisition and so on. So, how did you manage to get customers? How did you manage to build up your order pipeline?
Scaling Let's Buy with Funding and High Capital Burn
00:14:36
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, so, I think, I think it was time.
00:14:40
Speaker
Because we were not burning much capital, so when we started Let's Buy, for first one and a half years, we were actually profitable. So, we were not really bleeding.
00:15:00
Speaker
But then obviously, we realize over a period of time here, if you have to scale up, then obviously, the acquisition cost goes up because then you need to advertise, you need to offer discounts. And that's a never ending story, right? So even today, I mean, none of the e-commerce player is profitable because they keep burning money, right?
00:15:19
Speaker
But that time I think I was running it more as a business, right? And I was very, very particular that we don't bleed while scaling up. So I think before we raised Series A, we were kind of profitable. So tell us about the funding journey. How did that happen?
00:15:37
Speaker
So it was an interesting thing. So I think before Lesbah, I never interacted with a VC. I think it was somewhere in 2010, June, I got a cold call from this VC saying, I am an investor in Make My Trip and I've recently invested in Flipkart. And now I'm looking for an e-commerce venture in electronic space.
00:16:02
Speaker
And I would be interested to meet up with you. And I'm planning to travel to India in a couple of weeks. So I would love to catch up with you. And that call was from Leaf Excel, right? So who was, I mean, that time with the Tiger Global.
00:16:17
Speaker
So he visited us. He really liked what we were doing, but he thought that we are too small for him. So he had introduced us to Axel, right? So Prashant and Subrata at Axel. And in parallel, so Manishvit, who was my ex-boss, so he had Angel invested in Let's Buy. So he, through his connection, introduced us to Hillyon.
00:16:41
Speaker
So we were talking to both Hillion and Axel, and both of them decided to kind of write a check, series A, four odd million in Let's Buy. And over a period of time, because business was scaling up month on month, so Tiger also decided to write a two million check. So our series A we concluded in December 2010, and it was six million from Tiger, Hillion, Axel, all three of them participating equally.
00:17:10
Speaker
So that's when Amanpreet joined onboard. So Amanpreet and I were college mates and that time he was working with E&Y, just got married. So he was a bit hesitant to join a startup, a pre-funding state. So he decided to join once we got a term sheet signed from all the investors. And I think 2011 was our great year for Let's Buy. I mean, we grew from 70, 75 lakhs monthly revenue to almost 28, 29 crore monthly revenue.
Acquisition by Flipkart and Lessons Learned
00:17:38
Speaker
In one year, from a 12-13 people team to almost 450 people team, so hired more than a person a day. We were probably the most covered e-commerce startup in that particular year. So I think we were doing exceptionally well, but then obviously we were burning a lot more capital as well.
00:18:00
Speaker
But just because business was doing well, there was a lot of inbound interest from private equity and VCs to participate in the round. So in fact, we kind of signed the term sheet with three new investors, including three existing investors. This was in 2011.
00:18:17
Speaker
July-August time, and it was supposed to be a $42.5 million round at $120-130 million pre-valuation. So it was a good jump from where we were a year back, and three market investors. But then one of the investors wanted us to shift our base from India to Singapore because they had a global mandate whatsoever, and that consumed almost three months' time period.
00:18:45
Speaker
And even though they had given us the first ranch of 6 million because it was a Diwali period and we really needed working capital. But because it took three months, this particular VC had invested in a similar e-commerce company in China.
00:19:05
Speaker
And within three weeks, I mean, three weeks or a month, the valuation went down to $2.5 billion, right? So China may e-commerce companies started facing this headwind, right? As a result, this VC decided to kind of pull off from their investment in Let's Buy. And they pulled off from a lot of e-commerce investments during that period in India.
00:19:32
Speaker
Right. And because he was a market investor, so obviously the other investors also got jittery, right? Or so we were going through a very, I think, stressful phase at that point in time. And Lee was traveling to India. So I still remember meeting. So they had a Flipkart board meeting in in Delhi. So Lee and Prashant, so we met him at Lihach and Akhipuri, both me, Amanpreet, and even I think Manish was there.
00:20:00
Speaker
And Lee mentioned that, why don't you talk to Sachin and Binny, they are traveling to Delhi. And it could be an interesting proposition for you guys as well. And they also had mentioned to Lee's somewhere back in time that we would be interested in evaluating acquisition of Let's Buy. So that time they just got into electronics and we were kind of neck to neck in terms of numbers.
