PunGraffiti- Creating T-Shirts That Spread Happiness and Make the Wearers Smile

New Delhi, India, July 13, 2015 (Newswire.com) - The modern world belongs to the business community more than ever and this is proved by the unprecedented number of startups that are launched across the world every day. However, despite the huge number of such business ventures, only a few of them are actually able to make a mark and create a niche in their chosen field. PunGraffiti is one such startup that has showed real potential for becoming a successful venture within just days after its launch. The startup overcame all the odds and challenges of establishing itself in an online market, which was already brimming with bigwigs from the apparel industry.

The trend of wearing cool designer graffiti embossed t-shirt is not really new,but PunGraffiti adds a new perspective to this style by making these items of everyday wear a source of fun and happiness for not only the wearers but for the onlookers as well. This fairly new startup is based on the idea of spreading smiles by imprinting creative yet amusing ideas on t-shirts, the most popular piece of clothing preferred by the modern generation. The idea of spreading happiness and making people smile through an item of everyday wear was truly unique and innovative and this is perhaps what made it gain immense success in an extremely limited time period.

The trend of wearing cool designer graffiti embossed t-shirt is not really new,but PunGraffiti adds a new perspective to this style by making these items of everyday wear a source of fun and happiness for not only the wearers but for the onlookers as well.

Akash Gagan, Sales Manager

Established through the combined efforts of five school friends, Akash, Gagan, Varun, Meetali and Vivek, PunGrafitti was actually launched on 26th May 2015. The group worked together for almost 4 months with hard work and dedication, during which time they planned every aspect of the startup in an extremely fun filled manner. The groups brainstormed the various ideas and concepts and checked and double checked the practicality and saleability of each aspect before moving ahead with the project. Their years of friendship and a deep understanding of the personality and ideology played an important role in keeping them united in their efforts of building something unique and creative.

While the responsibility of financing the project was shouldered by Meetali and Vivek, the practical aspects of planning, managing and operating the startup are handled by Akash, Gagan and Varun. The trio worked together as a team and even though they handled different aspects of the startup, they ensured that they had a basic understanding of what the other was doing. They also made every effort to provide complete support to each other as they moved one step at a time on the road of turning a concept into a successful startup. They learnt much in the process and from employees who practically worked 5 hours a day, turned into entrepreneurs, for whom even that duration of sleep was a luxury.

The idea for PunGraffiti came about at a casual meeting of the friends where they were discussing their fun times at school. As the group moved on to the way their careers were progressing, they became aware of the fact that the one thing they excelled in was to make people happy and make them laugh. They realized that spreading happiness in turn gave them immense pleasure and satisfaction and this led to the idea of creating a career out of the art of making people around them smile and laugh. That in turn led to the conceptualization of PunGraffiti and the rest as they say is history.

Akash is a qualified economist, while Gagan and Varunare both qualified engineers. Before coming up with the concept of PunGraffiti, Akash had just quit his job with KMPG in Pune and Gagan and Varun were working with Mitsubishi and a shipping company respectively. They left their well paid jobs in established MNC’s topursue their dream of bringing smiles to countless people with simple attire. The realization that doing something that makes one truly happy is more satisfying than earning a hefty salary was what led to start PunGraffiti. With their intention to spread cheerfulness, this group of friends was able to turn their skill into a profitable business idea.

Since, the task of actually running the startup in an active manner landed on the shoulders of Akash, Gagan and Varun, they took their roles extremely seriously. Akash and Gagan took up the role of developing innovative design concepts while Varun handles their actual implementation process. Akash and Gaganwork together to come up with the concepts and ideas that would be imprinted on the t-shirts. Then Varun takes over as the startup’s in-house designer and handles the task of creating designs that would be suitable for presenting the chosen concepts and ideas on the t-shirts in the most hilarious manner. The three make sure that together they come up with the most interesting and amazing graffiti designs to attract potential customers.

PunGraffiti is quite unlike just any other t-shirt selling startup as its biggest USP is its unique concept and designing. The team is very particular about what they choose to imprint on the t-shirts and also about doing so in the most creative manner. The ideas presented on the t-shirts are mostly derived from the emotions of real people and basically provide them with a means of expressing these emotions to others in a creative and funny manner. They base their designs on the thought that people can share their sense of humor without opening their mouths or picking up a pen.

The name PunGraffiti was chosen by the founders for a specific reason. Since the team used concepts and designs that required some thinking over before it could bring on a smile or make the readers laugh, the team decided on the part name of Pun. The Graffiti part came from the unique designs that were used to present a specific idea in a creative and unique manner. It took the team considerable time and thinking before coming up with this extremely peppy name for their startup. However, it is important to mention here that the team takes extreme precaution to ensure that their sense of humor does not prove offensive for any section of their target audiences. Unlike the other graffiti imprinted t-shirts, the ones offered by PunGraffiti are simply meant to entertain people.

Like any other startup, PunGraffiti also faced its share of challenges and hindrances. The most significant of these was to get a foothold in a highly competitive field and assure clients of their uniqueness.  However as Akash, one of the co-founders puts it, the key is to exercise a whole lot of patience and be confident of achieving the business goals sooner or later. He also stresses on the importance of keeping the number of disgruntled customers limited to zero at least during the initial phase of the business establishment when the number of clients is easily manageable. At this stage, if necessary, the startup owners should make personal efforts to address the grievances of disgruntled customers and win back their trust and loyalty.

