Palash gave wings to his dream of launching a startup from a small city-Ranchi. His business brings out a range of decorative items inspired from ancient Indian traditions and sells them across the globe.

Palash Agrawal is an entrepreneur who comes from Ranchi. He is the Director of Vedas Exports Private Limited, based out of Jodhpur, which sells handmade décorative items in India and abroad. Palash mainly works with local artisans while supporting the Make in India campaign.

Talking about the beginning of his entrepreneurial journey, Palash shares that Vedas is a bootstrapped initiative that draws its inspiration from traditional Indian art and craft. His business aims to infuse a modern perspective on ancient décor sensibilities while keeping the idea of sustainability in mind. Palash not only provides tailor-made products but also offers an exchange value for your reusable decor items. His company is divided into three segments: utility decor, wall decor, and figurines.

Recalling his childhood, Palash says he was born and brought up in a small town called Ramgarh in Jharkhand. He studied in an army school until his 4th grade, after which he shifted to a boarding school in Ranchi, where he stayed for three years. Palash completed the rest of his education at the Scindia School, Gwalior.

Palash did his Mechanical Engineering from Cardiff University, UK. He then worked at Jaguar Land Rover in the United Kingdom and also spent some time working for a company in Germany. After that he earned his Master of Science (MSc) degree from King's College, London. He then made his way back to India after spending over fifteen years abroad.

Describing his struggles, Palash shares that he struggled to sell even a single product during the first month of his business. This made him strategize his efforts towards R&D, but his business still remained vulnerable to unexpected events like the COVID. Dealing in a category of luxury products, his product line was not on the priority list of the customers, says Palash. Identifying this lag, Palash began brainstorming and launched must-have products for customers like wall clocks. He used his knowledge of product design and marketing to build his business.

Speaking of his achievements, Palash says that his company was listed in D2C Brand Awards, which has been one of his achievements. Getting repeated orders from the same clients and being praised by the artisans makes him feel happy and satisfied.

When asked about his role models, Palash says he draws inspiration from his father, who started from scratch and established his own business.

Drawing a comparison between education and experience, Palash says that while education provides training to develop oneself, it is experience that gives you a real feel of the world.

In his message to aspiring entrepreneurs, Palash suggests they discuss their business ideas with experienced people to get a relevant piece of advice. He urges people not to consider any work as small or big but to see what makes them truly satisfied and happy. Palash advises startup enthusiasts to not participate in the rat race but focus on creating something unique with good planning. Lastly, he suggests they secure their product line and set aside some corpus of money to meet any unexpected events, which is an important and expected part of any business.

Advising the youth, Palash says that the younger generation needs to start their day early and set a daily routine in order to stay productive and achieve their goals. He advises everyone to read newspapers to get firsthand information on events happening around them.

His success mantra is to work hard without thinking about the results. He also believes in staying honest and true to his work. Palash goes on to mention that you need to have a strong team to grow in your venture.

Palash likes to listen to music in his free time. He makes sure to read the newspaper on a daily basis.