Industry Leaders Shares Secrets to Be Successful Start-ups in Franchise India's Start-up Summit 2022

Franchise India has organised 18^th edition of Franchise and Retail Expo, on 20^th and 21^st August 2022. The show, mainly intended to serve the start-ups and entrepreneurs, included a summit named ‘Start-up Summit 2022’. The summit included popular names from the various industries, Like Managing Director and CEO of Open Network for Digital Commerce, T Koshy and Co-founders of Mama Earth, Varun and Ghazhal Alagh in the form of speakers.

The summit shared some valuable insights on the topics like how can businesses be a brand and how should they innovate to reach customers in remote areas. In this article, we are mentioning key points that the speakers have shared.

How ONDC Is Helping Out Businesses?

ONDC CEO, T Koshy, shared his thoughts on how brands should innovate to increase their reach. He also mentioned how internet is changing the way traditional businesses worked and the changes happened are in a positive manner.

Koshy said, “I see internet as a very democratic place. It never does partiality on the basis of diversity present in the country. No matter from where your business is operating, you can serve the customers from all over the globe. All thanks to internet.”

He also stated that some manufacturers are still facing hardships and the country needs a consolidated platform that can help the customers and manufacturers in a similar way. “Open Network of Digital Exchange will be a game changer as it gives opportunities to both big and small businesses” he added.

How Businesses Turn Into Brands?

Making a business out of brand is something almost anyone can do but turning an existing business into a brand is a laborious as well as time consuming. In a quick session moderated by Ritu Marya, Editor in Cheif, Entreprenuer Media, APAC, Varun and Ghazal Alagh, Co-Founders of Mamaearth shared their journey of how they turned business into brands. Ghazal is first female entrepreneur in her family and Co-founded the Unicorn Brand Honasa Consumer, which owns brands like Mamaearth and the The Derma co, along with her husband Varun Alagh.

“Giving up your permanent jobs and then starting something of your own indeed takes a lot of courage. What I do is think of worse. Even if you fail you’ll learn a lot.” Said Ghazal Alagh.

“What we did was to understand the whitespaces regarding the customer problems. During our research we found that customers need the products not only made from cosmetic perspective but from dermatology too,” she added.

When asked how businesses become brands, Varun mentioned that internet plays an important role in the brand building. “If you want to target your customers sharply, use digital platforms. Ecommerce is one of the best options for those who want to do business in the whole nation.”

Varun also shared some tips for business owners looking for funding. While advising start-ups to work for a good cause, he said, “Do not run behind funding. Run behind business metrics and the funding will flow”.

Developing or refining your Brand identity also comes under brand building. In a panel discussion, Dr. Vaibhav Kapoor, Co-Founder, Pristyn Care, said that, when brands use internet they have to be correct with what they want to show to the customer.

“Apart from letting the brand reach more and more consumer the internet has made them more responsible as it gives them no time to correct the mistakes.” He added.

Gautam Malhotra, Managing Director, FuelBuddy, came up with a very new concept of business by providing the customers an ease of buying fuel with door to door service. When asked about what are some major challenges he said, “The biggest challenge for business is to educate the consumer about the product.”

Importance of Education and Ed-tech in the Start-up Ecosystem

Sunjey Aggarwal, Chairman and Founder, International School of Design was invited as a speaker in the Start-up summit and spoke about where the country stands in terms of education. He said, “Of course, there's a gap between colleges in the US and those in India. For specialised courses, many Indians prefer going abroad, but we are confident that in India, especially INSD, basic education up till graduation is at par with that available in international institutes.”

He also mentioned that it will not take so much of time and resources to let the children acquire best skills in the world. “We are now trying to reach every child to develop their skills so that they can become self sufficient” he stated.

Investing In Profitable Business Partnerships

Dhruv Kapoor, Partner, Anicut Capital, shared his thoughts on how investors find profitable ventures and how start-ups should look for funding. On being asked about what makes a founder-investor relationship stronger, he said, “As an investor, I have seen that being available for the founder during any kind of situation makes the relationship better and last longer.”

Vinod Keni, Leader - Investment & Venture Capital of Round Glass Partners said that he sees health as a lucrative industry to invest in. “There will be more and more adoption of technology in the health technology space and so the opportunities here are immense.” He said.