E-Paper
Indian startup founder’s lesson in entrepreneurship gets shout-out from Anand Mahindra
The founder of BharatAgri was praised by seasoned industrialist Anand Mahindra after sharing the story of his best-selling product.
The founder of BharatAgri received fulsome praise from seasoned industrialist Anand Mahindra after sharing the story of his best-selling product. Mahindra called Siddharth Dialani’s post an “object lesson in how entrepreneurial opportunities arise,” as he praised the young entrepreneur for listening to customer needs.
It all began when Dialani, the co-founder of BharatAgri, shared a post on how hands-free torches became the best-selling product in their category on his platform. Dialani said that his team observed the sale of torches picking up consistently on the BharatAgri platform.
As torches are not an agricultural product, they were surprised by this unanticipated surge in orders.
After speaking to a few farmers, the BharatAgri team got to know that farmers needed torches to work at night during power cuts. “But our team took an extra step and asked, how else can BharatAgri help? Farmers suggested that they want a hands-free torch so that they can use both hands while farming,” he wrote.
Working on this feedback, the team launched a “mining torch” that can be strapped to the forehead. “This mining-torch became our top selling product in the category!” Dialani revealed. The rechargeable mining torch retails for ₹779 on the BharatAgri website.
Anand Mahindra was impressed by the anecdote. He praised Dialani for listening to customer feedback, acting on it and innovating further. The billionaire chairman of Mahindra Group admitted that for all his years in the agribusiness area, he had no idea of this requirement.
“This is an object lesson in how entrepreneurial opportunities arise,” wrote Mahindra, 69, as he responded to Dialani’s post on X. “You have to keep your ears to the ground, keep your eyes open and look for telltale SIGNS of an evolving need,” he said, adding that a good company would then “swoop in” and meet the need with a product that fits the requirement.
“With all our history in the agribusiness area, I have to admit I had no knowledge of this requirement,” he wrote.
Anand Mahindra ended his post saying that AI may help find patterns in consumer behaviour, but the rules of entrepreneurship remain the same. “Well done Siddharth!” he concluded.
Take a look at the exchange below:
On his LinkedIn profile, Dialani says he wants to implement technology to solve the challenging problems being faced by farmers in India today.
