Success Story of ‘King Kesariya’ Sachin Dev Vashist
This era of startups guided by out of box thinking to solve a problem has given us so many entrepreneurs. Today in the very first inspirational story we are introducing the story of Sachin Dev Vashisht who’s a startup is working with the farmers from Jammu and Kashmir by providing them an online platform to sell their ripe directly to the customers. His e-commerce portal www.kingkesariya.co.in eliminates the middle man and brings customers and farmers directly to each other.
Following is the transcript of the interviews which our team member took from the founder and the CEO of King Kesariya.
Q. How did the idea of Startup originated?
A. Actually when the time of an idea has come nobody can stop it and nature itself manages it. The same happened to me. In the year 2011 when I was working in a company in Delhi, I came in contact with a few techies who became very good friends of mine. And at another hand my eldest brother Mr.Sunil was staying in Kashmir since 2006 on the assignment of a social organization, he use to discuss lots of problems faced by farmers in Jammu and Kashmir.
Apart from the militancy, unemployment the other problem of the state was of the farmers who were not getting the right price of their crops, especially the saffron and dry fruits. They were underpaid by the middle man, so I thought that even staying in Delhi-NCR I can do something for them. That was the time when the internet started becoming part of life in India. Looking at changing scenario of communication an idea of an E-commerce portal came to mind. An exclusive portal for saffron and dry fruits those are cultivated in Jammu and Kashmir.
Q. How did you got to access technology ?
A. Once the idea took shape, the next task was to implement it. I started talking to my friends who can help me in developing the e-commerce portal that I wanted to launch. One of my friend who is a techie in a company in Gurugram (then Gurgaon) took interest in my idea and decided to develop the portal for me.
Once we decided on the name King Kesariya (www.kingkesariya.co.in & www.kingKesariya.com) after lots of research, then we worked on technical infrastructure like server and followed by the development part. After that development started, and within 1 month the portal was ready.
Meanwhile, we studied the market size and the demand on the basis of data available online. From all these studies, we found that saffron from Jammu and Kashmir, India is a highly demanded product not only in India but also around the world.
Q. What challenges you came across at initial phase?
A. Since I had no experience of entrepreneurship I faced challenges at every phase. Whether it was technical knowledge for running a portal, or capital expenses, or finding a market or doing online promotion, operations, for me everything was a challenge.
After initial expenditure, the saving was gone but the capital was needed for expansion of work. I again joined the job in an organization, after a few months some money was saved I started again then I joined a part-time job so that I feel financially confident and simultaneously I started working from where I left on King Kesariya.
To ensure the quality of the product I worked on the produce from Kashmir, to ensure the delivery of the same I worked on the packaging. For online promotion, I learned online marketing with help of my friend in tech companies. To penetrate the traditional market I use to hang bags and go to meet dealers, retailers in the entire NCR by metro, by autosome time by walking kilometers by walk.
Q. How did you expand your startup business?
A. First I made a proper strategy as per our findings during our initial study. I started online and offline marketing together. To penetrated traditional market I started B2B and for B2C I did online marketing by optimizing our website and trough social media. And also I started supplying to food chains.
As a result of continuous efforts, King Kesariya has been established as a successful brand. Starting with a packet of 1 gm, the business has reached a turnover of 40 lakhs today and is growing.
Today King Saffron’s customers are in Thailand, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, the USA, Australia, America (Colorado) apart from India.
Q. How you maintain the quality of your product ?
A. We buy high-quality and pure saffron directly from farmers. We did lots of work on the quality of packaging, a good packaging preserves the product for a long; we prepared different packaging of 1-2-4-10 grams on the basis to preserve the saffron for a long time. Due to that hard work, we are successfully able to deliver pure saffron all over the country with freshness and natural aroma.
Q. Apart from Saffron what are other products King Kesariya Sell?
A. Saffron is our mascot product, we are known for saffron. Along with saffron now we are selling dry fruits like walnuts, Almonds, Kashmiri kahwa, and shilajit.
Q. How do you manage?
A. I directly take care of the display of the product on the website and how to manage it, apart from this; I plan the promotion of the product, I keep a watch on the operations part from the arrival of products from farmers in Jammu and Kashmir to packing to dispatch for timely delivery. Logistics to export is also looked after by me to ensure the timely delivery and dispatch of quality products. From time to time I consult my team members and well-wishers for their ideas and views especially before launching a new product.
Q. The last question, how do you get so much of energy and motivation to carry thinks?
A. So he told that meditation and yoga have always been his companions and whenever he gets time he likes to go to spiritual and religious places to get peace which energies him time to time. “Thanks for your time for giving this interview for our portal Jigyasalive.com, our entire team wishes you good luck for your future endeavor”
A popular name globally:
In a report published in 2017, 2020, 2021 by Global Insight Research, King Kesariya was included in the 10 best saffron brands in the world. Today King Saffron is becoming very popular among people for its pure saffron, dry fruits, shilajit, and its amazing Kashmiri Kahwa.
Apart from this, Radiant Insight has also included King Saffron in the list of prominent vendors.
Media Coverage
King Kesariya success story has been covered in news portals like Aaj Tak, Money Bhaskar, and India.com. Success can be achieved only with strong willpower and relentless efforts, Sachin has set such an excellent example in front of the young entrepreneur, his story is an inspiration
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