Napoleon Hill very rightly stated: “First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination.”

Stating this I would like to tell you about Dinesh Vardhan, the man behind the idea of Skin4Gadgets. It all started in 2007 when one of our founders, Dinesh Vardhan, was sitting wondering, what if I don’t want to use a case for my mobile phone; isn’t there any other option? Isn’t there any alternative to it? As using a case adds weight and makes the phone look big and boring. That thirst led him to the internet where he came across a website called skinit.com from USA, the answer to all his questions. He just loved it and a further research revealed to him that there was no such organisation in India and from that day he thought, I want to start something similar in India as well. It was just a thought nothing else but still believing in it he acted and booked the domain skin4gadgets.com in 2007 with the aim that someday that random thought will come into existence.

As time moved on at its own pace the idea got buried deeper and deeper in the sands of time. Dinesh got busy with his routine business and kept this idea aside. But seven years later, in the year 2014 he came across his relative Priyank Ranka who ran a tech company. He just shared the idea with him. Priyank took a liking for it as he found it interesting and shared it with his partner, Sagar Nagda, who liked the concept as well and trio went on to start the ecommerce portal www.skin4gadgets.com on April 2015.

Priyank and Sagar took the responsibility of handling the tech, digital marketing, cataloguing and other business related aspects; whereas Dinesh shouldered the responsibility of procurement and the manufacturing process. Though the portal was launched in April 2015, the actual operations started in February itself. The Initial days were a nightmare where none of them had any idea on skin manufacturing process or the printing industry. But as it is said that time is a great teacher and if you want to learn anything, no one can stop you. So as time passed things started falling in place as they started getting the hang of it and one after the other, problems that they thought were of Mammoth proportions seemed to be very minute now. Their hard work and persistence had paid off after all. Their team grew both in size and in talent.

To take it to a new level they approached several companies for merchandise like Disney, Warner Brothers, Barbie, Mumbai Indians, Chota bheem and some of them agreed but they made up their mind and decided to go with Universal Music India in which they got rights for 50 famous international artists such as Madonna, JLo, Akon, Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, The Black Eyed Peas, Enrique Iglesias, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, etc., to sell their merchandise all over India.

The Team:
Our designs are bespoke, and our personal involvement affirms top-notch deliverance. Our team comprises of dynamic inventive prodigies, who harness the best technology to design and simplify your life. Rippling effects of these are witnessed in what we deliver. Our full time staff of outstanding designers is ever ready to serve both new and existing clients. With us it has never been about how many we are, it has been about how good we are. And we provide the best as we hire and retain the best.

Details of Start-up:
Company Name – Skin4Gadgets
Company Website – http://www.Skin4Gadgets.com
Launch Date – 1st May, 2015

Start-up Description – If your gadgets are to speak of who you are, then skin4gadgets proudly presents the most distinctive tool to dress up your phones, laptops, and tablets! Mirror an evident streak of your own persona using our unique personalizing tool that is available to design skins for absolutely any of your gizmos. Yes indeed! Skin4gadgets provides for an array of graphics and legendary brushstrokes to choose from. The unending options also include the alternative of uploading your favorite photograph and rounding it off with an edge and sparkle! We make sure your device accessory stands out making a mark. We use the best quality product for the skin ensuring optimum safety for your gear.

Founders detail with brief profile:
Sagar Nagda – Co Founder
Sagar is a visionary and has a mix blend of experience ranging from startup to corporate and also switched roles from technology to management. After completing his B.E. from Thadomal Shahani Engineering College he worked in Accenture then completed his international MBA from Bocconi University, Italy. He is also founder of Nimap Infotech an IT services company and running since 5 years, after he returned from MBA, he has scaled up the business 5 fold within one year. He also has strong hold in marketing and also over looks after digital marketing, PR andsemi technical operations.

Dinesh Vardhan – Co Founder
Dinesh is a serial entrepreneur and has over 11 years entrepreneurial experience in gadgets accessories. His brother (Shareholder) stays full time in China due to which he is updated with latest products, technologies and ideas on the go. Dinesh has completed his BE from DJ Sanghvi college of Engineeringand then went to USA to complete MS. He returned from USA just to pursue his passion of entrepreneurship. Skin4gadgets is his pet project and wants to see this reach great scale and heights. He looks after everything related to products. Dinesh has a very good experience in distributing accessories through traditional channel and shares good relations with wholesalers and retailers in accessories market.

Priyank Ranka – Co Founder
Priyank is a great leader and technical Guru. He has been working in iOS ever since it was born and is involved in making 150 apps on apple app store. He founded Nimap Infotech along with Sagar and both of them share a great rapport and chemistry in working together. He has trained many fortune 500 companies in iOS and shares a good relation with a lot of people in the corporate world. He takes care of technology and also looks into corporate bulk sales for our products. He, along with Sagar optimizes lot of processes through technology.

Uniqueness about your Startup:
The USP (unique selling proposition) of my start up is the personalization of products and the depth and coverage in terms of number of gadgets as No website in India offers skins precisely cut for over 200 gadgets models – we are the only company doing it. We also have good coverage in terms of cases as well; we have 100+ models for cases. We also have license to sell official merchandise of Universal Music celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Bob Marley, Katy Perry, Queen, Rolling Stones etc.

Challenges faced:
We have faced a lot challenges in the journey so far. Biggest amongst them was production issues. None of us had any background in printing and are running a website on personalization. These are now streamlined and it is a big relief. Sourcing good talent within your budget is also a challenge since we do not have any external funding, we have completely bootstrapped.

Future Endeavors:
• Have come up with Power banks and very soon will be introducing tampered glass.
• Our focus will be on media and many press coverages.
• Working hard in establishing the offline presence along with online. Looking for distributors from various states zones.
• Focussing on strong digital marketing and presence.
• Focus on good designs, we will get 3rd party designer and photographers onboard and give them royalty on sales.
• We want to be one stop shop for customization and we will introduce all products including t-shirts and many others.

Message for readers: Please do visit our website skin4gadgets.com and personalize your memories onto your gadgets. If you have an idea and a willingness to become an entrepreneur go for it. You will have many people opposing you, resisting it but have confidence and trust in yourself.