PIYUSH NARANG
FOUNDER @ TANI & TUFT
Timeline
Biggest Challenge Faced: The hardest part was making people see gifting as an act of heart again, not just a social obligation they tick off a calendar. When you’re selling handcrafted keychains and sculpted flowers in a market flooded with cheap, mass-produced alternatives, the first instinct people have is to compare price tags, not meaning. No one knew our brand; we had zero marketing budget and no storefront. To overcome that, I stopped trying to sell products and started creating moments. The guerrilla campaigns custom T shirts that turned our team into walking billboards, the “Make us laugh, get a free keychain” challenge weren’t stunts. They were invitations for people to feel something before they bought something. That face to face laughter broke the transactional wall, turned strangers into early adopters, and taught me that the biggest barrier in gifting isn’t cost, it’s the belief that a gift can still carry a heartbeat. Once people felt that, they didn’t just buy; they became the word of mouth that no ad budget could ever buy.
"Founder @ TANI & TUFT"
I started Tani & Tuft because I noticed gifting had quietly turned into an obligation, a checked box wrapped in shiny paper and I wanted to bring back the heart behind it. The brand was born from a simple belief: creativity is the most honest form of connection, and handmade pipe art and rug craft products could turn a transaction back into a feeling. Every keychain, sculpted flower, and woven coaster we make is one of a kind, designed to remind someone they were thought of, not just remembered. When we set up our very first stall at The Lalit in Chandigarh, I didn’t want a sales table; I wanted a shared experience. So we wore custom-printed T-shirts as walking billboards and launched a “Make us laugh and get a free keychain” challenge that had locals and foreigners cracking jokes together and following the brand for more than just a product. By the end of the day, 90% of the stock was sold out, but what stuck was the community we built in those moments of laughter. Through pop-ups and a raw “30 Days, 30 Random Ideas” content series, Tani & Tuft became a platform for creative expression right in the heart of Chandigarh. Looking ahead, I’m working toward sustainable materials, workshops that teach the joy of making, and a larger creative ecosystem where artists can showcase their work, so gifting stops being an obligation and becomes what it was always meant to be: a piece of your imagination, given with intention.
Timeline
Biggest Challenge Faced: The hardest part was making people see gifting as an act of heart again, not just a social obligation they tick off a calendar. When you’re selling handcrafted keychains and sculpted flowers in a market flooded with cheap, mass-produced alternatives, the first instinct people have is to compare price tags, not meaning. No one knew our brand; we had zero marketing budget and no storefront. To overcome that, I stopped trying to sell products and started creating moments. The guerrilla campaigns custom T shirts that turned our team into walking billboards, the “Make us laugh, get a free keychain” challenge weren’t stunts. They were invitations for people to feel something before they bought something. That face to face laughter broke the transactional wall, turned strangers into early adopters, and taught me that the biggest barrier in gifting isn’t cost, it’s the belief that a gift can still carry a heartbeat. Once people felt that, they didn’t just buy; they became the word of mouth that no ad budget could ever buy.
Top Advice
“Don’t wait until you feel ready. Start before the perfect moment arrives, and let action teach you what overthinking never will.” And if I could add one more layer: build for connection, not just conversion. When you stop treating people like customers and start treating them like collaborators in something meaningful, they don’t just buy from you, they believe in you. That belief outlasts any marketing budget, any algorithm change, any trend. It becomes your quiet, unshakeable moat.