Self-employed

Do get in touch with me (kart75@gmail.com) for these engagements.

1. Communications consulting:
As a communications consultant, I work with organizations to help plan their communications strategy in,
- identifying & building communication narratives
- digital/social media communication strategy
- marketing campaign strategy
- content marketing strategy
- crisis communications strategy
Clients include Google, Myntra, SunTec, The/Nudge Institute, Crio, Juniper, Himalaya, RedSeer, and Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives, among others.

2. Corporate workshops:
Communications team workshops: Meant for corporate PR teams, marketing teams, or internal communications teams to help expand their perspective, seek inspiration from relevant (category/industry-specific) campaigns and communications case studies, and start hands-on work on some of the immediate and pressing challenges at work. Clients include Cipla, Medtronic, Maersk, PWC, Omidyar Network India, Ashoka India, and Cleartrip, among others.

3. Personal branding for leaders:
Personal branding workshops for leaders in organizations where I help them understand the need for personal branding (as a subset of organizational branding), identify personal brand narratives, and hands-on efforts in managing their personal brands, using social media, with a clear plan and goal. Clients include Kotak Group, Carrier India, EXIM Bank, Citrix, Akamai, Omidyar Network India, Fullerton India, EY, MetrixLab, among others.

4. Personal branding for employees:
Employee advocacy workshops, to help an organization’s employees become its brand ambassadors. Key clients include Maruti Suzuki India Limited (trained 800+ employees across 200 departments), Radio Mirchi (training 100+ Radio Jockeys and 25+ Programming Heads), among others.

Communications Consultant

The Advertiser's Guide to the Galaxy

Subscribe to my weekly podcast on advertising: https://bit.ly/tagttghome

Podcaster

Ogilvy & Mather

National Lead, Social@Ogilvy

Flipkart.com

AVP - Corporate Communications

Edelman

Head of Digital Strategy

Text 100

Account Director

Pramod Shankar Associates

Chief Consultant

Subex Ltd

Manager - Corporate Communications

Birlasoft (India) Limited

Executive - Marketing Communications

Steria India Ltd (formerly IIS Infotech/Xansa India)

Assistant Executive - Corporate Communications

Summary: 

Communications professional with 2 decades’ experience in creating, building and managing perceptions of brands across agency and client environments.

Experience spanning corporate communications, public relations, marketing communications, investor relations, digital/social media marketing and employee communication for B2B (technology) and B2C brands.

Winner of gold at Socialathon India 2015, gold at Emvie 2015 (Best media innovation - social media) and bronze at DMA Asia Echo Award 2015 (Interactive - Creative use of data).

Guest lecturer at Tata Management Training Centre's Leadership Development Program for IAS Officers and Indian Institute of Management, Bengaluru – Advanced Digital Marketing and Digital Marketing for CMOs

Award-winning blogger, across 2 areas of interest - professional blog, since 2008 (communications/marketing - http://www.beastoftraal.com) and music blog, since 2005 (http://www.milliblog.com). 

Frequent columnist in leading publications, on the intersection of corporate communications, social media and advertising/marketing. Samples:
- How to build a socially relevant brand | ET BrandEquity http://bit.ly/2NuutnP 
- From 'Log kya kahenge?' to 'Log kya keh rahe hain' | ET BrandEquity 
- http://bit.ly/2u0jydn 
- Amazon-Swara Bhaskar Issue: An Analysis | afaqs! http://bit.ly/2qTF9ll 
- How to avoid social media self-destruction | The Economic Times http://bit.ly/2MuxvrD

Frequent speaker and panelist in leading events to talk on and discuss perspectives on communications, branding and social media.


Karthik Srinivasan

Oh my God! This is phenomenally effective communication! Fantastic narrative device with the right amount of exaggeration that lands the message with a bang, while also sending chills down the spine of the target audience (parents of young children)! Excellent work by the Irish agency Core Creative.

#advertising #creativity

Communications strategy consultant. Connect with me for corporate workshops on personal branding. Ex-Ogilvy, ex-Flipkart, ex-Edelman. No paid posts - my words are not for sale.

Read the room, IndiGo! If the ad is going to evoke, 'No, you aren't' or 'Yeah, right!', along with, 'You had 18 months to prepare for the implementation of the FTDL norms', then the ad is completely pointless.

Instead, anticipate the reaction (aka 'read the room') and say something that at least starts to seem like you care. Here are some rough examples.

1. We didn’t meet the standards you expect, or the ones we claim. 
We can’t change the last few days, but we're working hard to fix the next ones.
We are sorry.

2. This is NOT the IndiGo experience you deserve.
We are doing our best to set things right.
We are sorry.

3. We let you down. 
We’re working urgently to fix the disruption.
We are sorry.

#advertising #indigo

What a fantastic idea for a collab! As someone who grew up in Coimbatore, I love the fact that another Coimbatore-based brand (Vilvah) thought of using the Annapoorna's legendary filter coffee, and in particular, Annapoorna's Rose Milk (I may have gulped down many, many liters of this divine drink through my school life in Coimbatore) as an inspiration for a co-branded range of products, starting with lip balm. 

Another Coimbatore icon, Krishna Sweets, is also known for its famous Mysurpa. How about a Mysurpa inspired lip balm, next?

