Customized Jewellery Conceptualizer - Samaarajewellery

2. Founder Name & Profile Thirtha Uthappa : While my passion for jewellery always existed, I realized my true calling after working for 10 years across large MNC’s and Big 4’s. • I have close to 10 years of corporate experience working with organizations in the IT sector. Started my career with Hewlett Packard by transitioning and setting up their Retail back office transactions in Bangalore for 3 years and managing a team of 24 members before joining Oracle as their Quality Lead for managing the IT projects. • While at Oracle I was responsible for leading the organization in achieving the needed process and quality improvement certifications such as CMMI, ISO 20000, ITIL People CMMI, Six Sigma projects etc. After 3.5 years of high visibility work at Oracle, I joined KPMG India in their IT Advisory division. • At KPMG I incubated and started the service line called Customer Centricity catering to large IT organizations, apart from providing consulting services on process improvements and optimization through Lean , Six Sigma and related certifications. • Six Sigma Green Belt Certified & Black Belt Trained • Featured in the national edition of Times of India under the “How I got my start up idea” segment • Speaker in CII Conclave on Business Excellence – Topic ‘Listening to your customers’ • Authored paper on “Enhancing Process Maturity in Services Industry” published by Tata McGraw Hill for CONSEG 2011 • Nominated and short listed for “The Economic Times Young Leaders Awards – 2014” • Jewellery Designing – JD institute of Fashion Technology, Bangalore. 6 months diploma course • Post Graduate Diploma in International Business – Symbiosis University (SDLC ) • Bachelors of Commerce – Christ University, Bangalore • ICSE – Baldwin Girls High School, Bangalore

3. What is the pain point being addressed Lack of customization and personalization. Apart from long TAT’s at stores, a customer does not have any options of getting customized and personalized jewellery Lack of customization • Customers end up buyingmassively produced designs either off the shelf both offline and online, due to lack of customized jewellery. Obligatory purchase We need a jewellery consultant / trusted jeweller who understands the requirements, suggests options and who is extremely transparent in the process of jewellery making. Missing trust factor

4. Value Proposition • Create a technology based platform for customers to interact and place requests for their customized jewellery. Allow provision for customers to upload rough sketches, actual jewellery photos etc to provide a clearer understanding of their requirement. • An offline experience centre where only designs are reviewed / showcased to help create your very own personalized and customized jewellery. Glimpses of some jewellery in the making. Move away from a transactional activity at the mercy of a salesperson to an unparalleled experience at the hands of a jewellery consultant Move away from making compromised purchases based on available jewellery to getting "your jewellery your way" Move away from commodity jewellery at premium pricing to designer jewellery at standard pricing Move away from just buying based on blind trust to a relationship based on unprecedented transparency

5. Proposed Solution :Merging Technology with Customization (1/2) Metal Karatage Gem stones Upload rough drawings, photos for reference Stone colour Augmented Reality Diamond shape Real time interaction Diamond colour Diamond clarity Motifs Type of setting Personal Visits Type of hook Detachable Customization - CORE Weight Type of finish

6. Proposed Solution – Website & Offline Experience Centre (2/2) Basis client approval, place the order for production Take validation on the changes made Understand customer requirement : Customer uploads reference images / notifies for call back Follow up questions or face –to-face meetings done to ensure both customer and we agree upon the requirements Share the WIP pictures of the jewellery with the client Final approved product delivered to client • Draft design sent out for approval to client • 2D,3D sketch • Augmented Reality Incorporate any changes suggested at this stage Offline Experience Centres : Customer interactions, design reviews and validations, walkthrough into the jewellery making process (samples jewellery pieces shown in the making)

7. Thank you Thirtha Uthappa Founder & Jewellery Conceptualizer - Samaarajewellery Contact : 9886677434 Email : thirtha.uthappa@gmail.com FB page : https://www.facebook.com/SamaaraJewellery/ Website : www.samaarajewellery.com Bangalore

8. Ability to build the venture • The business has been in existence for more than 4 years now, and more and more clients reach out specifically for customized and personalized jewellery and I see this as the new trend. • I have leveraged on my father’s 40+ years of rich experience into the space of customized jewellery only, and I still see it working • My resources for jewellery such as gold, diamonds, precious semi precious stones etc are all certified and guaranteed on quality. This is very important and crucial in a business like precious jewellery – TRUST • Functionally I am strong and know exactly what the technology should offer and also the story that needs to be told around it. Technically is where I need the additional knowledge and know hows • I already have a significant customer database which I have built over the 4 years • I also have a fair idea on how I want to scale up my venture.

9. Help needed from NSRCEL • I need strong guidance on the way forward and also a validation on some of the ideas that I have towards scaling up the venture. • The precious jewellery space being quite nische in the start-up scenario, I am looking forward to being helped with the right connects and people who will be able to add value to the venture having understood the dynamics of the business. • Need guidance on building up a team and also brainstorming on some disruptive ideas in this field. • Learn a lot about how to manage the business financially. • I am also looking at some form accountability that I would have towards my mentor / guide, in terms of the progress I make. This is very important for me . • Open my eyes to the vast space of opportunities that are available and also get me thinking in directions I have not thought of before.

10. Progress on the idea so far.. Started in 2014 and registered in 2015