BWDisrupt interacted with Gaurav Chordia, Founder & MD of Product Development at ALKWA, to know more about their business venture.Gaurav is a 26-year- old entrepreneur, who loves working with nature, environment like farming and nature photography. He studied Product Designing from MIT ID, Pune, has the technical knowledge as well as designing skills for the aesthetics of the product.
The college projects and hand work done in the early years of design studies helped him a lot personally in developing his products and getting new concepts in virtual forms. Studying Design also helped him understand his users and what they expect, which gave him a direction and helped him move forward.
We got him chatting and talking about his new startup, these are the excerpts from the interview:
Tell us about the business idea and incepting the venture?My father is a Surgeon and he had started working on alternate natural remedies for curing degenerative diseases. I have always been inclined towards health, nature and environmental issues so as I progressed we came across a device which is a Water Ionizer. It was only used for fighting cancer and was quite expensive for any person to afford. So I made a water ionizer and we supplied this miracle water from our home to some patients who were suffering from severe Hyper Acidity, Migraine, Psoriasis, Cancer, Etc. and the results we got were amazing. It was unbelievable to see people recover and heal so easily only by changing the water they drank.
“People thanked me and wished me good faith. This motivated me and encouraged me as I felt I was helping people heal and actually preventing a lot of people from going through the pain.”
People had difficulty coming down every day to collect water so they requested me to design a homemade water ionizer which I had made for our own use by assembling some parts and modifying them. This was the beginning of me actually designing and creating a product for the customers who requested for the water ionizer. While studying Product Designing we got good knowledge about materials, processes and the requirement from the customers. This helped me select the right materials, process, and even the technicalities of making such type of product.
The initial product was like a prototype where people bought it purely for the output of the product and getting a very good response made me take it as an entrepreneurial venture. We named our brand ALKWA which is derived from Alkaline Water. When we generated good income in one year of starting then I decided to take it one step further by designing a product which would be aesthetic good and ergonomically designed making it easier to use and have a better output. This was all earnings which would be used in making a product which is designed and manufactured especially for you.
Meet the Team:Gaurav Chordia: Managing Director. (Founder) (leading the product development)
Dr. Pravin Chordia: Consults and helps to understand the impact of our product on human health.
Mr. Gokhale: Electronics consultant.
Mr. Amol: Installation and Service in charge.
What kind of investment have you raised till now?we have had no investors. I myself have invested and started and we have reinvested all the income back in the start up to make new developments.
Please share with us your market size and opportunities?We started with only Pune City. but we have grown in Pan India through online market and we are building a network of dealers across India.
Tell us about the USP of your product / services and how are different from your competitors?competitors have high costing starting from Rs.50,000/- we are providing similar or even better in in some models and we are starting at Rs.6000/-. I have been closely watching patients suffering from Cancer, Infertility, Diabetes, High BP, etc. The pain they go through and their loved ones go through can’t be explained in words. So I have currently designed the Worlds most compact Portable Water Ionizer Alkwa Mini which has been made keeping in mind the mass majority of the people who need this product and are severely suffering from these diseases but can’t afford or can’t try Ionized Alkaline Water only due to the high price. So for all these people we have come up with a solution where we have innovated and designed it to cost of about Rs.6000/- per unit.
When did you start monetizing and how?I started it in end of 2011, It was a very organic process, people demanded it so i started making it to order initially and later it slowly developed and grew into a business.
What are your future plans with this business?To build a strong network online and offline and hopefully take it ahead with new developments and hopefully if i get the right opportunity would love to export also.
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Soumya is a young writer and journalist, with bachelors in Multimedia and Mass Communication. She is an alumini of the Asian College of Journalism, and finds politics and sustainability intriguing beats to work with.
