Blue Saint is one of the start-ups in Invest2Inovate’s 3rd (latest) batch. Their business model is similar to the extremely successful Markhor start-up that has raised over $50,000 in its recent KickStarter campaign, selling handmade leather shoes and sandals to an international audience. Starting with blue pottery, Blue Saint aims to become an international marketplace for a wide range of handmade unique crafts from Pakistan.
What do they do?
The idea behind Blue Saint is a simple one: Redesign and reimagine handmade products from Pakistan and sell them to international consumers who value unique craftsmanship and are willing to pay a premium for it while preserving the heritage and creating sustainable livelihood for the artisans.
The ease of international shipping and setting up an online store has eliminated the old barrier-to-entry of knowing someone abroad who would be willing to market your products or sell them on your behalf. In addition to the motive of making money off this price differential, the idea extends to making a name for the country and also improving the lives of the workforce involved in the essentially exploitative supply chain that underpays skilled labor.
Who’s Running it?
This venture is the brainchild of Ambreen Malik, who is working on it on her own and is self-funding the business so far. Ambreen’s inspiration to start this venture comes from her love for a British pottery maker named Portmerion as well as for Multani pottery. Through this venture she aims to fulfil her goal of bringing financial gains for everyone involved in the process, improve the living conditions of artisans and their families and bring more female artisans in to the workforce.
Ambreen is a graduate of London School of Economics with 13 years of international work experience.
What Stage is it in?
The venture is in Incubation phase. Blue Saint has done product testing for its prototype designs and has carried out sales through three international exhibitions so far. Much more needs to be done before the product starts selling via their e-shop. The venture has invested considerable time in building relationships with artisan suppliers from all over Pakistan and is currently working on setting up their e-commerce website. The quality and consistency of the products is the most critical and challenging bit for this venture. Blue Saint is well aware of the limitations and challenges associated with the supply chain while working with the handmade products in Pakistan and is determined to address the challenge.
Key Factors of Success
One of the key factors that would be central to the success/failure of this venture is the story that it works with. This story has to be unique and powerful – whether it is about quality of the product, women empowerment, history of the art, cultural exchange or something completely different, the story needs to carry weight to form a distinguishable identity for the business.
As noted when I first reviewed Markhor’s website a few months ago, another key factor of success for online businesses is the aesthetics of its online platform. As the only interface you have to interact with potential clients, you need to make sure that the website is pleasant to look at, easy to navigate and conveys your strengths properly. You don’t have the additional leeway that brick-and-mortar businesses have of wooing customers with your talk, or incorporating other sensory tactics to make your shop more attractive, it’s just the website alone that needs to push for the sale.
And lastly, the logistics of it all might seem simple at first, but in order to scale up successfully you need to work on building the whole supply chain systematically. Having reliable partners in all stages is crucial to have properly functioning logistics.
Next Big Story
Blue Saint has the potential of becoming the next big story in the growing field of connecting developing country products with developed country consumers. It would be interesting to revisit them in a year and see how far they have gotten. The owner commented that the idea for the business was conceived on an international flight – the conversion of that idea into a successful business, however, would require a lot of patience, hard work and a bit of iron will.
Connect With Them
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
