9 Years in Australia to Booming Indian Startup: Skippi Ice Pops Founder's Journey

3:50 Context so sounds like I think you're preparing in the other way other way around like you know having the entire family to be abroad and you know the destination or you know it's written in a different way so maybe you can tell a little bit you know for how long were you in Australia and you know in terms of the plan for the move you know these five weeks how like you know how did it go any anything that you wanted to share for the future aspirants were thinking you know what should consider or any any other insights from your perspective I think we lived in Australia for close to about 7 years 2014 to 20 20 kind of a time period starting of 2014 is when we reached Australia I think the entire Journey or the entire experience of living in Australia was fantabulous we just love the place because the kind of day to-day challenges that we experienced being an entrepreneur in India was absolutely not kind of a

4:51 Challenge in Australia as most of the nris would agree that a country anywhere abroad developed countries the basic amenities of Life are already easily available you don't really have to fight for it which makes a life much more comfortable and easier and especially because I was not an entrepreneur in Australia and I was committed to a job I think that 925 Monday to Friday job was much more comforting to me than having the stress level or the pressure of being an entrepreneur that is why I think we enjoyed our kids grow up in Australia right from the first year of my son probably by the time he came back he was already 8 or so so I could really spend a great amount of time with my family see my kids grow which probably in India especially coming from a business family it's very hard to find I always say that you work for a good organization

5:51 Which gives you less stress rather than getting into a business which is very stressful but rather otherwise if you're excited about something do a small small business of yourself which keeps the ball rolling which you enjoy thoroughly when we decided to come back to India honestly it was a very painful thought because it was just a little above one year that we had actually constructed our own house in Sydney and as an e couple we had great dreams and Ambitions of how the building should look like how the interior is going to be like we had all these kind of dreams because honestly it was my first of its own kind I mean the house where live in India was built by my dad but the one which I built in Sydney was built by me and my wife put together so we were very excited about it and every furniture and fixture anything to do with Interiors was well thought with my wife she took big decisions there and we set it up but just a little over a year when news broke out we had to literally

6:53 Sell away all the furniture in a matter of just two to three weeks and and I still remember when the first Furniture I think it was one of the one of the cupboards in the dining area which was sold out to somebody else I and Anuja literally had tears in our eyes because we were so emotionally attached to that dream that we were building on yeah and we had to sacrifice it because of a bigger cause that we had to go let it go and one after the other everything was sold out thankfully we did not sell the house away it's still there and hopefully one day if in case things go good if you I would want to go back there's always an option or a door open for us but that five weeks period of selling away everything was very very painful oh yeah

7:40 I can imagine especially you have a timeline to meet and and you just like you know emotionally attached I think that's the biggest part right I think the dreams and then you know Sudden Change in the life and the decision so if you're okay like how is the family now and you know how things are going after moving back to India we moved in India in February 2020 and March 2020 we all know that covid struck we all went for a one-ear break and that was the moment my father was actually fighting cancer unfortunately in the earlies of 20 mid of 2021 my father passed away which was very painful for us because we had been with him for almost a year and a little above year just to help him and support him fighting out but unfortunately things are not as we planned but so far everything is going good now we are settled in Hyderabad in India and I think as a pure

8:41 Dii one can definitely agree that you mix with the culture very soon it's not that I've lived in Australia for a lot of time like it's not like three four decades or something where it becomes really difficult but yes there has been few challenges adapting back to Indian culture the way people work and live over here it's bit of a challenge but thankfully best part is my kids did not have the similar issue they were pretty adaptive easily flexible to understand why we have come down and if my kids had found it difficult then it might have been very difficult for us to continue in India but thankfully that was not the case because lot of NRI Community people who come back either they go back because the kids do not like it over here or for reasons that they do not adjust to the work culture of India yeah

