Did you ever think you’ll grow up with animals in your house and later you’ll love them so much that you’d start a company for them? Or did you ever dream of earning money from a hobby? Hobbies can vary from person to person, also one person doesn’t stick around with the same hobby for ages. For this man, life has been revolving around aquariums and birds, he is emotionally attached with the fishes. He grew up watching his father foster the fishes in the aquarium, who knew he’ll take that up as a profession?

For few years of his initial life fishes were a hobby, but later on, his life turned around when he realized his love for those finned friends! Fish have been an attraction to him, although many of them don’t encourage fishes in their households as they find it tedious and time taking to foster an aquarium. He teaches or rather helps every other pet parent to bond with each other! Such a talented person right?

“Fortunately, my parents encouraged for the same. I remember in my school days I had decided that I won’t become a Doctor or an Engineer. These are the hot careers everyone wanted to opt for. My father, an ex – serviceman, was always supportive in any of my decisions to swim against the flow. Still his support continues. He is the one who induced into me the entrepreneurship.”

Hobbies sometimes can be those wild ideas that can change your world overnight! Sameer Gudhate is an expert marketer, aspiring author, a full-time aquarium lover and an occasional speaker. He always wanted to travel the less traveled path, he wanted some spice in the life. He genuinely loves his beard as well!

” It’s only because of my parents I started earning at a school level itself. They were the one who told me no job is a cheap job and I over a period also felt the same way,” he said in an interview.

After graduating, he started working. Sameer always wanted to become a renowned entrepreneur and wanted to build his name to be remembered. The wait was worth the pain! 14 years later he had the entrepreneur in him raise up and make him realize the need for him to start a company on his own. 

Fins and feathers is the company he started and it is an ever evolving place. He opened this venture to spread awareness among people about pets and needs of a pet.

“Fins n Feathers was a retail outlet in the suburbs of Mumbai. It was an endeavor which dealt in setting up and maintenance of show aquariums and Bird cages for corporate as well as domestic use. The services included installation and maintenance, transformation and enhancement, sourcing of best quality products and consultation. The prime reason to start Fins n Feathers was the low quality of awareness, products and services around me. I personally wanted to change that. I took the onus on me and started offering guidance and services to all interested in this hobby” he said in an interview.

What was the reason behind Fins n Feathers.co.in?

As the competition in the market was growing, in turn, was going to affect the cost of maintaining the shop and could be a loss-making venture in the long run. So Sameer gave a new look to the overall traditional business model to an online platform which could provide informative and useful articles on pet care which is India Centric, from fishes to birds, from dogs and cats to rabbits and from reptiles to amphibians to terrapins. The ultimate goal is to educate and cultivate effective and responsible pet keeping in almost every house.

He very humbly says, a pet in the family is just like another member of the family. Once we have a new member in the family, we take a lot of time to adjust but later on we get so accosted to the members. The attachment with a member of the family is unconditional love. His website is dedicated to helping hobbyists make the most of their hobby. On His website, one would find a library of exclusive articles written by experts. The website has articles from nursing to diet to caring and maintenance. 

Now there is a question, how does he reach the pet parents virtually?

Like other marketplace websites, his website also provides products and advice on pet parenting. Social media is the biggest and fastest way to reach out to a mass crowd. He mostly reaches people via facebook. He not only puts up those informative articles on his website but also on his Facebook account. So ideally social media helps him reach people at a large and in a faster and effective way. In the period of 3 months, the website got 10,000 unique hits which itself is an achievement.

Ah! What’s the model of revenue he follows?

He has a limited revenue model, which is evolving with the maturity of the business and expansion of the company. Current revenue structure is a 3 step model that consists of the following:-

1. Sales of pet parenting products.

2. Outreach Partner for Events.

3. Advertising (yet to be incorporated).

He plans and dreams to make it bigger and  better as time passes.

He told ,”Our Automatic Pet Fountain has proven to be a popular product among our many users, This is a unique product which helps to provide fresh water to the pet even when the pet parent is away.The fountain removes all kind of issues that is faced with stagnant and stale water. The filter in the fountains helps to absorb all kind of debris and adds additional oxygen to the water to ensure healthier and tastier water for the pet.”

When asked about his future plans he replied,”We plan to add many more products to our kitty. More and more article from experts will be always coming in. We will be personally connecting with our readers and would ask about the problems they face while petting. The same will be addressed in the form of articles or interview with industry experts. We plan to have an exhaustive database of the veterinary doctors practicing in India.

Also, if possible we would be giving pet parents basic online consultation absolutely free of cost. This facility is facilitated by a panel of doctors from our website. We are in talks with the industry leaders from India and abroad. We are planning for something where in these leaders can directly connect with the pet parents in India. This can happen via video chat or skype.”

Soon they are coming with a social network of pet in near

What a noble thought, on an ending note he says he will stick on to the objective of advocating effective and responsible pet keeping.

This is no regular startup and is way difficult to execute in the current competitive market. We at NewsAurChai wish him good luck with his journey. Kindly share your views on the venture in the comment section below.