An Entrepreneurial Case On

Submitted By:

Anjana Shrestha

Bitisha Maharjan

Pooja Shrestha

Trimester-IV

Submitted To:

Sohan Babu Khatri

Entrepreneurship and Innovation

 Ace Institute of Management

June 8, 2019

1.Introduction

“Entrepreneurship is jumping off a cliff and assembling a plane on the way down.”

Rightly said by the co-founder of LinkedIn, Mr. Reid Hoffman, entrepreneurship is

taking a huge leap of faith and making it into a reality. Even the industrialist Ratan Tata, Former
chairman of Tata group did not believe in taking the right decisions but believed in making any
decision right. While some say entrepreneurs are born and others argue otherwise that the
entrepreneurs are made, it seems debate on what the entrepreneurs are and what entrepreneurs
actually aren’t is a never-ending bilateral debate. The numerous lectures on entrepreneurship and
an opportunity to meet an entrepreneur who has embarked on the journey to challenge the
traditional way of farming by introducing innovation and technology in farming has shaped our
perception towards the entrepreneurs.

While there are many startups that have found place in Nepali market, not many of them
are related to agriculture. Nepal at the moments needs special attention in agriculture filed since
most of the potential farmers; the youths have moved to foreign countries to seek the better
employment opportunity. This has left the country in dire state of importing food items from
other countries specially India. From rice grains to lentils, vegetables and even flowers that we
buy in market are imported from India. Nepal recorded a trade deficit of 109030.40 Million
NPR in December of 2018 proving a desperate cry for agricultural products in Nepal. In search
of entrepreneur who has given effort to reduce agricultural dependency on others, our team
brainstormed on who to interview. We looked for a person who did not only start a business but
has introduced revolutionary product and challenged the yesteryears method of farming. We
chose Mr. Biplove Singh of Aero roots because he fit perfectly in our criteria of entrepreneur and
he was optimistic about the interview.
 Aero roots is a breakthrough product that assists farmers to produce more with less water,
fertilizers, and nutrients. It is a hi-tech agriculture company that is dedicated to eradicate toxic
pesticides for the fruits and vegetables that are fresh, organic, and nutritious. They employ state
of art Aeroponic technology pioneered by NASA to produce fruits and vegetables. The
Aeroponic is a revolutionary technology developed to grow the food beyond the limit of the
earth. Their flagship product Aero roof is a technology that allows the farmers to grow their
plants in rooftop. The system doesn’t require soil and delivers nutrients for plant growth to roots
using ultrafine high-pressure mist. The Aeroponic farming can be completely automated,
allowing growers to save time through faster harvest of the vegetables and fruits. The company
has been awarded with many national and international awards. Aero roof is a disruptive
innovation that has questioned the conventional practice of farming by introducing technology
that not only reduces the dependence of soil for farming but also completely abandoning the
pesticides and nutrients.

Methodology

For our report, we took self-administered interview with Mr. Biplove Singh, co-founder
at office of aero roots to gather information about the product, the company as well as the
personal entrepreneurial story of the founder. We had prepared a questionnaire that was asked to
the entrepreneur to collect the information about his business, products, markets, and its state
right now.

Two sources of data collection were used

Primary source: Interview, Questionnaire

Secondary source: Newspaper articles, website and YouTube video

2. Entrepreneurial story

This is the story of an ordinary guy Mr. Biplove Singh, who now is known for his
extraordinary entrepreneurial venture. Biplove, an MBA from Symbiosis Institute of
Management, Pune joined investment banking at the start of his career. Few years down the line
he was successful banker and also excelled at teaching as a lecturer. Biplove always had this
urge to give back to the society, be it teaching or venturing to make food free of pesticides, His
feeling is also quite evident in way the company operates. The company mostly spends in
Research and Development constantly finding new techniques and better seeds to grow faster
and tasty. The story of Mr. Biplove from rebelling family to have a serious banking career to
eventually becoming an entrepreneur is an inspiring one.

