[Music] hello everybody this is omkar and we are delighted to have the co-founder and the chief operating officer of disney hangover to join us i'm sure all of you have enjoyed thoroughly the case and now this is your opportunity to see the faces in real life or well virtually about the people who build it so a very warm welcome to to you aga and uh i'm so delighted that you have extended your story as a learning material as a learning tool and moreover an inspiration to to everybody every student entrepreneur and uh invite them to to start early so so welcome abba thank you thank you thank you for the opportunity and yeah even i'm delighted to be a part of this so you know we are we're reflecting on the story of desi hangover and we want to understand a few critical points a few critical questions from from you uh let's start off with uh with the foundation of any entrepreneurial venture which is which is solving a market opportunity and this is what i want to ask you that where did you start believing that there was an opportunity for a for a footwear brand which was let's say even in 2012 2013 2014 already an overcrowded market so where did you believe that there was an opportunity for a footwear brand to still emerge and now thrive right so as as we know india has always been known um as a country for you know craft and culture so uh the one thing that we knew that the product was not foreign to the market and since you know we had started in india uh we worked on indian opera in the for the indian audience for a long amount of time so we didn't have to create the definition of the product for these audience for this audience um so yeah there was a rec i would say there was familiarity of the product in the mind of the audience um there might be regard also you know people have an emotional connect and a sense of pride towards the craft uh segment of india but there was a lack of appreciation for obvious reasons you know because the category was a little unstructured back in the time uh so but when you know we did our market research we understood that there was a scope uh to you know venture in this product that people had the need and hence there was a demand um with some improvisation brought in the picture you know which nobody had done before so the opportunity lied in the fact that we had a competitive advantage we had the first movers advantage in the category and yeah with the indian audience keeping in mind the indian audience we understood that you know uh this product could be a part of their you know everyday essentials if made in the right way so yeah that's that's where we understood that uh the opportunity lies in the product though the the market was saturated with the with footwear however this category was seen as an exception and it was seen as uh the first time um introduced uh segment okay you know this is this is interesting right and this actually helped me segue into into the subsequent question about you know uh what was the starting point when you realized that you know they see hangover as a company as a brand is filling a customer need we saw it from a market opportunity that you believe that you know you had the first more advantage competitive advantage there was very little resource required to actually educate the customer about uh the product about the problem but where did you start filling in that you know you started building a brand and a product which was solving a real customer need and you know if you if you have any memorable experience about it i think it would be it would be great to relate right um so yeah i mean to begin with definitely uh the audience was uh getting a product uh of their liking uh the product had its own sentimental value with the right kind of uh you know um uh innovation with the right kind of um uh what do you say having a global perspective brought to a rural made product it was sort of a very uh win-win sort of situation that we uh achieved with the product uh however so that was without saying that the audience the customer was getting a new and a right quality product uh a product up to their expectation however when we you know started uh real-time sales and with the kind of uh interaction that we had with the audience you know especially when we did these uh large uh format uh events like you know carla gorda and little flea and these kind of events where you know we faced a lot large base of customer we understood that and this came as a feedback from the customer that okay this is something that uh is very close to our heart because it's an indian product and overall they could associate themselves as someone who is a part of the larger picture meaning it is their purchase that is creating a direct impact in the life of the artisan by just making you know a sale by bajaj making a purchase so overall they were feeling good about the fact they're there that their money was you know being spent where their heart is so it kind of gave them a sense of satisfaction and a sense of pride that overall they were able to create an impact on the artisan directly so it kind of uh completed the circle for us that you know yes it had the product was doing was made up to the expectation so that you know was the fundamental that we had to cater to however the larger goal that we thought you know we were serving was giving that sense of pride and satisfaction to the customer about being conscious about of their purchase okay this is this is very interesting about getting the customer to not only associate with the product but but actually start start falling in love with it you know the customer brand loyalty is everything for uh for a d2c