How Noise defied odds in a competitive consumer tech market – CNBC TV18
First, the duo ventured into the fiercely competitive world of consumer technology. Second, they chose to bootstrap the business, avoiding the conventional route of venture capital funding. Third, they’ve successfully navigated a space often dominated by commoditisation.
In an exclusive conversation with CNBC-TV18, the co-founders shared insights into their journey, the challenges they’ve faced, and their vision for the future.
Below are the excerpts of the discussion.
Q: How did you how did this idea of naming your company Noise come about?
Amit Khatri: When we started, we were just thinking about what to name the brand. We were browsing through all the dictionaries, but we realised that first and foremost, the name has to be young. You need to be able to pronounce it smartly. And like all youngsters are bombarded with ideas, so we realised that Noise is a good name and that resonated well with everyone around. And it’s like listening to the noise within.
Q: So listen to the noise within. That’s what this is about. So, it was also making a statement to the world about the fact that you’ve decided to forge your own path.
Gaurav Khatri: Yeah, absolutely. And I think my childhood has been such where — and in fact, a lot of Indians might agree — everybody is telling you what to do and what not to do. So, I think there’s a lot of noise there. Ultimately, when you do things that you really love, it gets you to the heights. I think that worked for us.
Q: So this was your way of cutting out the noise, so to speak.
Gaurav Khatri: Yes.
Q: Let’s talk a little bit about why you decided to do Noise to start with. You were part of the fashion business. Gaurav was trying to get into the aviation business. But how did this come about? Because there is a nine-year difference between the two of you, you don’t come from a business family, you have no sort of entrepreneurial background, what made both of you start out?
Amit Khatri: When I was doing my first business in fashion, I used to be a B2B partner to brands like H&M and Zara. I was working very closely with them. But I realised that these businesses are good because these are lifestyle businesses. They’re talking to a set of users who are willing to pay you a little more for good quality. We had a craving to talk to the consumers directly because in B2B businesses nobody knew you well. I mean, I had to explain my business that this is what I do. People never knew what merchandising was all about. And I was travelling also a lot at that time. So I realised that internationally there is so much variety available and in India, there were only cheap Chinese knockoffs or brands like Apple and BlackBerry. This made me question why we couldn’t create something for people like us who struggled to find quality, affordable products in the market.
When Gaurav came in, he was more technologically inclined because I was more into lifestyle fashion. We quickly realised this was a forward-looking industry worth exploring together.
Gaurav Khatri: I think one common interest I would say was technology. Being younger, I was always curious about what was happening in the world—reading magazines, going online, and understanding the personal gadget space. I would ask my elder brother to bring things back from his work travels. Then when things started working out, what we realised was, there’s a huge potential of trying these things out in the country. Fortunately or unfortunately, India hadn’t seen many aspirational homegrown brands in this space, especially when we were growing up in a small town. People either had to settle for non-branded options or choose global brands. Our idea was to address the needs of Indian consumers who weren’t fully catered to by either option. We wanted to offer an experience that was personalised, Indianised, and premium—providing value to consumers and a global brand experience.
Q: But the audacity to actually go out there and do this? As I pointed out, neither of you have an engineering background. You’re not from the IITs, which is the typical Indian tech startup story. You decided not to bring on any venture. What gave you the confidence of saying that, we’re going to go into a market and we’re going to try and take on the Apples and Samsungs, which are at the aspirational end and the Chinese brands which are at the mass and the volume end?
Amit Khatri: We never thought that we were entering that space. We started very small. We started with doing accessories. We realised that let them play their game, let us be on the other side. And when we slowly started growing, we realised that there are other spaces we should move to. And definitely, we thought that let’s go to spaces where there is less competition. It’s a little tough to enter. Maybe these kind of businesses would be small businesses for bigger companies. That’s how the idea came in. And it was honestly very tough for us because neither of us has a tech background. So we have to get help from our friends, family, and partners. Gradually we pivoted into it.
When we started, we were very small. I think we never had any recognition also. But gradually we started moving up one step at a time, and then here we are today.
Watch the accompanying video for the entire discussion.