9:29 So I'm very sorry about the loss but I think you know glad that the family was able to spend time you know at least for some you know good amount of time like you know one one and a half year towards the end so I know you think you kind of touched about the kids adjustment like how old were the kids I think you kind of mentioned it's like 8 years old when you know your son so maybe if you can put some color to kids adjustment I think that would give some insights for the people you know who are listening to the show yeah so when we when we reached Australia my son was about a year old and my daughter was about 6 years old I would think and by the time we came back 7 years later tou date and my daughter was what's close to about 13 14 so it was not too late for them to adapt to Indian culture I would say that is a moment where you can you know take them to different countries make them understand and adjust and they're pretty flexible handson but yeah that's that's how it's been and one of the most most

10:29 Important thing as a NRI coming back to India was finding them a good school because the way the education system is back out there in Australia coming back and looking for a state syllabus or a central syllabus cbsc course could not really work for them they had a different way of Education in Australia so I wanted to give them an international syllabus to work upon otherwise it would get very hard for them to cope up with the education system also and that would actually add to their stress level eventually falling on to me then yeah

10:59 I think Switching gears a little bit I know after moving back to India I don't know if you have planned to continue the 9 to-5 job that you kind of enjoyed a little bit or want to take on this entrepreneur Journey and if so I know there has been successful story would love to hear about it you know some of the things that you have to go through while establishing that in India because especially that could be something very important for some of the nris who are thinking about moving to India because they couldn't stand their own you know company or Journey like you know from an entrepreneur side in abroad so it definitely would be good to know how easy is it to do the business in India and also maybe your own Journey right after moving back to India what were your thinking and how did you go from working in 9 to5 in Australia to like maybe an entrepreneur Journey yeah yeah firstly Ain was very clear that Australia I didn't wanted to do business because I think I had enough 10 years of experience of doing business in India with with my father and

12:00 Typically what happens is there is a there is a restriction in terms of your learning capacity when you're doing a family business you cannot go beyond a certain point in ter of knowledge gain that is why we were very clear that in Australia we would get into a job because I wanted to understand how brands are built how bigger companies culture is and how do people really perform and thankfully with the discipline that I come in I could adjust pretty well to the 9 to5 job I I would think that I did pretty well as well in the span of 7even eight years that I've lived over there the best part about living Australia was that there is a very great amount of work life balance that Australian work culture provides you there is no employer I can think of who would really pressurize you to take work upon your life or your family it's always Family Safety and life that comes first in Australia and then comes the work so I think that kind of culture really helped me to work work over there but when I was returning back and I still believe

13:02 So that I would never I mean that's just my personal choice please excuse me on this but I would never work for another employer in India because I believe that I understand the Indian culture and the Indian ecosystem as much that I can better work for myself rather than work for somebody else and I've always been an entrepreneur throughout my life I've always had the Zeal to do something of my own and that is why when I was rning back to India was very certain and very clear that I'm going to do something of my own and rather not work for somebody else because all that knowledge that I gained in the last seven years working with the FNB Giants in Australia I thought it's time to put those skills to test start an entrepreneur Journey here and we did that and when we came back to India we came in with a concept called ice popsicles wherein there are a lot of good brands in the US UK Australia in the ice popsicle category but we did not find anything in IND in India at all and thankfully we launched a brand called Skippy ice pops

14:03 Which by God's grace today is a very popular brand I would like to believe we were telecasted on a national television series called Shark Tank India on Sony TV I think on December 27 2020 and sorry 2021 not 2020 oh yes 2021 and after the launch of this the day when the telecast happened the entire proportion of brand popularity me and my wife who are both the co-founders of the company we became popular people started to recognize Us in the ecosystem and everything took off very well for us we pretty humbled by the by the gesture God has given to us but in terms of entrepreneur journey I would say and and I'm a great example towards this because I've done business in the past and I've done it now so there's a huge amount of difference that I can actually bring and discuss here in terms of how business was happening in the past and how it is happening today I think previously

