Piyush Jalan

Meet the couple who built one of India’s fastest-growing fashion brands — from scratch to ₹99+ Cr. Rimjim Deka spent over a decade building her first startup. But her name? Nowhere on it. Behind the scenes, she obsessed over product, customer emotions, and every tiny detail. For nearly 10 years, she carried the weight of creating something she wasn’t publicly credited for. When she exited, it took more than 2 months to recover emotionally. But she didn’t stop. 🧠 She started again — this time, not alone. Together with her husband, Partha Kakati, who left his secure government bank job, she co-founded Littlebox India — a fast fashion brand built on instinct, emotion, and speed. Her 10 years of fashion experience met his love for building and deep expertise in tech and operations. They started in 2020. Crossed ₹20 Cr in 2022. Now, in 2025? ₹99+ Cr. She leads product and creative direction. He runs systems, tech, and backend operations—a co-founder duo with clarity, trust, and zero noise. 🧠 They entered one of India’s toughest categories — fast fashion. - Low loyalty. - High return rates. - Trends are changing every 10 days. But they brought structure to the chaos. Within just two years, Little Box achieved a 22% retention rate. While most fashion brands struggled with 30%+ return rates, Little Box held steady around 20%. 📉 Then came a shock — their Instagram page was banned. The team panicked. But the founders didn’t. “It’s just Instagram. We’ll build it again.” That one sentence speaks volumes. Platforms come and go — but founders with clarity? They stay. On Shark Tank India, five sharks kept changing the deal. But the couple wasn’t chasing valuation. They wanted all five sharks, not for money, but for the strategic skills each brought. 🧠 Their biggest strength? Positioning. They don’t just sell clothes — they sell moods. Their website and Instagram don’t feel like catalogues. They feel like emotion in motion. While others fight for discounts and styles, Little Box connects through storytelling and community. That’s how they scaled to ₹99+ Cr — without ever being loud about it. 🔥 She built her first brand without credit. Together, they built their second with conviction. Little Box isn’t just a fashion label. It’s a masterclass in quiet confidence. ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── 🛠️ This is one of many brand stories I’m researching for my upcoming book: Built to Grow, Not Burn — a deep dive into the patterns, mindset, and structure behind brands that scale sustainably versus those that merely survive. #BuiltToGrow #D2C #BrandBuilding #FounderStories

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💎 I had a lightbulb moment analyzing Indian jewelry retailers that I had to share… 💎 After days of analyzing different valuations in the jewelry sector, I realized multiples are essentially based on GMROI × Stud Ratio! The "stud ratio" (% of studded jewelry vs plain gold in sales mix) turns out to be THE key predictor of both gross margins and hence valuations. I kept feeling intuitively that some jewelry giants did "more gold" and hence had lower multiples, but couldn't articulate why until I realized the answer was right in front of me in the "stud ratio" metric. Sometimes our intuition knows before our analysis catches up! Check out the data: • Caratlane: >70% stud ratio online → received a rich 7+ multiple in final tranches of it’s acq, has 103% GMROI • Bluestone: 67% stud ratio → 6x multiple, 74% GMROI • Kalyan: 28% stud ratio → 3x multiple, 35% GMROI • Senco: 11% stud ratio → 1x multiple, 37% GMROI The insight was hiding in plain sight! Companies selling more diamonds/precious stones and less plain gold command dramatically higher valuations. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀: • Higher margins on studded pieces vs commodity-like gold • Better inventory turns (see Caratlane's 103% GMROI!) • Design-focused business model = stronger competitive moat • Reduced dependency on volatile gold prices This reminds me of how the carb:protein ratio predicts QSR economics. Simple product makeup can change margin structures so drastically. For investors: Next time you analyze a jewelry retailer, forget P/E ratios temporarily - check the stud ratio first! It might be the most important metric you're not tracking. Caratlane clearly understood this, building a business model with ~70% studded jewelry. No wonder they achieved top-tier multiples during acquisition! What other "hidden" operational metrics have you found that drive valuations in specific sectors? Would love to hear your examples. #ValueInvesting #RetailAnalytics #JewelryBusiness #EquityResearch #FinancialAnalysis Sources: Bluestone DRHP, company ARs

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Super excited to share that we’ve now expanded our 30-minute medicine delivery to Lucknow, Jaipur, and Noida! Expansion in these new cities follows our Gurgaon approach, i.e. faster delivery from our retail stores. Of course, fulfilling orders from stores comes with its own set of challenges, especially balancing in-store customer experience with faster delivery promise. That’s why we’ve gone back and re-looked at every part of our store operations: - Staff readiness: Optimal staffing and staff training to cater to both online and offline demand - Inventory & Assortment Planning: Online and offline demand work differently and planning to maximize fill rates while keeping days of inventory manageable is a tough problem! - Technology stack for retail: Almost the whole retail stack has been built grounds up to provide a seamless in-store and omni processing experience We’re excited about this expansion, and are bringing faster deliveries to more cities as quickly as we can. Additionally, we are starting to pilot sub-30 minute deliveries as well - which is a whole different level of challenge. If you have any thoughts or feedback on our service please DM :) #OmniChannel #30MinuteDelivery #Tata1mg #Lucknow #Noida #Jaipur

