Shubhra Chadda, Co Founder Of Chumbak Cashed In On India's Love For The Quirky

Shubhra Chadda, co-founder of retail chain Chumbak, has made a business out of the quirky brand.

- Shruti Venkatesh

Shubhra Chadda, 37, had long been toying with the idea of turning entrepreneur. She even knew the business she wanted to be in but was “never really brave enough to resign from a well-paying corporate job”. It was only in 2008, when she took a break from her job as a marketer at the data storage and management company NetApp, after her daughter’s birth, that she decided that it was “now or never”.

Her idea was simple: To cater to the consumer whose need for a good gifting option wasn’t satisfied. “I wanted to create a range of fun souvenirs for India and Indians,” she says.

Chadda spent a year fleshing out the concept, design, suppliers, pricing and retail strategy, and founded Chumbak out of Bengaluru in March 2010 with her husband Vivek Prabhakar, who continued with his fulltime job at Sun Microsystems. Their first product range included magnets, keychains and cushion covers.

The couple had to sell their house for Rs 40 lakh to start the company. It was a gamble, she agrees, but one that has paid offwell. (They now live in their own 3-BHK in the city.)