15:05 Before I moved to Australia there was lot of red carpet issues lot of lot of compliance issues that we had to go with firstly in terms of Taxation there was like C Farm H form this form sales tax vat which was so confusing and so lethargic that it would really be difficult for us to expand our business or focus on our business growth rather than getting into these kind of a complicated ated process system which was there with the government of India then roadways was not great which was again a complex shipping out things from point A to point B was always challenging technology was less at the same time but today honestly speaking with the onset of GST things have become like plain Manila for us it's very simple straightforward with the great amount of infrastructure that India's developed in terms of roadways Etc that has become great technology people from the IT background will agree that technology wise there are lot many more job opportunities now in India than it was earlier and I think somehow the Indian ecosystem the work culture has

16:08 Also adapted to International standards where there is maybe not equal but almost to the Power of Equality balance between the life and the work life balance you know so I think today it's a great opportunity for people to look at entrepreneural journey in India because believe me the next 5 to 10 years is all about India and no other country we will continue to grow at a great level people who are having faith in India moving in now and starting their own entrepreneurship Journey will have more opportunities to be super successful than people who come after five or 10 years because every corner of India there is a challenge and to solve this challenge I always see an opportunity which is a business opportunity that you can actually start which sometimes in you know those developed countries it's hard to find Opportunities because everything looks so perfect there I hardly find anything that I could actually get into but here we got into a food and beverage brand and imagine a country of 140 crores we

17:08 Ourselves are a entire European nation in itself we ourselves are larger than one of the largest countries in the world so I think there's no need for us to look for markets outside of India India itself is such a large Marketplace I would think so it's a great great time for us to be in India yeah first of all

17:26 I mean congratulations on the Skippy you know it's a very popular brand kids know about it so and it's a very successful Journey for you so congratulations on that and thanks for sharing you know your story in terms of the differences because you've been in the business before moving to Australia right in terms of where it was and then I agree with you I think the ecosystem in India right now in terms of the growth in terms of the opportunities it just you know the population is one thing the rapid adoption of thech technology with the mobile phones there's several factors that are combining the age of the population that's kind of fueling some of these macro level Dynamics for the growth here in India so there's definitely lot of opportunities as you said and it just riding the wave you know compared to like a developed country where a lot of these things seem solved and you know you're trying to implement something similar or trying to solve this problems in a different scenarios here in India yep cool in

18:28 Terms of you know sounds like you know you did some enough research to launch your product I think you kind of narrow it down to ice popsicle and based on your background as a family business you know where you worked and so on so just curious so from your perspective if somebody is considering to move back to India to do their own entrepreneur Journey or startup are there any suggestions that you would give like anything that they have to do as a research before they move or after coming back and in terms of even like some of the administrative work right like setting up a company you know some of these things if you have any insights that you can suggest that would be also very helpful AV to be honest anyone who's living abroad or even people who are looking to move back to India wouldn't have Deep Pockets to do to hire a market research company to be honest I come from an FNB space but the the rule applies to whether you from an IT backgrounds or you from an engineering

19:30 Background research is very important and as as a startup obviously we don't have too much of money with on us which we can spend on our research company when we decided to come back to India and this is an example which a lot of people can use we knew that ice popsicle was a great brand in Australia it was a great Market category but we also knew that there was absolutely no brand that I had heard of in the ice popsicle category from from India but I was sitting in Australia how do I know about it so picked up my phone spoke to seven to eight friends of mine across different parts of India and told them ice popsic you know I asked them to go and fetch for ice popsicles buy them from different stores and as usual most of these buggers were lazy I had to keep following up with them several times and finally a lot of people came back said ice poic ice PSI there are no brands in the stores nothing at all and this came in from six to seven friends

20:31 Of mine from different parts of India and that gave me a little bit of confidence that okay yeah I am very certain now that there's no brand as such and it was completely on my gut feeling I thought India is 140 CR population so such a hot and humid destination I'm sure this thing will work but of course there are risk attached to it it's not it's not as simple as I say it so I would think that in case if somebody's planning to come back to India whether he's coming from a technology background or he's an engineering or if he's wanting to set up a manfacturing for himself maybe it could be in textile or anything else basic research is really important this research could not be necessary secondary or primary if it is possible he could travel to India look around into the market get a feel of it if he finds it very positive then he can go back and prepare to come back to India there are huge amount of Consultants today who are industry experts you could possibly even hire them to get an understanding of the

