Hey,
Hope you are doing great!
It's almost been a month since we introduced Perfora to the world! What a month it has been, full of ups and downs!
I'm Jatan, one of the co-founders of Perfora and this is our very first letter, and I'm super excited to kick this off.
As a team, we did multiple rounds of discussion to decide on what should be the theme of our letters, what should we communicate, what would our customers like to read and so on.
Finally (after a lot of deliberation), we decided that we want our readers to be a part of our journey where they learn about our personal lives, how we are building this brand, become more aware of oral care, get inspired, etc. Not taking too much of your time, let's dive into today's letter. This is an extremely personal one, I hope you read it till the end :)
A few days ago, I wrote something, in a long, long time about what my journey has been around starting up. Here are some of the snippets of that write-up -
The Journey!
I don’t know where should I start. Reflecting back, it is difficult to pinpoint an exact date or moment. Sometimes, it feels like a long while ago when we started working on this idea to elevate everyday oral care. In reality, it’s been less than 12 months (it feels really long).
To warm you up a little, ever since I was a kid, I dreamt about running a business. Probably, because my father has been running one for more than 40+ years, and seeing him carry out his operations, always excited me. Coming from a small town, with limited exposure to the real world, I just wanted to inherit my family business. However, life had different plans.
Fast forward, I graduated from the University of Delhi, in 2014 and started working for a multi-national corporation. Those early days of professional life were all fun & games. I kind of miss those times, on some days. Though, working in such a structured environment, where I wasn’t contributing much, my urge of starting up or learning how to go about starting up was getting ignited.
Over the next 5 years, I ended up working with early-stage companies across real estate and consumer goods. During this time, I learned tonnes of things — sales, operations, hiring, product development, website development, marketing, etc. In a nutshell, I was hustling, day in and day out.
After 6+ years of professional experience, I am not sure if an individual should startup early on, without much experience, or get a few years of experience under his/her belt. I believe there are pros and cons to whatever route one opts for.
Looking back, some experience does come in handy. I’m able to navigate quite a few things in a more effective way, avoid some mistakes, and also able to leverage my network better to learn and get things done.
It is never an easy decision to go out and start your own venture. Believe me, it takes a lot of courage and conviction to take this leap of faith, as success is usually hard to come by. I have been thinking of starting up for more than 2 years now. All said and done, I’m so excited about how this journey unfolds and in a way, I’m glad that I’m getting to live my childhood dream. While growing up, not everyone dreamt of becoming a scientist or a pilot, some of us wanted to become entrepreneurs. To learning every day!
If you would like to read the entire write-up, that lays out my thought process around starting up and what goes behind taking that leap of faith, here is the link - https://bit.ly/3n1cJER.
And like so many of you out there, I have been inspired by some great entrepreneurs who built iconic brands. Here are some of my favorite books -
Shoe Dog - By Phil Knight | Story of the Nike.
The Man Behind The Wheel - By Tim Bouquet | Story of Onkar S Kanwar (Apollo Tyres)
Pour Your Heart Into - By Howard Schultz | Story of Starbucks
Losing My Virginity - By Sir Richard Branson | Story of Virgin Group
If you would like to chat or give us any advice or show some love, please feel free to reply to this email.
Have a lovely Sunday!
Cheers,
Jatan