The reality, in between all the noise, glamour and hype depicted while climbing up the corporate ladder is that, building a brand is serious business. Founders don’t have just one job. They have to be the leader, recruiter, salesperson, fundraiser, manager, and so much more. “The job is not like any regular 9-5 job. It’s much harder. I am the first to arrive and the last to leave,” says 25-year old Kevin Prichard who founded Lightbulb Inc, a brand consultancy for restaurants, with his partner Luke Sarkar.
“My partner and I quit our jobs and founded the company on my bed because we had no finances or investments. But we pursued because there was no where else we could go, but ahead,” he adds. Young entrepreneurs need to be flexible, communicative and have the ability to make an impact. “We loved designing from the beginning and knew this is what we wanted to do. But when we started out we had no funding and it was a huge struggle to get recognised. We had to manage everything on our own and that was very hectic. But now we have hit it off and our brand is available on Flipkart and Amazon and we have recently even started receiving orders from the US,” says 22-year-old Selma Dominique of Francisca and Dominique, who runs the brand with her sister Sabrina.
Young entrepreneurs working on their ambitious problems face tremendous odds. And for people who are doing two things at once, it’s double the effort. “It was difficult to build my own brand when I started off at 18, because not a lot of people have faith in a teenager. Many thought it was just a phase but I knew I was serious about it. It is very difficult to manage studying and designing side by side because I have deadlines at both college and also items to deliver to my clients and I can't give excuses for either,” says 21-year-old Neha Kukreja a budding fashion designer, who hopes to make her name in the Bollywood fashion industry someday.