In fact, this is an excellent template for famous eating joints (and their famous items) to consider a similar collab with local beauty/skin care brands of those respective cities. For instance, Madurai could do one for their famous Jigarthanda. 

What could be potential items for Bengaluru, I wonder!

#product #innovation #regional #branding

This is one of the most interesting positioning ideas I have seen in the wealth management category! Ionic Wealth's (Angel One’s wealth management brand) new ad campaign by the agency Manja pitches wealth as a start-up and wealth managers as co-founders! 

Most people today admire the entrepreneurial mindset, even if they’ve never started a company. So the positioning taps into that cultural aspiration and hence is attention-grabbing. It suggests that building wealth is an active, intentional, high-agency project, and not a passive 'buy a mutual fund and forget it' activity.

However, for someone who has actually founded or worked inside a startup, the analogy may seem to wobble. A startup isn’t just an idea you nurture - it’s months (or years) of ambiguity, risk, existential crises, broken sleep patterns, fundraising cycles, pivots, down rounds, team management, board management, self-doubt, and occasionally, spectacular failures. Your personal wealth, hopefully, is not that. So the metaphor works emotionally, but not literally (which it need not, of course).

The co-founder claim too is on similar lines. It is absolutely bold and eye-catchy because most wealth managers frame themselves as partners, guides, strategists, experts, planners, custodians or some variation of those themes. The 'co-founder' word signals themes of alignment, collaboration, co-ownership of the mission, a shared growth mindset, and an implication of skin in the game, all quite different from what wealth managers do.

A real co-founder takes existential/personal risk, puts in sweat equity, is operationally involved, shares ownership, sinks or swims with you, is accountable on a daily basis. A wealth manager does/need not do those things, nor should they. They advise, monitor, optimise, rebalance, recommend, coach. So the narrative works at a brand-philosophy level ('we’re equally *invested* in your success'), but it can unintentionally trivialise what real co-founders actually do.

But this campaign isn’t really speaking to real founders who don't wake up and say 'I’m building a startup so I can get personally rich' and for whom wealth is often a side effect, not the main objective. Instead, I believe the campaign targets first-generation wealth creators, startup employees with ESOP liquidity, young professionals with high income, aspirational millennials entering the wealth-building phase, people who identify with hustle culture, ambition, and 'build mode'. For them, this message grabs attention beautifully.

So, excellent idea and execution, Manja!

#advertising #marketing #positioning #creativity

BrandFame Digital

Co-Founder

Sandiip Porwal Consulting

Entrepreneur

Hire Content Writer

"Content is King" is a phrase dates back man years and we have to thank to Bill Gates who in his essays foresaw the internet as being marketplace for content in its many forms. Content is crucial for organisation and brand when you think "marketing". In the digital space more so because content is the very basis of engagement among people, between people and products and between people are organisations. 

With Hire Content Writer we are all set to serve the needs of the market with a focus on quality content writing and audio visuals. So be it content for blogs, articles, websites, ecommerce product descriptions, white papers, downloadable documents, landing page, youtube videos, short product videos and more customised offerings.

Founder

Virtual Snipers Digital Marketing Services

We provide Internet Marketing Solutions to small and large businesses. We also have team dedicated to businesses which are new to the Digital Domain and need training along with marketing solutions. We will help you understand  the Internet as a marketing medium and one which can play a critical role in consumer interactions to build long lasting relationships. The Internet can work wonders for your business with the right mix of strategy, innovation and technology.

Pinstorm

This was an opportunity to cherish as I was able to exercise my marketing strategy skills and work on some fabulous campaigns for some very excellent and demanding clients. Managing the young and raring to innovate team was a challenge adding to my zeal.

SMSCountry Networks Pvt Ltd.

Laid the foundation for Sales and Marketing process. Set up the Sales team and formulated and implemented Marketing and Sales Strategies.

The Model was innovative and the medium new and hence challenging. A really enriching experience.

Head Sales and Marketing

Mid Day Multimedia Ltd

Head - Automobile and FMCG verticals

Mercury Media Services

Numero Uno International

The big responsibility was to aid the rebuilding of the organisation. One of my finest experiences which helped me understand what goes into making an organisation.

My job was to ensure revenues / profits as also handle marketing of the programmes to ensure sales support.

Manager - Marketing & Sales

Arpan Events

Business Head

I help businesses and brands leverage the Digital Medium. I love simplifying the complexity of online marketing into practical, understandable concepts to leverage the right digital technologies & media to increase brand awareness, build authority and establish meaningful relationships to achieve defined business goals. 

25+ years of experience across Marketing, Advertising & Sales domains
12+ years in Digital Marketing Domain

I lead a Digital Marketing & Brand Storytelling Agency and a Digital Marketing Consultancy. I help businesses, and Marketing professionals understand the Digital medium. I help Startups improve upon their ideas to increase their chances of success. 

Before becoming an entrepreneur, I served in various roles for 15+ years in advertising, media, and entertainment businesses. 

I love to share my experiences with those who wish to learn to contribute to our fast-growing digital industry that needs Skilled professionals. 

