Established in 2019, Chathura Sudharshan set up his business in Nottingham, with the aim of helping connect fashion manufacturers, suppliers, fashion designers and buyers with each other via a unique online platform. We recently spoke to Chathura about his business start-up journey so far and how he has made the most of the free business support NBV has on offer.
Can you tell us a little bit about your business?
Chanodil is a fashion tech business based in Nottingham, UK. We especially help small and medium-size fashion businesses to digitalise their supply chain. We work as a digital core-working space for fashion businesses where we connect matching manufacturers, suppliers, designers, etc. digitally to work together and make quality products with best possible ethical and sustainable standards. We do products ranging from fashion products to high tech wearable electronic products. We have an integrated product lifecycle management system integrated into our platform for brands to manage their ordering process easier.
We won several awards for our business in the UK, Italy in a few different innovation competitions. In addition to this, The University of Cambridge and United Nations Sustainable Goals Program have selected us for a recent program with them.
Currently, we have paying customers in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa and a few other EU countries. We have been fortunate to see a good interaction from customers for digital supply chain solutions with the advent of the COVID19 pandemic.
What was your background and qualifications before starting your business?
I was in the fashion industry for about 10 years working in jobs and projects in many countries such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China, Germany, Italy and France.
I have a different set of qualifications in professional and educational aspects, I have a BDes (Hons) in Fashion Design and Product Development from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka as well as a Charted Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing from the Charted Institute of Marketing in the UK. I also undertook an MSc in Entrepreneurship at Nottingham Trent University.
How did you find out about the support on offer from NBV?
I was first introduced to NBV at an event in Nottingham. At this event, I was able to talk to a few advisors and I found it super interesting to get support from NBV as this was the beginning of my business journey and I did not have much guidance on how to plan things.
Through NBV I attended a course on Cyber Security as well as a Digital Marketing course, Contract Law and few others.
How has NBV’s business mentoring support helped you?
Working with an NBV mentor was quite easy, it was great to have that flexibility on timing and meetings. It went super well. I was able to make a proper customer targeting strategy with my advisor, David Hallam. This made a really positive impact to my business with regards to getting new customers. Also, the advisor gave me a good update and assessment on Linkedin usage and I did improve my LinkedIn presence.
What are your plans for the future of the business? And do you have any advice for others wishing to follow in your footsteps?
With help from my advisor, we recognised that Chanodil’s business model is highly scalable, both geographically and product category wise, where this is still a blue ocean. So we hope we can easily grow this to a million-dollar business where we have a long term plan to make this a unicorn* company.
My advice would be to join with NBV and get the best out there for your business!
*A unicorn is a term in the business world to indicate a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion. The term was coined in 2013 by venture capitalist Aileen Lee, choosing the mythical animal to represent the statistical rarity of such successful ventures.
Would you like to follow in Chathura’s business footsteps? If so get in touch today to see how NBV can help you realise your business goals.