We invited Nischal Sharma, Co-Founder at Svenklas for an interview with Most Popular Stories to know more about his entrepreneurial journey.
Nischal started Svenklas with a shared vision to build a design-driven lifestyle brand that focuses on creating artfully designed products to aid in your everyday journeys and make quality a part of your life. Taking inspiration from Nordic heritage, he adopted the name Svenklas to create products that are rich in meaning, quality, and story – while focusing intently on design, premium materials, artisanal craftsmanship, and reasonable prices.
- Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey as an entrepreneur.
Right from school, unlike my peers, I consumed a lot of literature on art, design, photography, and architecture that shaped my thought process during my formative years. I got inspired by people like Mies, Dieter Rams, Jony Ive, and Zaha Hadid. This interest in a way led me to do various interesting things in college, I would collect discarded materials that could be recycled and would normally end up in a landfill like for example billboards. I would then use them to create functional carry items with the help of a portable sewing machine.
After I finished college, I worked with a few enterprise product companies where I learned the art of marketing, selling, and people management. During this period, I was working with my friend Nikhil on finding ways to create sustainable lifestyle items mainly backpacks made from “non-fuel” based materials. All of this eventually culminated in Svenklas where we are creating technical lifestyle products of the future with innovative natural materials and minimalist design.
- Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
While working in a job, I felt that I really missed the creativity there so I used to do a lot of
creative projects in my free time. I always wanted to do things where I enjoy the work so much that it seems like play. Entrepreneurship in a way provides that opportunity where you can do something meaningful and at the same time enjoy what you’re doing so much that it becomes essentially the same thing as play.
- What was the vision behind it?
The vision behind Svenklas was to create a significant difference with how people view
sustainability in our country and also show the world that aesthetics, design, and sustainability don’t have to be mutually exclusive. We saw an opportunity to innovate by using natural materials and creating products that are more design-driven.
- Describe the services that you offer to your customers and in what way they are unique?
At Svenklas, we create lifestyle products that are better than existing products especially in terms of materials and also in terms of challenging the role of functionality in design. We are always looking to create products that are minimal, sustainable, functional, and keeping the aesthetic stylishly simple. At the same time, we make sure to practice sustainability across our supply chain and also ensure care for our environment at all times, while maintaining aesthetics.
That’s our brand and our mission. Svenklas minimalist and modern line of products are made from eco-friendly and sustainable materials like organic cotton, vegetable tanned natural leather, and recycled post-consumer materials.
- What difficulties which you have faced or you are facing?
Whenever you’re starting something and particularly if you’re starting a company, you have to work super hard to make it succeed and that’s a challenge in itself. When we started Svenklas, we rented a small place and it was really tough because there was so much uncertainty.
The other challenge I faced was to choose a signal over noise since a lot of my friends told me about the risks of starting a company because they didn’t want me to lose all my money.
- How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
Hailing from a city like Dehradun, the love for nature is something I grew up with. I have never been an indoor person and I like all kinds of outdoor activities. That has always helped me keep an empty head and I guess there is no better way to handle stress than venturing outdoors.
- What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person/startup?
The one thing that has helped me is the idea that if you keep making incremental changes to any aspect of life that you want to improve, there is no limit to where you can reach even in a limited span of time. This has really helped me grow in areas that at first seemed
insurmountable.
- How your company is helping India to grow?
All Svenklas products are handcrafted by local artisans and marginalized workers who have
been in the traditional artistry business for generations. We are positively contributing to
India’s growth story by employing hundreds of local craftsmen to create our products. Our Tree Plantation Program with India’s largest donation platform Give India involves working with more than 15,000 farmers across project location in Vizag, Srikakulam, East Godavari,
Vijaynagaram in Andhra Pradesh, Tikamgarh, and Chatterpur in Madhya Pradesh / Bundelkhand area and in Aurangabad, Sangali, and Pune in Maharastra.
We are actively involved in tackling climate change and drought in these areas with our Moringa Tree Plantation program where we plant one tree for every Svenklas product sold.
- In your opinion what are the keys to success?
It’s incredibly important to have a greater level of optimism, patience, and less imagined
constraints than people around you. I think you should really like what you’re doing because whatever area you get into – there’s always a chance of failure. If you like what you’re doing, your mind will always be drawn to that thing and that sets you up for success. I also think that persistence is extremely important for success.
At the end of the day, it’s just about maintaining your morale and motivation for a longer stretch of time than most other people.
- What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
I think it’s important for today’s entrepreneurs to realize that if they’re doing something
important for society, then they should be focused on that and not get distracted by things
like “changing the world” or “building an empire”.
Even if you’re doing something great for a limited number of people, that’s perfectly fine and your work doesn’t have to change the world just to be good.
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