The chief enemy of creativity is good sense.

                                                                                        ― Pablo Picasso

So what exactly is creativity? The dictionary defines it as “the use of the imagination or original ideas in the production of an artistic work.” So does the word ‘artistic’ mean it is restricted to just art forms like painting, poetry, dancing and singing? I would rather balk at this statement and reckon creativity to be a perspective than just art. It is an inner approach of how you look at things from a different direction. Everybody can be creative but for that you need to awaken your inner self first and as Henri Matisse says, “Creativity takes courage.” It means one has to stop fortifying their fortresses of rationality against risks and instead take the plunge!

Many people who manage to gather courage and be creative, sometimes do not garner the outcomes they deserve. The Souled Store is a website that showcases the work of talented artists and gives them a platform which they normally do not get. It is a website that displays creativity on various products like t-shirts, posters, framed art prints, badges, stickers, notebooks, and coasters. The team is young and is building a community of multidisciplinary artists (Graphic designers, Doodle artists, Illustrators, Photographers, Sketch artists) who collaborate with them and provide them with a wide variety of themes and ideas.

The Souled Store is the brainchild of four young friends with an engineering background – Aditya, Vedang, Rohin and Sonal. After graduation, they worked with different companies for a period of 2 years. While they enjoyed their jobs, they somewhere always felt an urge to start something on their own. Thus, the brainstorming began. A lot of ideas were thrown around and finally they decided to start a website where talented artists gain not only the appreciation they deserve but also opportunities to harness their potential. Some of their artists have already been noticed and have been approached with assignments/work from other sources.

When asked how it is different from other platforms, the team replied, “The Souled Store is not just another online retail space. What makes us different is the community that we build here – our artists. It’s a place where they can get recognized. We want people to come here and express themselves from the heart and share the happiness all around.”  Someone once said, “Happiness is only real when shared.” and apparently that’s the philosophy The Souled Store is based on.

The team believes it is not here to give a tough competition to anyone or in a rat race to prove its worth. They believe they have just created a website that is very different and unique from the rest. The number of product lines that they have, combined with the variety of themes from a wide range of artists from all of India is what makes them different from anyone else around. Their primary focus has been to add artists from different genres to cater to a large and diverse customer base.

According to the team, the biggest hurdle any e-commerce start-up (or even a bigger company) in India faces is professionalism; “We have worked for 2 years in companies where everything was done in an extremely professional way. We’ve imbibed a lot of that in the way we work which is very helpful. The problem occurs when we have to deal with our manufacturers. The attitude is very laid back and highly unprofessional. That’s one thing we didn’t learn with a 2 year work experience. It’s something we’re learning (and getting better at) every day.”

The Souled Store generally focuses on getting customers through online and offline marketing. The majority of their website traffic comes from social media websites like Facebook and Twitter. The platform was launched 3 months ago and has been receiving a favourable response from artists as well as consumers. The team is planning to launch a few more products soon and have a lot more artists on their website. They are also planning to attend various college festivals to interact more with their target audience. “After all that we’ve been doing, we feel it’s never enough. There’s always that something extra that we can do. So we try to never be satisfied with what we do.” added the team which gives a wide berth to complacency and believes in always achieving more!

When asked for a piece of advice for our budding startup founders, they humbly said, “We might be too new to advise people on what they should do. We’re still learning things every day. Every day is a new challenge that we face. But one thing that’s said again and again and might sound overrated now is just sticking to your ideas and believing in them, even if others don’t. Don’t give up. Keep at it and it’ll just happen. It’s always worth taking a chance.”

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Samtana sources cotton from organic farming co-operatives in South India. This not only helps support the move to a more sustainable and lucrative form of farming for the farmers but also provides chemical free body wear.

Founded by two serial T-shirt wearers who are always searching the planet for designers with the most unique and awe-inspiring art and then print those on their own super soft, fair trade produced organic T-shirts.

Startoholics reached Samtana and interviewed Ben Heinkel (Co-founder of Samtana) who admires entrepreneurs like John Bissell of Fabindia and Elon Musk of Tesla Motors.

Let’s see what he has to share with us about his entrepreneurial journey and of course Samtana…

Ben Heinkel, Co-founder of Samtana

What are you most excited about at the moment?

Our next collection as well as the collaborations we’ve been doing with artists and charities across the globe. There are a lot of plans for expanding Samtana’s offerings and how we can enable our customers to buy wearable art and do more good with every purchase.

What is the biggest hurdle you have faced or are still facing?

In the past we’ve had problems with very slow production times due to having to compete for factory space with bigger brands, however we have hopefully addressed this now and our customers can expect us to release a lot more collections per year than we have done in the past. Other problems include the lack of support for startups from essential services such as shipping and payment merchants. With the startup industry in India growing at the rate it is, it would be very beneficial for these companies to start making it easier for a new company to get set up.

Has Samtana got the feedback and growth you expected since launch?

Absolutely and in fact it has far exceeded it. We’re extremely happy about the feedback we’ve received since we opened our virtual doors last year, both negative and positive. The negative has helped us improve our product tremendously, and the positive has given us the support we need to know that what we do is appreciated.

Who do you see as your target audience?

Anyone who wears T-shirts, of any age. People who love art, care about the environment, or just want a limited edition, great quality T-shirts at an affordable price. We get all kinds of people shopping with us.

What makes Samtana different from those in the market?

I would say almost everything we do is different from other T-shirt brands in the market. We search the globe for awe-inspiring art, instead of using slogans and tired graphics that have been used on T-shirts for decades. The entire focus of our company is constantly trying to make our product better, more ecological and more sustainable in the way we produce it – our T-shirts are now not only organically certified (both material and dye) but also produced in fair trade factories, with our packaging being made from recycled material. We care about our tees, our artists and what we give our customers.

Bharath Madhiraju, Co-founder of Samtana

Where do you think is the future of Internet Startups?

While a majority of Internet startups will fail, those that have a great product or service and a good team behind it, will be making big changes to the way we live our lives. Payment is being re-invented, there’s talk of connecting the entire planet to the Internet with balloons, and there’s an ever increasing number of startups that are making it easier to support solutions for social and environmental issues. There’s going to be a lot more change initiated by Internet startups in the near future.

How important is the role of Social Media for success of any startup?

It definitely depends on the industry the startup is in, but for most consumer products and services, social media is vital. Consumers want to connect with the brands they support, whether it is for quick customer service or to be involved with the direction of the company – and social media enables this.

What are your plans for promoting Samtana?

We’re spending a lot of time researching ways in which we can provide content to the community that will provide informational value above and beyond only spreading awareness of our brand. This I think is the key to virility, and to reach the right customers.

What one piece of advice would you give to soon to be startup founders?

Stop chasing the hype around VCs. Build a product that people want by listening to what it is they need. Build a company and not a startup.

Samtana has been recently in the news as well:

Time Out Bengaluru – ” The new indie label offers up 100 per cent organic cotton tees in trippy designs”

Sustainable Cottons – “Offering Wearable and Sustainable Art”

The Alternative– “Are we what we wear?”

Yourstory.in– “Organic Wearable Art”

Ethical Fashion Forum -” A taste for sustainable fashion in India.”

Do visit Samtana and let us know what you think about the concept of Organic Wearable Art.

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