ENVIRONMENT
India is the largest producer of bamboo, after China but has the least consumers. There is a belief that bamboo structures are weak. Bamboo is largely grown in the North-eastern part of India and getting it to Hyderabad is costly and above all there was no business model available to the couple-Prashant and Aruna when they started in 2006. This in a nutshell was the backdrop that the duo was in.
Building bamboo houses was not the initial idea though. Newly married, they were in search of bamboo furniture but the common cane chairs were all they got. Intrigued they decided to travel to Tripura where whole villages are engaged in making handicrafts with bamboo.
After travelling for almost a year-and-a-half to all bamboo growing states in India, they decided to start their business.
Six years of failure
Two truck load of bamboo cost Rs 2 lakh that came from north eastern Indian state Tripura but it was not suitable for Hyderabad climate. Initial experiments did not prove successful. They paid salaries to the workers for years in spite of not making profits. In the process they got into a debt of Rs 60 lakh. They engaged the workers by giving them small work including making sofas and chairs but their mission was to build sustainable bamboo houses. Six deaths in the family in a span of a year, a fatal accident and medical problem to Aruna almost broke them down but never did they lose hope. They approached Universities and Business schools but no-one was buying their idea. All said that bamboo houses business model would not work. The fact was there was no business model and no one in the country was making houses with bamboo on a large scale. After a lot of research, failing multiple times they realised that pole bamboo does not work and started using bamboo boards.
Two truck load of bamboo cost Rs 2 lakh that came from north eastern Indian state Tripura but it was not suitable for Hyderabad climate. Initial experiments did not prove successful. They paid salaries to the workers for years in spite of not making profits. In the process they got into a debt of Rs 60 lakh. They engaged the workers by giving them small work including making sofas and chairs but their mission was to build sustainable bamboo houses.
Six deaths in the family in a span of a year, a fatal accident and medical problem to Aruna almost broke them down but never did they lose hope. They approached Universities and Business schools but no-one was buying their idea. All said that bamboo houses business model would not work. The fact was there was no business model and no one in the country was making houses with bamboo on a large scale. After a lot of research, failing multiple times they realised that pole bamboo does not work and started using bamboo boards.
The turn around
In 2013, Prashant sold his mother’s jewellery that was kept as a backup for medical emergency. They said it would be one last try. An elderly couple came forward for a small bamboo house on their terrace. It was a successful venture and since then there was no looking back. Till date, Bamboo House India built more than 200 houses across India.
In 2020, the duo are debt free and have enough orders and are working with the Govt of India, several state governments, Government of Kenya and United Nations.
Learnings
- Never give up
- Do your research well
- Learn, unlearn and relearn
- Tweak the business model when necessary
- If there is no business model, create one
- Be prepared to fail
