We are publishing an interview of Mr. Jagjit Jassal, Founder and Managing Partner, Flambird.
About the founders
- Jagjit Jassal (Founder and Managing Partner) – It is his passion for creating things that led to these like-minded people coming together to innovate and design products of utility and high quality. An interior designer by qualification, Jagjit is also the Chief Designer at Flambird and spearheads all the design initiatives. With his 8+ years of experience in interior designing he understands all aspects of home design. When not working, you could find him traveling to off beat places or listening to music or watching a movie while relaxing at home.
- Gurmeet Singh (Co-Founder and Partner) – He is the senior most member of the team in terms of age and experience but is totally young at heart. A seasoned industrialist with an experience spanning about 25 years he handles the overall strategy and the operations at Flambird. He is an extremely religious and God fearing person.
What is the problem you are trying to solve? Can you share with us any insights that led you to believe that this is a big enough problem?
We are in the process of creating a design firm, which will create high quality modular furniture and other interior design products. Most of our products will be made with materials that are very durable and at the same time have a very high degree of design quotient. We plan to make products that will be delivered in dismantled state and can be easily assembled by the consumers.
What is the uniqueness about your Startup?
We are a design firm that believes in nurturing talent and fostering innovation. The team and especially the founders work in a very hand on way. Right from the design to manufacturing and marketing, everything is done in house. There is no compromise in quality and excellence.
What is the revenue model? Explain your thought process.
The revenue model being followed is Production Model and E-Commerce as of now. We, at Flambird want to design and produce the product in house only to maintain quality and keep the production technique to ourselves.
Who are the consumers that you are targeting? How is this going to affect them?
We are targeting people from all age groups across the globe. Our products will be very diverse to cater to people from all segments of society. They are basically utility products with high design quotient and high quality.
What is the big picture of your startup? Will it lead to something bigger? If so, how?
Currently, we are planning to launch our campaign on Indiegogo. Ultimately we have an aim to become a design firm with a force to reckon with. We would want to be a leader firm in the segment we are catering to. We would want our exclusive online channel to become a big retailer globally. We have a dream of competing with the likes of Home Depot or Ikea based in USA. We want to be very big in the interior design market specialising in differentiated products and furniture. We want to use economies of scale to bring down costs. We want to launch a special affordable range targeted for the masses of India. We also want the huge middle classes of India to benefit from our innovations.
What is the success story of your startup in your own words?
Well according to me success in not a destination but a journey. And as of today, after launching our first product I can say that we are somewhat successful, but yes there is a long way to go and many milestones are still left to be achieved. The journey so far has been exciting but challenging at the same time.
Well. The main challenge was to create the right team. Finding people with the right capability and mindset was not easy at first. Had to really convince them about the idea. But finally now I can say proudly that I have a great team and I am very optimistic about our future.
Another challenge was scaling up. We did not have enough funds in hand to scale up to an extent to control costs or to achieve economies of scale. Thus, we found crowdfunding as the solution to this. It was not easy to convince my fellow team members about the benefits of crowdfunding. Finally after a lot of brainstorming we all came to consensus and rest is history. We are going for crowdfunding very soon on Indiegogo within this month.
