By Sanna Vohra:
I once had to make a delivery to twin brides who were both getting married in Kashmir on the same weekend. They ordered their wedding jewellery from me and I had to deliver it on time. But it turned into a logistics nightmare where my staff had to cross military zones on a holiday weekend!
Multiple phone calls and hours of determination later, we delivered, making the two brides happy on their wedding day. Their happiness made every challenge I experience as part of my start-up venture, The Wedding Brigade (TWB), worth it!
My stint with entrepreneurship began while I was at the Brown University. I had always had a zeal for ideas and innovation, and co-founded a campus food business; we sold food discount cards that got students 20% off on their restaurant bills at eateries near the campus. It turned out to be the largest student-run business at the time.
Moving on, how my second start-up began is quite interesting. I was working as an investment banker in New York and happened to come to India for a vacation to attend a family friend’s wedding.
While here, I saw how unorganized and chaotic the process of planning an Indian wedding was. These inefficiencies led me to research about the market, scope and other players in India.
My ‘aha’ moment was when I realised the huge gap between the demand for wedding services and the current offerings.
And that’s how my tryst with India’s big, fat wedding industry began.
Indear, the first avatar of my business launched in 2014 and there has been no looking back since then. In 2016, we evolved into The Wedding Brigade, my current venture, borne out of the belief that every Indian deserves to have a beautiful, hassle-free wedding. It’s an all-inclusive online Indian platform that aims to streamline the process of planning a wedding, right from booking venues to wedding fashion. Today, I have 35 employees in five cities with customers in more than 15 countries.
Collaborating With More Women
I’ve been lucky to collaborate with some fantastic women during this journey. The virtue of our industry brings us the opportunity to work with women across fashion, photography, decor and services.
Over and above from the beginning till date, a majority of my workforce has been female, across the board – finance, technology, communication and so forth.
And going forward we would love to do curated collections with powerhouse women in fashion like Anamika Khanna or Anita Dongre.
Entrepreneurship 101
What drives me as an entrepreneur is to see how an idea can truly transform into something tangible that solves a problem and makes people’s lives easier. At TWB, as a team, we try to challenge ourselves by solving a consumer problem in the best way possible.
Being passionate about entrepreneurship, I always say, especially to women entrepreneurs, if you’ve ideas, then start up! Here are some things, I learnt along the way that could help aspiring entrepreneurs:
- Understanding the problem clearly before coming up with a solution
- Understanding the USP of your business and figuring out what differentiates your approach
- Make sure the unit’s economics make sense
- Build a great team that fill the gaps in your own skill set
While taking the start-up plunge is the most important decision, my advice – start small and keep moving forward each day.
You’ll make it happen.
About Sanna Vohra:
Sanna Vohra, 27, Founder & CEO of “The Wedding Brigade”, was featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list (Retail & E-Commerce). Passionate about supporting women entrepreneurs, Sanna shared her start-up journey and entrepreneurship nuggets in the SHEROES community, earlier this year.
By popular demand, SHEROES launched SHE Starts Up!, our community to support women entrepreneurs via mentorship, funding, community chats and conversations. You can join the community here and find support for you startup dreams!
