Indian startup founder who made ₹20 lakh daily recounts how he lost business to Amazon | Trending
The founder of a home organiser company confessed that he went from making ₹20 lakh in daily revenue to almost losing his business within a few years. In a confession, shared the Grapevine founder Saumil Tripathi on X, the man shared a lengthy post describing his rise and fall on online shopping platforms. The entrepreneur said the Amazon buyout offer was massive but he turned it down as he felt he was “unstoppable”(Representational) “I went from selling 20L of products per day to watching my generational-wealth dream crumble under Amazon,” he began. He said his “humble brand of home organisers” was the leader on Amazon and Flipkart – raking in nearly ₹20 lakhs in daily revenue at its peak. “Today, that business is practically gone, undone Amazon’s move into private labels. I’m not broke or working a 9–5, but the potential for creating true generational wealth was ripped out from under me before it could fully materialise. This is my cautionary tale,” he said. How it all beganThe founder said in 2017, while looking for budget-friendly storage ideas for his apartment, he found these products were selling at high prices on Amazon India. “I took a leap of faith and spent about INR 2.5 lakhs to buy 300 products and sold them for ₹300-500. To my shock, all 300 sold out in roughly 50 hours. Immediately, I reinvested to triple my inventory with about INR 7.5 lakhs. Same story – sold out fast,” he said. After two months, he was making nearly 20 lakhs a day in revenue across Amazon and Flipkart. “My margins hovered between 15%–25%, which meant I was netting anywhere between ₹3–5 lakhs profit a day. It felt surreal,” he wrote. (Also read: ‘Leave India, it’s high time’: Startup founder’s controversial advice to Indians with high salaries) An offer from AmazonThe entrepreneur said his meteoric rise was noticed Amazon which took a keen interest in his operation. What followed were “top seller” perks and dedicated account managers offering marketing suggestions. With their help, he expanded and bought more products to be sold, even travelling to China to seal deals directly with manufacturers. Soon after Amazon made an offer to acquire his brand to accompany their in-house brand Solimo. The entrepreneur said the buyout offer was massive but he turned it down as he felt he was “unstoppable”, raking in crores of rupees as monthly revenue. (Also read: Jeff Bezos reveals he set his salary at $80,000 at Amazon but still made $8 million every hour) The downfallA few months later, he said Amazon’s Solimo became a direct competitor selling similar products but even cheaper. His daily revenue fell and the storage fees for his large supply of products now became a costly burden. He ended up selling his products at near-cost rate. “I’m not destitute any means – I still have personal savings and assets from the peak times. But the potential to scale this brand into a business that could have taken care of me and my family for decades disappeared. The point is, I’m no longer on the cusp of building a long-lasting empire. When you’ve tasted that kind of success – flying to China, spending a lakh or two on just new samples, dealing in crores – it’s a massive adjustment to realize you’re back in “planning mode,” he said.
