वेगळी वाट: Interview: Amogh Vaishampayan

Interview: Amogh Vaishampayan, CEO and co-founder of Paintcollar

Welcome and thanks for taking out time for this interview. As you know, your parents have been part of Mitramandal family for long time. You yourself must have attended quite a few programs. Now we have a e-magazine named Katta and like to interview few close members who have opted for a different path in life.  So, we are interviewing you as young entrepreneur from family. Let's begin.

Being entrepreneur was one of your dreams? How did this journey begin?

Amogh – Not at all. It all started accidentally. After completing engineering I had taken up a corporate job. Work profile was typical… frankly there was nothing exciting. Life was getting boring.  So,  very causally me and 3 of my friends decided to sell posters at IIT Bombay’s Mood Indigo. When we received a fantastic response there, we thought that maybe we could take this business online. We did a lot of research. We were able to zero down to a problem statement to which we wanted to offer a solution. Today’s young buyer between age 18 to 30, do not prefer to buy from art exhibitions. The consumption behavior of consumer has changed completely. 

This is solution to their requirements. We did not want to be just another e commerce store. After several discussions we hit upon the idea that we could let artists and designers sell their work to people in the form of designer merchandise. We wanted to make the process as simple as possible and so we developed our Product Creation Engine, which is at the core of our technology.  An artist can use it to upload his/her artwork, our engine immediately renders it and one can immediately see how a product like T-shirt with his/her artwork will look. Using this artist's can upload their art, set their own profit margins and put their products up for sale within minutes.

So, this rendering engine is your core USP,  is it your idea and developed by your team?

Amogh – Yes. We coded this rendering engine/design tool. Artists upload their work using our design tool. We developed it ourselves along with the rest of the website. It’s really easy to use.

Anyone can upload an account and create products. We do a check to see whether the products have been rendered properly, whether the artist has followed the design tool guidelines and whether the artwork is original. After that our ranking algorithm sorts the artwork on the shop pages. 

Here’s how it works: 

 

You have a lot of exposure to ‘art’ in the house. Your mother and grandfather are accomplished artists. Are you an artist yourself? Did this background contribute in choosing this field?

Amogh – First, I am not an artist myself. But as you pointed out my mother and grandfather are both artists and so I’ve grown up around art.

Although I’m not really an artist myself, I can fairly say that I have an eye for appreciating and understanding art. I love working with artists because every artwork has a story or some source of inspiration behind it.

At Paintcollar we accept art in all forms, from all genres and all styles. Paintcollar currently has abstracts, pop art, watercolour, oil paintings, digital paintings etc…The purpose of being an art marketplace is defeated if we limit our artist’s creativity. Understanding this mind-set of artists gave us an edge over competitors. We let the artists to choose the commercials of their art work.

But, why paintcoller? Where did the name come from?

Amogh – There was a lot of discussion going on about the name, we were brainstorming, arguing, looking for available domains. 

At that time one of our co founders Deepak came up with name Paintcoller, we all liked it.You should take a look at our logo. Its simple and artistic, it is collar, it’s a head of a pencil, it’s a plane and much more.

You are speaking like a seasoned corporate, talking start up lingo, did you take any training for this? You were familiar with all these while starting the venture?

Amogh – No, not at all. I would say we were a bunch of idiots when ventured. We had no idea about how it works, the marketing, commercials, taxation, stress nothing. We learnt everything hands on. This has taught us more than MBA, I would say this is ON JOB executive MBA.

Then how did you manage the funding?

Amogh – Even though we are in start-up capital, VCs, funding is considered as a challenge in business. That’s not right. But we do not believe in huge funding. Rather in e-commerce the funding is used in incorrect way. Companies give unusual discounts just to attract buyers. This can turn out to be a dangerous situation for the business. In regular business, as long as you are growing, you are showing sale month by month funding falls in place.

Which was the most existing project, commercially for the company and for you as a leader?

Amogh – There are quite a few, but right now we are doing very existing work, We have about 5000 artists who share their artwork with us. We have recently tied up with a large music label to create and market merchandise for their artists. We are office merchandise partner of Bahubali. Needless to say, this all comes with lot of hard work, discussions of months and months, sleepless nights and much more.

Range of products:

What was your family’s reaction when you decided to quit a corporate job and star on your own?

Amogh – Oh, I am very lucky on this front. Parents wholeheartedly supported my decision. Not only me but for 4 cofounders, families have been incredibly supportive. It’s very important, as you can fight only one battle at a time.

From an amateur to a businessman, what do you think about Indian start up industry?

Amogh - The e-commerce industry is booming in India at the moment. With the mobile revolution, India is a hot market right now, especially for tech startups. We are as much a tech startup as an art startup. Integrating a social experience into your product can really work wonders. That’s why we are working on adding several features like a newsfeed of artists you follow and a notification system for every account. As of now, users can already appreciate designs and follow artists on the website.

The company registration process could be made a lot smoother in India. Despite being such a huge emerging market, India ranks quite low on the ‘ease of doing business’ index. There is not much legislation specifically for e-commerce in India right now but it looks like it will be coming soon.

Imagine if you would have continued in the corporate job instead of venturing your own dream, do you think you would have been a same person as you are today?

Amogh – No. I have grown so much as a person, I have learnt so much in these years. I rather all of us have taken lot of efforts for this venture. We have spent number of restless nights where one thinks of quitting. But we stood there. I don’t think I would have got so much of exposure, experience if I would have continued in the job.

Lastly, what tips do you have for other budding entrepreneurs, who are trying to start their own venture?

Amogh: Use your boredom. Young people get bored a lot. They could use that time when they have literally nothing else to do, to develop and validate their startup ideas.

Thank you so much for Amogh for your time and sharing your journey with us. Katta team of Mitramandal Bengaluru wish you great and exciting journey ahead. We will be following ‘Paintcollar’ and excited to see all the new art that comes out. 

Amogh – I would like to thank MItramandal for giving me the opportunity for this dialog. I urge everyone to visit Paintcollar.com and get a first hand experience. Please do share the site with your friends and colleagues.

Interview by

Gandhali Sewak