21:33 Overall picture of the market and they are not very expensive as such in terms of registering a company getting started believe me India has got very evolved ecosystem of good company secretaries and chattered accountants who can do the entire groundwork and paperwork ready for you all you need to come sign it off and your company's up and running so these are not very difficult challenges these days as long as you're working with good professional they will take care of you in a very significant way but yes basic market research if you can afford it in terms of hiring a consultant or probably coming when you're traveling to India on holiday just go and meet couple of other vendors or manufacturers and try to gaze the you know the requirement or the demand in the market I'm sure you'll get a good feedback and based on that whether you want to get into that industry or not that's something that you need to decide yeah cool thanks for

22:25 Sharing those you know thoughts ful information about the research and how you even approach in your case right like in asking the Friends To Go in different stores and find the find the information now Switching gears a little bit in terms of your social life you know how has it been going I know I think when you moved it was the covid which makes might a little bit difficult to mingle with family and friends so just curious I know it's been about 3 to 3 years a little bit more than 3 years so how has been the social life and you know family adjusting and so so on after moving back to India I think I'm a very social person in the first place I love to talk to people make friends socialize with people especially there is again a comparison between Australia and India initially when we moved to Australia it was damn lonely I would think that it was I was even depressed for a lot of days saying that why did I even come back come to Australia in the first place because for a person who loves

23:25 To meet people talk to people and share his day feelings or whatever it's important to make friends faster and quicker and in Australia I struggled in the initial days only until a few years passed by I actually started making very good friends out there in India of course we came back it took us a bit of time to understand and adjust to the cycle of Indian culture again because people walk in walk out any time of the day you keep getting calls either from marketing companies or you get calls from your friends and family late in the evening also they wouldn't even worry whether 8:00 they they feel free to call up right so it gets a bit of time for you to adjust to that traffic conditions in India is crazy people I mean I really struggle and I hate driving in India to be honest because no matter what car you're driving still there's no pleasure traff you know driving Bumper to Bumper across so culture wise India has been different but not completely alien to me I think it was it took hardly any time for me to come and adjust over here friends and family have been very

24:26 Supportive over here and u was pretty easy for us to set across cool in terms of the things that you

24:34 Miss back in like you know Australia versus here anything that you miss is just more of a curious question and the things that you don't like in India you know from your experiences I think you kind of touched on the traffic you know just comparing the contrast for people who are considering about the move in Australia the first thing that I really miss about Australia is a stress field life I mean this is a very important point that people talk about stress level in India and Australia or or even the US to name a few but I think these other countries have stress at a physical level that means you're doing your own hardships of cleaning the utensils or probably cleaning the house spending your weekends with your family trying to get things aligned washing your cars getting the groceries and stuff like that which is a physical stress but in comparison to the mental stress that you get in India I think it is better to have a physical stress rather than mental stress because I personally believe a lot of unfortunate diseases or health issues which arise in India is because of the mental stress

25:36 And it is better you get away from mental stress and focus on having a better physical stress the other thing that I miss about Australia is a is a clean air I I I clearly remember breathing so well and enjoying the fresh air in Australia especially because Australia is even more less populated than us or European countries we used to really enjoy the fresh air that that was available for us and that's that's that's the most part of it and of course working Monday to Friday and giving two days off in a week was like a has been a very treasurous moment for me and unfortunately now that I'm back in India as an entrepreneur forget about six days but we working almost seven days a week without a break which is adding to our stress levels and of course apart from talking about what I don't like about India I do not like the pollution I do not like the traffic here and unfortunately there are still that

