When and how did you start?
IZECH is our passion and dream. By God’s grace and support of our peers, we got a chance to live our dream of combining technology and cricket together which formulated IZECH. This start-up was initiated by 3 friends Baljinder Sandhu, Karan Veer Singh and Harwinder Singh. India is one of the biggest fan-following countries of cricket, we weren’t left behind. Right from our school days, we use to play cricket. We decided to pursue our career as professional cricketers. But family circumstances didn’t lead us to that path but God had some bigger plans for us.
” After finishing my schooling, I (Baljinder) took admission in one of the engineering colleges in Punjab, there I met a guy Karan Veer Singh, we both were motivated by technology and designing. We started this venture during our college days in order to make some pocket money and gain hands-on experience to what we study. We designed the website for our college and boom, it was the turning point in our careers. Soon after finishing my Computer Engineering studies in India I moved to Australia for further studies. On one of the trips back home I met my brothers and we 3 were trying to live our childhood passion and wanted to play cricket. Trying to order Bats, gloves online for the same we noticed there are very few online options to buy Original Cricket gears and this is how we decided to start IZECH in 2013″, Says, Mr. Baljinder Sandhu The CO-Founder of IZECH.
How did you come up with the idea? Your inspiration moment.
Have you ever observed a child especially at the age of 3-4 years? How curious are they for everything? They keep asking the question- How is this? Why is this? What is this?
I found that same inquisitiveness in me when I went to India in 2010 and one day I wanted to play cricket in the field near my house while trying to arrange the Cricket gear I thought why not order online instead of going to the store. I started searching and to my surprise, India being one of the biggest fan countries of cricket I could hardly find any website which sells Original branded sports equipment. This is how IZECH was incubated by 3 Friends.
Brief about the organization and founding members
IZECH has deep aspiration behind its name. As this start-up was formulated by exploring various ideas, here is what IZECH stands for:
I –ideas, (Power to give life to something).
Z –zest, (your zeal for life and your inquisitiveness)
E –explorer (looking beyond the horizon)
C –compatible (it’s the team effort)
H – heavenly (passion and grace blend together)
Founding members:
1.Baljinder Sandhu
2.Harwinder Singh
3.Karan Veer Singh
Image Credit/ Source: Izech
The detailed journey, like what all you want to share with readers.
Sports is the best way to unwind oneself, challenge yourself or make it your best friend. It’s a personal preference how you want to pursue sports and which sports you want to enter in. We believe “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. So yes, we want to keep inspiring kids, youngsters, office goers, entrepreneurs to dedicate some time to play any sports at least once a week. This will help you stay fit, keep your spirits high and above all, help you learn the sportsmanship in the right way.
Life is full of challenges as we grow up. For a child studies are the biggest challenge, they want to grow up fast so that they don’t have to study. Once you start working you miss your school/college and realize how easy life was then, further when you grow a little older you tend to dislike the entire social system, you start questioning the government and political scenarios. The grin n grind never ends, one must live each day like there is no tomorrow. Hence, we would like to call out aloud —all the peeps reading this please start playing some of the other sport. We are there to guide you if you need our support.
About funding, plans for growth
We used our saving from part-time jobs while pursuing our education to start this venture. We were stubborn to start something from our own funding and not take any loans initially. Gradually as we grew and were confident of our scope of work, external funding was added.
Very soon we would like to serve more countries than we are doing now. We have plans to open warehouses in multiple countries to reduce our shipping cost. We want to expand, diversify to multiple products.
Challenges and Opportunities/ Marketing Strategies
We had to take this big leap to be where we are now; and en route to this journey we have had our share of Ups and down, Good and bad, Rough and smooth times. The ability to face the risk and move ahead in a team helped us grow a lot. Personally, I (Baljinder) believe life will never show you the right path if you shut yourself behind closed doors and windows. You have to constantly change with the change, move out of your comfort zone, look for opportunities to do something different and new.
Whereas, Harwinder believes that only when you are ready to help people, society and nature without asking for anything in return God will bestow you with enough to help live your dream.
Karan has his own ways of minimalizing the challenges by constantly adapting new ways to improve customer service. He believes “If Customers are happy and satisfied there is no way on this planet earth your business is going to fail”. The word of mouth and positive reviews are the best way to grow a business by manifolds.
We provide free cricket gears to special kids, institutes training the disabled and under privileged kids. This is our way of contributing back to the society.
Initially, we faced challenges and to call the elephant in the room:
- We weren’t sure the best way to market our online store, back then online platform was still nascent.
- We faced challenges in shipping and handling its cost. Shipping Oversized and fragile items was again a learning.
- Balancing orders from a different country with different pricing system and time zone was an eye opener for us.
A quote from the founder on the journey, or dealing with the challenge, or any inspiring moment
We three firmly believe on the famous quote” Where There’s A Will There’s A Way”.
We had a teenaged dream to merge Cricket with Technology, there are many ways this has been done, But IZECH was our way of doing it. When I, Harwinder, couldn’t become a professional cricketer I was shattered as if all doors are closed for it because I was only good at that, but later when IZECH happened I was confident that “if one door is closed, it’s because what was behind it wasn’t meant for you”.
The turning point in our life was when we three were on the same page with our conceiving ideas and we all had similar dreams in life.
Everything happens for a reason
Just trust your instincts, I, Balwinder, truly believe that everything that we do and everyone that we meet is put in our path for a purpose. There are no accidents; we’re all teachers and students at the same time. Learn every day in life and coach often when an opportunity arises.
EXCLUSIVE: Founder’s advice to budding entrepreneurs
As an entrepreneur my advice to budding start-ups will be just two things:
- Don’t be scared to take risks, Business is all about risk-taking ability. Yes, but a thorough research, in-depth analysis about your new venture is definitely important.
- Be ready to help other start-ups or individuals who seek help, who are stuck, broken, lost or demotivated in whatever way you can. Selfless deeds help us grow and learn.
Provide some statistics like revenues or clients acquisitions
We have customers in each and every state of India, we have delivered to more than 50 countries so far across the globe to name a few South Africa, England, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Dubai, Singapore, Ireland, France, Malaysia, etc and still growing.
Some reviews by clients:
Got a mrf grand edition from izech, delivery to Sydney was actually really quick I was surprised. Izech was brilliant at helping me out with the bat and sending me photos strongly recommend izech to everyone who is looking for quality gear at great prices.
– Brad Clapham
Bought 3 pairs of batting gloves from iZech. First-time buyer from Malaysia. Communication was great. Received the item within 5 days. Excellent quality at a very reasonable price including shipping. Highly recommended. Will definitely purchase more items in the near future.
–Malik Zappa Shariff
Like any other cricket enthusiast, I wanted to check out some companies online, especially the ones from India. I spoke to a few people who had prior experience of shopping for cricket bats online, I was met with mostly negative feedback or a word of caution.
I came across iZech and was intrigued as the customer service seemed 10/10, even though I hadn’t bought anything yet…and I took my time.
Karan, surely an asset for iZech, walked me through the whole process rather convincingly. By the time I placed an order for an MRF bat, I was sure that I was getting
a deal almost too good to be true. The delivery took to Hong Kong and at my doorstep took just 2 days.
Lo and behold, I have my MRF in my hands as we speak, I’m sleeping with it tonight…always.
Best Product, Service, and Prices ever!!!
-Kashan Khan
Your website / apps / and contact details
You can find us here:
Website- www.izech.com
Instagram- www.instagram.com/izechonline
Facebook- www.facebook.com/iZechstores
Twitter- @izechonline
Linked In- Izech
Youtube channel- Izech Online
Or you can call us at – +91-8699665533