An Biography on

Varun Aggarwal

The success story from failing in engineering to

co-founding a million dollar company

Submitted to-:
Prof. Devang Patel

Submitted By-:
Abhijeet Sahoo (M00266)
Divyanshu Solanki (M00282)

About the Entrepuner

Varun Agarwal is an Indian first-generation entrepreneur, film maker and
author. He is a 25 years old filmmaker, entrepreneur and a bestselling
author. He is the co-founder of Alma Mater, India's biggest college
apparel/memorabilia company, author of bestseller 'How I braved Anu Aunty
& Co-founded A Million Dollar Company', and also the co-founder of
Reticular, a social media marketing firm. The pursuit of his interests brought
about collaborations with A.R. Rahman, Preity Zinta, and many others.
He was born on December 6, 1987, in Bangalore, India. He did his
schooling from Bishop Cotton Boys' School and started engineering in CMR
Institute of Technology Bangalore, Karnataka. During his college days, he
started making short films. Last Minute Film is an Indian film production
company with successful music videos, corporate films and ad films. LMF has
got more than 350,000 hits on YouTube. As a film maker, Varun has directed
A. R. Rahman and Preity Zinta, and also worked with Karan Johar which he
considers to be one of the greatest experiences of his life. Varun's video
channel has over 1,050,000 views.

Entrepreneur
After dropping his BE (Bachelor of Engineering) graduation in
Telecommunication, at 22 years, he co-founded his second business venture,
Alma Mater, with his friend Rohan Malhotra. Alma Mater has successfully
partnered with educational institutions across India in being able to make
and supply customized sweatshirts to alumni. It is now India's largest
company for providing merchandise to students of schools and colleges.
Besides these two companies he also co-founded Reticular. Varun has been
featured on the cover of India Today as well as on the CNBC Young Turks
Show.

Entrepreneurial Lessons to Learn from Varun Agarwal:

Do what you love doing; dont look too far ahead-:

Do what you truly desire to do and make business happen. You can
justify your doorway into a specific business niche (which was literally
forcefully imposed upon you by your family or acquaintances) by
pretending to be an indulgent successful figure but ultimately you will
be a mere latent power and possibility. On realization, it brings a
miserable fortune.

Studying engineering was never his decision and as the consequences he

failed. When he started following his instinct, he ended up establishing a
multi-million dollar company. Dont let anybody affect and limit your
creativity and efficiency.

Show your sincerity to whatever you do-:

Before delving into any business venture, hold authenticity and sincerity as
your very first principles, the leading part of selling anything. Leadership is
self-made and self-instilled that come on the surface shining through your
truthfulness, sincerity and earnestness.
Dont listen to the people talking rubbish about sincerity because that is
what threatens their horrid constitution theyre preserving in their business
values.

Dont think much; otherwise someone else will accomplish it before

you-:

Thinking is the source of insight that shape your lifetime but excessive
thinking and anticipation is the enemy of creativity. The amount of energy
you are imposing on your futile ifs and thinking will make your life
inadequate and strenuous; instead, think on hows, act and discover the
equipment to fly over your destination and land before others.

If it doesnt sell then it isnt the business-:

If it doesnt sell then sorry it isnt the business. Sale is more about the
approach of the salesman rather than the attitude of the prospect. If you
have hard time selling, deal with it bravely, patiently and cheerfully.
Remember, everybody survives by selling something (whatever it is).

Have a graceful persuasion (instead of manipulation or exploitation) to

captivate an earnest listener, subdue their understanding, engage them
throughout your presentation and watch the result enhancing

Aim high regardless of what people say about it-:

Aim for unaccomplishable and impossible. Your self-endowments (conviction

in your visions, perseverance in attitude and consistency and patience in the
task in hand) are the determining factors of how competent you are to reach
for the farthest thing.

Think big to be big; dont look backwards or forwards but upward to reach
it.

There is no single goal for entrepreneurs, they have endless-:

Leaders glory lies in the triumph of reaching goal, one after another. Have
goals and stare up the stairs to reach on top.

