In India marriages are most commonly associated with heavy responsibilities, comfort, luxury, destination honeymoons, grand wedding set-ups and a lot of preparation and arrangements when you are ready for procreation! The onus for this is primarily upon the man, even if the wife-to-be plans on working after marriage.
For this, either the man is supposed to be enjoying a high-level position in a reputed multinational or be a top-notch businessman. He is supposed to be capable of supporting a family before he plans to get married!
The fact remains so even though 51% of India’s workforce is self-employed.
In such a depressing scenario, think of those who want to leave their present hunky-dory lifestyle and comforting job to start their own venture – something of their own that would mark their style and attitude more than anything else. Why men, even women want to express themselves through their own trademark field of work and work style?
So can they ever progress keeping in mind the prevalence of arranged marriages in the country and the liking for heavy deal marriages and after-marriage life for the couple? Well, some Indian couples who are not risk-averse unlike Indian parents have proved the latter wrong and go on to say that start-ups can be founded by couples after tying the knot as well or even during the courtship period.
They even claim that investors are ready to bet on the couple’s idea of doing business together and are rather happy when both partners are active.
Whether it be Chumbak’s (Home and Accessories venture) co-founders, husband and wife, Vivek Prabhakar and Shubhra Chaddha or Mobifolio’s (A Mobile App Maker) owners, Mrigaen and Nupur Kapadia, nowhere is the co-existence of both the partners in the business under the scanner.
Vivek Prabhakar and Shubhra Chaddha
While for Vivek and Shubhra, their initial days at setting up their brand, Chumbak were cumbersome with funding issues and difference of opinions as well as unnecessary squabbling, things have grown better and better with the passage of time and it has probably been possible only because the duo has made it a point to stick to their start-up goals as much as their personal lives together.
Chumbak has come to be known as one of the pioneers in selling unique merchandise inspired by India with tech stuff, bags, wallets to memorabilia, luggage tags in kiosks and stores in the metros and even in cities like Pune and Hyderabad.
They also have e-commerce brands like Flipkart, Snapdeal and Myntra selling their merchandise.
Speaking of success, app lovers, and intellectual couple, Mrigaen and Nupur (married in 2008) who were once colleagues at Datamatics have been hitched to their entrepreneurial venture, Mobifolio since April last year and their romance with the company as well as with each other has since been growing stronger. The initial days have been tedious and tumultuous for them too but with their flagship innovation, Breakfree for people who are addicted to their smartphones, they have been able to earn profits as more than a lakh downloads have been made for the app on Android phones and the app is soon to launch on iOS systems as well. Not only are they planning on a premium version for the app but also looking forward to ads and other marketing schemes. While one partner handles iOS compatibility and workability with the app, the other manages the Android development for the app.
Mrigaen and Nupur
There are other couples too who focus on their interests and build up on that for their start-up ventures. Foodie Madhulika Pandey and Movie buff, Atit Jain came together to start Gigstart, a marketplace for anchors , singers, dancers, party planners, make-up artists, etc. to come together to take orders and manage parties and events for people. As the start-up evolves, the couple is growing too. They are planning to convert their courtship into marriage but are nowhere looking forward to a make Gigstart a one-partner organization. Both plan to be equally active and valuable to the business and the best part is that even investors vouch for couples engaging in running a business together.
Madhulika and Atit
There are several other couples who have stayed positive through the days of scaling up, funding problems and scouting for investors even as new life, marriage and responsibilities look up to them. It is this attitude of theirs that has made them different from the other married couples who are probably living an unsatisfactory life jostling between job, marriage and even kids in the 24 hours of their day.
So for all you to-be wedded couples out there, starting a start-up venture or building up an idea for the same is the new cool thing for honeymoon plans!