Some people are destined to become entrepreneurs, and some become by luck. Mr.
Biplove is a classic example of entrepreneur are born. Despite the fact that he wanted a different
career couldn’t help his entrepreneurial self to die away. In fact, he gave a serious thought to
entrepreneurship when he was at the peak of his career. Biplove set his foot in entrepreneurship
when he had the idea of growing organic and pesticides free vegetables and fruits when his father
was struggling with the illness in the hospital. He had the sudden urge to change the way people
consume food in Nepal and compromising their health with. Coming from the family
background of businesspeople, his first choice in contrary was to be a banker. His father was in
full support for whatever his career choice was and gave him liberty to walk in his own career
path. Ultimately his entrepreneurial instinct oozed out and he surrendered himself to
entrepreneurship and embarked on the journey with his friend Caesar Rana. Their vision is to
create pesticides free world not only in Nepal but in other Asian countries.

The founders started aero roots with minimum investment but with a lot of hopes and
honest purpose that was to make the farming pesticides free. Even though they received
recognition and appreciation from the government and few national and international forums,
their true struggle lied in educating the normal people about this futuristic farming. People get
confused and skeptic when they know about the product and question the truthiness of the
product. While on other brighter side, the company has been able to get awards and investments
from different investment companies that keeps the company going. As of now they have grown
to the team members of 9 people and they are on the verge of breakeven after the 2 years of
inception of the company. The company re invests on R&D to improve the product which has
made the price of the product slightly high, but they are building contacts with different suppliers
internationally to purchase the products in bulk ultimately reducing the product. All in all, the
company had a decent starting with low budget and over the time they have gained the trust of
people and soon they will also reap the benefits of higher revenues in future.
 Mr. Biplove is the epitome of what an entrepreneur must be, he is visionary to make the
future of farming pesticides free, risk taker to take risk of starting a venture at the peak of his
career, and innovative to embark on the journey of entrepreneurship with an unprecedented
product that he had no idea to learn from others. And what makes Mr. Biplove different from
other entrepreneurs is that he is genuinely worried about the future of the farming and upcoming
generation. His intentions to giving back to the society is pure and positive. Which is why he is
still struggling to make the product aware to the people. Even without the outstanding revenues
and heavy profits, he intends to continue promoting the product to the farmers. The future of aero
roots is bright and he insists on believing it. When asked how he measures his success, he smiles
with content stating that national and international recognition, and his effort to serve the society
are his true earnings and he takes great proud in it.

3. The Business / Venture Story

Aero Roots is an agri-tech company dedicated to the eradication of toxic pesticides from
the food that sustains our lives. We employ state of art Aeroponic technology pioneered by
NASA to produce fruits and vegetables that are fresh, organic, nutritious and completely free of
all types of pesticides. The term ‘Aeroponics’ is a technology used to grow the food. Aeroponics
is a revolutionary new technology first developed to grow food beyond the limits of our planet.
The technique requires no soil and delivers nutrients for plant growth directly to the roots using
ultrafine high pressure mist. The absence of soil eliminates many of the soil related chores like
tilling, preparing and weeding and makes it impossible for most pests to complete their life
cycles and infect our plants. In addition, Aeroponic farming can be completely automated,
allowing growers to reduce their time commitments for the maintenance of the systems. This
kind of product was never introduced before in Nepal. It needs less effort with better health,
saves valuable time. Aero roots has the following features:

 Soil less
 Non pesticide produce
 Automation
 Faster growth/ Higher productivity
  Less water/ Land

Products

There are four types of products named as; Aero-roofs, Aero-garden, Aero nutrient,
and Aero commercial. Starting with Aero-roofs, it is a single or multiple unit which is kept in
terrace, lawn or garden which is suitable for a nuclear family for the production of healthy
vegetables. The total number of grow holes in one Aero-drum is 60. If it is managed properly it
can be fully free from pesticides. Besides, it only requires once a week time for observation and
maintenance and minimal water consumption. Secondly, Aero Garden is a mini version of Aero
commercials which consists of 4 Aero roofs designed for the joint family and for the agri-based
entrepreneur. All together there are 240 grow holes. Thirdly, Aero-nutrient can be customized, it
is a nutrient solutions required for the plant growth. It has altogether 5 different types of nutrient
solutions as per the growth stage of the plants. Additionally, nutrient solution is suitable for both
Nepali Plants and seeds. And lastly, Aero commercial is the extension of Aero Garden. Here you
can add some more features as people prefer.

