Voonik co-founder's day 1 journal entry shows the beauty in the struggle of starting up

Monday February 29, 2016 , 3 min Read

(Editor's note: This post was written by Sujayath Ali, co-founder of Voonik, as a journal entry on the first day he started the startup. Voonik is a personalisation-focused fashion marketplace and according to one person, Indian e-commerce’s best kept secret. The post has been reproduced unedited to retain the intended tonality.)

January 17, 2013

It was day 1 for our startup, Voonik.com. I entered our new office, situated on a busy congested road in Chennai on the first floor of an old church building. This office has been home for two startups before – one is now a big company growing leaps and bounds; the other just got funding and moved out.

I was greeted with a small hall filled with leftovers of previous tenants including cleaning items, hardware accessories, pipes, water dispenser cylinders and more things that I cannot identify. It did not help that packers and movers had also left my household items in office, since I hadn’t yet find a place to live (I just returned from US a week ago).

Must Read: Indian e-commerce’s best kept secret

I opened the restroom door and found the room covered with dust and cobwebs. I opened the tap and there was no water. In the next room, I saw my co-founders Navaneeth, Nikhilesh, and Muthuselvam busily working. They said “Hi” and got back to their work. It was relatively nice looking Air-conditioned room, which can seat 8 people.

yourstory-voonik-sujayath — Sujayath Ali (L) and Navaneeth Krishnan

I entered the third room that had some old tables and chairs scattered. Beyond that was a small space and items scattered there reminded that it was once a pantry. Navaneeth came by my side and informed that internet connection was not working and quickly added that the chairs are not good, flooring needs to be fixed, there is no power backup, and that we are yet to get a cleaning lady. We both looked at each other and then smiled as we knew that our exciting new journey has begun.

I went and started cleaning the rest room a bit to make it usable. The rest of the day for me was spent in cleaning and setting up the office.