I don’t plan on making you, the one reading this, doze off.
So I’ll stay away from the standard CV rhetoric and give you a quick crux of my story.
Otherwise the next 500 words will easily be about me singing my own praises.
I will tell you a story.
If I do a good job of putting it together well enough, it’ll give you an insight into myself, as the question asks for.
And hopefully we’ll have you still up.
I am an ex architect.
I have worked with companies like Chapman Taylor and Archohm.
That said, I don’t remember a feeing of liberation as vividly as quitting my last job in the middle of the day and walking into a theatre, in my formals, to watch the Nice Guys starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe.
I suppose sitting in traffic for 2 hours everyday, working in a basement with no sunlight, or following a hierarchy of people you were told to address as Sir and Ma’am, didn’t sit well with me.
Or maybe I watched Tamasha at the wrong time.
Founded my first company in 2015 at the age of 23.
We were making wooden furniture, me and my best friend. While it didn’t do much in terms of progression, I still remember that time fondly for having taught me so much.
This was the time when I would stammer when someone would ask me what my Business Plan was.
What distribution I was looking at.
You know the drill.
These were heavy, foreign words for someone who wasn’t acquainted with the concept of doing business.
Cut to, 2016, Defence Colony, New Delhi.
Where it all started. An acquaintance of mine, who normally wouldn’t bother to keep in touch had invited me to a party he was throwing for his birthday.
For courtesy’s sake I showed up.
Little did I know my beloved acquaintance was in the hope of me playing wingman for him — for this girl he was working with.
Don’t ask me why, he had this astray sense of me having good ‘game’ as he put it.
Mind you this was a party full of lawyers and I knew no one.
The party was dull with different sets of people scurrying away to discuss office politics.
I had to step up and play host before I smacked my face into the cake for potentially wasting my evening. Had to.
I gathered everyone around a table and engaged them in games and making the birthday boy feel like it was HIS day.
I continued my efforts to push him to talk the girl. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t make a move, and was waiting to gobble a few drinks down to muster up the courage.
End of the night I ended up with the girl’s number.
No I didn’t ask for it. She gave it to me out of her own choice.
On the drive back, I realised there was a disparity when it came to forge this kind of male camaraderie — that would enable men to push each other forward — speak about the things that only guys can talk to other guys about.
One that wouldn’t leave you with the option of having to reach out to an acquaintance for assistance in getting a date with a girl.
For Men, there’s a way you are with women, and a very different way when you are with Men.
And its imperative to have the latter for your Masculinity to thrive in.
Doing guy things. Much like how iron sharpens iron.
There was no outlet for this though. No communities, no platforms. Ones that were, operated by a specific niche.
And let’s face it, once you’re over 25, it becomes hard to forge solid friendships. People you can call brothers, who you know would have your back through and through.
The first entity I built in 2018, which is still operational was The BossMan Experience.
Essentially, Community Building for Men.
The MO was straightforward. Curate 15 Gentlemen from around the country — hailing from different walks of life, different industries, different age brackets — fly them out to a location like Goa, Coorg, Fort Kochi — for a week long larger than life boys trip.
Right from a 26 year old Bombay lad to a 75 year old Army Veteran.
This was the spectrum we envisioned and were able to execute on.
Architects, Bankers, Storytellers, Climbers, Government Officers — we hosted them all.
Each retreat was carefully crafted with elements — building your own Kayaks and Kayaking, river rafting in grade 3 currents, street survival defence warfare using the Special Forces training modules — to name a few.
And the underlying proposition was for cross pollination to take place between these gentlemen — cross pollination of resources, backstories, wisdom and experiences. Over a beer and bonfires.
Any retreat would host a cumulative average of 300 years of experience on the table — and the idea was to get as much out of it as possible.
With covid hitting, we had to stop operations. Which is when I realised the need for digitising BossMan to a certain degree. Hence turning it to Tech Backed Community Building for Men.
Enabling access to potential global consumers.
