Business Success Story: From Vision to Victory, Rahul Narvekar's Trailblazing Journey in Transforming IndianRoots into a Global Brand

Rahul Narvekar, the founder of Indianroots, navigated the e-commerce landscape skillfully, contributing to the platform's success as a prominent online marketplace for Indian ethnic wear.

Rahul Narvekar

New Delhi: Rahul Narvekar, Founder and CEO of NDTV Ethic Retail Limited’s Indian Roots has had a life extraordinaire, a story befitting a Hindi movie screenplay with all the ingredients intact. Born in a small room in a chawl in Mumbai, Rahul’s father was an orphan who was raised in an orphanage and worked in a factory to support his family. He also did odd jobs so that he could provide simple “luxuries” to his family. They were the most well-off family in the chawl and were the owners of the solitary television in their chawl community. Rahul’s father ensured that despite their modest earnings, they never missed simple pleasures like a birthday celebration. The celebrations could not last long though.

He lost his job due to factory lock-out. The following 10 to 12 years were a struggle with his father picking odd jobs to support his family and his mother sewing clothes for a living. Rahul’s parents ensured that his education was taken care of albeit not from a very fancy school called Sardarni Pratap Singh Janta Vidyalaya. Rahul was a topper all along and was into theatre, athletics, debates and was a voracious reader. He shares “I could not afford to buy Time and Fortune magazines in those days and would scurry the same from the "raddiwala’s” cache of magazines and books. These magazines were my source of inspiration and they gave me hope. I never stopped dreaming".

Rahul also took up many small jobs like that of a delivery boy, even working in a hospital as a ward boy in the night shift, taking tuition, selling crackers and “kandeel ” during diwali and even selling watermelons on a cart. These jobs did not let the dreamer in Rahul fade away. He kept reading and dreaming .

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There were many hurdles Rahul faced while pursuing graduation and had to change colleges as he did not have money to pay the fees. He finally completed graduation via correspondence from Mumbai University. Rahul also enrolled in a business entrepreneurship full time course from Burhani institute of Business Entrepreneurship.

During his college days, Rahul set up his first venture which dealt in selling advertisements on cable . He then got together with 5 other friends to set up Asia’s first music channel - Channel Oxygen, in Mumbai in 1999. Though they managed to scale the operations, it could not sustain and eventually sunk. He met Vinita Coelho who taught him screenplay and subsequently Rahul went on to write the screenplay along with her for Trikal serial on Home T.V where the dialogues were by Anurag and Abhinav Kashyap.

Rahul moved to Delhi as he and Pallavi were planning to tie the knot there as she was based there. After moving to Delhi, he worked for an agency. He then got married to Pallavi who went on to become one of the most popular RJs on Radio Mirchi, Delhi. Luck ran out quickly and he lost his job on the day of his wedding and had to abandon his honeymoon plans.

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Days later, he started working and managing District Centre, Janakpuri in Delhi as a senior manager with an awesome boss, as Rahul describes Pranav Ansal, who encouraged his ideas and supported him.

Rahul later met NDTV who were too keen to start an online clothing portal to sell ethnic and designer wear all over the world. Rahul launched indianroots.com in 2013 for which they raised 5 million USD last year. The current valuation is 85 million USD! Indian Roots received the prestigious ‘Emerging Concept of the Year Award’ at the Star Retailer Awards 2014. IndianRoots.com showcases over 100 designers including Sabyasachi, Anita Dongre, Rohit Bal, Neeta Lulla, Pranavi Kapur, and Rajesh Pratap Singh and more than 700 brands on its online marketplace. India and USA are its biggest markets.

Rahul says of his fall and rise and many such falls and rises “I just accepted the situation each time and started from scratch again with renewed vigour. Thanks to my upbringing, I have never shied away from hard work or being too worked up about so called designations or perceived profile - I can start from scratch again and again anytime …. No one can take away my education and my work experience ever and since I believe I am Ganesha’s favourite child, I will flourish - always”. “Life has been kind too and I have done plenty of stuff that I have enjoyed, met fabulous people and have had great experiences”. Rahul believes that he is destiny’s blessed child and adds “When I look back at any so-called set-back in life, I have bounced back, many times stronger. I genuinely believe that I am "Anti-Fragile” - the more pressure there is on me, the stronger I become". “Life is a mixed bag and Pallavi’s illness is still a challenge, but we are working at it together. Pallavi does CSR for Radio Mirchi and has won many awards for her work for blind people”.

On his advice to aspiring entrepreneurs, Rahul shoots “Be besharam (shameless) always - Ask. Ask. Ask” .