Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chaitanya C Krishna. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Chaitanya, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
It all started in Virginia, when Kris(Krishna) was looking for a way to make his niece’s birthday a special and memorable one.
Kris started brainstorming about what his niece loved the most. They noticed that like most kids, their child enjoys creating art, like sketching, drawing, and coloring. She also had an affinity for plush toys. She often takes them to bed with her, they would sit next to her on her little table, and she carries them everywhere. While looking through their kid’s sketchbook, they saw a ton of cute drawings of people, pets, and other creatures straight from the child’s imagination. The idea of making some of these drawings into custom stuffed animals came about when they realized that his niece’s love for drawing and love for plushies could be satisfied by creating bespoke plush toys of her drawings.
As his niece enthusiastically carries a plush toy created out of her own drawing of herself, and seeing kids and parents ask about the toy, that’s when Kris realized that there is a market for bespoke plush toys created from kids’ drawings. Providing kids with a soft toy of tier drawings not only uplifts their confidence but also encourages their creativity and love for the arts.
Chaitanya, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Bespoke Plush is a start-up that aims to breathe life into kids’ artwork by creating customized plush toys that perfectly resemble kid’s artwork, selfies, or other personalized designs, Bespoke Plush™ can create toys and memorabilia that kids and adults appreciate and value more than the regular plush toys on the market. What started as a great idea to make a memorable gift for a child’s birthday turned into a thriving new business, loads of fortune 500 corporate partnerships, and a worldwide customer base. With thousands of unique soft toys already created, the company has touched the lives of thousands of kids and adults worldwide.
Whether artwork or Selfies: we create a huggable experience for you! We turn any photo into a custom stuffed toy.
Draw your own Plush Toy: We bring artwork to life by creating cute, custom soft toys based on children’s artwork. Currently, children’s creativity is lost when their drawings go from the fridge to the attic to the recycle bin. Treasure their creativity forever and watch their eyes light up when they see their own drawings come to life in a huggable creation they can play with.
SELFIE: Turn a photo of anyone into a custom plush figurine. These super cute mini-me’s make for awesome gifts for spouses, bosses, kiddos, and everyone in between.
We turn any art into custom plushies. We can handle any order between 1 and 100,000.
How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.
We sell on Shopify. Our own store. The best e-commerce platforms for small businesses
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
We started this business with $2000 from my personal savings and every penny earned went back into the business.
We have successfully hit $1 million mark this year(2022), in 20 months, from the time of company formation.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.bespokeplush.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/bespokeplush
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/bespokeplush
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/bespokeplush
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/@bespokeplush