The value this product provides to the society is drastically different from today’s
way of farming. It doesn’t need land, soil, pesticides to produce it. The way this product is
invented is making our society to consume healthy vegetables free from pesticides.

Markets

Since it is in initial phase it is trying to cover the market as possible it can. It has a
website to know about the services they provide. The have encouraged people to use their
product as it less harmful and healthy to consume. The team Biplove Singh, Caesar Rana, and
Subin Shrestha went to the international field in participating the National event “Youth Co:Lab
Nepal II” jointly organized by UNDP/AYON/NYC Nepal/Youth force Nepal 2030 and won the
title. And also been a runner up out of 452 innovative ideas in Smart Urban Technology
Challenges 2018, Kathmandu.

Consumers

Recently they have 55 customers till now and still targeting more areas to cover and
build a soil free production process. They provide services based on the types of product
consumer choose. As there are four types of products consumer is free to choose which product
they want to purchase. The team goes to install at their houses and provide time based
maintenance.

State right now

In the current scenario, they are trying to focus more on marketing their product as
many people don’t know about such innovative product. When we went there and interviewed
Mr. Biplove Singh, and he started to describe about the product, we were surprised too, that
vegetables can be grown without soil and no harmful pesticides on it. It is able to produce 60
different plant on one single drum. One example he gave was, farmers takes 80-90 days to
harvest the tomato, whereas they can produce in 45 days and from one plant it grows
approximately 11kgs. From commercial point of view, they can earn double the income in those
period of time.

4. Analysis

The things we learnt in our academic course about entrepreneur came handy when we interacted
with Mr.Singh. Our course always revolved around examples of successful entrepreneurs and
their inspirational stories. Through this interview we came to recognize "Entrepreneurship” in a
practical scenario. All the concepts, theories, models that are being discussed in the class was
relatable to us while interacting about the real life of entrepreneur.

Innovation is the excessively used word when it comes to entrepreneurship. And

Aeroroots was perfect example of a disruptive innovation. The new technology of growing plants
without soil is something which will disrupt the traditional agricultural culture in Nepal.
However, this case profile also reflects upon the process of startup and about minimal viable
product. Their minimum viable product can be considered as the small amount of product which
the customers need and that is fast growing and pesticide free food.

In a country full of pesticides, people are compelled to eat those unhealthy food because
of no alternatives available in the market. So, Aeroroots focus on creation of plants that are
healthy, organic and fast growing. The result of innovation is, it benefits both consumers and
producers with a sound health. Aeroroof is another technique which will again benefit customers
by utilizing the space of their unutilized roof with some fresh plants or flowers.
As an entrepreneur he believes giving back to the society through innovation. When we asked
Mr. Singh about the main purpose of the venture, he simply said he believes giving back to the
society. The struggle of a start-up was explained further by him. He also said that the company is
still not making any profits so far but he believes in hard work and dedication and most of all
positive attitude towards future. He has to devote his resources and time towards their business in
making it more successful and to find the ways in attract more customers.

The several myths of entrepreneurs were discovered from the interview. As the myth
indicated that entrepreneurs prefers the spot light, they tend to be their own boss, they are the
gamblers, etc. But then we discovered that every entrepreneurs needs to face a lot of
complications and difficulties during the startup phase. The reputation and image that they have
gained at the present phase is all because of the learning and innovation and so called
entrepreneurial skills.

5. Conclusion

The case profile explains the factors required to be a successful entrepreneur. Through,
Aeroroots we can learn several lessons about lean start-up, innovation, myth vs. reality of
entrepreneurship and most of all viable learning from the failures. It reflects upon ideas that
come and go in a mind of people every day. But what is important is ideas that actually result
into entrepreneurship. The necessary approach towards making the idea turn into a venture is
tough. The entrepreneurs are often considered as lucky but there are several hurdles to achieve
that luck in an entrepreneurial journey. The journey of Mr. Biplove Singh can also be considered
as example to become the successful entrepreneur.

