Meet famous entrepreneur, Chinu Kala, who co-founded Rubans, which is one of India's leading jewellery brands, which is worth Rs. 100 crores. Here's a look into Chinu's entrepreneurial journey.
Chinu Kala is among the most popular women entrepreneurs in India. The businesswoman is the co-founder of a jewellery brand, Rubans, which is renowned for being one of the household names in India when we talk about jewellery. As per the official website of Rubans, it is the only brand in the market with a firm grip on both Western and Indian designs.
The brand continues to hit new heights after Chinu Kala made her way on the second season of India's first business reality show, Shark Tank India. If we talk about the journey of Rubans as a jewellery brand so far, then Chinu's company has satisfied 25,00,000 customers as of now.
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The brand has managed to sell 10,00,000 pieces since the company's launch back in 2014, which is quite remarkable considering the competition we have in the business of jewellery. There's no denying in admitting that Rubans has managed to make a space for itself in the market and has already won several awards.
However, only some people are aware of Chinu Kala's remarkable journey. From earning Rs. 20 per day to being the co-founder of a jewellery brand worth Rs. 100 crores. Thus, today, we are going to take a deeper look into her journey right from the early beginning of her childhood. So, without further ado, let's take a look at it!
The famous entrepreneur, Chinu Kala was born on October 10, 1981, in a small village in Maharashtra. The exact location of her hometown is yet to be available on the internet. However, as per multiple reports, she ran away from her home in order to make a life for herself from scratch. Chinu had some arguments with her parents, and she decided to take on the world all alone at the age of 15. The young girl had only 300 rupees and a bag full of some clothes.
In the initial days, she used to live at the Mumbai railway station, and soon she realised that in order to survive without her family, she had to do some work. As a result, she started working as a salesgirl at the railway station. Talking about Chinu's educational qualification, she was a class-10 dropout as when she ran away from her home, she was studying in 10th standard. However, she was quite intelligent, and after spending some time on the streets, she became street-smart. She used to get Rs. 20 per day for working as a salesgirl.
After working for 6-7 months, Chinu Kala hired two girls, who used to work for her as she had started earning around Rs. 60-80 per day. However, after working as a door-to-door saleswoman for some months, she got the opportunity to go to Surat in order to work as a distributor of Yellow Pages. After a lot of hard work and effort, she managed to crack a job interview and was finally placed in Tata Indicom as a customer care executive.
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After Chinu Kala started working as a customer care executive at Tata Indicom, she gained a lot of knowledge about the broadcasting and distribution sectors. As a result, she soon started working for big broadcasters like ESPN, Viacom18, Star Sports, and others.
It is exceptional the way she transitioned from working at the Mumbai Central for Rs. 20 per day to handling the distributions for such big companies, Chinu Kala's entrepreneurial journey is quite remarkable.
After working for 15 years in the media industry, Chinu Kala decided to take on the challenge of building her own jewellery brand, which was her dream right from an early age.
As a result, she left her job and did a course for makeup artists at Bharat and Dorris back in 2006 and opened a salon at her home. Soon, she started getting a lot of modelling assignments and even made it to the finals of Gladrags Mrs India pageant 2007.
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When Chinu Kala used to work on her modelling assignments, she used to understand how a single piece of jewellery could make or break the entire look. Hence, she soon understood the potential of a jewellery brand that understands the needs and requirements of its clients based on their looks.
After years of experience in jewellery through the modelling industry, Chinu Kala started her company, Ruban Accessories, in 2014 by acquiring a 36 sq ft shop in Bengaluru. Unlike most of the businesses, Chinu's Ruban registered a record sale of Rs. 1.5 lakhs on the opening day. The unprecedented sales were a result of Chinu and her team's commitment to building a brand that ticks most of the boxes on their customers' wishlists.
In the second season of Shark Tank India, Chinu Kala appeared on the show with her husband and business partner, Amit Kala. The couple impressed Vineeta Singh and Namita Thapar, who presented a joint offer of Rs. 1 crore or 1% equity and Rs. 50 lakh debt at an interest rate of 12%.
The proposal was accepted by Chinu Kala and her husband, Amit Kala, which took their company's valuation to the Rs. 100 crore mark.
When Chinu was working at Tata Indicom as a customer care executive, she met the love of her life, Amit Kala, and while working in the same company for some years, they became close friends. Soon, their friendship was turned into a relationship, and after dating each other for some years, they took the plunge to get married.
As of now, they're leading a happy married life with their lovely daughter. Time and again, we have seen Chinu dropping a series of lovely family pictures with her hubby and their adorable daughter on her Instagram handle, giving pure family goals to her IG family.
What are your thoughts on Chinu Kala's entrepreneurial journey? Let us know.
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