Conversation with a 'gifted' entrepreneur

As we go into part four of “Just Like us”, I hope that you guys have been enjoying the series so far. In this part, I have the pleasure of chatting with Ravi Kumar, Co-Founder and Director of DilSeBol. Com, a pioneer online customized merchandise portal.

Ravikumar and I got introduced through his wife and my school friend Jayasri. This was when I was thinking of getting started on my own venture heartisans, back in 2009. We have been business associates since, and not restricted interactions to mere buying and selling. An extremely affable person, I find him to be an ideal sounding board for some of my business propositions.

Over to the conversation.

Arun: Ravi, for starters, could you please let us know when were the first seeds on entrepreneurship sown in your mind? Is business a familiar career choice in your family?

Ravi: Truth be told, entrepreneurship through DilSeBol just happened. Like all of us, till I actually started DilSeBol, I had only sporadic thoughts of doing some business and making it big! Business is not really a family career choice – having said that, I am lucky to have great support and understanding from my family. Without that support, I can’t imagine trying to make a success of this business!

I seriously started considering starting up when I was here in Chennai on a project around 2006 (was working with Accenture then) – I have always been a keen follower of the retail business as an industry and was pretty excited about the online retailing space in general, right from my MBA days. I thought that space had / has a lot of potential. I had actually made a business plan for an online apparel retail company in my college days, around 2000-01 but didn’t really follow up on it. Come 2006, a chance meeting with a friend Kapil with whom I had discussed the online plan back in 2001 led to me meeting Suresh and this set things in motion. Within a couple of months after that, I had quit, Suresh and Kapil and I joined hands and with some of our own funds, we started www.DilSeBol.com.

Arun: You did your MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad. You also worked with extremely reputed brands like Coca Cola and Accenture in both on –the-field and management consulting profiles before you started DilSeBol. What are the conflicts that you face internally apart from just the typical money aspect when you decide to pursue entrepreneurship? And what tilted your ambition in favour of entrepreneurship?

Ravi:I am not sure there are that many conflicts to talk about – once the entrepreneurship bug bites, things just flow from there! Still, if I were to point out one thing, it is the fact that in the initial days, entrepreneurship is all about doing most things on your own, being self motivated as there is no organizational support structure such as that available in a big company like Coca-Cola or Accenture.

I like the idea of bringing a business to life (motivated by the hopes of achieving high returns on investment!) with my own efforts – I want to try new things and I am a big believer that whatever I do, I must learn at least one new thing everyday – I suppose such an outlook made me lean towards entrepreneurship.

Arun: I am sure once you decide to be an entrepreneur, lots of business ideas would have crossed your mind. How did you evaluate which one to pursue?

Ravi: Like I briefly mentioned, I had pretty much decided that my calling was online retail with an emphasis on apparel – DilSeBol is just a variant of this idea brought about by the fact that we felt there was a big gap in the market for on-demand customized merchandise in India.

Arun: Gifting is a universal concept, but gifting options are not. How does Dilsebol stand testimony to it?

Ravi:I have no clue how to answer this! Once we started DilSeBol with the basic customization theme, I think the evolution as a port of call for unique gifting options is just a natural process. As we look to expand and grow, we keep evaluating new concepts which fit our overall customization theme and that’s how we ‘ve ended up with such a lot of gifting options!

Arun: After venturing into retail customized apparels and gifts, you have diversified into providing mass gifting options for corporates. Is it a natural progression?

Ravi: Our initial plan was more an exclusive B to C online website – however, as time went by, we started getting a lot of corporate enquiries and orders due to word of mouth publicity and some favourable feedback about our quality and reliability in terms of delivery schedules. Corporate business soon become a big volume and revenue generator and now, it is something we have to concentrate on as that has become our main revenue contributor! However, our differentiation is still the fact that we will only do customized items – at the very least, we at least have to print a logo to make it a customized product for a company.

