Ethnic for the world ft. Lekhinee Desai

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Breaking Barriers Podcast. I'm Shubhi Agrawal, co-founder and chief operating

[00:00:14] officer at Lokobas and your host for the day. Today I'm joined by Lakini Desai, a dynamic

[00:00:21] entrepreneur and founder of the Indian Ethnic Co. Let's find out what is the driving force

[00:00:27] behind her success. Welcome to the podcast, Lakini. Thank you so much Shubhi for the

[00:00:32] warm introduction. So what inspired you to become an entrepreneur and how did you break

[00:00:38] the barriers to enter the crowded space of fashion? Honestly my entrepreneurial journey

[00:00:44] was not planned. I call myself an accidental entrepreneur because that's a happy accident

[00:00:50] I would say. Definitely a happy accident because that was definitely not my plan. I was

[00:00:56] happily pursuing my MBA from NMIMS and I in fact joined an FMCG company. I was working

[00:01:04] with ITC as an assistant manager for about one year. I mean Indian Ethnic Co. just happened

[00:01:09] if you want, I can let you on in a little story about how that started. Yes please. I would

[00:01:12] love to hear more about it and what was the inspiration behind the brand because your name

[00:01:19] is also very relevant. It's Indian Ethnic Co. It truly deflects the values that you bring

[00:01:25] to the table and what you want to communicate through the brand. So the Indian Ethnic Co is a brand

[00:01:31] that we started for my mother as a passion project for her while we were growing up my mother

[00:01:38] although she didn't have any formal degree in fashion, she had this amazing knack and aesthetic

[00:01:43] sense to create beautiful garments out of literally anything and I remember tagging along with

[00:01:49] her for so many exhibitions where we used to collect different crafts and she used to make the

[00:01:54] most gorgeous pieces for my sister and I. We know while growing up we came from a middle class

[00:01:59] family so the pieces that we really liked were always so unaffordable and everything that was

[00:02:04] available in the market was really messy and it never kind of fit what we wanted. So it was always

[00:02:10] my mother who designed all our clothings for my sister and I and we always had my friends and family

[00:02:17] coming up to us and asking us that oh my god, I love this kutta, I love this anapali where do you

[00:02:21] get it from and that's how my mother started getting a lot of requests to make clothes for them

[00:02:28] and that's how her journey in her yesterday was started as like a designer and she also started

[00:02:34] like a full-fledged workshop but while we were growing up we were also majorly into acting, dancing.

[00:02:40] So you know she had to kind of give that passion up for us and to make us what we are today

[00:02:46] and 2016 was the year when I got admitted to my B school and my sister got admitted

[00:02:52] into her medical college and you know that's the time when she's we when she thought that

[00:02:56] you know life had come to a full circle. I mean what am I doing? My daughter is getting older

[00:03:01] and that's exactly the time when Instagram and Facebook shopping was just coming up

[00:03:07] and my sister was like, hey mom you should do what you do best you know that is creating amazing clothes

[00:03:13] and as say he one day randomly we created an Instagram and Facebook page and we went to an

[00:03:19] exhibition where we got like 50,000 worth of a drug fabrics and we created the designs

[00:03:26] and those designs were also created in such a way that they were in the sizes of my mother

[00:03:30] my sister and I so you know even if it doesn't sell it's like we love these clothes you know

[00:03:35] we'll just wear it off so it was honestly an experiment and which is why I call myself

[00:03:40] as an accidental entrepreneur because nothing was planned it was just a tukka to explore her passion

[00:03:47] and just like that we created the garments and I made my sister wear them and we made her stand

[00:03:53] in our hall near the door and I don't know for some reason the first photos that we clicked to put up

[00:03:59] I had cut her head off so it's like neck and the garment and we put that up and funnily like

[00:04:07] in the next two to three days we got a first order from Goa and another from Kerala

[00:04:12] and we were like oh my god you know like sitting in Bombay in one tiny corner of our bedroom

[00:04:18] if we were by doing absolutely nothing without any intention we were able to reach out

[00:04:23] someone who is liking our product out there then you know maybe this is something

[00:04:27] there's a market yeah yeah we should do about it and I know as I mentioned my MBA had just begun so

[00:04:33] we started selling on Instagram and Facebook and like between my lectures I would be making those

[00:04:39] sales showing people those products and and you know people started responding and suddenly

[00:04:44] you know we were doing a business of like one to two lakhs a month which was a great

[00:04:49] amount for us because I'm not gonna could be so che binachalukya so whatever came you know

[00:04:54] was really big and when after two years when I got my pre placement offer from ITC from MBA

[00:05:03] and I went on to join ITC I had two months between my co-sending and the job starting and that's

[00:05:09] when I thought that you know we reached a point and my mom is not very socially savvy and you know

[00:05:17] she's not going to be able to really respond to everyone on WhatsApp on Instagram so I need

[00:05:22] to do something which makes this business run without me so that's when I thought I you know

[00:05:26] I'll start a website so we created a website on Shopify because again we didn't have any money

[00:05:31] to pay any developers so Shopify was the cheapest option to start a website will you know absolutely

[00:05:36] little knowledge and we started putting all our products on Shopify and after putting it on the

[00:05:42] website and making it live you were like yeah website to banh ga e hai but this is not enough you

[00:05:47] know you need to have people coming in on your website to buy those products yes so that's when I