Businesses and Startups can reach me for, 

Digital Marketing Strategy
UI / UX improvement
Website Navigation Design & Process Flow and Functionality Design
Search Engine Marketing (SEO and SEM)
Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing
Digital Creatives and innovative marketing/start-up ideas.
Traditional Marketing Agencies looking to set up Digital SBUs can connect too. 

I am available for the following:
Speaking, Training
In-House Training Development
Collaborations
Consulting to set up Digital SBUs

I'm available and interested in speaking at Universities, Colleges and training marketing teams of businesses who want to leverage digital marketing.

For speaking opportunities, collaborations, and business, please email sandiip.porwal@gmail.com

Sandiip Porwal

Narayana Murthy says young Indians should work 12 hours a day.

But here’s the part nobody talks about-

The people who actually follow this advice

They wake up at 7 AM.
Rush through traffic.
Reach office at 9.
Leave at 9.
Reach home half-dead.
Sleep.
Repeat.

For them, 9–9 is not “nation building”.
It’s survival.

And let’s be honest —
this narrative is always sold top-down.

The people who preach 12-hour workdays
 …are rarely the ones living 12-hour workdays.

Meanwhile, the world is moving ahead:
- China banned 9–9
- Europe capped hours decades ago
- US is openly debating 4-day weeks

But in India?
 Exhaustion is glorified as “hustle”.
 Burnout is sold as patriotism.
 And rest is seen as weakness.

Here’s the truth:
🔥 Nations don’t grow because people work longer.
 They grow because people work smarter.

🔥 Long hours don’t guarantee productivity.
 But they do guarantee burnout.

🔥 Creativity, innovation, leadership — none of these come from people who are always tired.

What India actually needs is:
 - Skill, not slavery
 - Productivity, not punishment
 - Balance, not burnout
 - Workplaces that value output, not exhaustion

The goal shouldn’t be a 12-hour workforce.
The goal should be a world-class workforce.

What’s your take?


#WorkCulture #CorporateLife #LeadershipMindset #FutureOfWork #Productivity #IndiaInc #LinkedInCommunity

In build and invest mode, Open to Ideas, building India’s Largest Influencer Network, Cross Border Commerce. Guiding startups & businesses to grow Faster. Entrepreneur, Digital Strategist, Consultant, Mentor, Investor.

The vending machine was 11.5 feet tall. Nobody could reach it alone.
That was exactly the point.

For Friendship Day, Coca-Cola built a vending machine so absurdly high that one person physically couldn’t use it.

The coin slot? Way up there.
The dispenser button? Even higher.

You needed a friend. You had to cooperate. Climb. Lift. Laugh. Strategize together just to get a Coke.

What could’ve been a silly stunt became something else entirely - a shareable moment of genuine human connection.

People didn’t just buy a Coke. They created a memory and immediately pulled out their phones to capture it.


Here’s why this worked when most experiential marketing falls flat. 

It made cooperation the key, not the marketing message.

Coca-Cola didn’t advertise “Share happiness with friends!” on a billboard. They engineered a situation where you literally couldn’t succeed without your friend. The behavior became the message.

It created content. 

Friends laughing, climbing on shoulders, nearly falling. that’s not an ad. That’s a story people want to share. The brand didn’t create content about the experience. The experience created the content.

It proved the brand promise in real-time.

Coca-Cola has always sold “togetherness.” But saying it and demonstrating it are different things. This machine didn’t tell you about friendship it required it.

The results?

Millions of organic impressions. Earned media everywhere. But more importantly people felt something about the brand that no 30-second ad spot could create.

What this means for any brand (not just the giants)

I have seen thousands of campaigns. The ones that break through don’t have the biggest budgets - they have the clearest understanding of human behavior.

You don’t always need an 11-foot vending machine, but you do need to ask:

What behavior do we want to see?
Not “what do we want to say?”—what do we want people to do?

Can the product be part of the experience, not just the prize?

When your offering becomes the catalyst for connection, not just the transaction, everything changes.

If we create shareable currency we don’t have to go asking for shares?

People don’t share ads. They share moments that made them feel something magical. 

Coca-Cola didn’t just dispense Coke that day. They sparked interaction, laughter, and hundreds of organic stories.

That machine cost a fraction of a national TV campaign. But it generated something money can’t buy - authentic brand love.

What’s the most memorable brand experience you’ve personally participated in, not just watched?

The ones we remember aren’t the ones we saw. They’re the ones we felt.

My dad worked hard. He worked for the same company for 30+ years before retiring. 

Came home at the same time everyday. Spent time with us in the evening.  Weekends he would take us to relatives or have some over to eat some amazing food mom cooked. Once a month was restaurant day and once every year be a family trip. These were non negotiables. 

He earned way lesser than what we see today, still managed to move from a small house to big one. He ensured food was never short - fruits abundant. 

Chai nashta at neighbours was like a weekly unplanned ritual over views and opinions on latest developments in our locality and the politics of the state and the country. 

Going to the market was a social activity where one learnt the nuances of negotiating while choosing the best produce.

I earn much more and spend much more. I see my relatives on Facebook posts, school friends mostly on WhatsApp groups. My neighbours used to think I am a ghost till I surfaced on the social scene.

And Amazon, Flipkart, blinkit, zepto want to be my new smart forever friends.

