Indian Womenpreneurs  July 1, 2011

A talk with Mrs.Srivalli Krishnan, co-founders of eFarm on her journey so far as a woman entrepreneur

Srivalli Krishnan - Cofounder, Efarm

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Name:Srivalli Krishnan

The Enterprise: eFarm is a young social enterprise firm based in Chennai . efarm is India’s first end-to-end agri supply chain platform , providing a combination of technology solutions and on-ground distribution mechanism to enable farmers reach end markets in an effective manner. eFarm ties in farmers, intermediaries, logistics providers, distributors, small time retailers, all the way upto your local road side vendor into a single chain backed up best of breed information systems to deliver fresh, clean, low priced farm produce.

In simple words we are a ‘hi-tech’ subjiwallah’ – connecting farmers ,business consumers and intermediaries (such as transport operators, storage providers etc) using a more organised supply chain mechanism.

The Woman behind the Entrepreneur:
I have completed my MBA from ICFAI Business School in marketing and finance, I have a decade of experience in marketing in the financial industry. I have worked with ICICI Bank, TATA AIG and Accenture. I come from Bangalore and from a very orthodox family. We are a women majority family with three daughters. I learnt my marketing skills from my father who was a businessman and my negotiation skills and PR skills from my mother who was with the Central Government. 

When it comes to interests professionally I like working with people and everything about people,places and problems interest me. Personally I am very interested in learning languages, handicrafts and internet surfing. I am still exploring my skills and interests….

When did you first start your venture and how did the idea come about?
We started our business about two and half years ago. ( We meaning me and my husband Venkat) It was an initiative to work with Indian problems applying thought and action. We started out pondering what is that which is a space large enough for our ambitions and passions to be satisfied while being useful in a social sense. We started our journey with agriculture as the main topic , while asking what we can do we found our niche in much ignored agri marketing and supply chain space…. so started our journey called EFARM- Enabling Farmers Reach Markets…

How much capital did you start with?
We started with our savings, We started with a initial capital of a couple of lakhs (approx 5 lakhs).

efarm.in

In how much time did the enterprise turn into a profit making venture?
We are a year old company, Agriculture Marketing is a very unexplored territory. In this space accessing what is profitable is a Grey Area because agriculture production itself is not accounted for by the average farmer. But we have tried to change that by accounting for every step of the farm to fork journey. We see our ground operations to start profiting from the third year of our business. We are breaking even now at an operational level.

What were the initial years like?
The initial years of any startup is like biting a diamond bullet.. very precious but hard to bite or swallow. We learnt on the job, we had no gurus, no books to refer , no mentors to call , we had to learn by experience, exposure and experiment. It was like going to school for the very first time as both of us are first generation entrepreneurs of sorts. It is very challenging but very satisfying… you got to taste entrepreneurship to actual describe it..

We are still in the initial years, we are learning , teaching and experiencing…..and we have a long way to go.

What are some of the top challenges you faced and how did you surmount them?
Entrepreneurship itself is a big challenge. The first challenge was unlearning what we had learnt in college and the corporate world and get back to real life on the streets and learn all over again.

Second was convincing the parents that entrepreneurial plunge was not insanity. It was a well thought out jump, from comfy boring monotonous corporate job to a world unknown. Third challenge was conviction on business model, initially was very doubtful but as every day passed more confident we got about the business and confusion was replaced with conviction and confidence.

What challenges do you continue to face and what is your strategy to tackle them?
Every day is a new challenge in the business it is mostly fire fighting and crisis management. The strategy is to stay calm and apply mind.

What drives you?
My hubby and my mother’s faith in me.

How many hours do you work per week?
Some times eight days a week….:)

What tips would you like to give to budding entrepreneurs?
Only advice I would like entrepreneurs is learn from other mistakes and make your own mistakes. It will teach you entrepreneurship in true sense. There is no other way learn and earn.

Anybody with a spirit of entrepreneurship can write to me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Guidance.. I don’t know, but definitely will share my experiences and thoughts….:)