Most of the startup fail and achieving success doesn’t happen overnight. It requires lots
struggle and effort which we can understand from the story of Co-founder of "Aeroroots" during
the time of interview session. So, when asked for the suggestion to new wannabe entrepreneurs,
he mentioned that to continue the journey of entrepreneurship despite the hurdles he said that
there should always be a positive attitude towards everything backed up my their entrepreneurial
skills.

Therefore, in a nutshell every entrepreneurs have their unique way of entrepreneurship.

However, the people with idea who to succeeds to be entrepreneur must understand that a good
idea backed up with financial resources, problem solution fit and need of product in the market
to feasible business. An innovation with effort, passion and will make our venture a success. So,
entrepreneurs also keep themselves keep on researching the new things and environment of the
market.

6. Recommendations
Even though Aeroroots runs with true intention to serve the society by making it
pesticides free, intentions are not enough to sustain in the business market. The Aeroroots should
shift its concentration from recognition to selling more products to the farmers in order to
survive in the market. They should make different pesticides awareness programs to the general
public as well as the farmers and educate them about he hazards of the pesticides and introduce
the Aeroroof system.

First step to changing the society is to educate them hence, Aeroroots should penetrate
the society to spread awareness of the product. In similar manner, Aeroroots should focus on
finding the right product market fit. It is known that 9 out of the 10 products fail because they
cannot find the right product market fit. Aeroroots should focus on the customer segment in
order to increase their revenue.
Imitations will come along in the future as it is a viable idea in a Nepalese market.
Competitors will come along, but Aeroroots should emphasize on something that makes the firm
different from the competitors by updating own self and increasing value to the customers.
Another way of dominating the market may be to deliver value to the customers rapidly than the
competitors and remain differential.
Marketing is an effective way of attracting customers. Especially in a startup is it is also
useful to aware and acquire new customers. Further he should devote time and effort to building
good company website and more presence in social media because it is one of the effective ways
of promotion. Talking about the expansion plan physical expansion isn't always the best growth
option. The future expansion of Aeroroots should be the result of careful research, planning and
resourcefulness. Considering another location and expansion would also be a better option
because we think Aeroroots they should expand their business territory.
7. Lessons Learnt
 Despite the myth that entrepreneurs are lucky .Entrepreneurship is a lot of hurdles and
difficulties.
 Adapt and update technologies faster than the competitors.
 Trust the ideas and vision you have and back it up with innovation, Problem Solution fit
and Product Market fit.
 Validated learning should be done through every failure and pivot.
 Identify the need of customers and deliver the value according to it.
 Believe in giving back to the society. Entrepreneur is not only about profit but the value
we create in the society.
 Disruptive innovation triggering the solution of a problem is the answer to dominate the
market.
 Competition and imitations are inevitable but we should be differential, unique and
updated.
 Physical expansion is not always the answer to growth. Growth requires careful research,
planning and resourcefulness.
 Acquisition and retention of customer today requires internet and social media presence
in this modern era.
Appendix

Questions that were asked during interview session:

1. Please introduce yourself.
2. What exactly motivated you to become an entrepreneur at such young age even though
you are from nursing background? Did you have a mentor before you started?
3. Could you share how you started your entrepreneurial journey?
4. How did you decide on the name of the company to be "MySangalo"?
5. What was the inspiration behind choosing this particular make-up field?
6. How did you decide on choosing the target market, consumers that would fit for your
business environment?
7. What were the risk, opportunities and problems associated with the company during the
initial phase?
8. What were the biggest challenges back then when you started and what are the present
challenges you face in running it?
9. Please provide the detail related to the makeup class you provide these days and did you
learn makeup by yourself?
10. Do you use your own creativity while providing makeup classes related to Halloween,
mermaid makeup etc. or refer to other makeup artist?
11. What has been your marketing strategy to attract the customer in the beginning towards
makeup class, taking makeup appointments since you were involved in selling only the
cosmetic products?
12. Since there are so many makeup artist in Kathmandu valley, but you have managed to
grab many customers within short period of time. So, what do you think is your
competitive advantage and how do you really outstand your competitors?
13. What do you advice new startups or individuals planning to take up an entrepreneurship
as their career?
Aeroroots Visit with Mr. Biplove Singh