As we look to the future, we see the B to B space as growing even further – our challenge is make this part of the business work online as we still see it is driven a lot by face-to-face interaction, even for standard items like t-shirts.

Arun: You have displayed great persistence and stuck to your conviction for more than five years now. Sure, you would have seen lull periods as well, but you have not looked for alternative pastures. What is the mantra that keeps you charged? What motivates you each morning during those periods?

Ravi: I have a strong desire to make this a really successful business – that’s what keeps me going! The added incentives are the freedom that comes with running your own business and the fact that I am still learning at least one new thing a day, even after 5 years on this job!

Arun: You co-founded DilSeBol with Suresh Subbian, a serial entrepreneur. How do you think partners should complement each other in the journey of a venture as it rides through each phase of the maturity cycle?

Ravi: Ideally, it would be good to have partners who cover each of the main operational areas like Marketing, IT, Production / Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Accounts etc – this rarely happens. I feel that at least the essential areas to the success of a business (in our case, manufacturing and Sales & Marketing) must be areas where the partners have complementary skills. Other than that, trust, especially in matters concerning finance, is very important. Another thing that I feel has helped us in DilSeBol is that we don’t interfere in something the other person does – sometimes having space to operate is a very good thing!

Arun: Your team members always have a smile on their face. What are the soft skills that you adopt to keep them cheerful?

Ravi: Haha, again I have no clue! We try to be flexible in our handling of our staff – we try to be open and honest with them, regarding where the company is headed, about their work, pay etc, what they can expect going forward – we also have the occasional movie sessions and eat outs with the team. Whether this is what keeps them happy and smiling, I do not know but it has helped so far in building a close knit team.

Arun: When it comes to startups, With great funding comes great responsibilities. How hands on or off do you think Private Equity and Venture Capitalists players should be to nurture a business and raise it to its full potential?

Ravi: This is too generic a question – I would imagine that each company and each team that runs it is different and depending on these factors, the level of involvement must vary. However, it is a bit unfair to expect someone to put money in a business and then not worry about it – it goes with the territory that whoever invests will want to be involved to make sure that good returns are delivered and I quite understand this sentiment!

Arun: Entrepreneurs are viewed upon as people who are always looking for the next opportunity and do not get a typical off time. How do you de-stress yourselves from targets, proposals and the likes?

Ravi: True – I think when we are looking to grow aggressively, we can’t really be thinking about taking time off etc! In DilSeBol, since there are 2 of us, it helps. We do take off on a holiday once in a while to get away from it all and when one person requires a break, the other person covers!

Arun: Ravi, as usual, it’s been a pleasure chatting with you. Thanks for the wonderful insights!

Inaugurating 'Just Like Us', the artist way!

Vaaman has been primarily bringing to you my experiences, expressions and opinions. Just thought would be a decent idea to bring in a fresh perspective by sharing with you experiences of some of my friends who have excelled or on the right course of pursuing excellence in a field which is not conventional and have taken the plunge for the better, outside the comfort zone.

These are not people who have descended from the heavens. Neither have they necessarily taken on the society, squashed supreme challenges etc. These are people as real as you and me. Hence, though this may not make for perfect potboiler material, they would provide the readers with a view of how these achievers in the own right have gone about their business. In the process, it would be a bonus if this could inspire a few more souls to take the road less traveled.

With the above objective, we start this series with Mihir Ranganathan, a friend of mine from primary school. Right from Standard IV, I have been a fan of his illustrations. Imagine someone drawing complete Transformer series images at that age!

The seeds have been bearing fruits over the last decade. After doing VISCOM from Loyola College he now heads a few diverse enterprises.  More on him over the course of this conversation.

Presenting the first part of the new series ‘Just Like Us’ (pun seriously intended J )

Arun: Does the artist gene run through your family, or are you the pioneer in your close family circle?