00:20:26
Speaker
So immediately after that meeting, we went to meet Sachin and Bini. We had a dinner with them. So I think after a hour long meeting, we kind of decided this could be the right option. So it didn't take much time. So from that meeting, I think within a week's time, everything was kind of close in terms of valuation, in terms of agreement, everything.
00:20:47
Speaker
So yeah, so that was a, I think, I mean, a completely roller coaster ride because from bootstrap to probably 150 crore revenue run rate to kind of selling off the company, right? So it was a good learning experience. I mean, two and a half, three years. What were the lessons from the exit? And there are a lot of cases where most founders are not happy with post exit scenarios. The commitments are not lived up to. Did something like that happen here or, you know, was it all smooth?
00:21:16
Speaker
No, I think it was all smooth. Look, so what we realized was, obviously, I think there's always a hope that we will get better in the future. So, for example, I think we decided that we are near Amantit because that time Flipkart was kind of valued at billion dollars. So, let's cash out. Because one of our investors, existing investors, said that we are already getting better in the future. Now, the existing investors didn't have an option to cash out.
00:21:46
Speaker
invested in Flipkart and Hillyon after I think two three years exited at 150 crores right so from what they invested in let's buy so you never know I think this is always a scope but then I think for a first venture it was a decent exit for both me and Amanpreet and I think more than the cash amount I think it was immense learning right and I think as an individual
00:22:13
Speaker
Obviously, we realized the importance of having a co-founder, having a solid board, having a mentor like Manish.
Post-Exit Exploration and New Ventures
00:22:21
Speaker
I think there was immense learning for us. Baki valuation, year down the line, Mintra got acquired, similar numbers, but valuation was almost $300 million, and they raised a lot more capital than Let's Buy It than Ferdinand Time.
00:22:37
Speaker
So, you never know about these things because then there was on the other side, there was Yebi, again had raised a lot more capital than Let's Buy or even Fashion and You and they got shut down without any acquisition or any value for the stakeholders. So, at least I think the biggest satisfaction we had was that we could
00:22:57
Speaker
deliver good returns for the investors, all the stakeholders and obviously the founders and the co-team, I mean of 12-13 people, the initial members, they also made some money. So this was around 2011. This was 2012 early. So then 2012 you have a big chunk of cash with you of post the exit, what did you do after that?
00:23:21
Speaker
So I got the cash after six months because there was a financial due diligence and audit and everything. But I took a sabbatical. I took a year-long sabbatical because I didn't really want to... Did your lifestyle change post that since, you know, obviously... Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Because I think when we were running Let's Buy, both me and Aman were spending almost 14-15 hours a day
00:23:44
Speaker
at office. So, I think every week, there were days when we were leaving office at 1.30, 2 o'clock in the night and back at 8 o'clock in the morning. And our office was in South Delhi and both of us used to stay in West Delhi. After the deal, we realised that we were also burning out.
00:24:06
Speaker
doing it consistently and at the scale that we grew, I think it was kind of hampering our health and mental peace as well. So it took us a battle. I think traveled to at least 10-12 countries in that one year, some with family, some without family as well because my wife that time was working.
00:24:29
Speaker
So that gave me a lot of time to think about my next venture. I started meeting people, I mean, started meeting my investor friends, my fellow entrepreneurs, and I think that kind of obviously helped me in clearing my thoughts, clearing my mind in terms of what I want to do next.
00:24:52
Speaker
In that phase, I ended a meeting Sachin Bhatia. Sachin was co-founder of Make My Trip. He had also exited at that point in time. He was looking for his next thing.
00:25:02
Speaker
So we started evaluating a few business models and realized that matchmaking is one model which hasn't been disrupted in last 10, 15 years. So that gave us an idea about Truly Madly, launching Truly Madly. Yeah, so Rahul that time was leading a product for Make My Trip. So yeah, so we decided to kind of incubate Truly Madly with Rahul leading it. On the other side, I met Parvesh. So Parvesh is my family friend.
00:25:30
Speaker
and now co-founder of the Mann company. He has been in this business of manufacturing and packaging of beauty and cosmetics products for almost last 20 years. When I started meeting him, discussing with him, the gross margin in this category kind of excited me.
