Vikas Agarwal did his basic schooling from Naval Public school which was under the Southern Naval Command and then moved to The Delta study, Fort kochi. After doing his graduation in commerce and simultaneously obtaining his GNIIT degree, he moved to Mumbai to do his masters in business administration from Narsee Monjee institute of management studies, Juhu, Mumbai. After getting a campus placement at TATA MOTORS,( then TELCO), he never thought he would return to cochin. But god had other plans. On the day of his induction, his father expired and he had to return to manage his family business of supplying natural rubber to industries all over India. He was 23 then. Today 12 years later he has taken more risks than one would expect someone his age to.
At age 25, he became an angel investor of sorts and invested in a Bangalore based fixture and furniture manufacturing start-up on Hosur road. It boasted of clients like Shoppers stop, Globus, Total etc. The company grew from 5000sqft to 19000sqft, its top line by 1000% in a period of just 3 years and that is when he exited that business in true VC style. Profiteering is not good; so he decided to make amends and got married immediately in July 2008 to Sheetal from Hyderabad. She is a gold medallist from exterior interior which is a premier interior designing institute with branches pan India.
Inspired by his trip to Switzerland for his honeymoon, he donned the role of a commercial Malayalam movie producer in 2009, at age 29. The chemistry of CHEMISTRY (which was the name of the movie), didn’t work with the audience as much as he would’ve liked it to.
However, in the true spirit of an entrepreneur, he left that behind and it was time for him to move on. He gathered the time and resources to venture into starting an exclusive store for bringing world class interior products into the Kerala market. Art Interiors as it is known today deals with a wide range of products most of them exclusive to the Kerala market, with maybe one or two other players in their category. Yet, he is looking out for the “NEXT BIG IDEA”
When he is not thinking of which business to start, he likes to party with friends, read some biographies, play the keyboard, learn guitar and watch some TV. In his own words, he was a great movie addict watching 3 movies a week in theatres, until his son ARNAV was born. And now the average has come down to 3 movies a year. But, that’s time well spent.
Ladies and gentlemen, presenting to you, VIKAS AGARWAL.
