Pivot or perish: How three young startups absorbed the Covid shock

They not only withstood the onslaught but scaled new heights too. A Nasscom survey of 250 enterprises last year says over half were looking to diversify seeking new growth opportunities

The life of a startup is full of ups and downs and every step is about surviving these vagaries. However, 2020 was unprecedented in several ways. The world had not seen a pandemic for a real long time and the startups and young entrepreneurs had never imagined a world of lockdowns. While many would have perished, some managed to pivot and survived.

We bring you here three such startups that pivoted as the pandemic impacted global economies but have also scaled new heights. According to a Nasscom survey of 250 startups last year, over 50 per cent were looking to diversify seeking new growth opportunities.

StyleNook: from work-wear to pajamas

In March last year, Kuntal Malia got a brutal shock when the nationwide lockdown was announced to contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus. She along with her friend and cofounder Arti Gupta had launch their startup StyleNook in December 2019, a personal shopping and styling platform for working women. With offices shut, there was suddenly no market for office wear. Their company had raised an undisclosed amount from Lead Angels Network, Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs and other HNIs just before the lockdown in March. But operations came to a standstill in April. 

StyleNook is a fashion technology company which makes it easier for women to find clothes that they love using a set of algorithms and data tools along with a human stylist to curate a set of clothes and accessories for them. “For two-and-a-half month we couldn’t do anything, which also gave us time to understand how fashion will evolve now,” says Malia, who had worked in the startup ecosystem for several years in the US before returning to India for her own venture. The team quickly revamped and started coming up with lines ranging from casual work from home, slight occasion wear to pajamas and loungewear. “This was a huge deviation for us from work-wear to pajamas and we wondered if there will be any requirement for these,” she says. But to their surprise they did get demand as people wanted some simplification in their lives and that’s what the startup provided in terms of clothing. There were days when they sold over 250 pieces of nightwear in one day. It also opened the market for them for non-working women. 

The company also moved from a trail at home service called box model, in which the company send four to five dresses from which the customer would choose and return the others, to an online curation model under which the stylist curates 10-15 pieces online from which the customer can pick and choose what they want to be shipped to them. Today, after over a year of ups and down the company has over 10,000 customers who regularly shop on the platform.

Next, the StyleNook team is planning to roll out menswear and kidswear services on their platform by the end of 2021.

BookBaggage: chugging along with Indian Railways

Gurugram-based BookBaggage, which had launched with the idea of baggage delivery services for air travellers, found itself in the middle of a crisis when the lockdown was announced and air travel came to a halt. “With our service we wanted customers to travel light and stress-free and we tried to provide them with an extra hand while travelling with our door-to-door baggage transfer services,” says Sandip Acharya, COO of BookBaggage, who was earlier working in the engineering department of Air India.

When flights were deferred in March of 2020, the startup changed their focus from airplanes to trains and tied up with Indian Railways for its services for the Tejas Express for migrant workers. They also got into baggage sanitization and wrapping facilities with presence in over 20 stations including Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Patna, and Mumbai. “We have installed UV tunnels for sanitisation of baggage at these stations and charge Rs 10 per luggage for the service,” says Acharya. The wrapping facility costs Rs 50 per luggage. The company is now making over Rs 1 lakh per day via these new services. It has raised Rs 2.5 crore so far from angel investors.

IsGoingOnline: Been there, done it

A done-it-all entrepreneur, Eobin George had done research, teaching, 3D scanning and photography before the pandemic hit. Until the pandemic, his company Perfectfit was into photography using these 3D scanners to help sellers digitise their products via their platform called Perfect Studio. He along with co-founder Sai Santhosh had raised initial round of funding from Kerala Startup Mission and Unicorn Venture India. 

“We use a 3D scanner which is connected to a camera system which takes photos and videos from multiple angles of a product, puts it in the cloud after enhancing it,” says George. During the pandemic, they could not procure the hardware for their service as these were imported, so the company took a hard beating for 3-4 months. During that time George realised that almost 80 per cent of their clients were getting the photography done to create a digital catalogue so they swifty started creating web stores for them through their new offering IsGoingOnline (IGO). 

IGO is a mobile app in which you click photos of your product in a white background, enter the price and get your webstore in a few clicks which you can share on social media pages. So far the company has over 200 sellers enrolled on the app who use the service to create webpages for their products. “For us pivoting helped us a lot in our growth as the pandemic has taught sellers the importance of going online,” says George. 

Bhaskar Majumdar, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures when asked what made him continue supporting Eobin and Perfectfit he said: “We felt that the team had the adaptability to survive. The earlier model was good but was taking a long time to roll out. With COVID, the opportunity presented itself whereby using same technology, business could scale up faster.”

The idea of pivot was driven by George and his team, but UIV being investors also brainstormed about going online and reaching out to retailers in order to show them the impact of 3D printing in making trendiest designs in the shortest possible time.

Venture Capital take on why investors should continue to back founders:

This is the reality of the early stage startup ecosystem where the founders expect their early investors to support them in growing the business. Not only when the going is good but when times get tough. Often, businesses fail because of market conditions. If we have faith in the intent and the tenacity of the entrepreneur, we back them and work with the closely enabling them to pivot into a new avatar. This is an integral part of the role we play as a Fund across our portfolio. Bhaskar Majumdar, Managing Patner, Unicorn India Ventures.

Company: StyleNook

Launch: December 2019

Fundraise: Undisclosed amount from Lead Angels Network, others

Biz model: Helps working women find office wear using AI

Pivot: Rolled out loungewear, nightwear, expanding into mens and kids wear

Company: BookBaggage

Launch: June 2019

Fundraise: Rs 2.5 cr from angel investors

Biz model: Baggage delivery services for air travellers

Pivot: Tied up with railways for wrapping and sanitising luggage

Company: Perfect Studio

Launch: 2018

Fundraise: Investment from Kerala Startup Mission & Unicorn Ventures India

Biz model: Photography for fashion and fitness companies using 3D scanners 

Pivot: Rolled out IsGoingOnline to create online listing for sellers