Herkala's Reminiscence...

“Go away and never return! We don’t want to work with you.” Ben yelled, while pointing at the door.

While identifying artisans for Herkala, one question continued to concern me: what if they weren’t convinced? After facing generations of exploitation because of middlemen, they were reluctant to include an outsider in their practice.

I headed to Bhuj, a lowly populated region in West India overlooking the Arabian sea, also home to some of India’s highly skilled artisans. There, I encountered another obstacle: I did not speak their regional language. Soon, I met someone who not only could communicate, but also was willing to lend a hand in my mission, Atmani. However, even after hearing about the monetary benefits the artisans would receive from Herkala, they did not agree. They felt someone was out there to “get them”.

I didn’t give up hope. This time, I tried explaining to them, not the profits they will gain but our overarching mission - financial independence for women. That’s when they started opening up. They finally agreed to list their items on Herkala. This was an important learning for me in organisation building. I realised that all issues in this world can not be solved by economic incentives. While they are important aspects, larger goals like a shared vision are significantly more inspiring.

Starting Herkala was one of the most defining learning experiences in my high school journey. I learned all aspects of building a startup - from building an e-commerce website on wix.com to getting government registrations to linking bank accounts with payment gateways for online payments. Of course, it was most fulfilling every time someone purchased goods on the platform.