product right and when we're talking about a d2c product you know direct to consumer product it's normally looked as as a good to have rather than a need to have right unless you sell essentials right footwear is considered as an essential but one pair of footwear is considered right right where did you start uh you know reflecting and then after positioning that they see hangover shoes they say anger footwear are a need to have um was it more towards an approach from a branding or was it actually a very genuine reflection that yes a lot of people are finding they see anger uh shoes to be a need to have if it was from the branding perspective then you know how was it communicated or if it was not from a branding perspective if it was a genuine reason that people are finding this to have how was it communicated to you okay so yes there was a very genuine um feedback and a validation from the audience that we received that the product was somehow transitioning into a need-based uh category than a want and a luxury based category so the audience that we uh served they were very sorted in terms of their uh brands what kind of what what brand of shoes do they want what that what brand of you know say their names or watches or shades if they want so quality and status quo had to be maintained i mean there was these were the two factors that were non-negotiable so having said that this category of you know indian wear wedding and festive wear was an untouched category but it was a well demanding category however there was no product that would serve the expectation that probably uh nike did or a book in stock did that was you know known for quality durability and the real-time application of the event so um it was then when we started making the product with the feedback from the audience and making it in the with the right ergonomics it was then that the audience started seeing the the value and the application of the product um maybe as a you know as a friday wear or as a sunday brunch or you know as a travel shoe or so which served the purpose beyond that one night of sangeeth or you know mayhem perhaps so it became a part of their daily outfitting i would say which was then they realized that you know maybe a category which is as commercial as a sportswear which is considered as casual or maybe loafers yeah this could also be in the competition you know which would sort of break the norms and break the monotony of the sports shoe or a loafer shoe so yeah it was then when you know people started understanding that this could also be a shoe that i need uh more than a shoe that i want yeah so so what i'm understanding is is versatility right like because maybe one of the bigger motivation of people to buy the shoe was uh was to wear it at a friend sangeet or where it had a friend's bendy and after that they realized that hey you know what i can wear this while uh while going on a sunday brunch and then friday evening so instead of having like three shoes in my uh in my shoe right with some different purpose i can have one and and most important thing is that i my qualities are short right yeah yeah and that was that was essentially so this is this is actually very interesting positioning right uh do service three needs a few and every three needs of you are getting serviced with the same amount of quality right and the names yeah i mean good and bad because you know it uh limits our cart value because the customer you know tries to fill in all the needs with just one shoe so probably he doesn't feel the need to buy more than one shoe yes yeah the lifetime value might be compromised that's actually a very interesting discussion yeah and also because the quality touchwood is good yeah the customer takes a long time to come back like even if the customer lifetime value is small the customer referral becomes high in that condition right ah absolutely absolutely inside view of dc hangover so i know that the customer referrals are pretty strong so you know i wanna one chris final question okay as somebody who has built this branch from scratch and somebody who has dedicated uh the entire youth and they're still young the entire youth to this brand you see yourself taking you taking daisy hangover in the next three years and something which is more more quantifiable so first of all thank you for the compliment uh i think the wig is doing its job well uh i said no where did you buy it eating kidding so yeah talking about the coming three years um so sustainability and social impact is you know the core the heart of the business so we would you know ensure that that is always delivered uh the idea the motto would be to bring uh different categories of artisanal products and uh you know um reinvent them with in in such a way that you know they achieve a global expectation appreciation so yeah housing more products uh building you know sustainability around them and scaling them and giving them the international recognition is something that is the goal so footwear was the segway and now you want to pick up more and more products and take it to where the shoes have reached right yes yes absolutely great this this has been a fantastic fantastic interview uh great fireside chat and it is so so lovely catching up with inspiring entrepreneurs like you and i'm sure all the students across the world who are gonna uh read your case and understand your point of view i think this is gonna be a very enriching experience so thank you so much abba for taking out the time and more importantly inspiring a new generation of entrepreneurs at baghami so thank you thank you thank you so much glad to be a part of this thank you [Music]