I think we all chase growth, while our parents chased life. It’s time we realised-  to live life to the fullest one needs to reinvent the way we envisage success. 

I wonder who is the real winner, our parents or us?

My biggest lesson on hiring to build a top notch team. 

When you meet someone exceptional…someone who makes you think “we need this person”
someone who raises the bar just by being in the room…
Don’t wait.

Hire them.
Create the role around them.

Great people are rare.

Get them on your team. The value will follow. 

#leadership #hiring

The ₹5 crore villa that costs ₹5,000 per person is rewriting India’s hospitality playbook.

Today’s younger generation families or groups of friends are splitting a villa booking 10 ways. Suddenly, luxury becomes ₹5,000 - ₹7,000 per head. Unbelievably affordable.

This isn’t just a pricing hack. It’s a fundamental shift in how Indians consume experiences.

Two distinct buyer personas are driving this market:

1. The Affluent Solo Swiper
One person paying for the entire booking. Premium experiences for milestone moments.

2. The Cost-Conscious Collective
10 friends, cousins, or colleagues pooling resources. Villas are now the norm, not the exception.

The use cases are exploding:
→  team offsites
→ Cousin reunions & family get-togethers  
→ 50th birthday celebrations
→ Bachelor parties, engagement ceremonies, photoshoots
→ Girls’ getaways, pet birthdays

People don’t need a reason anymore. They are “creating” occasions to celebrate.

Here’s what the data is screaming:

India’s vacation rental market is projected to surge from USD 2.89 billion in 2024 to USD 16.73 billion by 2034—a staggering 19.2% CAGR .

Vacation rentals are growing at 18.24% CAGR—nearly 4x faster than traditional hotels . Nine out of 10 Indians now prefer spending holidays with friends and family in private spaces .

The second-home and vacation rental opportunity is no longer niche. Demand for alternative accommodations is outpacing hotel supply by 25-30% .

Why smart money should pay attention:

For Entrepreneurs:

- high CAGR potential in a market growing 3-4x faster than traditional hospitality
- Low competition compared to saturated hotel/OYO space

For those with Second Homes:

- Your Alibaug/Goa/Lonavala property is sitting idle 300+ days a year
- Professional villa management delivers 35%+ net margins with zero operational headache

The three strategic moves to capitalize:

1. For Aspiring Operators:
Focus on drivable weekend destinations (2-3 hours from metros). Premium beats volume. Start with 5-10 curated properties, not 100 average ones.

2. For Property Owners:
Partner with established platforms. They’ve cracked supply, demand, and operations.

This isn’t a pandemic-driven blip. Short-term stays (under 10 days) dominate because 80-90% of Indian travelers aged 18-35 prefer short vacations due to limited budgets and leave availability . Villa rentals solve this perfectly—premium experiences in bite-sized chunks.

The market has structurally shifted. Hotels will always exist, but villas now occupy permanent real estate in the consumer’s consideration set.

The bottom line:

India’s affluent and aspiring class is choosing *how* they celebrate over *where* they celebrate. They want privacy, space, control, and Instagram-worthy moments.

Villas deliver all four.

If you’re sitting on capital, real estate, or hospitality expertise and you’re not exploring this category, you’re leaving 19% annual returns on the table.

Drop your thoughts below.

The unbeatable failure to success formula. 

8 failures. 2 massive wins.

Ronnie Screwvala went a full year without a single customer when he started Cable TV.

Bankrupt three times in his first three years in media.

People told him to quit. 

But here’s what I liked from his interview:

He doesn’t see his 80% failure rate as a weakness. He sees it as his “strategy”. 

“If there were five failures and five successes, the probability of my five successes being really big would have been lower.”

Think about that.

Most of us are taught to minimize failure. To play it safe. To aim for a better batting average.

Ronnie flips the script entirely.

He expects to fail 8 out of 10 times. But those 2 wins? They’re not just wins they’re 20x returns that make up for everything else.

What most of us need to learn is that discomfort is fuel, not a warning sign.

The key isn’t avoiding failure. It’s staying sharp enough to not get emotional when it happens, and bold enough to swing for those 20x outcomes when you see the opening.

For every young founder grinding right now, stuck with lack of customers, facing bankruptcy, or hearing people tell you to “get a real job” this is a reminder. 

What’s your failure-to-success ratio been so far, and what has it taught you?

Your marketing funnel is becoming obsolete.
And most teams won't realize it until it's too late.

The new rules everybody will be talking about soon:

1. Speed beats perfection now.
Remember when you'd spend months on a campaign?
Your competitors are shipping ideas in days using AI. While you're in review meetings, they're already testing version 3.
Content velocity > content volume.

2. You're creating for two audiences.
One human. One machine.
If your content isn't structured for AI to understand and cite, you're invisible. Even if it's brilliant.

3. Users expect instant answers.
Not "contact us for more info." Not "download white paper"
They want the answer. Now. Or they're gone.

So what would any marketer actually need? 
🔹 Top of the line insights : Know what your audience needs before they search for it.  🔹 Smarter content : Built for humans to love and machines to parse and use 🔹 Scalable processes and systems  : That maintain quality at speed 🔹 People who do not fear AI but work with it for success. 

