We plan to bring eChai across 100 cities in India. It starts with eChai Startup Demo Day on 26 September, all in person. 11 cities confirmed, 152 founders registered. Any city that reaches 20 interested founders is on too. See your city

The Tier-2/3 Founder

Building a brand from a manufacturing town or small city.

Choosing your store platform

Shopify, WooCommerce, Dukaan or Zoho Commerce - which fits a bootstrapped Indian D2C brand? If you're validating an idea on a shoestring, Dukaan (from roughly ₹300-500/month, no transaction fees, Hindi support) gets you live fastest for th... Beginner 4 resources →

Building & setting up your store

How do I make sure my store actually works well on mobile, not just looks fine on desktop? Design and test on your phone first: the large majority of Indian D2C traffic is mobile, and a big share of Tier 2/3 buyers never touch a desktop a... Intermediate 3 resources →

Pre-launch & building an audience

How many people do I actually need on my waitlist before I launch in India? There's no magic number - a few hundred real, warm signups who've said what they'd buy beats 10,000 cold emails from a giveaway. For a first India ... Beginner 3 resources → What's the fastest way to start a WhatsApp/Instagram following before I even have inventory? Post the making-of, not the finished product - sourcing trips, sample fails, packaging tests - because process content earns saves and shares that ... Beginner 3 resources →

Your first 100 orders

I have zero following and almost no ad budget - how do I still get to 100 orders? Go narrow before you go wide: pick one hyper-specific community (a local market, a college, a hobby WhatsApp group, a regional-language audience) w... Beginner 3 resources →

Influencer & UGC seeding

How do I find creators to seed to before I can afford Kofluence or a UGC platform? Do it manually first - search relevant hashtags and reels in your category, DM 30-40 creators whose existing content already looks like something y... Beginner 3 resources →

SEO for D2C brands

Are there India-specific SEO things I should be doing differently, language, COD, local search? A meaningful chunk of Indian search traffic is Hinglish or vernacular-transliterated ('cash on delivery kurta near me', 'best face wash oily skin l... Intermediate 4 resources →

Influencer & affiliate programs

Should I spend my budget on micro-influencers or go big with a macro/celebrity influencer for my D2C brand? For most early-stage Indian D2C brands, micro and nano creators (10K-100K followers, roughly Rs 3,000-Rs 68,000 a post depending on niche - numbers... Beginner 4 resources →

D2C investors & accelerators

Are there D2C-focused accelerators in India worth applying to? Yes - ISB I-Venture's D2C NXT is a 4-month program combining ISB's academic depth with hands-on mentorship from real D2C operators, and Inc42's D2C... Intermediate 4 resources →

Distributors & channel partners

How do I actually find and vet a distributor in India? Distributors come through market visits, trade shows, referrals from other brand founders, and increasingly B2B platforms that shortcut months of g... Intermediate 3 resources → What is ONDC and should my brand list on it? ONDC is India's open, government-backed digital commerce network - already connecting 370,000+ sellers across 800+ cities - that lets brands and di... Intermediate 3 resources →
eChai Partner Brands