18 Indian Entrepreneur Success Stories

Updated: April 22nd, 2022

We're sharing some of the amazing online business success stories to come out of India.

Each founder listed here has told the story of starting their small business from India - they also share their revenue numbers, as well as many founders and employees they currently have.

Without further ado, here's the list:

1. Sandeep Prasad (Founder of Wink & Nod) ($1.56M/year)

Sandeep Prasad from Pune, Maharashtra, India started Wink & Nod about 6 years ago, a sleep product.

  • Revenue: $129,969/ month
  • Founders: 1
  • Employees: 25
  • Location: Pune, Maharashtra, India

Case Study

I am Sandeep Prasad, founder, and CEO of Wink & Nod. I started the company around two years back with a mission to provide a healthy and comfortable sleep to the Indian consumers.

We are an innovative sleep-focused company that is driven by a vision to create a one-stop brand that caters to the sleeping needs of the modern Indian consumer. Our aim is to redefine a user’s overall sleeping experience with our technically innovative and premium quality sleep products ranging from mattresses, pillows, comforters, bedsheets to accessories like neck pillows, sleep sprays, among others.

Our usage of internationally certified materials and a common vision within the team allows us to provide an unmatched sleeping experience. All our products are non-toxic and affordable, thereby ensuring optimal relaxation and rejuvenation for the user. We started two years back with a single mattress, and today we have a portfolio of attractive products that speaks about our growth and adoption within the Indian consumers.

how-i-started-a-130k-month-innovative-sleep-products-company

2. Suvansh Bansal (Founder of Flexiple) ($1.2M/year)

Suvansh Bansal from Bengaluru, Karnataka, India started Flexiple about 7 years ago, a remote hiring company.

  • Revenue: $100,000/ month
  • Founders: 3
  • Employees: 9
  • Location: Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Case Study

Hi, I am Suvansh Bansal and I am the co-founder of Flexiple. We started Flexiple in Nov’15 to build a freelancing platform that enables “quality interactions” between companies and freelancers. The goal has since then been to ensure a successful engagement such that both the client and the freelancer are happy and satisfied at the end of the engagement.

Over the years, the freelancing market had evolved such that platforms focus more on reviews and ratings as the metric to measure quality. These metrics work well when the service provided by a worker is commoditized, replicable but not when the service depends hugely upon the type of skill and expertise of the freelancer. This realization led us to start Flexiple as we only decided to have the “best” freelance developers and designers as a part of our community.

We figured that while such platforms did exist outside India, a lot of them were pretenders as building such a platform requires a very patient state of mind during execution, something that ventures capital-funded businesses find difficult to cultivate. Thus, post our graduation we made the call to not look out for external investment till the time it is absolutely needed. The inherent positive unit economics of the business obviously helped us make this decision.

how-i-started-a-80k-month-business-connecting-freelancers-with-companies

3. Apaar Gupta (Founder of The Design Cart) ($1.44M/year)

Apaar Gupta from New Delhi, Delhi, India started The Design Cart about 6 years ago, a fashion supply business.

  • Revenue: $120,000/ month
  • Founders: 2
  • Employees: 25
  • Location: New Delhi, Delhi, India

Case Study

Hi, I am Apaar from New Delhi, India and I am the founder of The Design Cart. I am a typical IT engineer + MBA grad and have worked with 2 of the largest Indian startups before starting my venture. The Design Cart is an online B2B sourcing portal for the fashion industry working with fashion designers, studios and apparel brands to help them source their raw material. We are currently operational only in India and help the fashion industry source textiles, fabrics, accessories, and trims, while also reducing their procurement timelines & costs by over 30%.

Our online store has been live since January 2018 and it’s been 2 years since I have been running this venture. Operationally we are sort of a marketplace like Amazon but only in the fashion supply vertical. We work as a managed marketplace and have deployed proprietary technology on the backend to ensure seamless operations which is the single most important function in many to many marketplace models which can either make or break your company.

Currently we work with some of the top fashion & jewelry designers of India along with some Marquee apparel brands. Our monthly turnover just touched $80k+ in Feb’ 2020 till the Covid-19 crises emerged and shut everything down. Over the past 2 years we have serviced over 20,000+ unique designers & brands globally. On the other side our supply network has been expanding at a rapid pace and our technology is now deployed at over 200 large scale manufacturers and traders in India.

how-i-started-a-80k-month-b2b-sourcing-portal-for-the-fashion-industry

4. Kartik Gurmule (Founder of KASA) ($960K/year)

Kartik Gurmule from Nagpur, Maharashtra, India started KASA about 5 years ago, a shoe brand.

