Interview of Mr Darshan Patodi Founder of Yellow Fashion (Yellowfashion.in)

We were lucky enough to get a chance to interact with the founder of Yellow Fashion (yellowfasion.in) And its emenense experince will help and boost the current struggling enterprenur. Might me the one who reading this will be the next one.

1.It’s a really struggling story for each of the enterprenurs and so as you mr Darshan Patodi a well experienced person and now a very good and inspiring enterprenur so tell you your story in Brief short.

Ans. I started my digital journey with baazee.com (now ebay.in) in 2000 and then over 11 years was lucky to work with some of the best teams and companies like Naukri.com & Jeevansathi (both Info Edge businesses), Rediff.com, Reliance Entertainment & Balaji Telefilms. In end of 2010, while I was transitioning to a new role, the idea of starting up become a reality. And so my Wife and Me, co-founded Yellowfashion.in and we finally we went live in Apr’11. It’s been a exciting and challenging journey so far. First couple of years are always the toughest and so we struggled and survived with lot of patience. It was more tough to convince the family and friends that leaving a highly paid job and starting up is a good option . In the last 4 years, as an enterprenur, we have learnt a lot more than what we did earlier. We’ve become more responsible and patient. We’ve been learning the fine-art of multi-tasking and the ability to let go certain imperfect things and look at long term.Overall, I wish and would want to startup many more ventures in years ahead.

2. So what inspired the name yellow fashion ?

Ans. Yellow has been a color which always was favorite to both me and my wife pallavi (co-founder of Yellowfashion). Both of us wanted to build on Fresh Fashion and so we chanced upon – building Yellow Fashion – a fresh fashion destination for women ethnic apparels

3. Your story for struggling at start so tell us what was your most worst bad time after the start of Yellow Fashion (yellowfasion.in)?

Ans. It’s been a great journey so far with a lots of swings – northward and southwards. As a enterterprenuer we go through great and bad moments every day.But our toughest period was the initial 18 months after the start. Their were lot of struggles like – we deployed all our savings, we were paying our suppliers in advance and the courier remittances were adhoc and delayed. On the team front, it was tough to convince and hire even at the entry levels. So everything was a challenge.I remember, during one of the payment cycles we had no cash left and my PF money from the last job helped us to pay our vendor bills. That was a saving grace at a very critical moment.While there are bad moments but patience and consistency keeps you alive and ticking to go that extra mile towards light.

4. Which was your most up raisel moment in this journey of Yellow Fashion?

Ans. We had our share of Happy moments, while they have been small but plenty. Our first 100 orders mark, First 1 crore NSV milestone, First unique Saree design to reach 5000 Qty sales, Our 100,000 customer milestone and our recent entry to Sri Lanka.

5.So how big is the website today ? How many people work under you ?

Ans. We are niche vertical in Women Apparel and so we remain very targeted. Our audience is Women 32 – 50 years. We currently get a million sessions per month from these women customers and we enjoy a very healthy repeat purchase rate.
We currently have a total team size of 24 members (including contract, full time and freelancers) across all functions

6. Yellowfasion.in does offer tradional wears for women’s or girls so ever thought this the same for boys or men’s ? Or what’s your future plans to be for your site ?

Ans. We currently are focussed towards Women wear and believe we’ll continue to remain so in future. There are far more opportunities still untapped and unexplored in Women’s wear. We want to launch our private label and create innovative sourcing and distribution models.And so Men’s wear / boy’s wear is not a interest and focus area for us at this point.

7. Over to your journey mr darshan, over 14 years of different company experiences and this successful journey of this site after struggle who was your role model or who was most inspiring person for you ?
Ans. I come from business family and so we have grown up seeing our Dad build & scale his different businesses and that remains a inspiration.
Also, I have been lucky to work with some of the best bosses and colleagues in last 14 years. I still interact and get my doze of inspiration from them whenever I need any advice and guidance.
Would want to thank all my Seniors & Bosses who actually helped and shaped the way I work, think and act today.

8. So there are lots new enterprenurs struggling in the market to get their company or startup so do you wanna say something to them ? Or sent a wonderful message to those strugglers ?

Ans.

My only advice would be – that if you want to start then do it now, these are great times to build and scale your dreams. The eco-system for enterpreneurs is getting better then what it was a few years back.

So start early…work passionately and be patient and… you’ll see Success chasing you.