There should be one determined goal that is to set up goals one after
another and accomplish them with persistence.

Fail but dont stop, keep going-:

It is basically the destructive fear of failure that prevents you from realizing
your desires and dreams of success. Fear is what you think with your closed
eyes; open it and it will cease you to amaze how infinite your power is to
accomplish whatever you think and beyond it.

Whenever fear of failure overwhelms you, think of your last failure. What
was the worst thing that happened to you after it? Did anyone swallow you?
Were you vanished for some time or died miserable? Of course not! Then
what is it that you fear?

Career of Varun Agarwal as an Author

Having multiple talents, Varun Agarwal best-selling book called How I

Braved Anu Aunty and co-founded a Million Dollar Company, drew him a
lot of attention. Since then he is famous as How I Braved Anu Aunty
author name and some people also like to call him as co-founder of Million
Dollar Company due to the engaging story he tells in his book. He is the
sole author of this book and it is the only book on the list of Varun Agarwal
books as of now.

Ever since the book released, people have been waiting for Varun Agarwal
next book which might be a sequel to the first one. But it looks like that
Varun Agarwal first book will be the only book we have from him until the
launch of Varun Agarwal new book is announced. His avid readers were now
interested to know more about How I Braved Anu Aunty author and hunted
him by searching for How I Braved Anu Aunty author profile and pics. For a
little more information, he is the fan of Tahereh Mafi as far as writers are
concerned.
He wrote about his experiences in starting Alma Mater during a bout of flu
has gone onto become a national bestseller selling 40,000 copies this year.
I didnt expect this tremendous response. The book brought about a major
shift for our company. It helped us gain mind share by getting students to
talk about it and inspiring them as well. And once we gain mind share by
creating a brand in the minds of people, it is easier to get market share. It
helped propel us into popular culture, he says.

Varun Agarwal Career as a Film-maker

Even though Varun Agarwal first job was more like a training, Varun Agarwal
first project as a film maker with the formation of a short film, and then
there was no looking back. To write the film-maker Varun Agarwal
biography, one must understand that his channel on YouTube has received
lots of love and popularity from the viewers at a very young stage of his
career.
In his college days, Varun Agarwal Last Minute Films was the first company
that he started. After this, his career took off and he became the Million
Dollar Company founder that is a production house. When LMF happened,
Varun Agarwal first film was during his engineering college days. And with
his rising success, people were more and more intrigued by Million Dollar
Company founder wiki so as to gather more information about him.
His Indie film production company is a success and produces Varun Agarwal
ad films and other corporate stuff. The corporate world is always looking out
for Varun Agarwal next movie, but as of now, we cannot talk about Varun
Agarwal upcoming movies. This is due to the fact that Varun Agarwal next
project is announced only after it is ready to be out in market.

Even though we do not have information about Varun Agarwal upcoming

projects, we can still talk about his previous works in film-maker Varun
Agarwal biography. He is best known for the time when Varun Agarwal and
A. R Rahman were working together whereby Varun directed the latter. He
also had the chance to create a Varun Agarwal Preity Zinta movie and he
says that this was one of the best experiences of his life. This was even
better when Varun Agarwal Karan Johar movie name came out for release.