  • Revenue: $80,000/ month
  • Founders: 1
  • Employees: 0
  • Location: Nagpur, Maharashtra, India

Case Study

I am Kartik Gurmule, Founder at KASA, and Co-Founder at Dropshyp. KASA is an online luxury shoe and accessory boutique with over 270 luxury shoes in the collection.

We sell luxury men and women leather footwear in the following categories - - Lace-Ups and Oxfords - Ankle Boots and Boots - Dress Sneakers and Slip-Ons - Loafers and Drivers - Boots and Booties - Dress Shoes - Pumps and Stilettos - Sandals

We also sell a variety of leather accessories, including Clutch, Duffel Bag, Briefcase, Backpack, Wallet, Tote, and other Small Leather Goods.

how-i-started-a-80k-month-luxury-shoes-and-accessories-brand

5. Abdul Majeed (Founder of Infinite MLM Software) ($780K/year)

Abdul Majeed from Kozhikode, Kerala, India started Infinite MLM Software about 15 years ago, a network marketing software.

  • Revenue: $65,000/ month
  • Founders: 5
  • Employees: 100
  • Location: Kozhikode, Kerala, India

Case Study

Hi, this is Abdul Majeed, one of the directors of the software development firm - Infinite Open Source Solutions LLP. I am very much delighted to share our success story here on this platform-Starter Story. IOSS is bonded together with five directors and we commenced with our flagship product Infinite MLM Software in the global industry during 2009.

Our main goal is to offer the best services to MLM business operations managed by our massive customer base with our MLM software.

A brief about MLM

how-we-started-a-65k-month-network-marketing-software

6. Pragya Batra (Founder of Quirksmith) ($479K/year)

Pragya Batra from Bengaluru, Karnataka, India started Quirksmith over 7 years ago, a jewelry making business.

  • Revenue: $39,956/ month
  • Founders: 2
  • Employees: 5
  • Location: Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Case Study

Hi! My name is Pragya Batra and I am the co-founder of Quirksmith, a design company that creates handcrafted jewelry and accessories.

Quirksmith, as a brand, is much more than just creating pretty jewelry. We create designs that are inspired by our values and beliefs. Several of our designs incorporate Indian languages (like Hindi, Urdu, and Bengali) as well as inspiring words and poetry. One such example is the “Aham Brahamasmi” earcuffand thumb ring. Aham Brahamasmi is a Sanskrit phrase that means “I am the Universe! and I am responsible for what I become”. In essence, we create designs that people around the world can relate to. They are not just decorative pieces.

I started Quirksmith with my sister Divya Batra, who is a jewelry designer and graduated from one of the most prestigious design schools in India (NIFT, Gandhinagar). We started Quirksmith about 3.5 years back in the year 2016. From a weekend passion project for 2 sisters, it soon became our full-time passion. We now process orders worth $40,000 every month and work with artisans across India, to keep the silversmithing craft alive!

how-we-launched-a-40k-month-handcrafted-jewelry-brand

7. Varun Jain (Founder of SendX) ($276K/year)

Varun Jain from Bengaluru, Karnataka, India started SendX about 7 years ago, a email marketing tool.

  • Revenue: $23,000/ month
  • Founders: 3
  • Employees: 7
  • Location: Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Case Study

Hello, my name is Varun and I am the founder of SendX. We are an email marketing company focussed on building an intuitive, affordable and feature-rich email marketing software.

You can use SendX for sending newsletters, drip sequences or automation ( cart abandonment, post-purchase followup, etc. ). We also have popups and landing pages that work very well for generating leads either directly from your website/blog or from paid ads.

Since the early days, our focus has been in helping our customers build better relationships and more revenue from SendX with them having to do minimal work. So you have software which is really smart. It can send emails at times when people are more likely to open it or act on it. It can have dynamic content based on things that people did in the past.

The other interesting thing about SendX is that you can actually see how much money you are making from every email campaign or every automation down to the very last dollar.

how-we-bootstrapped-a-23k-month-email-marketing-platform-from-india

8. Dinesh Agrawal (Founder of RecurPost) ($420K/year)

Dinesh Agrawal from Surat, Gujarat, India started RecurPost over 7 years ago, a social media scheduling tool.

  • Revenue: $35,000/ month
  • Founders: 1
  • Employees: 15
  • Location: Surat, Gujarat, India

Case Study

My name is Dinesh and I am the founder of RecurPost. RecurPost is a social media scheduler with repeating schedules.

I graduated with a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Georgia State University, Atlanta. I thought I was going to become an academician, but I ended up becoming an entrepreneur.

I have created over 30 products so far, but RecurPost was the first one that got decent traction. I have loved every part of going from an idea to a product with over 25,000 users in less than 3 years.

creating-dozens-of-products-until-i-finally-got-traction-with-a-20k-month-app

9. Praveen Malik (Founder of PM-by-PM) ($204K/year)

Praveen Malik from Delhi, Delhi, India started PM-by-PM about 8 years ago, a online course.