[00:05:52] learned digital marketing because again we didn't have the money to hire an expert and that way

[00:05:58] we started putting some ads and literally within the first year of making the website and me being

[00:06:04] remotely managing the business the business from like a 20 lakh annual turnover had like become

[00:06:11] a one crore turnover in just a year that's quite a close growth that's really wonderful

[00:06:15] and at the back end my mother had she had she didn't know how to use a computer she had mastered

[00:06:21] how to use a computer plus understood how to use Shopify and managing the website so

[00:06:28] I think how you break a barrier is by just doing it you know you don't need to think I think

[00:06:34] the first step to doing anything is taking that action so that would be my advice so what I love

[00:06:41] about your brand is that you have actually increased the cool quotient of the traditional Indian

[00:06:47] fabrics and the fact that all you your mother your sister they are actually at the forefront in

[00:06:53] front of the camera modeling these outfits for everybody so it creates that familiarity that connect

[00:06:59] that okay you know if she is wearing it and looking so good it gives me a perspective it's not

[00:07:04] like a size zero model wearing it I think I love that fact about your brand but was that an idea

[00:07:10] it looks like it was a happy accident and not a planned strategy and but it worked very well for

[00:07:16] you what do you think actually made your brand different from everybody else like we discussed this

[00:07:22] is a very very crowded space so what actually if I have to ask you like what's your USB so to speak

[00:07:29] I think thanks for bringing that in that question in that it's always my sister and I who model

[00:07:35] for the brand when we started it the reason was that you know it's we didn't have enough funds

[00:07:41] to really hire a model but and you know my sister is actually a model she's done a lot of

[00:07:48] movies and ads in South and I have also been a child actor so as the brand progressed

[00:07:53] you know from one year to another we realized that we don't want models because the same

[00:07:59] models is being used by so many brands so when I see a photo of that model I don't know what brand

[00:08:05] I'm buying from and but when a customer or any of our fans look at an Indian ethnic course page

[00:08:12] they know that it's Leakini and Thvarada that are modeling for the brand plus my sister is like a

[00:08:17] size excess extra small and she's 24 and 30 and I am a size XL X XL so I think we are also able to

[00:08:25] showcase the range of the garment absolutely and how it applies to different age groups

[00:08:31] and we are actually also going to bring our mother to now start modeling because she's a size 3 XL 4 XL

[00:08:36] and we actually you know sell garments up to size 6x cells I think it's much needed to

[00:08:41] absolutely stop that body positivity and also the age group you know we never have someone who's

[00:08:48] of 40 50 plus who's consistently being shown on the brand page so we also want to get that factor

[00:08:54] in and I think that is also one of the major reasons why we are how we are able to

[00:08:58] form that connect with our customers is because they feel a very homely vibe when they are interacting

[00:09:04] with the brand and they feel a sort of connection and I think that's what also induces them to try

[00:09:11] a brand all the good part must also have some setbacks how what was the some of the failures that you

[00:09:18] actually sort of experience in this journey and how did you overcome them honestly you know

[00:09:23] when you're starting a business which is bootstrapped you have very little funds and you really

[00:09:29] can't hire experts to solve your problems and I think it's a good and a bad the bad is that

[00:09:35] you really have to invest a lot of time in solving the problem but the good is that you always end up

[00:09:40] learning by doing it yourself and the next time when I have to hire someone I know that I understand

[00:09:46] what could go wrong so it's very it's very easy to understand what the expert is saying that's

[00:09:52] one thing and secondly is it when you're hiring a startup it comes without the glamour the glitz

[00:09:58] so you don't have many people who are really willing to work with you without those pucks that extra

[00:10:04] bonus do multiple things no role defined you know like really where absolutely anywhere we've gone

[00:10:12] through that cycle ourselves we know like three people doing different stuff if somebody would come

[00:10:18] and ask me okay I am doing sales do I need to do marketing of course yes you need to do everything

[00:10:23] yeah you also need to pack your you also need to pack a customer's order because that's what even

[00:10:29] my father has done absolutely and if a guest comes into the office and there is no office boy around

[00:10:34] use of them water as well agreed nothing which is off the table agreed agreed 100 percent all right

[00:10:40] what is the advice you would give to someone who's just starting out in your kind of a field and

[00:10:46] also if you can just put like words or wisdom that you know can really just some kind of like a

[00:10:52] takeaway for them that'll be great I honestly feel that there is nothing greater than taking that

[00:10:59] leap that you are constantly thinking about I feel a lot of us want to do a lot of things but we

[00:11:05] are all also constantly burdened by the fact that oh my god if I do this what will people say and

[00:11:11] that kind of fear of failure fear of failure and society and the fear of being judged

[00:11:19] and I think the only mantra that I can give to anyone is like just do it thank you so much

[00:11:26] that was a lovely message and I think just do it works because if you keep thinking too much

[00:11:33] that literally marries your decision so take that leap of faith believe in your idea believe in that

[00:11:40] with conviction strong conviction and start your entrepreneurial journey with the passion

[00:11:46] that you need to bring about with that thank you so much Lakini for your thoughts for sharing

[00:11:53] your thoughts with all our listeners and thank you for tuning into breaking barriers podcast join us

[00:12:00] next time for more insightful conversations with trailblazing women who are making a difference in

[00:12:06] their respective views until then keep breaking barriers and empower yourself and those around you thank