Dzukou, a Dutch sustainability-lifestyle brand was started by two co-founders, Lars and Prarthana, just before the Covid-19 pandemic started in 2020. Dzukou was just at its infant stage when operations almost had to be shut down. And what the co-founders did not expect was that the global outbreak would continue to disrupt business for two more years. Yet, Dzukou managed to stay afloat and thrive through the pandemic. When asked what worked for them, Prarthana smilingly answers, “Clever adaptation.”
Prior to starting Dzukou, Prarthana has been a researcher in the field of Design. She did her Bachelor’s in Technology in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Guwahati and her Master’s in Science from Stanford University. Thereafter, she worked at Apple, Inc. for two years. It was during this time, that she fell in love with good Design and decided to pursue a PhD degree in it from Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.
However, her career in research was interrupted by several unforeseen circumstances and in 2018, her PhD project was terminated and she had to move back to India. Prarthana was at a low point in her life with no idea in which direction she should navigate her career. Without a job and staying with her parents, she decided to open her own company that sells eco-material products. Her long-term friend and serial-entrepreneur, Lars encouraged and motivated her to go for her entrepreneurial management dream.
Prarthana started by looking for a co-founder in her network. She visited several cities to conduct market research and to find a suitable business partner. But soon she realised that there were few people who shared her passion or her risk appetite. At this point, Lars volunteered to be her co-founder to help her set up the business. They made their initial investments, made a beautiful website, and built an inventory of some carefully curated eco friendly accessories and handmade products (from North East India). But as luck would have it, the Covid-19 outbreak soon began. Global supply and distribution channels were disrupted and sales plummeted.
Dzukou had to let go of iits office and its employees one by one. At this point, Prarthana and Lars understood that there is no telling when the pandemic will end, and to stay afloat. They will have to adopt non-textbook entrepreneurial management business wisdom. So, what were some of the key adjustments that kept Dzukou alive and made it thrive through the pandemic?
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Change in Product Strategy:
As soon as the impact of the pandemic started to be felt in the retail sector and people got into a savings mode, Dzukou changed its primary focus from exclusive handmade products to premium everyday products. Online buying was still high during the period when countries were under lockdown. But instead of spending money on exclusive products, people preferred to stick to good-quality products that they could useeveryday.
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Diversification of Markets:
The co-founders noticed that the pandemic waves were out of phase in Europe and Asia. They decided to stabilize their sales using this difference. Lars was situated in Holland and Prarthana was in India. Though initially, they were only selling in Europe, they divided their inventory and sent a portion to India. They started sales in India and benefits through major e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Etsy, and Flipkart. In that way, their sales curve became stable and they could sustain through months in which the pandemic waves raged in Europe.
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Hiring Third Parties:
One of the wisest decisions that the cofounders made during the pandemic was to maintain a small in-house team and outsource most of the functionalities to suitable third parties in Holland and India. That enabled them to cut costs whenever revenue dropped by delaying projects and also to control the timings of their major expenses.
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Organic Marketing:
Marketing and Advertising costs easily constitute one of the biggest expenses in a At a time when cash flow growth was unpredictable, the company decided to cut down on paid advertisements. Prarthana relied heavily on organic marketing through Social Media posts and networking in her circles to fuel sales. It paid off. 90% of the initial sales in India happened through organic marketing and from word-of-mouth.
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Superb Customer Care:
The co-founders stress excellent customer care as one of the pillars of their During the pandemic, they gave trials to potential customers, hand-packaged and delivered the products themselves, and catered to all their questions and requests with politeness. It soon paid off. They started noticing many returning customers. Good customer care also ensured that there was more throughput in every sale, increasing revenue even further.
Though it is a hard game to build a brand during a global crisis with good entrepreneurial management. But with careful thought and proper adaptation, it is possible to thrive through such challenging times.
Prarthana however, did feel the pinch of a reduced lifestyle that has lasted for years, especially after living in Silicon Valley. Yet she believes that to do something exceptional. You have to choose an exceptional path that might be exceptionally beset with hurdles. She is thankful to her co-founder, Lars, who still continues to be a founder, for seeing her through tough times. when even her family did not manage to understand her woes. When asked what is the one thing that is needed in a core team, she replies: along with entrepreneurial management, “Your cofounder(s) has to be your best friend.”
