Started a perfume brand with my college friend, just hit 500 orders, here's what nobody tells you
We're two students from Delhi University. No funding, no industry background, no idea what we were doing when we started. Just frustrated that every "Indian luxury fragrance" was either a French dupe or so expensive it didn't matter.
500 orders later, here's what actually happened that nobody warns you about:
The packaging took longer than the perfume. We spent 3 months on bottle design before a single batch was even macerated.
Reviews matter more than ads. Our highest converting moments came from random people screenshotting our product on WhatsApp, not from any campaign we ran.
Logistics will break you before competitors do. RTOs, delayed deliveries, wrong phone numbers entered by us — this ate more of our time than actual product development.
Nobody tells you how lonely the first 100 orders feel. You're packing boxes at midnight wondering if anyone actually cares.
Happy to answer questions if anyone's thinking about starting something similar. We're still figuring most of it out as we go.