Inspiring story of Bubaneshwar Student Custom Merchandise Startup Goodclad : 1 Million turnover with 14th order

A startup takes a lot of your time and energy. Its quite tough being a student entrepreneur and it is even more tough when you are in a surrounding where studies are given more importance than extra curricular. I used to attend very few classes which eventually cost me my CGPA but managed to get the required attendance (friends helped me a lot with proxies) to be elligible to sit for university semester exams. The initial periods were very tough but i didnt loose hope and just worked hard towards making Goodclad successful.

– Punyaslok Das, founder at Goodclad

Pacman is back (who who can now design tees with your own flavors). Here is a story about 3 people: Punyashlok Das the founder, Mohit Tirkey the co-founder and Amrit Das the second co-founder. To remind you again, you are in need of some digital printed tshirts for less price.  A startup is always successful if done in a right way. The main reason for starting a venture is after realizing that you have gained excessive experience in that field and can predict market needs.

Founders and co founders @ Goodclad know exactly where the shoe pinches. According to them, rather looking for the shoes, you should start manufacture shoes so that other people do not have the same problem. Talking about tshirt, Goodclad offers customized tees or sweat shirts for a college fest or a friends’ re-union. Or even your favorite sports icon or Jesse Pinkman and Walter White

Team Goodclad

They studied in College of Engineering and Technology(CET) Bhubaneshwar and found out that marketing environment is too low for a city circumscribed with 150 professional Colleges. One fine day, these guys went hunting for the best tshirt printing firm near their area. They either found monopoly or were not at all satisfied with what they were provided. They thought to start this venture named Goodclad which can ease out the friction between customers and manufacturers

Punyaslok Das (Founder)  In-charge  of daily operations and strategy, Onlile marketing,  website development, product testing and logistics.

Mohit Tirkey (Co-Founder) He is communication manager of Goodclad. Takes feedbacks from the customers. In-charge of offline marketing and print artwork.

Amrit Das (Co-Founder) Looks after the finance department of Goodclad. Also looks after the offline marketing.

Statistics of Goodclad | Marketing strategy

[pullquote]There aren’t many entrepreneurs in bhubaneswar. So very few startups. Students here are more inclined towards jobs rather than doing something different. [/pullquote]It is interesting to note that they are available to help you if you are confused with what design to choose. In future, if you read this article then please remember that Goodclad sold 3600 Tshirts and Hoodies  and around 1200 Wristbands in just 60 days! Need more? Goodclad managed to cross the one million turnover mark on 14th order delivered within 15 days of launching Goodclad. Interested in their marketing strategy? The manufacture hub is located 5 hour away from Bhubaneshwar i.e. Tiruppur.

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The transport is done mainly via road and railway inside odisha and air outside odisha. Unlike online buy and sell giants, who focuses strenuously on paid  online advertising. Goodclad believes more on word of mouth (also of course on Facebook and Twitter, but they need time to reach levels of Flipkart, Amazon, Alma Mater etc)

[pullquote align=”right”]Our first order came from VSSUT BURLA , a premier engineering college in Odisha.[/pullquote] Goodclad got the next three orders (from IIIT Bhubaneswar, KIIT University, GCE Keonjhar ). “It is slightly easy to get orders from different colleges while one is  still in college as many of the school friends must  also be studying in different colleges who can help you in getting the orders from their respective colleges” says Punyaslok.  As already stated, Goodclad is heavily focusing on word of mouth. They got those next 3 orders the same way.

Future & Stumbling blocks

THe Goodclad initiation was very cumbersome. To establish a tshirt manufacture is always a tedious task like funding, proper shipping methods and packaging etc. They fall back everytime when it comes to “faster” delivery. Bhubaneshwar is not good with the faster deliveries when compared with metro cities. Finding co-founders and finding a great manufacture was a headache for Punyaslok. And Goodclad was implemented with the integration of the best after Punyaslok waited for 1 whole year thinking of pros and cons of this startup.

Odisha is unexplored by them. They have started Goodclad without much of the exploration which can be a little mind boggling thing for a startup. Currently, there is no such online market in India that can provide you a non bulk and single tshirt printed to you for your own which can cost you as low as 600rs as compared to the US and other countries. Goodclad follows the rule of producing bulk products and accepting only bulk orders. This is quite good for people in a horde. “There aren’t many customizable merchandising companies in India who provide bulk tees within a week. We want to make the delivery period to be within a week and we working on it.” says Punyaslok.

TTP’s Take On Goodclad

It has been found that people were so amazed with Goodclad’s marketing, that from the fifth order onwards colleges either messaged  Goodclad on their fb page or called  to place the order. Goodclad are in beta mode right now. We @ TTP appreciate their work. Also, they havent approached any investors and they are not planning in the near future. It is true that there are numerous well established firm that are word of mouth today, and Goodclad are competing with the giants. You have already seen about their marketing strategy and their statistics till now, and their is absolutely no stumbling block ahead if they keep us the pace or increase it with their positive and marketing strategies.