(The first in a new series about UCLA Anderson student and alumni entrepreneurs)
By Julie Epstein
Nisha Patel’s spring break plans were derailed this year. Instead of going on vacation, she was deployed to India by two classmates (and soon-to-be business partners) Sreesha Vaman and Patrick Gengoux to purchase saris. The three 2011 UCLA Anderson graduates, along with classmate Bryan Leong, recently launched Sari Closet, an online boutique offering customers a chance to rent authentic saris imported from India. Last week, Vaman and Gengoux spoke with us, laying out the facts and explaining how their nascent company came to be, where they hope to take it in the future, and how their Anderson experiences helped to actualize their vision.
The Business plan: what began as an in-class assignment quickly turns into a tangible business:
Patrick Gengoux: “Nisha had the idea originally; she wanted to use the idea for the Business Plan Development class and she teamed up with Sreesha, myself and some others to write the plan during fall quarter 2010. As the final presentation for the class we pitched the idea to some venture capitalists. Then after the first week or so of winter break, Professor Jeff Scheinrock told us to call him back, so we worked with him, talked amongst ourselves and finally we decided we (could make it a real business). We later entered the Knapp Venture Competition, where we made it to the second to last round. Each of us put in some money and then we actually shipped Nisha off to India to go find some saris. We officially opened for business on May 26.”
Tradition meets technology. Sari Closet succeeds in breathing new life into this old school fashion staple of South Asia, the company relies heavily on social media networking to keep their products relevant and reachable:
Sreesha Vaman: “We’re very happy with where the volume is so far. We look at Facebook and Twitter traffic, as well as website traffic, so we’re excited about where we are with the business. We’re on the cusp of taking the next step: increasing awareness to be a bigger presence on the web. Our goal is to be a bigger part of the sari culture and community.“
Vaman and Gengoux explain how their collective cultural backgrounds and business savvy they culled from their experiences at Anderson have allowed them to grow their company and reap the rewards of entrepreneurship.
Gengoux: “I didn’t come to Anderson with the idea of starting a business when the opportunity came along. You can really only create wealth and help people out by starting your own business and building companies from the ground up. It’s a serious undertaking, a tremendous amount of work and a huge risk, but at the end of the day we know we have a great project we can execute.
Vaman: “I had no thoughts towards starting a business. I took Professor Scheinrock’s course because it provides great resources to entrepreneurs and I felt I wasn’t taking advantage [of those resources]. We took this company and it blossomed from a concept to a business and I’m really enjoying it. It changed my outlook as an entrepreneur.”
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