Bengaluru is known for being a start-up hub. In today’s competitive world, it becomes difficult for one entrepreneur to take a leap of faith into the market. An initiative called Utter Clutter in Bengaluru is using this strong market of entrepreneurs as an advantage. It’s a theme-based pop-up flea market that brings together entrepreneurs from all over the city under one roof to showcase their brands together. The stalls that each of the entrepreneurs set up promote the idea of ‘helping one another’. The theme of the first event is to give women-led brands a platform to showcase their products and services and connect with the community.
Aishwarya Kamal, founder of a period-box service, says, “My business is comparatively very new. It’s just two weeks old but the ideation has been going on for a year or so. The main idea is to pamper women once a month when they’re on their periods. Such a product is still a stigma, where people don’t really like talking about it. But being on a platform such as this opens up the market for me. People know that I am there and this is what I sell.”
Pooja Kella, founder of a handcrafted skincare brand, agrees. She says, “A platform like this is always a good opportunity for businesses like ours. Many people come together and there is a lot of opportunity to collaborate. If I own a skincare brand, I can collaborate with another brand to create new things or promote our existing products. Such platforms help the most in branding and marketing.”
Razi Abbas, convener and co-curator of the event, says, “The brands got to network with multiple individuals and these brands now stand recognised with a customer base that has seen a significant growth in just a day. Since the audience was diverse, the response each brand got was different but, in the end, every brand got what they wanted. Some got a lot of sales, a lot of them got brand awareness and connects.”
Talking about where this initiative goes from here on, Shradha Ponnappa and Meghna Pottar, founders and hosts share their combined vision, “From now, we are going to explore into different themes and different industries. Our idea of creating a collaborative platform for start-ups is going to remain the same, but the audience and the themes is what is going to change.”
