How Chumbak started

Vivek Prabhakar and Shubhra Chadda founded Chumbak in 2010, starting from a product so small it could fit on a fridge door, built around a very Indian sense of colour, humour, and nostalgia.

The problem they saw

Souvenirs and lifestyle products sold in Indian markets at the time tended to fall into two camps: generic tourist trinkets with little design thought behind them, or expensive imported home décor that had no real connection to Indian culture or humour. Chadda and Prabhakar saw space for something that took Indian icons, imagery, and inside jokes seriously as design material, rather than as an afterthought stamped onto a cheap product.

What they sold first

Chumbak began by selling fridge magnets featuring playful, colourful designs inspired by Indian pop culture, cities, and everyday visual motifs that most brands had never bothered to turn into desirable products. The idea was to make something small and affordable that people would want to buy for themselves as much as for a gift, built on wit and good design rather than just novelty.

The decisions that mattered

Design was treated as the actual product, not decoration layered on top of a generic item. The founders paid close attention to colour, illustration, and cultural references that would resonate specifically with an Indian audience, which gave Chumbak a visual identity that was hard for competitors to copy convincingly.

Starting with a small, low-cost, giftable item made it easy for new customers to try the brand without much commitment, while still leaving room to build a wider catalogue of home and lifestyle products once the brand's design language had a following.

Chumbak used its own retail presence and online channels to keep tight control over how its products were displayed and sold, since much of the brand's appeal depended on a cohesive visual world that would have been diluted if scattered across generic retail shelves.

What a small brand can take from this

A tiny, inexpensive first product can be enough to establish a brand's identity, as long as the design and craft behind it are genuinely distinctive. Chumbak didn't need a big catalogue to make an impression — it needed one strong idea, well executed.

Cultural specificity can be a strength rather than a limitation. Designing for a very particular sense of humour and aesthetic gave Chumbak an identity that broader, more generic brands could not easily replicate.

Controlling how your product is presented, even in a small way, protects the identity that makes people want to buy it in the first place.

If your brand's identity deserves a space that looks and feels the way you intend, you can start with early access.

Varchas Stores is not affiliated with Chumbak. This is an editorial story based on public reporting, written for founders who are starting out.