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Agilitas x Virat Kohli partnership is one of the masterstroke deals I have seen in recent times. Virat invests 40 CR in Agilitas for a 1.94% stake, putting Agilitas’s valuation around 2000 CR. 📈 In turn, Agilitas acquires one8world, making Virat a co-founder and shareholder. They now get two very important growth levers: ⬇️ 1. A powerful manufacturing (via Mochiko Shoes - a 600 CR+ footwear brand that Agilitas acquired in 2008 ), 2. India’s biggest athlete — exclusively aligned. Easily becomes a 4000 CR revenue brand in the next 5 years. Footwear + retail scale requires capital — but this partnership compresses customer acquisition, product cycles, and brand-building like few others. Even Virat said in his podcast with Abhishek Ganguly, the co-founder of Agilitas that, “I didn’t want a brand deal… I wanted to build something that outlives me.” And Abhishek said something even beautiful - “An ambition to build from India but be globally relevant.” This isn’t marketing. This is legacy building with shared skin in the game. And that is how startups work - shared ambition with one goal (to make the company big) and food (read stake) in the table for everyone! A company that can be built in the long term with culture, capital, and conviction aligned. This might be the first time in India, where an athlete joins hands with a sport company to re-imagine and build the sport ecosystem of India - truly revolutionalising the game with a clear vision. 🙌

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While working on a new brand for a large Indian consumer major, our on-ground interviews revealed a flaw most marketers never catch. This was meant to play in the luxury space, and we were trying to decode how to position it. During one interview, an architect said: “If the dealer can’t pronounce the brand name, he won’t recommend it.” Such a simple line…yet something most marketers completely overlook. In high-value, dealer-driven categories, the biggest branding mistake is confusing complication with premium. A name that looks luxurious on Instagram dies the second a dealer struggles to say it. Because once you understand who is the decisive human layer in the sales journey, the positioning almost writes itself. Ignore that layer, and you end up optimising for how the brand looks on social or sounds in films- neither of which matter if the customer isn’t making the decision herself. In a hyper-digital world where we assume data can tell us everything, the real insights still come from something far older: talking to the people who actually sell your brand.

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At Chiratae Ventures, we believe athleisure is an exciting and high-potential category poised for significant growth. The intersection of wellness trends and everyday comfort has fueled a boom in the activewear market, with brands redefining the space through tech-driven and innovative fabrics. Consumers today seek versatile apparel that transitions seamlessly from workouts to casual wear, making athleisure a fast-growing segment within the broader fashion industry.   In India, homegrown athleisure brands are emerging rapidly, capitalizing on the demand for high-performance yet stylish activewear. A prime example is Cult.fit’s newly launched athleisure line, which has leveraged its strong fitness community to create a distinct brand presence.   The Indian athleisure market, currently valued at $3.5Bn, is expected to double to $7Bn by FY28, highlighting the immense opportunity for both established and emerging brands.   Cult, has seen remarkable success, growing at a 15% CAGR. Its retail footprint has expanded from six stores to twenty by FY24, and it is well on track to surpass Decathlon within the next five years. This growth underscores the scalability and consumer appetite in this space.   To succeed in this market, brands need a clear right to win: Rapid innovation cycles in design and materials to ensure both performance and comfort—brands like Nemah and BlissClub exemplify this approach. A broad catalog that covers multiple functionalities, catering to diverse customer needs—Cult.fit has executed this well. A focus on sustainability, with brands like Aastey and Pink Moon leading the way in eco-friendly activewear. With a fast-growing market, rising consumer awareness, and innovation-driven brands, athleisure is set to be a defining category in India’s wellness and fashion landscape.   We are keen to partner with companies building here – please reach out sarthak@chiratae.com Chiratae Ventures Anoop N Tanvi Dubey 1Lattice Abhilasha Jaju Google India Google Rahul Jain #consumertech #startups

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Indian retail is so big that ₹100 CRORE is basically an entry-level metric! The men’s apparel market alone is estimated at over ₹2.2 lakh crore and that’s just one part of the broader fashion industry. (Industry estimates via Economic Times) Most founders spend more time thinking about competition than about how big the opportunity actually is. If your product works and you have repeat customers, there is enough market to build a meaningful brand. Look at Japan: it has one of the highest vending machine densities in the world, around one machine for every 20–30 people. That kind of scale comes from decades of building for convenience. India’s retail ecosystem is still early in that journey. Demand is growing faster than distribution. There’s space here for several differentiated brands. The real question isn’t is there room?” It’s…can you execute well enough to stay in the game?

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3/5 new e-comm shoppers since 2020 are coming from Tier 3 cities and smaller. The northeast, one of India's most remote regions, has 1.2x higher e-retail penetration than the rest of the country. Why I think that is - > There’s an infra paradox of retail. Metro cities spent decades building physical retail infrastructure - malls, brand stores, distribution networks. Tier-3 India had no such luxury. Limited brand presence, poor last-mile connectivity, and fragmented retail meant digital ecomm was salvation. When you're in a small city and the nearest branded store is 200km away, a 2 day delivery seems miraculous. > Interestingly, remote areas leapfrogged directly to mobile-first shopping behaviors. They're more comfortable with: - Return policies (physical returns were never a comfy option) - Reviews and social proof (less local reccos of branded products) - Video commerce (seeing products they couldn't touch in stores) > The supply side is equally interesting. 60% of new sellers since 2021 are from Tier-2 cities and smaller. A handicraft maker in Manipur or a spice vendor in rural Karnataka can now reach customers in Mumbai and Delhi without ever setting foot in these cities. The same digital infra that brought them access as consumers is enabling them as entrepreneurs. Ironic how most strategies still treat Tier-3 as an expansion play and not their core business.

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