The two got off the usual platform of getting employed and stepped into a unique venture where they actually showcased the hidden talents of rural Indian craftsmen in the international market.
Tjori.com, a unique website was started soon through which Indian handcrafted products reached North America.
"We have grown consistently from 'Tjori - where Indian designs go international' to 'Tjori - enchanting designs from across the globe that you will love' in two years," expressed Mansi while speaking about Tjori's growth.
Speaking about the initial days of Tjori, Mansi said, "I still remember, the website had crashed the day it was launched because of more number of orders than our server could withstand." She also added, "Every second has been challenging enough. We have worked in multiple roles in the beginning right from accepting the orders to packaging and from marketing to handling customer grievances."
Undoubtedly, Tjori started by Mansi Gupta has today become what it really transliterates; a treasure chest. The products being sold by Tjori are those which are rarely found outside the market and if found, they are overly priced.
Meanwhile, speaking about the unique concept behind her venture, Mansi said that Tjori is basically run on limited time period sales model where products come and stay live for two weeks and later get pulled down from the website. People have to buy the products only when they are live online.
Mansi recalled that during her Morocco trip when she was studying at Wharton Business School, she realized that there was a great demand for Indian handmade products. Also, she found out that retailers over there priced the handcrafted products from India insanely high and there were lots of middlemen too in the whole supply chain.
Indian handicraft market is a 32 billion dollar market and for ages it is following the traditional way of exporting these products to countries outside of India. There is a huge supply chain and the idea was to directly reach the customers to get them these handcrafted products from Indian craftsmen, weavers and artisans at the best possible prices and great convenience.