00:25:48
Speaker
So in electronics, we were working at 10, 12% and here you work at 70, 80% gross margins, right? So I thought there could be some interesting game here as well. So again, got Bisham who was my school friend and he was part of Let's Buy team as well. Got him on board to kind of lead, not the man company, but that time we were, we started with the perfume business. So we were buying perfume from Pervicious company and then obviously selling it online, offline.
00:26:18
Speaker
So just to understand the market, right? So even at that point in time, and we started within the same office. So I was working with both the teams, but I was not really full time involved with either of them. So once the Truly Madly got launched, and we decided to raise capital, so Hylian and K capital, they came on board and Hylian wanted me and Sachin to be on board full time.
Co-Founding Truly Madly and Market Focus
00:26:43
Speaker
So that's when we decided to get full-time on Truly Madly. So ran it for three years. So tell me more about Truly Madly. Why did you decide on a dating site for India when, you know, the traditional mindset is fairly prevalent in India and there were already big players in the matrimonial space. So what was the...
00:27:04
Speaker
Yeah, so I think thesis was very simple. That time, I mean, obviously, there was Shadi, Bharat Mehtrimani, Jeevan Sati all doing well. But they were primarily desktop focused matchmaking site. And especially in case of girls, it was mostly the parents who were managing profile of girls on these sites, right?
00:27:25
Speaker
And whereas I think the ecosystem had evolved, right? So a lot of women want to take control of their own life, at least when it comes to choosing a right partner. So we thought it could be the right time to build something which is slightly before finding a marriage partner, right? I mean slightly before that, more around serious dating, right? Or a relationship platform where the profiles are authenticated.
00:27:52
Speaker
So we had a social plugin to verify each and every profile, which kind of gives credibility to the platform and women feel secure because they know that all the profiles are kind of verified on this platform. So we used to reject almost 10-15% profile because they were fake. So there was a team kind of verifying each and every profile.
00:28:13
Speaker
So we realize that if we provide this safe environment, if we make it more relationship oriented, which is beyond caste, creed, etc, it could be relevant for today's times.
00:28:25
Speaker
So, first two and a half years, Prulimali did really well. We ended up getting almost half a million database with a healthy men-as-to-women ratio because I think that was the biggest challenge for any matchmaking or dating site in India. There were 90-95% men and 5-7% women. So, I think we at least ended up getting 70-30 ratio. So, in that sense, the engagement rate was pretty high and
00:28:51
Speaker
We ended up creating a great brand around it. What was the revenue model? So that time, I think for first two, two and a half years, it was only advertising, right? So we didn't really have subscription and we wanted to add subscription once we cross a million database. So yeah, so I think we ended up creating a great brand.
00:29:11
Speaker
But then obviously, Tinder launched in India to kind of, they barged into our party, I mean, spoil the game in a way, right? Spending heavily on Bollywood, etc, getting a lot of celebs on board. And I think the virality around Tinder was way too high, right, especially in metros.
00:29:34
Speaker
So we realized that probably we were underestimating the demographics. I think people were comfortable in even hooking up, right? And we were, I think in our mind, still, I think wanted to create a safe haven for like, I mean, especially girls when it comes to finding someone.
00:29:55
Speaker
Tinder kind of disrupted the market for us, right? And we couldn't really raise the next round because I think everyone started comparing the numbers with the Tinder numbers without really looking at the engagement metrics or the brand authenticity, right? So, truly, my list is still doing well, but I think we realized that probably the scale that we were envisioning was kind of far-fetched.
Venturing into Men's Grooming with Mann Company
00:30:22
Speaker
All three of us realized that I think scale is not exciting for us to be on full time. So we ended up getting 25, 30 year olds to kind of run the show. And all of us are now obviously I'm in ventured out into something else. So I've been running man company for the last four years. Satchin started a company called Bulbul which is video shopping. And Rahul has got into healthcare insurance space. So he'll be launching his product soon.
00:30:50
Speaker
Okay. So tell us about the man-company journey and you already gave us a little bit of background about how you started a perfume business. So just expand from there. So what happened?
00:31:02
Speaker
Yeah, so I think when we started perfume business, so we were trying to sell it online and offline or both me and Bisham kind of traveled from Jammu to Kanyakumari just to understand the offline channel space as well. You have luxury perfumes right, which you get it at airport or modern trade.
00:31:30
Speaker
So, we wanted to launch something in mass premium space. It is very difficult to kind of change their mindset. So, unless you have a strong pull for the brand, it's very difficult to crack offline distribution in India.