The uncomfortable truth:
The brands winning won’t be the ones with the biggest budgets.

They will be the ones who stopped treating AI like a threat and started treating it like a teammate. They will be truly riding the AI wave.

Here's my question :
* How are you adapting your marketing funnel to this new reality?
* What's working? What's broken? What are you testing right now?
* Drop your thoughts below and let’s discuss. 👇

No alternative text description for this image

Start believing it yourself. I did and everything changed. 
Your wins aren't delayed because someone else is winning.

The person who just raised funding doesn't affect your possibilitiues. 
The founder who went viral didn't steal your audience.
The marketer who landed that dream client didn't block your lead pipeline.

Success isn't a game of musical chairs. There are no finite number of seats.
Yet we scroll, compare, and convince ourselves we're falling behind.

When you feel threatened by someone else's progress, that's not about them. That's you doubting your own path.

The opportunities ahead of you are limitless. 
The potential inside you needs direction.
The timeline that matters is yours alone.

You're not late. You're not behind. You're exactly where you need to be to build what's yours.

The world doesn't run out of success just because someone else claimed theirs.

You can do this.
Not in theory. Not "maybe someday." 
Get started right now with what you have. From where you are.

Now start believing it yourself.

if someone in your network is grinding in silence and needs this reminder, tag them. Let them know you see them.

Sandiip Porwal

#motivation #success #selfbelief #founders #entrepreneurs #leadership

The Fuel That Never Runs Dry: A Founder's True Currency

Picture this: Two founders, same accelerator batch.

Founder A raises $X million. Celebrates with a TechCrunch feature. Hires fast.
Founder B gets rejected 47 times. Still grinding from their bedroom.

12 months later?

Founder A's startup is dead. The money's gone. The team scattered.
Founder B is still building. Still broke. But figuring things out.

Why? 

1. Money runs out. Questions don't.
You know that feeling when you're down a YouTube rabbit hole at 3 AM? When one video leads to another, and suddenly you've learned about supply chains, behavioral psychology, and why TikTok's algorithm works?

That's the energy that builds companies.
Not the balance in your bank account.

2. Your best ideas come from getting lost.
The pivot that saves your startup won't come from your pitch deck.
It'll come from:
* A weird question a customer asked
* A podcast where someone explained their business model differently
* That moment you realized you completely misunderstood your own market

3. Rejections are just free market research.
Every "no" is telling you something.
The founders who make it? They're obsessed with figuring out what.
They don't take it personally. They take notes.

4. Curiosity is your real runway.
When the money gets tight (and it will), what keeps you going?
Not your last investor update.
It's that nagging question you can't stop thinking about. That problem you need to solve. That insight you're chasing.

The Truth Nobody Tells You:

You don't fail because you run out of money.
You fail because you stop asking questions.

Capital compounds at 10-15% if you're lucky.

Curiosity? It compounds infinitely. Every answer unlocks three new questions. Every conversation opens new doors.

When's the last time you:

* Had a conversation that completely changed how you see your product?
* Spent hours learning something that had nothing to do with your roadmap?
* Asked "why?" five times in a row about your own business?
If you can't remember... that's your problem, not your burn rate.

Bottom line:

Money keeps you alive.
Curiosity makes you unstoppable.
So stop obsessing over your runway. Start obsessing over the questions you're chasing.

What question are YOU losing sleep over right now?

Everyone is chasing AI, D2C, SaaS…
Meanwhile, a real business opportunity is hiding in plain sight.

And almost no new founders are talking about it.

The Opportunity Everyone Is Overlooking
“Accessible Luxury”. 

A new global buyer is emerging:
Young.
Higher-income.
Experience-driven.

Looking for rare, handcrafted pieces instead of mass-produced goods.

fast furniture and fast fashion are becoming business stories of the past.
Consumers want meaning, story, sustainability, and soul as they shift towards a better lifestyle.
That’s India’s home turf.

In a recent conversation, a luxury goods business founder told me, “Good craft is art. And people invest in art. People aspire to be in the lux segment at some point in time.
If you can communicate the story behind the craft…If you can justify the time and skill that goes into the piece…There is enough margin to build an entire ecosystem.”
That’s not theory. It’s happening right now.

Some Indian brands have quietly built premium global appeal. 

> Nappa Dori: handcrafted leather goods that feel like modern heritage
> Raw Mango: turned Indian textiles into global luxury
> Forest Essentials: Ayurveda, elevated into prestige beauty
> The Rug Republic: exporting hand-crafted rugs to 80+ countries
> Jaypore – storytelling-led artisanal fashion

They chased craftsmanship + brand value.
And the world responded.

The Market is Exploding. Here’s the Data

India’s luxury market is projected to reach $200 billion by 2030.
Premium handcrafted categories are growing 30–40% YoY.
India now has the fastest-growing base of luxury consumers under 35.
Global luxury buyers increasingly want “handmade”, “sustainable”, “heritage” — India’s built-in strengths.
There has never been a better time to build a luxury craft-led brand.

Why This is a Once-in-a-Decade Founder Opportunity? 
Because a part of the world demands  

→ Handcrafted furniture
→ Designer home décor
→ Artisanal fashion
→ Luxury textiles
→ Boutique lifestyle brands
→ Slow, meaningful products with a story

High margin.
Growing demand.
Global interest.
Low competition from new founders.