  • Revenue: $17,000/ month
  • Founders: 1
  • Employees: 2
  • Location: Delhi, Delhi, India

Case Study

Hi, Pat and everyone else.

My name is Praveen Malik. I am a certified Project Management Professional (PMP®) with rich 23+ years of rich professional experience. I am a computer science engineer by education and have a good working experience of managing large multi-geography projects and programs.

Today, I manage a successful eponymous blog (Project Management by Praveen Malik). It is one of the top 3 global blogs in its niche.

how-i-started-a-17k-month-business-selling-project-management-ebooks-and-courses

10. Sumit Bansal (Founder of TrumpExcel.com) ($120K/year)

Sumit Bansal from Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India started TrumpExcel.com over 10 years ago, a skills training business.

  • Revenue: $10,000/ month
  • Founders: 1
  • Employees: 1
  • Location: Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

Case Study

I am Sumit Bansal from India and I have a website (TrumpExcel.com) where I teach people how to use Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets efficiently. On this site, I create written tutorials and videos and also sell online courses.

As of now, I am selling four Excel courses and have 700+ enrolled students. Apart from selling these courses, I also make money through display ads as well as through some affiliate tools and courses.

I started this site in 2013 and it gets more than 1 million pageviews every month. As of last month, my average monthly revenue was ~$10,000.

how-i-started-a-profitable-business-helping-millions-of-people-learn-excel

11. Lakshdeep Rajput (Founder of SearchTap) ($120K/year)

Lakshdeep Rajput from New Delhi, Delhi, India started SearchTap over 7 years ago, a search platform.

  • Revenue: $10,000/ month
  • Founders: 2
  • Employees: 30
  • Location: New Delhi, Delhi, India

Case Study

Hi Pat! Thanks for having me for the interview. I’m Lakshdeep Rajput and I’m the co-founder and CEO at SearchTap. It’s a search technology product that provides fast and relevant search solutions for websites, mobile applications, and enterprise software.

The SearchTap co-founders Naveen Gupta (left) and Lakshdeep Rajput (right)

Most of our clients are eCommerce stores as our product delivers tangible ROI by way of improved engagement and conversions for them. The crux of SearchTap is making the search experience seamless for the end-user by using our search-as-you-type technology and dynamically changing filters. This fast and seamless search experience makes it easier for high-intent customers to make a purchase. Our specialization is providing a customizable search user experience with only minimal involvement of our client’s tech team.

how-we-developed-a-100k-arr-saas-search-tool-for-ecommerce-stores

12. Pardeep Goyal (Founder of Cash Overflow) ($120K/year)

Pardeep Goyal from Chandigarh, India started Cash Overflow almost 9 years ago, a finance blog.

  • Revenue: $10,000/ month
  • Founders: 1
  • Employees: 7
  • Location: Chandigarh, India

Case Study

I am Pardeep Goyal, founder of CashOverflow.com (Awarded as the best personal finance blog in 2017) where I help people in managing their financial life so that they can become financially independent and live a self-sustainable life.

I have grown my online business to approx $10,000 per month by setting up multiple sources of income yet my biggest source of earning is from affiliate marketing.

I have earned Rs. 45,00,000 (approx $65,000) from the affiliates of credit cards in India in 2018, that huge considering the Indian market is not mature as US and UK in terms of buying financial products online.

how-i-started-a-10k-month-blog-about-banking-investment-products

13. Angela Mary Vaz (Founder of Stray Curls) ($54K/year)

Angela Mary Vaz from Bengaluru, Karnataka, India started Stray Curls ago, a niche blog.

  • Revenue: $4,500/ month
  • Founders: 1
  • Employees: 0
  • Location: Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Case Study

Heya! My name is Angela and I’m the Creator, Illustrator, and Writer behind the blog Stray Curls. I help bright, young women build creative online businesses that stand out from the norm. My blog is unique because I use humor and hand-drawn illustrations to effectively communicate with my readers.

Apart from writing content that really resonates with Women Entrepreneurs, I sell digital products like eBooks and Printable Planners that help Women grow their blog and blog consistently.

how-i-started-a-4-5k-month-blog-helping-young-women-build-creative-online-businesses

14. Gaurav Saini (Founder of Vizitor) ($60K/year)

Gaurav Saini from Chandigarh, India started Vizitor almost 6 years ago, a visitor management system.

  • Revenue: $4,998/ month
  • Founders: 2
  • Employees: 10
  • Location: Chandigarh, India

Case Study

Hello! My name is Gaurav and I am the founder of Vizitor. We have launched a smart visitor management solution that secures the check-in and check-out process at your workplace. We started working on Vizitor 1 year ago because I felt from my experience the manual entries I do everytime I visit an office is really a hectic process. I wanted to make the entire process of check-in and check-out digital.