26:38 Mindset of people that CH you know that CH attitude is very Troublesome because people take things for granted over here they don't keep their commitments many of times which is very challenging but I'll tell you the the other flip side of India the kind of emotional bonding that you get with your friends childhood friends your family cousins in India you are very unlikely to get that kind of a strong bonded friends in any abroad abroad countries because usually friends align in those countries for for being together it's not an emotional attachment but rather they want to socialize and be together so I think that's a massive difference person who wants to be emotionally connected India is a place where you've got friends and family who are truly connected to you but when it comes to to the other side pollution challenges of maintaining good commitments and traffic I think these are the biggest challenges in India as of today as well yeah thanks

27:39 For providing that candidate you know feedback and these are real challenges and people have to think you know which is more important to them and make the right decision so again you know there is not a 100% perfect place you know where everything is set properly it just just like what's your priorities and make the decision appropriately and where you are in your journey and what kind of lifestyle you want to maintain and want to lead with that said are there any topics that we haven't covered that you would like to bring up that could help the future aspirants I think one important thing that we I would write to bring up over here is a lot of time the NRA Community are very perplexed whether they should move back to India or not but I think it is very important for people to know that if you have a basic Revenue model I mean whether you are an employee or you are an employer if you're able to make a little bit of healthy revenue for

28:39 Yourself month on month India does provide you a very healthy happy lifestyle as well there are especially a since you in Hyderabad you will agree with me there are communities and gated communities which has the best of amenities they've got swimming pools and badminton and great culture great Community where I think a family can Thrive really well the cost of living in India is still competitive compared to the other countries you've got the swies and zaptos of India which gives you delivery of food and groceries in five minutes you're not wasting your time going to a grocery stores and picking up vegetables for yourself I think in case if you're thinking of coming to India I think this is the best time for you guys to be in India and it's not really that scary when it takes a couple of weeks or maybe a few months for you guys to adjust but once you're here there is a different lifestyle that you can choose you can choose the one where you're living in one of the best places for your family and friends you can live among with your friends and families you can choose to

29:40 Be an employer or an employee and it does not really cost you as much as it would probably in the overseas country so I think don't think too much in case if you want to take your chances yes life is all about Taking Chances feel free come down to India give it a shot otherwise I'm sure 3 four years back the line down the line in things that doesn't work out feel free to go back why why worry so much about it yeah definitely is it a irreversible decision or a reversible decision depending on how much time you want to spend making that decision that's an important factor and and and I think you know this is something that I hear from a lot of people is like when you visit India if you have the flexibility take a little bit longer and try to live and not just like as a visitor you know just take like some of these furnished apartments or places and then try to leave and you get a better feel for the lifestyle living in India which would also help in your decision- making process yeah yeah it is it is important and of course even from an investment point of view also India is great right compared to the way India is growing I think this is a better way place for you to grow so

30:41 You might as well come here live here probably invest in an apartment or something like that live here for a few years and if you do not like it yes who's Stopping You India is very free to allow people to go outside keep your passports ready maybe that would that is what would help you yeah cool so thank you very much Ravi for taking the time and sharing your thoughts you know lot of nuggets there especially on the entrepreneur journey in terms of the social life in terms of the things like the candid feedback in terms of the things that you like and you don't like living in India I hope this episode is very helpful for you guys and thanks a lot for your time Ravi and appreciate you taking the time and good luck with everything and you know wish you all the best and wish Skippy to reach even higher levels and National brand I know the story was to be as a logo on the Indian cricket team I'm really looking forward to that and you know congratulations on that and thanks again for your time thanks a for having me here and thanks a lot everyone to hear

31:43 Me out here thanks a lot thank you all for joining us on this insightful journey of Dy return if you enjoyed this episode and want to explore more stories and expert advice make sure to subscribe and hit the notification Bell don't forget to leave a comment below with your thoughts and experiences by the way check out the links in the description below for our Facebook group and social media for updates and engaging discussions as well as connecting with fellow ders thank you once again and until next time may your Des journey be filled with joy growth and endless possibilities