Debasis Chakraborty is a Serial entrepreneur, who has Co-founded 3 startups. Debasis Chakraborty ‘s entrepreneurial journey Started in 2011 when he Co-founded India’s first Online Kidswear Brand called Unamia.
We invited Debasis Chakraborty, for an interview with Most Popular Stories to know more about his entrepreneurial journey.
- Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey as an entrepreneur
I am Debasis Chakraborty, a small-town boy born in a remote industrial town of Sindri situated about 30kms from the notorious mining belt of Jharia in Jharkhand. From my early childhood, I had this inclination of doing things a little differently.
One of my key initiatives was, I started a small school at my home for the kids of employees of our household namely maids, gardeners, coal sellers, paper basket makers, etc. When most of my friends will be playing, I will spend time with these kids to teach them.
My father’s job later took me to Kolkata for a few years and then to Delhi. I come from a nuclear family. My father’s a doctorate in Entomology, Mother is a housewife and I have a sister.
I completed my studies in Delhi and worked in multiple capacities in countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bahrain, primarily in manufacturing. Out of my 22 years of work experience, the last 9 years have been in entrepreneurship.
Started my entrepreneurial journey in 2011 when I Co-founded India’s first Online Kidswear Brand called Unamia. Thereafter I Co-founded a Social Commerce platform where we help stay at home ladies to reach out to customers called Namakh.
Now I am on my third startup, Mainstage Incubator in Germany. At MSI, we enable innovation bridges between developing ecosystems with developed ecosystems.Â
- Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
It was more of a logical progression than a matter of choice. The cushion and the umbrella of corporate life were getting the better of me and doing the same job was becoming lesser of a challenge. I always believe that experience is not about doing the same thing over and over again but doing different things at different times.
Once I took the plunge, I realized how ill-equipped I was to handle the world of entrepreneurship. And thus started my journey on unlearning!! Unlearning the corporate way of doing things.
- What was the vision behind it?
A single-minded vision – to make a better version of myself. The better version was not possible without “Experiencing Entrepreneurship”. I still have only one vision – That I have led a satisfying life where I have generated enough tangible value for others while developing myself.
- Describe the services that you offer to your customers and in what way they are unique?
Mainstage Incubator has been founded with the vision of building Innovation Bridges between Developing Geographies with Developed Geographies. We have noticed that startups from the developing nations get stuck in a myopic warp and their marketing efforts get stunted due to lack of proper information.
We want to break this barrier. We want to open up the opportunities of the developed world to our own startups.
- What difficulties which you have faced or you are facing?
One of the key things about entrepreneurship is to “Find one’s, Sweet Spot“. This sweet spot is the overlap between Efforts, Acceptance, and Gratitude.
Efforts can be your product or services; Acceptance being Customers, Investors liking you or your product & Gratitude being getting paid for it. A lifetime is spent in reaching this balance. Till one reaches this, the struggle is on.
Having Co-founded 3 startups, finding this sweet spot has been my key challenge and the most difficult thing to achieve. Experience helps, but there are so many external factors beyond one’s control.
- How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
Well, I believe stress and pressure are always reactions to a situation. While the situation may or may not be under my control, my reaction to it is. I believe in “Detachment”. The moment you detach yourself from the situation, you are much more empowered to figure out away.
I also do not believe in the concept of failure or success. Either you achieve what you have set out to achieve or you learn from it.
- What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person/startup?
There is nothing called Absolute Gospel Truth. It is always related to the specific situation and the situation is ever-changing. So mental agility is the key to deal with this ever-changing scenario. Agility, the capability of adapting to change, is one strategy I have always used in my personal life as well as my startup.
- How your company is helping India to grow?
Our key vision is to build Global companies from our startup ecosystem. We onboard promising startups and take them to scale outside India. We help these startups build robust backends within India which can build Global products. We also help them with fundraise and other key Mentors connect internationally.
- In your opinion what are the keys to success?
I believe 3 keywords – Persistence, Agility, Focus on the task at hand.
- What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
My advice –
a) Start only if you are not scared to fail and the social backlash which follows failure.
b) Start only if you are mentally, physically, financially ready to rough it out for the next decade.
c) Start only if you are able to garner enough support(friends, family, investors, well-wishers, mentors, etc).
All success stories have a huge ecosystem working in the background.
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