Sanna, adding Oomph to Your House with her New Venture

Sanna Gupta was just 10 years old,  when she realised her love for designed spaces. As she grew up, she pursued architecture in Melbourne. “Being a small town girl, everyone thought I would follow it as a career and establish myself as an architect abroad. But I think that was when I realised my true calling. I loved the art of it more than the just the science” says Sanna. After working for a while both abroad and in India, she decided to start Oomphkart, a website with carefully curated range of products for the house.

I had to constantly explain that e-commerce is not just Flipkart or Amazon.

Starting up an e-commerce in a small town like Hoshiarpur, Punjab was not easy. From getting the right team to convincing logistics companies, everything was a challenge. But Sanna’s vision was to add oomph’ to people’s houses and there was nothing which could have stopped her. While she had her moments of skepticism, every time her friends and family saw the curated products on the website, they assured her of what she wanted to achieve.

I am married into a family where women have never worked in a job and the biggest challenge was to break that stereotype and make a routine to go to office

Sanna quit her job as an architect and researched on the idea of Oomphkart a year before starting up! “I had to build my own skill set to manage a team, understand various aspects of marketing while bootstrapping my business,” says the Deakin University Alumnus. Sanna loves to take risks and move out of her comfort zone. She believes that Oomphkart products have ended up becoming a memorable pieces in somebody’s living room. “And if its making someone smile, I have done my part well,” she says.

When everybody around me was planning a family, I was planning to launch my startup.

They forget to mention that behind every successful woman, there is a great guy too. In Sanna’s case as well, she is supported by her husband and father. “My husband is running his own startup from last five years. He really pushes me to take risks, fail, make my own mistakes and learn from them,” she says happily. As she grew up, her father wanted Sanna to be independent, to be recognized as herself. “My mom has been an entrepreneur since thirty five years. And I know she could do it because of the support and ecosystem that my father provided her,” she adds on.

To be successful and to thrive, single biggest things entrepreneurs need is encouragement and moral support

This confident lady believes that taboos are best to be broken. “I am lucky to have grown up in a liberal family in spite of being in a small town. I got a chance to see the world, study abroad, marry for love and now I am pursuing my dream. Come to think of it, as a stereotype woman in India, my life is a series of broken taboos,” she says.

Operating from Hoshiarpur has led to a challenge in finding the right people to work with. A lot of her work is outsourced to agencies in the metros. Getting vendors, artisans on board and building trust is an equally challenging task. Through all this, handling logistics has been the toughest for Oomphkart. “I follow up with each customer personally on when they received the package, if it was packed in the right way and love to know their feedback on the product,” says Gupta.

Doing what you love brings good stress and takes away the negativity.

During this journey, Sanna has understood that it is okay to fail, make mistakes and have the courage to stand by the idea. She has gained immense patience and has also started appreciating the people who work in the ground level of  the  organization. “I have lot of empathy for every telly caller, who calls me for a feedback after an online sale. I have become an easy customer for other online stores and a tougher boss at Oomphkart,” she says.

We owe it to this world to build great businesses, products, brands

She advises the future entrepreneurs to keep working at their vision, even when it gets tough. “Don’t get bogged down by what the world thinks, believe in yourself and make your own mistakes, it’s perfectly fine to fail, and the worse is not to try. If you have resilience, perseverance and you aren’t afraid to fail you will get there. Look at me, I am still trying!” she ends by saying.