Peyush Bansal went on to tackle a very important issue faced by millions of Indians – vision correction. Through research, he came to know that there are more than 50 crore Indians who need power glasses to view properly. He also realized that around 40 crore people cannot afford power eyeglasses. With a mission in mind and determination in his heart, he set out to launch his company – LensKart. He aspires to give the luxury of good vision to those who cannot see properly. Through vision correction, he aspires to revolutionize vision correction in India. He launched his company of eyeglasses, frames, and sunglasses at the mere age of 26. Let us find out more about his captivating journey so far.
Early Life and Education
Born in Delhi, Peyush Bansal completed his schooling at Don Bosco School. He then prepared quite hard for IIT, but could not crack the entrance exam. He then went on to complete his undergraduate degree from Mccain University, Canada.
While in college, he was working part-time as a receptionist. It was then that he developed an interest in coding. He managed to complete a few gigs for a friend and ended up in a coding job that turned out to be his full-time job in the summers. He earned his degree in Electrical Engineering in Canada and then went to work at Microsoft, Seattle.
The life-changing event of his life came when Bill Gates invited all the interns at Microsoft to his beach house in Seattle, which is a norm for him. Peyush thought that Bill Gates had definitely acquired something big in life by creating MS Office. After listening to the great man, he felt that he did not want to be just one amongst the 50,000 people working at Microsoft, but wanted to do something big in life.
He came back to India in 2008 because he wanted to do something for the underprivileged in India, and not for those who already have a blessed life. He then started a College Classified business, which, although successful, did not give him much satisfaction.
The Idea of LensKart
In 2011, Peyush Bansal dreamt of making India see properly by wearing the right glasses. He found his first co-founder Amit Chaudhary from Kolkata, who was a college friend. At that time, he came across the fact that 40% of blind people in the world are Indians. Around half of the people in India need power glasses, but only 25% wear glasses. So, he then realized that this is a major problem for India and that with this mission, he can change the world. The duo then got their third co-founder Sumeet Kapahi from LinkedIn, and together they started LensKart in the year 2011.
In this dream venture, he failed several times but was eventually successful with LensKart. The co-founder, and CEO of LensKart after 10 years feels that this is just the beginning. He feels that the only way they are going ahead is by recognizing the new problems of the customers and trying to solve them.
Lessons that Led him to his Success
- The team of LensKart is not afraid of taking risks. They think big and take big risks because they feel they do not have anything major to lose.
- Initially, they only had the vision to give power glasses to Indians, but for a year, they are trying to go global with their mission of vision correction.
- He has failed several times in his path but has always managed to get up and strike back again with the single agenda that one should only focus on the problem.
- He always focused on understanding the problem, then working on the problem and finding a good solution for the problem. He believes that going ahead this way, one can easily scale their business.
- He believes that one should only work on making meaning, rest everything will follow.
- He also believes that an entrepreneur’s obsession should be targeted toward the customer. This will bring slow and steady progress and growth.
- He also believes that to run a successful business, one cannot tread alone. You will need partners to help you along the way.
- He also advises entrepreneurs not to run behind evaluation and profits, but only focus on doing something that is ten times better. This will automatically make investors come to them.
With a humble approach and a king-size dream, the Delhiite is treading slowly ahead with his LensKart company along with his two other co-founders and is successfully educating people about the importance of vision correction.
