By Sanjiv Goyal Featuring Kapil Dev Singh
In this Article, you will learn about:
- How to use crowdfunding to start a business.
- Building a sustainable brand.
- The importance of having a clear vision.
- The Founder of Mishmi Takin’s entrepreneurial journey.
- What it means to be a sustainable clothing brand.
- How to build a long-term quality brand.
The Scenic Route To Business Ownership
Kapil Dev Singh took the long way to become an entrepreneur. He started with a civil engineering degree from IIT Delhi and then went to work as a civil servant. After that, he got his Master’s Degree in Supply Chain Management from MIT and went to work in the pharmaceutical industry as a consultant for seven years. So how did he come to found Mishmi Takin, a high-quality outdoor gear brand?
Singh always had a desire to start his own company and he kept that in his mind as something he would eventually do. In the same year, his father died and his daughter was born. He realized if he didn’t take action, life would pass him by.
A week after his daughter was born, Singh left his job with no plan. After pondering a couple of half-formed ideas that were leading nowhere, he still had no idea what he was going to do. He was in India and something told him to do a Google search for hiking boots. The closest Google match was women’s sandals. And so it began.
Roughing It
Singh has always had an affinity for nature. He even did a minor in Environmental Engineering at IIT Delhi. An avid hiker and long-distance runner (he has eight marathons under his belt), he joined the outdoors club at MIT as a hobby.
Every January the Outdoors Club runs a program called Winter School. The members learn how to rough it in below-freezing temperatures on Mount Washington. Singh joked, “They teach you how not to die.” And so he fell in love with winter hiking.
A month after his Google search for hiking boots, Singh went hiking in the Mishmi Hills of the Himilayas. The waterproof gear he had used for hiking in dry and cold climates like New Hampshire wasn’t cutting it in the hotter, damper climate of India. Another lightbulb went off and the brand vision became clear. Mishmi Takin was born.
The Benefits of Crowdfunding
After struggling to place his products using conventional methods such as trade shows and raising venture capital, Singh decided to cut out the middle man and use the direct to consumer model. He funded his first batch of products with a Kickstarter campaign in 2016.
Singh advises that no matter what method you use to get yourself out there, clarity of vision and brand mission have to come first. Crowdfunding is a tool, not a shortcut to success. Analyze the market and figure out where your product will get the most visibility.
In a Kickstarter campaign, the backers also serve as the first reviewers. In essence by bringing a product to the market in this way you are beta testing it. One of the benefits is getting feedback from the consumers. Being given direct insight into what is and isn’t working is invaluable to a business owner.
Just Start
One billion is an amount that gets thrown around in the start-up space. I asked what Singh thought of impacting a billion lives or raising a billion dollars. He told me that he finds focusing on such large numbers limiting, and surprised me with simple and wise mountaineering advice:
“A billion-dollar goal is like getting to the top of Mount Everest. If you don’t know exactly how to get there, there’s a chance you won’t even get out of bed. You probably won’t know which idea is a billion-dollar idea, and if someone dropped one in your lap, you wouldn’t know what to do with it. My goal is to get out of bed, get to the base of the mountain, and then take the next step and the next step and the next step until I find myself at the top. Until then, I don’t worry. Get started, that is more important.”
What Does It Take To Be Sustainable?
Mishmi Takin is a great example of the conscious entrepreneurship that our world needs today. Singh didn’t want to build a company he was going to sell in five years, he wanted to build a longstanding, high-quality brand whose products were reliable and sustainable.
Mishmi Takin is doing their part by eliminating unnecessary packaging and making sure the chemicals used during manufacturing are environmentally friendly. They even have a page on their site where they sell refurbished or returned items at a discount to reduce waste.
Singh says when it comes to sustainability and being able to discern whether one material is better for the environment over another, the entire lifecycle of the product must be taken into account.
For instance, many sources say that paper is more eco-friendly than plastic, but when it comes to shipping, paper weighs more than plastic thus the shipping process produces more carbon emissions. When you take all the variables into consideration, sometimes plastic is the more sustainable answer. Singh warns against having knee jerk reactions before analyzing the entire supply chain and lifespan of the product.
Footwear: A Problem Worth Solving
There are two problems with large-scale shoe manufacturing:
- Our feet swell throughout the course of the day, especially when hiking.
- Anatomically, foot shape can vary greatly from one person to another.
We have yet to crack the code on a shoe that adapts not only to the unique contour of a person’s foot but also the swelling fluctuations. Right now, there are only so many molds a shoe can be manufactured from, which limits companies that make footwear and leaves consumers in a hit or miss situation.
Perhaps 3-D printing paired with thermoplastics will save the day? Calling all engineers. Solving this problem would be a game-changer.
The Importance of Staying Curious
Efficiency is trending. Mark Zuckerberg wears the same shirt every day, people are on strict sleep schedules to maximize work hours, and we are prone to praising anything that is streamlined and predictable.
But innovation is a creative process that depends on exploration, play, and trying things just to see what happens. Don’t narrow your focus so much that it snuffs out your creative inclinations. Try new things. You don’t know where that “unproductive” thing you did today could lead you tomorrow.
Often in life, it’s the new coffee shop we try or the random class we take that prove to be fateful experiences. Winter hiking has nothing to do with a supply chain degree. Singh had no idea that going on a hike would drastically alter the course of his life. He had no expectations other than satisfying his curiosity, the little voice inside that said, “Try it and see what happens.”
Pursue your interests and follow your passions. Do the things that make you happy and make you feel alive because you never know which parts of your life experience are going to inform the next part of the journey. Don’t keep yourself in a box. Like Steve Jobs said in one of his famous commencement addresses, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.”
