The Yarn Bazaar Co-Founder & COO Vishal Darak's Interview

We invited Vishal Darak, Co-Founder & COO at The Yarn Bazaar for an interview with Most Popular Stories to know more about his entrepreneurial journey.

The Yarn Bazaar is a B2B Online Marketplace for Yarns. They help textile companies to discover bonafide yarn prices, information, people, market trends, and trade with the tap of a finger.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey as an entrepreneur

I was born and brought up in a business family. But I always dreamt of starting a business of my own. Since childhood, I have had a wide variety of experiences and I spent 5 years in boarding school, 2 yrs of home study for my entrance and another 4 years of Electronics engineering, and also a great chance to explore and study abroad at Spain.

With my family’s support and guidance, I have discovered many different sides of myself and realized that there are majorly 4-5 things that drive me. When I returned from IE Business School, I was full of energy and enthusiasm to start my own business. But soon I realized that I didn’t really have a good reason to start my business.

It was just the influence I came across from my childhood. And I was in the middle of an identity crisis, So I grabbed the very first job opportunity on my way. And the next 1.5 years was just about finding that reason to start something on my own by trial and error. I researched a lot and soon I found that reason in ‘The Yarn Bazaar’ venture.

Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?

As I said I always wanted to start a business of my own but somehow I landed up in a job for about 10 months. I enjoyed my job experience as I believed there is always so much to learn, but something seemed missing.

So I spent a lot of time, resources, and efforts on self-development courses, pursued 3-4 business ideas, also tried one franchise but eventually left it. Ultimately, I realized I was running behind money which was never my major driving force. I wanted to pursue something where I can bring a tangible change in people’s lives and I found the answer to my “Why” at home itself.

My family always encouraged me to think broader and that turned me to look forward to entrepreneurship. I have seen them struggle a lot with the way this industry works. And this emotion of helping them and people like them by making their daily tasks easier was enough of a cause for me to give a few years of my life.

Fortunately, I happened to meet Pratik Gadia, Founder of ‘The Yarn Bazaar’ and happen to associate with his vision and hence decided to join him. To summarise, that job or business is just like a mode of transport, which you will choose based on your destination and the time you want to take to reach there. So choose wisely. And don’t forget the “Why” because that is the fuel.

What was the vision behind it?

The vision is really simple and focused, to create win-win deals, trust, transparency, high-quality service, and ease of doing business in the yarn industry. And Yarn for us is just like, what books are for amazon, once we have validated this model. We can replicate this same model across various industries.

Describe the services that you offer to your customers and in what way they are unique?

To understand our service, you need to understand the customer’s pain points first. Textile is an industry with a lot of complexity, follow-ups, bad service, and dishonest behaviors. The first thing we believe in is a commitment to our work and people.

We are trying to bring trust, high-quality service, transparency, and simplicity in this market. Our app is a one-stop place for all your Yarn buying/selling needs, trade finance, logistics, and market intelligence. We always promise to be honest and responsive to our customers no matter what. And we examine all our partners such as suppliers, transporters, and credit agencies before onboarding them thoroughly.

What difficulties which you have faced or you are facing?

There are difficulties in every sector but all you need to do is accept the challenge as a part of the game. If I have to point out one difficulty which we are currently facing, it would be standardization in terms of service, quality, and rates. As this industry is scattered and unorganized bringing that common baseline across all the deals is a challenge.

For instance, when you buy something from amazon or enter an Oyo room or book an ola cab you know what to expect. We wish to set the expectations as close to reality as possible.

As I already mentioned this its just an obstacle between us and our vision and we are confident enough that we will work hard to find a solution to our current and future problems.

How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?

I am really blessed with the best family and friends in the world. And at the same time, I believe reading and experience always help. And especially with my interest in human psychology/behavior has made me realize many things one of which is, “Humans tend to overestimate short term and underestimate long term.”

And watching Movies and Series on related topics also happens to be a stress buster as they make me live someone else’s story. One lesson to learn from them is however bad it seems at the start or in the middle, there is always a happy ending if you have the courage to step up.

What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person/startup?

Step out of your comfort zone. If I am afraid to do something, then I have to try that at least once. Because If someone else can do it then anyone can do it, the only constraint is in how much time it would take?

How your company is helping India to grow?

I believe that Indians have always been underestimated by others and by themselves. We feel that standardization in the domestic markets will not just benefit the Indian textile industry but also increase the exports for our industry as companies from outside, will know what to expect from us.

And whenever a marketplace enters any sector, it automatically rewards the quality makers and destroys people who are inefficient or unethical which increases trust and lower barriers to deal with unknown stakeholders.

In your opinion what are the keys to success?

The most important is your definition of success. Don’t set your standards according to the people around you. If everyone likes Pizza with pineapple, it doesn’t mean you have to like it. Similarly, everyone has a different expectation in their life. Don’t make their dreams, your prison.

Get some clarity about you by firstly opening yourself to new experiences without thinking of the result and then reflecting upon it. And this is a never-ending journey, be ready to be surprised by yourself. All the answers to your questions lie within you, all you have to do is ask.

So find the meaning of your success and then make peace with failure. Failure doesn’t mean you are not good, it is a compass stating that in this direction you are going is either wrong or you need to try harder.

What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?

Firstly, if you are thinking of becoming an entrepreneur without a cause please stop yourself now and think whether it is for glamor or some other reason.

If you really feel there is something that is troubling you that you cannot bear it and you have to do something about it. Then the answer to it may be entrepreneurship. As you can’t state the solution without knowing the question, don’t be an entrepreneur without knowing your reason.

Don’t think about ideas, think about the problems. Make sure your expectations of this field are not completely opposite to reality. Just find your why and entrepreneurship will find you.