If you’re looking to start something in 2025, this is a blind spot worth exploring.

Actionable Steps for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

1. Start with one craft cluster. Check out Jaipur, Moradabad, Bhadohi, Kutch, Panipat.
2. Build a brand around the artisans, not the SKUs.
3. Focus on photography + storytelling - luxury is visual.
4. Don’t chase discounts. chase desirability.
5. Position for global markets, even if you sell locally first.

Do you think India can build the next billion-dollar handcrafted luxury brand?
Or are founders still too distracted by “hotter” categories?
Would love to hear your thoughts.

#newbusiness #entrepreneurmindset #makeinindia #D2Cfounders #crafttocommerce #futureofluxury #founder #unicorn

Is all fancy shopping based on manipulation? Interesting lessons. 

Because luxury isn’t just about price.
It’s about psychology… and persuasion.

And here’s the uncomfortable question:
Are luxury brands bored of the wealthy and now targeting the aspiring?

The strategy is subtle, almost invisible:

➤ Don’t sell the product.
Sell what the product means.

➤ Position ownership as identity.
Not utility.

➤ Make people believe:
“If I wear this… I become that.”

And honestly?
I’ve fallen for it too.
We all have.

That’s why students stretch budgets for sneakers.
Why young professionals buy a bag worth their entire salary.

Not for quality.
Not for durability.
But for the story of status that comes stitched with the logo.

But here’s the part that excites me:

This same psychology is what Indian homegrown brands can learn from — and outperform.

Because aspiration doesn’t belong only to Paris or Milan.
It can be Made in India and told in our voice.

When we back our own brands:, 

➤ We celebrate authenticity
➤ We build identity rooted in our culture
➤ We strengthen the ecosystem that fuels India’s growth story

Luxury is not just what we buy.
It’s what we choose to give meaning to.

And that brings me to a question I’ve started asking myself whenever I shop:

Am I buying something I truly need?
Or am I buying into someone else’s idea of who I should be?

A perfume shaped like a gun. Seriously.

a revolver-shaped perfume bottle and scents named after anti-heroes? 

Welcome to India’s fragrance gold rush. Good news - the rulebook hasn’t been written yet.

Here’s what a senior hospitality pro shared that caught my attention:

India is still an infant market for fragrances. You can play with notes. You can play with occasions. You can play with formats and applicators.

The opportunity hiding in plain sight:

India’s perfume market is projected to double to $1.96 billion by 2033 but do you know - only 6.2% of Indians currently use fragrances.

94% of the market hasn’t even started buying yet.

Compare that to mature markets where 60-70% penetration is the norm.

India’s perfume market is driven by consumers who want:

- Work scents (professional, subtle)
- Evening scents (bold, memorable)
- Gym scents (fresh, energizing)
- Occasion-specific scents (weddings, dates, celebrations)

One person, five use cases. That’s 5x the purchase frequency.

The brands cracking the code:

Villain launched India’s first revolver-shaped perfume complete with Hardik Pandya as brand ambassador.

Is it ridiculous? Absolutely.  
Is it working? Absolutely.  

Bella Vita Organic scaled from ₹25 lakh to ₹45 crore monthly within 18 months.

Their secret? Affordable luxury targeting Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities where aspirational consumers want premium experiences at accessible prices.

34% of India’s are millennials, driving higher-quality personal care products. 

Premium perfumes are growing faster than mass-market.

Messi Fragrances launched, Titan’s SKINN launched affordable luxury lines, & global brands are racing to capture market share.

Why smart entrepreneurs should pay attention:

1. The niche-ification is happening now

Men’s fragrances. Gym-specific scents. Pheromone-infused perfumes. Gender-neutral lines. Travel-sized formats. Ayurvedic blends.

Early movers will own positioning.

2. Distribution has flipped

You don’t need ₹10 crore for retail expansion anymore. Bella Vita gets 45% of sales from their own website, 40% from marketplaces like Amazon/Nykaa, and only 15% from offline retail .

3. The playbook is proven

Focus on unit economics & LTV over CAC. Launch new products regularly. Partner with 3PL firms to crack Tier 2/3 logistics.

The infrastructure exists. The consumer demand exists. The capital is available.

So Brand Builders have a unique opportunity 

- Don’t compete on “best perfume.” “Best gym fragrance” beats “best fragrance.”
- Packaging creates conversations and Instagram moments.
- Price for volume. Hit the sweet spot where aspiration meets affordability .
- Get co-founders / investors with supply chain expertise
- The winners will be those who go D2C-first with omnichannel expansion

The market is infant. The competition is limited. The consumer is ready.

What other categories in India are we sleeping on?

Drop your thoughts below I’m mapping opportunities for 2026.

99.9% of people are waiting for the perfect time.

The perfect final product.  
The perfect market conditions.  
The perfect niche so they can sell out.  
The perfect pitch deck.  
The perfect moment when they finally feel “ready.”

The 0.1% who do it is,

Not because they’re smarter.  
Not because they have it all figured out.

Because they realized something the 99.9% haven’t:
The perfect time doesn’t exist. You create it.