00:31:57
Speaker
So I think that gave us inside key our offline touch a lobby hoini sakta that is I mean we don't have learning we understand e-commerce better Let's focus only on e-commerce now If we had to focus only on e-commerce just selling perfume it was going to be very very nice, right? So we had to obviously broaden up the category
00:32:16
Speaker
The Ustaim, I started traveling with Parvesh to different exhibitions. Cosmo Profo Thea, Bologna Me in Italy and then Hong Kong. Then there were a few exhibitions in Turkey, Dubai.
00:32:28
Speaker
The bahape I realised here, I travelled with him for two years, I mean, some six, seven exhibitions. And with every exhibition I realised here, first exhibition, probably there was one brand, Koryase, Joki, Men's Grooming Betrata. But everything else was focused on women, so no one was even talking about men.
00:32:47
Speaker
But over a period of one, one and a half years, I realized that the percentage of men's cosmetics or grooming companies were kind of increasing. I mean, still not substantial. I think February was 95% yoga. But then at least they were increasing, right? And this was while truly madly was you were still running that in parallel. You did this or this was after?
00:33:10
Speaker
No, no, this was before me getting into Truly Madly. So, the back of the mind, because we knew that there was a perfume on the back of the mind.
00:33:20
Speaker
So obviously, I think, but we were not convinced. So when I decided to kind of move on from truly madly, I started spending a lot more time with the team here, without committing, I'll come full-time on board. But at least I started working very closely with Visham to figure out the strategy.
00:33:50
Speaker
Premium men's grooming essential could be one space. It was still very, very niche, but it was a risk worth taking up. Because, if a brand is in India, if a head-to-toe man is targeting only men, then it's worth it.
00:34:08
Speaker
There were few brands selling deodorants, few brands selling whitening creams or talcum powders or shaving, but no one was catering to complete head-to-toe range. Second, buying decision was primarily taken by women of the house, right?
00:34:29
Speaker
They used to buy products. And you end up using the same soap, same body wash, same shampoo that your wife or sister or anyone else in the house is using. So we realize that convenience could be one factor. So if we launch the website using a lot of content, which becomes like a grooming buddy for you. You can search for it, search for it, search for it, search for it. Be it the lifestyle changes, be it the intake of more water, etc. And plus, you can never apply. You can never apply. There's a man company.
00:34:58
Speaker
So that was the kind of strategy and vision that we came up with. So yeah, so that was the reason. So then we started working on the product. So we obviously realized packaging should be Instagram friendly.
Marketing Strategies for Millennials
00:35:15
Speaker
So people should, because men generally don't share anything right about what they are using, especially when it comes to personal care. But we wanted it to be a shareable and get that virality around the brand.
00:35:28
Speaker
So we made the packaging Instagram friendly. We made the ingredient which were obviously there's a high perception here. It's a good quality product. So we don't use sulphate paraben. We only use essential oil. So no artificial fragrances, etc. So all those things kind of obviously delivers a right packaging, right product. And
00:35:49
Speaker
even though it looks super premium luxury, but the pricing is still affordable, right? So pricing kind of surprises the customer. And we believe that's been one of the things that really worked in our favor in last four years.
00:36:02
Speaker
Okay. And how has the turnover grown over the years? We've been growing almost 250 to 300% year on year. So this year, I think we should close at almost 90 odd crores of revenue, right? And if you compare it with last year, we close at around 22, 23 crores, right? So almost more than 300% growth this year over last year.
00:36:28
Speaker
And how to pitch your venture to VCs? Is there a way in which VCs look at pitches? What is the best way to get good quality VCs to back you?
00:36:39
Speaker
Look, so I think as an entrepreneur, one of the biggest qualities you should have is storytelling, right? As long as you have a very clear vision, and you know how to communicate that vision, right? I think that's what matters. Because the early stages may have numbers. But what I think VCs or any angel investor are looking for is clarity of your vision.
00:37:07
Speaker
And your story telling capability, right? At least I mean, in terms of your vision, right? Final result, you never know. But at least in terms of your vision, you should be very clear. Here, this is what you're trying to achieve. And you need to convince VCs or any investor on your vision. I think that is the biggest capability you need to have.
00:37:33
Speaker
So Hitesh, you've always been ahead of the curve in terms of targeting millennials or young early adopters, be it in electronics or dating or now in grooming. So what are your lessons for other founders who may be looking to cater to a similar audience of young early adopters, millennials? Right.