Varun Agarwal Career as an Entrepreneur

Even though there are not too much author Varun Agarwal personal details,
we still have his career as an entrepreneur to talk about. As an
entrepreneur, Varuns role models are Googles founders Larry Page and
Sergey Brin. To start with it, Varun Agarwal entrepreneur bio-data is filled
with accomplishments and distinct works. It was when Varun Agarwal and
Rohan Malhotra co-founded a company called Alma Mater which
manufactured T-shirts with their schools name on it.
However, it eventually enlarged and today Varun Agarwal Alma Mater is
the biggest supplier in India of printed T-shirts and similar products. He
gained lots of pride and honor as the founder of alma mater store and his
life journey is now embarked with such greatness. With all of the works he
has done, Varun Agarwal net worth comes out to be in Crores.
Alma Mater has two business verticals - alumni memorabilia, where they
sign up with schools and colleges to sell their products online and give the
institutions a royalty; and customized merchandise, where students directly
approach the company to customize the products. With alumni memorabilia,
the process takes time as institutions dont immediately revert. It is through
the latter that the Alma Mater brand has grown with a strong following. The
companys Facebook page has 2.5 lakh followers. While over 45 well-known
institutions like National Law School, Miranda House and IIT Madras are
partnered with it, through its customer merchandise vertical, Alma Mater has
catered to over 800 schools and colleges present in 70 cities and also,
contribute to 85 per cent of its revenues, making a gross margin of 30 per
cent by selling the merchandise. Agarwal plans to make that ratio 60:40 in
the next two years.
Agarwal is particular about the quality that the brand stands for. We dont
make T-shirts for one-time wear, which is why we usually stay away from
corporate companies because they tend to want our products for a one-time
event. For us, our products should be valued. Hence, we focus on quality
and higher pricing, he says. So far, Alma Mater has catered to about 100
companies like Google India and Facebook India for customised
merchandise. The team is not keen on expanding its limited range of six
products. At the moment, the industry is so nascent that people mainly

want to show off their school or college by wearing T-shirts or hoodies. If the
mindset changes, we will include more products too, adds Agarwal.
Agarwal is aware that competition is popping up increasingly for Alma Mater.
But he is not too fazed as he believes Alma Mater has managed to capture
the imagination of students. We told a story about the company and it
struck a chord with people. We now get more than 600 enquiries a month.
But we dont have enough bandwidth to handle all of them. Hence,
marketing is not an issue for us now. Our focus is on streamlining our
operations and executing them without expanding the team too much, says
Agarwal.
Having been funded for the first time, the team is cautious in making the
right moves. Were at a stage where we know what to do and what not to
do. While we want to partner with more educational institutions, we dont
want to do too many corporate companies or increase our product portfolio
currently. We also want to hire those who will help take the company
forward, he shares. Agarwals vision is to see Alma Mater become a brand
synonymous with school and college memorabilia.
Alma Mater
Founders: Varun Agarwal and Rohn Malhotra
City: Bengaluru
Year: 2009
Revenue: Over Rs. 20 crore last fiscal

Varun Agarwal Devika Relationship

Being a youth and a public figure, it is implied that talks about Varun
Agarwal love affairs were plenty. This handsome young guy was always in
the news for Varun Agarwal love life and the discussions that took place
about Varun Agarwal girlfriend. Things got a little steamy when Varun
named a girl Devika in his book and narrated a romantic affair with her.
Allegedly, she was his senior at school and believed to be girlfriend of Varun
Agarwal.

However, another Varun Agarwal controversy broke out when some people
questioned that is Varun Agarwal Devika real or if it was just an imaginary
character in his book. Since then, Varun Agarwal Devika relationship has
always been a mystery and so has been Varun Agarwal girlfriend name, in
reality. There has been no source to trace Varun Agarwal relationships and
nothing is ever known about Varun Agarwal breakups. However, it looks like
Varun Agarwal dating Devika gossip was only true in the book and not for
real.
If hes not dating, then is Varun Agarwal married? Well, no hes not. But
were sure that we would at least get to know about Varun Agarwal marriage
and of course, about Varun Agarwal wife if not his girlfriend. As soon as
Varun Agarwal wedding date is out, it can be checked out on Varun Agarwal
website and also stay updated via Varun Agarwal blog by following him. You
can also find Varun Agarwal contact details on his website and enjoy the
great Varun Agarwal quotes for inspiration.

REFERENCE
http://www.inktalks.com/
http://brainprick.com/
http://youthdevelopers.com/
http://ofyusade.tumblr.com/

"Varun Agarwal". Official YouTube Page.

"From failing in engineering to co-founding a million-dollar company".
News.yahoo.com. 2014-06-26. Retrieved 2014-07-29.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE: varunagarwal.in

BOOK: How I Braved Anu Aunty & Co-Founded a Million Dollar Company,
Rupa Publications