In just three years, Pet Fed has become an important name in the world of events. We got an opportunity to talk to Akshay Gupta who is the founder of Pet Fed. Scroll down to know what all he said about his brand and experiences.
1.What made you chose the path of entrepreneurship?
I am from a business background. Never in my life did I even want to do a regular job. Initially, I worked with my dad for almost a year. At my dad’s work, I didn’t get the freedom that I was looking for. So, in 2014, I went my way and started Pet Fed.
2.When and how did you first come up with the idea of Pet Fed?
I was thinking out loud, was searching for new and unexplored fields. I did my graduation in BSC Electronics from Hindu College which is nowhere related to what I am doing now. During Hindu days, I was a part of events in college and also went looking for sponsorship for the same. So, after I finished college, I wanted to do something with events. I did my research and found that there were no events for pets in India. There were some in the western countries but even they weren’t big enough. That is how I came up with the idea of Pet Fed.
3.Tell us about the journey of your brand so far.
Our first event was on 1st November 2014 at Dilli Haat INA. I took a lot of inspiration from Comic Con which is a worldwide event. Their first event in Delhi was at Dilli Haat so even we followed their footsteps. After that, we did many more events, one in Calcutta in 2015, which was a huge learning step, and after that another one in Delhi’s Garden of Five Senses. Our last major event was in Delhi’s NSIC Ground in 2016. People really liked what we did there and now we are going to have four more events this year at Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune.
4.What were the challenges that you faced?
We faced two big challenges. One was that I didn’t know anything about dogs or events. So we did a lot of hit and trial. We went ahead with the things that worked for us and had to drop what didn’t. Secondly, when I went to look for sponsors, a lot of brands didn’t take me very seriously. They thought I looked like a kid, straight out of college and not very sure of what I was doing. It took me a while to make them believe that age is not a factor one should be judged on.
Age is not a factor one should be judged on
5.What has been the biggest turning point of your business?
In 2015, we did our last free events. After that, we were approached by Vodafone for their re-launch of the pug in their ads. They were bringing back the pug after 7 long years and chose Pet Fed to do various marketing activities around it. An association with a huge brand like Vodafone was a big turning point for us.
6.How do you cope with work stress and pressure?
Beer, beer and beer!
7.Have you received any awards or recognitions?
Yes, The Hindustan Times included Pet Fed in the most successful events of 2016 list. Other major national daily newspapers have also covered us.
8.What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of being an entrepreneur?
You can choose what you want to do. You have a lot of power. But like what Spiderman movie says, “with great power comes great responsibility”. A lot of risks are involved. One wrong step can put everything down the drain.
You will always face setbacks on the way but you need to keep going forward.
9.Any advice/ suggestion for budding entrepreneurs.
If you are willing to take a risk, only then become an entrepreneur. Settle on your goals. Do not deviate from them for the initial 1-2 years. A lot of young businessmen make this mistake, they think of something, they do it for some time and when they don’t see the results in 6 months, they try finding something new to do. Even I thought of leaving Pet Fed and going back to my father’s business many times. But I learned that for anything to work, you need to give it at least 2-3 years. You will always face setbacks on the way but you need to keep going forward.