That business idea you’ve been sitting on for 3 years? Someone with half your skills just launched it last week.

That post you keep drafting and deleting? Your audience needed to hear it yesterday.

That conversation you’re avoiding? It’s costing you opportunities right now.

Here’s what actually happens when you stop waiting:

If you launch and it fails?
You learn what doesn’t work. That’s not failure—that’s data.

If you sign a client and succeed?
You earn. You build proof. You get momentum.

If you start before you’re ready?
You figure it out faster than you ever would have by planning.

Life is a game where you collect points.

Experience points.  
Reputation points.  
Revenue points.  
Relationship points.  
Confidence points.

You have to press start. You have to get in the arena.

The brutal truth?

Every day you wait, someone else is building the thing you’re overthinking.

Stop thinking about the thing.

Do the thing.

Send the message.  
Post the content.  
Make the offer.  
Start the project.  
Have the conversation.

Not tomorrow. Today. Maybe Imperfect. But Real.

Because life rewards action.

Good luck ! 

#takeaction #entrepreneurship #startuplife #businessgrowth #jusdoit

The ₹399 mop that teaches an important lesson.  
This is from a story of someone who learned customer psychology the hard way on the sales floor of Big Bazaar. I found this very interesting  
Let’s talk about the MOP > Rock-bottom prices and the assumption that low price = instant sales.

Here's the insight that changes everything: The customer wasn't buying a mop. She was buying a piece of her home.
 This is where most startups and SMBs can get it completely wrong.

Here's what decades of wins (and failures) have taught me:
 1. Your customer's logic isn't YOUR logic → Gen Z shoppers in India now use 5+ e-commerce platforms, cherry-picking based on emotion, not just price → 52% of Indian consumers are choosing private labels over national brands—not because they're cheaper, but because they feel smarter doing it

2. Price is emotional currency → India's retail market hit $125B in 2024, driven by consumers who care about the story behind the purchase → That mop wasn't ₹399. It was "the green one that matches my kitchen and makes me feel organized"

3. The irrational buyer is your best customer → Create the environment, energy, and excitement around what you sell → 65% of Indian consumers actively seek sustainable products—they're paying for values, not just value.

Action points for your business TODAY:

✓ Stop leading with price. Start with the feeling your customer wants 
✓ Test your product presentation with real people who don't think like you
✓ Ask: "What's the emotional job my product is hired to do?" ✓ Create choice (like those 5 mop colors) even when it seems irrational—autonomy IS the value

The Indian consumer market is becoming the world's third-largest by 2026. With 270 million people shopping online and quick commerce exploding to $6B, the winners won't be those with the lowest prices.
They'll be the ones who understand that 2+2 doesn't equal 4 in your customer's mind. It equals whatever emotion you help them create.

What's the most "irrational" customer behavior you've observed that actually made perfect sense once you understood it? I'm genuinely curious.

Buzzwords that can make smart people look stupid 

These phrases are spicy and they make you feel clever (win-win - Oh my god!! I used to use that so much), but I think they are overused and many a times out of context so much so that they become annoying. I have been on the receiving side many times 😝.  

Give these words a read and think of how often you use some of them.

Have some fun, see if you can catch yourself before you use them again. because at the end of the day if you don’t hit the ground running you can always go back to the drawing board and get the ball rolling…

Think outside the box

Reinvent the wheel

Get the ball rolling

No brainer

Elephant in the room

Apples to apples

Win-win

Back to the drawing board

Hit the ground running

On my plate

At the end of the day

Low hanging fruit

Let’s touch base

Ping me

I don’t have the bandwidth

Bang for your buck

Take this offline

Which phrases are your favourites? Maybe there’s more that you can add. Even sentences you have used or been the recepient of 😬. 
Please share them in the comments.

It will be fun learning.

#communication #publicspeaking

🏏 The Power of the "Well Left" in Business

In cricket, sometimes the most skillful move isn't hitting the ball, but deliberately choosing not to. It's called a "well left."

The batsman analyzes the incoming delivery - pace, line, length - and makes an intentional decision to let the ball pass. It is a smart move. 

Among other things the decision is based on the height at which the ball will arrive, and the amount of time to react after it bounces. Each of these has an impact on the danger the ball poses and the opportunities it presents .

He is ready to play, but calculated judgment says: This isn't worth the risk. 

This silent act of discipline is often the secret to lasting success in high-stakes games.

This principle translates directly into our professional life.

Not every distraction demands your attention. Not every piece of feedback warrants a response. Not every new project requires an acceptance. Much of what comes your way is just noise that will dissipate on its own.

I once equated sharp performance with constant reactivity. Now, I see that true strategic power lies in restraint.

Developing the clarity to recognize what to ignore—to confidently declare, "I'll pass on that" is a mark of maturity. It’s your professional "well left." And it might be the most crucial, career-defining move you make.

Do you tend to swing at every 'ball', or are you good at letting the unwanted go?

The unforgettable leadership lesson

Letting go of the “almost right” hire.

Founders hold on too long, out of guilt, loyalty, or blind hope. We remember their interview potential. We reshuffle roles. We cross our fingers.

But here’s the truth: high-performing teams aren’t built on hope.

