My belief has always been "be greedy, be hungry and follow one’s ambitions" and what helped was that I started out as an entrepreneur from the age of 12! Yes, while many of my friends played football and cricket, I founded Spartans Media when I was in the seventh grade. It has been a long journey, with experiences that enriched me as a person, my life, and when I fathomed how entrepreneurs could impact society, I channelled this love for the industry and passion into creating SustainKart, an e-commerce platform for sustainable items that would positively impact climate change and environmental safety.
Identify the gap: Initially, Shilpa Reddy and I launched a Sustainable Living show on YouTube. We received many comments from viewers asking us to suggest a platform where they could buy nature-friendly products that the guests on the show indirectly suggested. When we were trying to find products online, we realised that there is no ease in finding conscious products in the mainstream e-commerce marketplace. The idea to build an e-commerce marketplace exclusively for sustainable products happened then. We both discussed and intuitively agreed on this market's huge demand. When we shared the idea with a few close friends and family, most of them agreed on how much need there is in the market for a platform that verifies the authenticity of the brands and puts various sustainable products under one roof. We also spoke to a few sustainability enthusiasts and activists, who added to the decision-making positively.
An idea and a project: I wanted to concentrate on the fundamental idea of developing a sustainable economy while reducing environmental damage, intending to change Indians' shopping patterns toward more conscientious items. I firmly believe that great value and motivation come with actively encouraging people to participate in community and social impact initiatives.
The point was where do we begin. So we started by listing down a few brands that were locally known to us. When we spoke to them, most of them wanted to be a part of our journey. It was just Shilpa Reddy and me initially, and later we added a five-size team to work on this idea with us. We had a lot of concerns about how consumers will accept and how the bigger e-commerce marketplaces might be creating competition. However, nothing held us back, and it was always onwards and upwards since we had the idea.
The launch happened on the Republic Day of 2021. We had a centre campus with lots of sustainable goodies from renowned brands and too many celebrities and influencers in our network. This sort of engagement created great hype around the brand name. The reach was tremendous, and we received a warm welcome from our buyers and consumers. Since the launch date, the response we received doubly assured that the business would do great, considering that the buyers are becoming more and more conscious of their purchase decisions. We made huge sales in gross, in the first one week. Even today, we thrive to touch the max sales per day as on the initial days of the launch.