Enabling a lower barrier entry for Men who had not been to a BossMan retreat thus far.
And in the process forging new verticals to monetise with — because essentially our currency is our community.
So from an in house hedge fund to masterclasses, subscription based models, festivals , advertising, offline locations for members only clubs — we are exploring it all.
The second realisation with Covid was also the importance of having a product line for the sake of stabilising annual revenue generation.
A product line as opposed to a service provided a higher scope for automation, a lesser scope for human intervention — and a guard against unforeseen events like the pandemic.
Having catered to Men with BossMan in the past, I knew my audience — and decided to double down on it.
After much deliberation, we went ahead with a Menswear line — 51X49.
Ethos behind the name being 51 for the customer 49 for the company.
I spent the whole year of 2022 in RnD, iterating designs to perfection, setting up a solid supply chain. Scouting markets with 5 feet broad lanes in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune.
Having already built for Men, I took a different route to begin 51’s process with. As opposed to sampling we began with creating a brand identity. Routed in who we wanted to deliver for.
I realised amongst the many differences between Men, there is one underlying unanimous sentiment they host — they all think they’re Batman, a vigilante. That is, when things go south, Men have a predisposed innate tendency to think they will go Rambo on it all.
In our brand identity exercises we used movie characters to germinate the identity with. Think Kamal Haasan in Vikram. Think Thomas Shelby in Peaky Blinders. Think Ryan Gosling in Crazy Stupid Love and Drive.
That became the core sentiment in our offerings — what the brand has been positioned around.
I was clear none of us were fashion designers to begin with.
I was also clear Men are not very ardent shoppers. So I encouraged an outlook of looking at them as tech utility products to begin with.
Versatile, strong garments to not have to shop again and again.
Which clearly was how majority of Men operate.
I emphasised on playing with words — Tactical and Utilitarian.
It was a new territory for us so we wanted to focus on getting one product right at a time.
For a few reasons.
Not locking up capital in inventory before testing out designs, finding the right fit through constant feedback loops, better control over costs and projecting cash flow, doubling down on what’s working and doing away with what’s not.
If I may say so myself, in my small journey in building a product line in the apparel industry in India I realise Manufacturers are an imperative part of a supply chain.
My realisation though is you find two types of Manufacturers in India.
One operating massive factories with huge MOQs who probably won’t even let you in to their factories if you’re asking for 50 pieces an SKU.
The second operating on a much smaller scale — think of the Lala’s from the 80s — who are content with what they make — and are happy operating more in the b2b sector.
So the fight to find the right manufacturer was a long one — but we reaped our rewards for patience and continuing the search.
We hit market in 23, with our first product — The Defender. An all season jacket made of 100% Cotton.
We took inspiration from the silhouettes of the Vietnam War and made a modern day version of it.
Supremely detail oriented with all you can hold box pockets, microfibre patches for cleaning smart phones and optics, crafted angular collars and cuffs, double lapels for a seamless front — tested to Indian and German Industrial Standards.
Going forward we want to build for more than just Tier 1.
A separate range of products for Marketplaces selling at a lower price point to allow us to cater to Tier 2 cities as well.
Every day we are learning more about the process of building a product.
Another realisation which led to a small modification in our MO for 51.
Given the kind of context and time we are operating in — I made the choice to operate 51x49 as
50 % a Product Line for Men, and,
50 % as a Media Company, again centred around Men.
To leave no avenue for distributing content to our TA.
Be it about Men who left a mark in history. The origins of jazz. Making the perfect old fashioned. Or using the Special Forces warfare secrets to engage in street survival scenarios.
Through long and short form videos, newsletters, images — you name it.
This won’t have as many short term implications, but it will pay off in the long run.
The endeavour is for these two businesses, BossMan Ex and 51x49 to support each other, not just in terms of capital — more so in terms of consumer crossovers. For Men a part of BossMan to shop from 51. And for the Men who’ve shopped from 51 to attend a BossMan.
I see the vision clearly of how these two entities will support one another. And it will happen in the coming year.