Mihir:I am the first in the family to take up art/graphic art as a career. Though my father is excellent at sketching and a fantastic engineer, it was never more than a hobby for him. I have learnt a lot by just watching him at work. My mother is also artistic.

Arun: How was the decision to pursue a full-on arts based education backed by your family? Didn’t the typical Professional qualification topic not dominate breakfast sessions?

Mihir: There was some disappointment when my engineering entrance results came in and my family understood that I may not make the cut so easily. I then tried NID (National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad) with my family’s support immediately after school, but didn’t get past the entrance test. I later enrolled for a Bachelors degree course in Visual Communication at Loyola. I’m fortunate that my parents understood that being in entertainment or media was a viable career.

Arun: Did you start your post qualification career as an entrepreneur, or were you working before you took the plunge?

Mihir: I had no notions of being an entrepreneur when I first started out. My first job was as a graphic designer in Chennai agency D’zine Garage, while I was in my second year of college

Arun: You started your entrepreneurial innings with web design and branding? Any specific reason that made you choose this line? Was it commercial viability or did it suit your personality?

Mihir: Not only did I believe it was commercially viable, I also believed I was good at it!

Arun: You then moved over to setting up your own brand consulting firm BrandMuni. What exactly are the service lines in this business?

Mihir:To keep it short, Brandmuni offers strategic brand management using print media, the internet and events.

Arun: Moving onto what many would perceive as the most exciting part of your artistic streak is the founding of Duality, your music band with Manoj Sreekumar. How did you both get together and what was the time it took from your decision to the first live performance?

Mihir: It was Manoj’s idea. I met Manoj through a common friend. We then stayed in touch through Facebook, which as a platform revealed a mutual interest in music, and one day out of the blue, he pitched the band concept to me. It was an opportunity to live out a fantasy.

Arun: Take us through the rigours of musical band operations. How big is your team and what according to you are the essential roles that make a band tick?

Mihir: We are lucky that the concept of Duality requires just two musicians. Getting together for a practice session is not as difficult as it would be for a 4 piece of 5 piece band. Duality works because we value each other’s contribution to the overall creative process. Mutual respect and appreciating each other’s strong points and weaknesses is extremely important.

What makes us tick? The high after every performance and the sheer thrill of performing for an audience!

Arun: How do you manage to multitask between the various ventures of yours. There could be  times, when some of your team members feel that a particular venture needs more attention than it is accorded. How do you manage those situations?

Mihir: I restrict my practice sessions to weekends or non working hours. A musician must do his homework and cannot afford to get too rusty. A little bit of practice can be accommodated even on the busiest days. Sometimes it can get difficult, but my colleagues and my band mate Manoj respect my view that I need both in my life and that I won’t give up one for the other.

Arun: How important is the spirit of partnership and team spirit in a start up environment? What is your mantra for motivating a young team?

Mihir: Team spirit is very important in a start up, and if you have the right team every member in is willing to put in the extra effort. Motivating a team is a subtle art, especially in a startup and requires keeping their spirits high and encouraging them to take on responsibility.  I also believe that every member has to have an active life outside working hours. A casual environment helps.

Arun: Artists need to maintain a balance of being ambitious but at the same time, portray a sense of contentment in public. With you being both a founder of an out and out commercial venture as well as a member of a musical band, how do you juggle the hats?

Mihir: I must say that as an ‘artist’, I’ve been allowed a few quirks. Being the introvert in the band and in my venture, I limit my activities to the creative aspect/behind-the-scenes workings of both! I choose not to be the face or the mouth of either

 Arun: What would be your major learnings through this decade of serial entrepreneurship which seems to be your chosen path?

Mihir: If there’s one thing I have learnt over the recent years, it is that every human being is versatile and can be useful to his environment and people around him in more ways than one.

 Arun: Thanks for your time, Mihir. It was a pleasure to share your experiences on vaaman.

Mihir: Thank you! I enjoyed answering your questions as well!