00:37:55
Speaker
I think I've realized you need to understand your target audience really, really well, right? Especially if you are building a product service for them, you need to know each and everything about them. So I strongly advise everyone to spend a lot of time in understanding your consumer.
00:38:15
Speaker
and understanding their need. So a lot of times consumer might not be able to tell you, but then that's something that you need to do as an entrepreneur. Figure out how can you make his life
00:38:33
Speaker
simple, right? How can you kind of remove some of his pain points, which he probably doesn't even realize exists, but still I think that's that's that's the entrepreneurship or I mean job of entrepreneur to figure out. So when I started, how do you figure these things out? I mean, do you like go and sit with millennials and
00:38:52
Speaker
Yeah, so I, so let's say when we were starting man company, right? We both me and Bisham, I think we did a lot of focus groups and plus even intuitively, because we knew that this is something where the opportunity exists, right? We started talking to a lot of our friends, family, people in our family, right? And especially in the age group that we were targeting.
00:39:18
Speaker
And one more, I think, learning has been that don't keep your target audience very wide. I mean, just focus on one segment, go after it. But at least in terms of your positioning, in terms of your communication, you should be very razor sharp.
00:39:37
Speaker
So we know that let's say if we have to define a customer for man company, I can give you a two page this thing about this 28 year old guy who has moved from let's say Pune to Bombay who is working in an IT company who is earning this much. So we have profiled our customer to nth point. I can tell you what he does at seven o'clock and what in the morning and what he does at eight o'clock in the evening.
00:40:01
Speaker
So, I think that's the detail that you want to go after because then you know different aspects of his life and you can build your marketing strategy, your product strategy around his lifestyle. So, for example, idea to launch man company digitally was to kind of reach out to this millennial because he's not going to big bazaar to buy his shampoo.
00:40:26
Speaker
Now we wanted to enter his ecosystem without disturbing his lifestyle. So how do you make it as convenient to him as possible?
00:40:34
Speaker
So we knew that he's spending 80% of his time on digital medium, right? So we started with e-commerce, we started building the brand on Instagram, Facebook, and we started talking to him in the language that he understands.
Storytelling and Brand Building Insights
00:40:48
Speaker
Whoa, both of them, just because people related to it, right? So it pays to stay authentic and talk to millennials in the language that they understand. I think that's the biggest learning. Be it let's buy, be it truly madly, be it demand company, I think that's what I've been trying to do.
00:41:04
Speaker
Does it help to get celebrities to endorse?
00:41:08
Speaker
it does and but I don't think it is honestly it is not a make or break thing I mean you can still build a brand without a celebrity with us I think we were very very particular that if we are getting a celebrity it should be someone who kind of who is online as well as offline is a gentleman within right so when we met Aishman it was not
00:41:37
Speaker
just the physical appearance because of his physical appearance we wanted him to get on board it was mainly for his beliefs right so the first question he asked us for example was he was very clear in terms of our brand ethos right so he said I'm willing to work with you guys if we just don't advertise
00:42:03
Speaker
in a traditional way, right? So because we also as a brand, we never wanted a celeb. We wanted a celeb who can give us the reach, whom we can create a content that people associate with, right? And who can help us in storytelling in an effective way, right? So that's what we have been doing with Ayushman. So we've already shot two more ad films with him.
00:42:31
Speaker
You may or may not even see the product or brand in those act films, right? It is more storytelling to take a gentleman and you video forward. So I think fortunately that's what Aishmaan also believes in.
00:42:47
Speaker
and we as a brand also believe in. So you'll never see us over promising on any product, any ingredient. I think we'll tell you the way it is and we'll tell you that these are the benefits and these are the harmful effects as well, right? And then it is your call to use those products. Thank you so much, Hitesh. It was great to hear from you. Thank you so much, Akshay, for having me here. Thank you.
00:43:13
Speaker
While Ayushman Khurana is the official brand ambassador of the man company, Hitesh is no less charming than him and could have just easily been the face of the company. If you want to go on a date with one of the most charismatic founders, then write to us at hello at the podium dot in.
00:43:37
Speaker
If you like the Found a Thesis podcast, then do check out our other shows on subjects like Marketing, Technology, Career Advice, Books and Drama. Visit the podium.in for a complete list of all our shows.
00:44:08
Speaker
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