The key advice that Akash has to offer to other people who want to launch a startup is to have a clear understanding of the business potential of their idea. While there are several creative ideas that can form the basis for a good venture, the key is to choose something that the target audiences will be able to relate to. Unless the startup is based on such a concept, sustaining it in the long run can prove extremely difficult no matter how appealing the idea may be. At the same time it is also extremely important to have a USP as this can help draw a large number of target audience towards the startup. With the big players trying their hands at everything, the market for startups has become extremely challenging and having a USP is the best way to overcome this challenge.

The team also faced the challenge of making the transition from being an employer to an entrepreneur, which it handled quite successfully. The trio of Akash, Gagan and Varun quickly learnt that being an entrepreneur meant that they were responsible for anything and everything that went wrong. It also taught them to be constantly on their toes to be able to convert their hard work into actual results. They paid attention to every single detail of running the startup and even worked hard to establish a relationship of trust and mutual understanding with their clients. From understanding their individual needs to rectifying any mistakes in order placement and delivery, the team makes every effort to avoid making their customers unhappy on any account.

The team understood that establishing a startup is no joy ride but the sheer joy and excitement of experiencing an idea becoming successful makes the journey so much more thrilling. They also became aware of the truth that while e-commerce provided them the advantage of catering to a global audience, they had long road to cover before they could make that happen. The challenge of getting recognized amongst the target audiences was a major issue which they successfully overcame with the use of diverse online marketing channels, including social media and other resources. Even though their hard work has started to show results, the team still believes that they are still practicing walking a tightrope where one false step can lead to their immediate downfall and make months of efforts and diligence a total waste.

The success of PunGraffiti is majorly accredited to the fact that the founders believed in their idea, had the courage to go ahead and execute it and were patient enough to wait for the results. However, the team also believes that social media channels played a critical role in ensuring the success of their startup. PunGraffiti received more than1700 likes on its Facebook page within just about two weeks of its launch. This included the well known MTV VJ and actor Ranvijay Singh talking about the t-shirts on his Facebook page. In addition, the startup sold over 100 t-shirts across the country within the same time period and was also featured in Cityshor. The venture has also received a pretty good response on Instagram and they are extremely excited about the feedbacks they have been receiving.

Even though the startup has benefitted extremely from the use of social media, it does not intend to use the “crowd sourced designer model” in its future expansion plans. The team believes that it will take away the essence of creativity and ability to relate with their target audience, which is the basis of their venture. They believe that their unique designs derived through a combination of creativity and emotions is what keeps them ahead of their competitors and has been responsible to help them gain an unprecedented recognition within just a month of launching their venture. Maintaining the originality of the designs and the concepts is of significant importance for the founding team of PunGraffiti.

The team at PunGraffiti is extremely focused when it comes to ensuring the complete satisfaction of its clients.  This starts with the designing process itself where Varunworks uses the latest designing software and Akash and Gagan help him in whatever way they can. The team also makes sure that they use only high quality t-shirts, made from 100% cotton for imprinting the designs. This not only makes the designs look extremely good but also helps in redefining the personality of the wearers, giving them yet another reason to be happy. The durability of the t-shirts further ensures that the happiness is not short lived. This adherence to quality and commitment towards ensuring pure fun and joy to the wearers is what makes the startup stand way ahead of its competitors.

The success of PunGraffiti has set an example for countless budding entrepreneurs. It has proved yet again that a commercially potential business idea is sure to succeed eventually. The need is for the entrepreneurs to maintain the focus and adapt a target audience friendly attitude. In addition, maintaining the expected standards of quality and ensuring adherence to commitment under all circumstances is also extremely important to draw potential customers. Even though the process of gaining recognition might seem quite slow and expensive, if followed with persistence and dedication, it is sure to offer the expected results within a reasonable time period.

Giving a new perspective to the concept of “happiness doubles when shared”, PunGraffiti t-shirts use a wide range of topics to create humor. From famous alcohol brands to most loved super heroes and celebrities as well as common people and everyday life scenarios, they have it all. The style color combination, design and pricing are all given great thought before finalizing them to meet client expectations and needs. Even the website favors a no-nonsense design with the visitors able to view the available t-shirts right on the home page itself, that too along with their design concept and price.

The phenomenal response that PunGraffiti has been getting from across the country has paved the way for future success of the venture. This has really encouraged the team to work on their plans of future growth and expansion. They believe that every single client makes a difference in ensuring the growth of the startup which is why they make every effort to serve each individual customer in the best possible manner. With its unique designs that implement creative and thought provoking graffiti in a hilarious manner, PunGraffiti is on its way to become one of the favorite brands of people in India.

Currently PunGraffiti offers t-shirts in 13 different colors and featuring varied designs of graffiti. However, the startup is planning to launch new designs in the near future to give their clients as many more reasons to be happy. With the startup already having proven that it has something truly unique and innovative to offer its clients, there is no doubt about the fact that it will soon grow into a flourishing online venture and win the hearts of countless people across the globe.