A BRAND FOR INDIA, BY INDIANS

For the founders of audio and accessories brand boAt, charting the way for other Indian entrepreneurs is their biggest achievement 

- Nidhi Singal

SAMEER MEHTA CALLS the time when he and Aman Gupta were denied entry at an electronics exhibition in China. The exhibition

authorities enquired about their company and scale of operations, and then denied them entry, “citing that they work with big, large-scale brands”. That’s a far cry from now, when their company has emerged as the second-largest wearables brand in the world; Apple tops the list. And they’ve done it in just about seven years since the brand came into being. Such has been the journey of boAt, which was co-founded by 47-year-old Mehta (now CEO) and 42-year-old Gupta (now, Chief Marketing Officer).

But how did it all begin? In 2013-14, the audio accessories market in India was experiencing a significant boom, thanks in part to the entry of affordable smartphones. There was an influx of primarily European brands into India, but what was absent were products tailored for the country. Both Delhi-based Gupta, who was then the Sales Head for Harman International’s lifestyle brands—JBL, Harman Kardon and AKG—in the Indian market, and Mumbai-based Mehta, who at that point was running his gaming accessories brand RedWood Interactive, noticed this.

Gupta and Mehta, who didn’t know each other then, started making plans independently to address this gap. A mutual acquaintance, who knew their plans, put them in touch. Sensing a potential collaboration, the duo met at the Taj Lands End in Bandra (luckily, Gupta was visiting Mumbai then). Within a week of that meeting, they had set up Imagine Marketing, each pooling in ₹15 lakh.