UNITEDCOLOURS OF

ENTREPRENE URSHIP

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Welcome to the new, new India—the land of opportunities. The business of business is tough here. With its array of cultures, habits, tongues, and small matters of sense and sensibilities, boy, it gets tougher, if you don’t talk the talk, or walk the walk. But, the ‘buzz’ around this booming economy has lured men and women of all shades and races to start up on its shores. Here are a few tales of brave foreigners, who have responded to the magic that’s India—shrugging off the ‘small’ matter of language, and making a place in their hearts for this country.

COLOURS OF

ENTREPRENE URSHIP

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THE EXPAT CLUB OF COMMERCE

made friends with Aman Nath. When we asked him for site rec-ommendations, he just said, ‘do it in Neemrana’.”

Together, the duo has poured Rs 1.5 crore in the company so far. “We wanted to lay about 10 courses in !ve years. But we have done just three in three years,” McCallum confesses.

“Money will only start coming in once there are more sites. How quickly we can ramp up is key. It’s all about scale in this business,” he adds.

And then again, he reminds you, when you are a foreigner, the growth of your company is intimately linked to how fast you can get through India’s indecipherable and o"en “agonising” bureau-cracy. “So much time here is spent on things other than growing the business,” rues Walter. “Since there is no adventure sports culture in India, we have to bring in a lot of trained guides from Europe. Get-ting visas for them has been absolutely maddening,” he complains, shaking his head. “And, it’s getting worse. Agencies don’t seem to understand start-ups. For them, an expatriate worker is only some-body who earns Rs 3 lakh each month at a multinational.”

He, however, quickly adds that the “breathtakingly” good feed-back from his clients makes it worthwhile to put up with “all the tra#c, the weather and the pollution”.

Also in the pipeline are plans to take Flying Fox to its fourth destination, a summer hill resort, probably. Rishikesh is high on the wish list too. “It’s the hub of adventure sports in India. Just picture zipping over the Ganges,” Jonathan urges. He even has a marketing mantra in place, a holy zip with your holy dip! As an entrepreneur-ial adventure, that should !nally put to rest McCallum’s momen-tarily restless queries about his life in the subcontinent. —Shreyasi Singh

Few founders personify their brand as e$ortlessly as Sheikha Mattar-Jacob and Noelline Besson of Masala Tee, a Delhi-based luxury fashion brand. Besson, born in India, was adopted and brought up by a family in France. Mattar-Jacob, born in Singapore and married to a French archi-tect, has lived in Delhi, Shanghai and Paris in the past !ve years. And it is this delight-ful concoction of cross-cultural %avours, experiences and in%uences that the two

Masala TeeA hip product for the

high-end users

Masala Tee

CLOTHING COMPANY

AUGUST 2010 | INC.INDIA | 3 7

THE EXPAT CLUB OF COMMERCE

women are brewing to perfec-tion with their year-old com-pany, Masala Tee.

Cannily cra!ed and pack-aged, Masala Tee works on a simple model. Using 100 per cent organic cotton, Besson and Mattar-Jacob design T-shirts that display images symbolic of India and play o" the country’s culture with a smart combo of homophones like “tea” and “tee” (for T-shirt). Take, for instance, their launch collection for women. It fea-tured form-#tted T-shirts dis-playing screen-printed faces of Indian women decked up with maang tikkas, neckpieces, nose rings and jhumkas in

Swarovski crystals. $e Indian connection has clicked instantly with a growing band of high-end foreign tourists.

To add to the uniqueness factor, the founders have even added a little story to the silk. So each T-shirt captures an Indian woman with a real name. “$at’s Sapna,” says Bes-son, pointing to a mustard T-shirt. $ere’s also Divya, Piya, Sitaara and Maya. “$ey are part of our family now. So many people tell us, ‘oh! she looks like someone we know’,” adds Besson, who has been in India for more than #ve years now, doing graphic design and interior projects.

launched Masala Tee, they have made more than 8,000 pieces. Priced at a he!y Rs 2,500, these T-shirts are retailed through 18 upmarket outlets across India like Ogaan, Bombay Electric, and several #ve star hotels.

“It’s aimed at the uppity fashionista—somebody with a high disposable income. We are focused on the niche mar-ket. And, the response has been incredible,” Besson says. Little %ourishes add to the buying experience, like the clever play on “tee” and “tea”, which has been blended smartly into the packaging of the product. Each T-shirt is packed in its individ-ual tea bag, which is either a modern silver foil packet or a so! muslin tea package of yore.

Earlier this year, the duo also launched exclusive lines for men and children. $e chil-dren’s collection shows stylised images of quintessentially Indian animals—cows, camels and elephants—wearing head-bands and sunglasses.

$e “Tee Wallahs” #nd such inventiveness easy to come by in India. “$is is such an inter-

A Cup of ‘Tee’Sheikha Mattar-Jacob and Noelline Besson are spicing up the casual design segment.

FOUNDERS: Sheikha Mattar-Jacob and Noelline Besson LOCATION: Delhi YEAR OF FOUNDING: June 2009 LATEST TURNOVER: NA START!UP COSTS: Rs 6-7 lakh approximately BREAK EVEN PERIOD: 10 months BIGGEST EXPENSE: Production of T-shirts; two heavy-duty Macbook Pros RED TAPE FACED: Registering the company as a partnership was difficult. Paperwork took long BEST PART OF DOING BUSINESS IN INDIA: India is raw and beautiful. As creative people, we find it so easy to get inspired here. So many things you can pick up and refine WORST PART OF DOING BUSINESS IN INDIA: Deadlines are not respected. That’s been hard to get used to

It was a chance meeting at the Delhi Zoo in September 2008 that brought the “TEE Wal-lahs” together. $e #t was instant, and perfect, thanks to complementary personalities and skill sets. Besson, a design graduate from one of France’s

leading schools of art, and Mattar-Jacob, an advertising and branding professional

with over 15 years of experi-ence with agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi, knew, almost

instantly, that they could cra! a successful story together. $ings rolled very quickly,

they say. “Even as we were getting the paperwork done, we were working on

the styling,” says Besson. $e founders make it

clear that it was never about “two giggly girls” wanting to have some fun. “We started with a

business plan and a marketing strategy. We know how we want to evolve,” adds Mattar-Jacob con#-dently. Since June 2009, when they

Company Dashboard MASALA TEE

PHOTOGRAPH BY VIJAY KUTTY