This woman entrepreneur started up with savings from internships at 18, hopes to clock revenue of Rs 8

Cr By Nirandhi Gowthaman February 07, 2020, Updated on : Tue Mar 09 2021 13:14:21 GMT+0530
Tanisha started her company efgstore.in at 18 with savings from her internships and has now acquired
licences from major companies to produce merchandise in the country 277 CLAPS +0 +0 This Potterhead
is fulfilling her dreams of recreating the world of not just Harry Potter, but also DC comics, Friends, and
more.  Tanisha Fagwani is the founder and CEO of efgstore.in that designs and manufactures pop-
culture merchandise.  She started up at the age of 18, in 2016, with Rs 70,000 that she saved up from
two internships while in college, and some help from her mother. Today, she has acquired licences from
Warner Bros, Disney and Cartoon Network to sell licensed merchandise in India.  A reply from JK Rowling
nudged her to start up  Tanisha grew up reading fiction indulging everything even remotely connected
to Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings.  She reveals that a search for a Time Turner - Harry Potter
merchandise gave her the impetus to start up. The merchandise was costing her $50 plus shipping. An
expensive buy that stalled her from adding a little magic in her Potter world. However, at this point, she
identified the gap that existed in the market - the lack of licensed merchandise manufacturing in the
country, which would make such items affordable for fans.  Also, a chance reply from JK Rowling on
Twitter cemented her decision further. On Twitter, Tanisha asked Rowling about Hagrid’s Patronus, to
which the author replied, “Hagrid couldn't produce a Patronus. It's a very difficult spell.” The tweet was
trending across India and many places across the world as the Potterheads felt sad for Hagrid.  The
challenges of starting up Tanish was studying Economics at Jai Hind College in Mumbai when she
decided to begin work on efgstore.in. The name is also inspired from the fictional world of Harry Potter,
as she derived the name from Every Flavour Beans. Tanisha’s EFG stands for Every Flavour Geeks.  Sign
up for our exclusive newsletters. Subscribe to check out our popular newsletters. “It means we have a
flavour (product) for every geek. Whether you hail from Hogwarts or Asgard, we got you covered,” says
the 23-year-old entrepreneur.  With her mother’s help, she had Rs 1.2 lakh in hand to start the
company. Her mother is also a director and shareholder in the company today. She recalls how
confidently her mother had told her, “you should try anyway or else you will have regrets.” She was 18,
managing pressures of starting and her final year of college. There were also naysayers who did not take
her seriously and thought her struggle was just a temporary hustle.  “I remember once I went to the
bank to make an RTGS and I was told only the director of the company can do this. I realised then itself
that  it was not going to be easy,” she says.  Sharing another instance, Tanish says, “When I had started
hiring I was told ‘I don’t wish to take orders from a 20-year-old something, so it would be great if I can
report to someone else’.”   Funding is the biggest challenge of them all. “There is still a glass ceiling
when it comes to funding for female founders. I have been asked by VCs what will happen to the
business if I get married tomorrow or have a baby. ” Even a streak of bad luck and losses couldn’t stop
her. Her basement office flooded for the third time, and with no one to help her, she began cleaning the
mess and pumping out the water.  “I remember I wanted to just run away and give up. It was an
extremely tough time mentally seeing my products and expensive machines in the water and the losses
we had to bear post that,” she says narrating the incident.  Today, the bootstrapped company has
licences to manufacture merchandise from Harry Potter, DC Comics, Friends, Disney, Marvel, Star Wars,
Power Puff Girls, Dexter, Johnny Bravo and more.  The magic the future holds Tanisha has an 18-
member team running the operations of efgstore.in. The merchandise is available through its own
website Efgstore.in, 100+ stores across India, ecommerce platforms like Amazon, Myntra, and Nykaa,
and FirstCry and BabyChakra. Eventually, she plans to use only her own platform to sell online. The
company’s revenue is currently growing at a rate of 40 percent year-on-year, says Tanisha. It is
projecting a revenue of Rs 8 crore in the next fiscal. It will soon begin to raise capital to work on
product development and talent acquisition.  Tanisha has built a roadmap for scaling her business and
plans to carve a niche across different platforms - accessories, curated stationery, and home décor. She
plans to invest in licensing in order to help scale the business in India.  She is looking to expand the
product range, get into the ‘back to school’ segment, and widen her area as a gifting solutions provider. 
In the next financial year, she has three kiosks lined up to open across Hyper City Malls. By 2021, she
hopes to launch their flagship store in Mumbai. By 2024, she hopes to establish efgstore’s presence
across the country with stores in major cities through a franchising model.