Visitors coming to work-places are welcomed with Vizitor. Instead of entering their details manually on a register, they enter their details into iPad or Android Tablet running the Vizitor app. The photo of the visitor is captured and SMS/Email/Push notifications are automatically sent to the person who the visitor wants to meet.

For Real-time access control, employees can download the Vizitor Pass application which will allow them to approve/reject visitors with custom messages. Using Vizitor Pass, employees can send personalized invites to visitors. While check-out visitors can leave their reviews/ratings of experience for feedback.

how-we-launched-a-2-500-month-visitor-management-system

15. Jhumkee Iyengar (Founder of Ohrna) ($12K/year)

Jhumkee Iyengar from Pune, Maharashtra, India started Ohrna over 6 years ago, a handbag business.

  • Revenue: $1,000/ month
  • Founders: 1
  • Employees: 2
  • Location: Pune, Maharashtra, India

Case Study

My name is Jhumkee Iyengar and I launched Ohrna at age 57 with a fourfold objective:

  1. Enable rural women to develop artisanal skills and also earn a living from home
  2. Preserve time-honored crafts by applying them to contemporary products
  3. Use only sustainable and organic materials in our products and packaging and
  4. Showcase India’s beautiful crafts and materials to a global audience

Our ethnic, embroidered backpacks, totes, holders and pouches are our most popular products, all handmade by rural women in India. Besides, we also have cross body bags, laptop sleeves, shopping bags and more. We combine jute with natural and local fabrics to give a unique, rustic-classy look to our products. Many products are reversible too since we line our jute with the same cotton fabrics and not plastic, which is typical in the market.

on-starting-a-handmade-sustainable-fair-trade-lifestyle-products-brand

16. Keyul (Founder of Coursesity) ($12K/year)

Keyul from started Coursesity about 6 years ago, a online course.

  • Revenue: $1,000/ month
  • Founders: 1
  • Employees: 1
  • Location:

Case Study

Hello hustlers! My name is Keyul and I’m the maker of Coursesity. I started the website more than two years ago in order to create a search engine to find the best online courses on the internet.

Coursesity is a search engine to discover the best online courses and tutorials available on the internet. Coursesity aggregates online courses from different education providers and eLearning platforms and categorizes them. Coursesity makes easy for learners to find and compare different courses for their next learning.

Coursesity empowers learners and students to discover free and the best online courses across 200 different subjects including programming, design, marketing, business, personal development and so on. Learners Record & track the progress of the courses they are taking online. Learners can connect with other learners at the same level to get help in learning. The vision of Coursesity is to empower students and learners to achieve their career goals by learning new skills.

how-i-validated-and-built-a-1k-month-side-project

17. Rajat Vaghani (Founder of Snap Search) ($1.2K/year)

Rajat Vaghani from Bengaluru, Karnataka, India started Snap Search over 4 years ago, a internet privacy app.

  • Revenue: $100/ month
  • Founders: 1
  • Employees: 1
  • Location: Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Case Study

Hi! My name’s Rajat, and I’m from Bangalore, also known as the Silicon Valley of India. I’m the founder of Snap Search - my attempt at providing a way for users all over the world to search the web without getting tracked online.

The main product is currently available on Android and in development for iOS, but that’ll take a while. The most exciting thing about Snap Search is its appeal. In today’s day and age where new privacy-related controversies are uncovered every single day, an app like Snap Search is the ideal solution to it all. Anyone and everyone that browses the web should use Snap Search - you don’t have to worry about ads, trackers, cookies, cache, anything - the app handles all of that for you.

As of this moment, about 2 months into launch, Snap Search has crossed 9,000 searches and averaging just above ~150 searches daily. It’s a good start considering I haven’t spent a penny on marketing.

on-developing-and-launching-a-privacy-focused-app-as-a-solo-founder

18. Hrishikesh Pardeshi (Founder of Remote Tools) ($0/year)

Hrishikesh Pardeshi from Bengaluru, Karnataka, India started Remote Tools over 5 years ago, a niche blog.

  • Revenue: $0/ month
  • Founders: 3
  • Employees: 5
  • Location: Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Case Study

Hey! I am Hrishikesh and I am building Remote Tools along with Suvansh and Karthik. Remote Tools is a community of remote workers to discuss, learn and grow remote work.

Remote Tools itself comprises of multiple components - independent offerings by themselves.

On the frontpage, you will see remote-first products posted by makers. Community members can discover new products that help them at work or simply geek out about them and interact with makers & fellow workers.

on-launching-a-website-focused-on-the-remote-community

meet the author
Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.