You’re forcing the wrong fit if:

→ You keep rewriting their job description to make it work
→ You’ve moved them across multiple roles hoping one clicks
→ You spend more time managing their attitude than their output
→ Your team constantly adjusts around them
→ You’re the only one who still believes in the hire

Here’s what I’ve learned:

Experience doesn’t fix culture.
Potential won’t grow without coaching.

But either way, knowing when to cut matters just as much as knowing when to coach.

Real leadership is making the hard call before it costs you your best people.

What’s a red flag most leaders ignore? Drop it below 👇

If you found this helpful, repost it so your network can learn from it, too.
And follow me, Sandiip Porwal , for more content like this.

#startups #entrepreneurship #leadership #hr #jobs

Is innovation killed due to bad ideas? Or  from easy rejection.

When “no” requires no effort, every bold idea gets filtered through risk aversion and bias. The path of least resistance becomes the path of least innovation.

Amazon’s approach forced leaders to think deeply before blocking ideas. One of the businesses born of this approach is AWS, an entire business line worth billions today.

The uncomfortable truth we must face up to.

Most organizations are built for efficiency, not experimentation. We optimize for saying no quickly.

India’s startup ecosystem raised $11B in 2024, but how many of those funded companies have cultures that genuinely encourage bottom-up innovation?

Three actions you can implement for your business. 

1. Create friction for saying “no”
→ Before rejecting an idea, ask your team to document why in writing
→ Make rejection more work than exploration
→ Track how many ideas you greenlight vs. reject

2. Embrace small experiments

→ Stop asking “should we do this?” Start asking “how can we test this for ₹10,000?”
→ Shift from permission culture to experimentation culture


3. Make your bias visible

→ Document your reasons for saying no—you’ll see your own patterns
→ Share those patterns with your team
→ Ask: “Am I blocking innovation or genuinely protecting resources?”

The hard part isn’t having ideas. The hard part is creating a system where ideas survive contact with management.

Amazon’s culture isn’t about saying yes to everything. It’s about making thoughtless rejection impossible.

If this changed how you think about innovation culture, share it with a founder who’s building their next dream.

The biggest drain on your time isn’t bad work.
It’s outdated work done to perfection. 

I remember how we used to spend two full days every week on a report my team leads felt no one read.

Perfect formatting. Color-coded. Careful analysis.

Sent to people every Monday morning.

Zero replies. Zero questions. Zero impact.

But it felt important. So we kept doing it.
Here’s what I’ve learned after years of watching teams drown in busywork:

That weekly update with metric bridges and executive summaries? Started because it mattered in 2019. No one checked if it still mattered in 2025.

Both looked professional. Both changed nothing.
But they kept everyone busy. And busy feels like progress.

The pattern is everywhere:

Extra approval layers that slow decisions but catch nothing.
Weekly emails that land in inboxes and die there.

Spreadsheets polished to perfection that no one opens.
We add them because they feel like “best practice.”

Here’s the filter I use now:

Before you create or continue any recurring work, ask:

1. Who actually uses this?
2. What decision changes because of it?

If you can’t name both clearly, pause it. Simplify it. Modify it. Or kill it.

Send updates when they:
✓ Change a decision
✓ Unblock a dependency
✓ Meet a commitment stakeholders actively rely on

Everything else? Replace it with a dashboard people can check. A single page updated when there’s real movement. For a conversation when a decision is needed. 

The uncomfortable truth:
Your best people are spending hours every week on work that creates zero value.
Not because they’re inefficient.
Because no one had the courage to ask: “Does this still matter?”

Trade rituals for utility.
It’s a small act of courage with outsized returns.

What’s one thing your team does every week that no one would miss? 👇

Blinkit, Zepto, Instamart - who's really leading India's quick commerce boom?

On paper, the numbers paint a clear picture:

Blinkit posted ₹9,891 Cr operating revenue in FY25 and runs 1,816 dark stores

Zepto reported ₹11,109.9 Cr GMV with 1,000 dark stores

Instamart clocked ₹2,129.5 Cr in Q2 FY26 with 1,102 stores

But here's the twist, in quick commerce, data is rarely the full story.

Analysts say consumer surveys depend heavily on the geography you ask:

Bengaluru or Hyderabad? Zepto often leads.

Delhi-NCR? Blinkit looks dominant.

A skewed sample tells you more about respondents than the real market.

Supplier insights and channel checks help, but each comes with blind spots. A vendor linked to Blinkit's Gurugram network may swear Blinkit is #1. A supplier serving Zepto's Bengaluru cluster will tell you the opposite.

Even rider load and dark-store activity can fluctuate daily -weather, incentives, festivals, staffing and so much more. everything moves the needle.

India's 10-minute economy is no longer an experiment - it's a high-stakes, high-growth war.

Who do you think is winning? who you think will survive and be in business after 5 years. 

#quickcommerce #Blinkit #swiggy #zepto #startup #quickdelivery #economy #India #Inc42

taplio

The Battle

Karthik Srinivasan

Sandiip Porwal

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreKarthik Srinivasan's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreSandiip Porwal's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Karthik Srinivasan

Sandiip Porwal

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Karthik Srinivasan's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreSandiip Porwal's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreKarthik Srinivasan's LinkedIn Performance