Altpack

AltPack was my second major venture - an ambitious leap into the world of physical products that taught me invaluable lessons about manufacturing, marketing, and the challenges of D2C businesses.

The Journey to Mumbai

After COVID, I got the chance to move out of my hometown and settle in a new city - Mumbai. At the time, I was mostly freelancing. Physical goods had always been my Achilles heel - something I was scared of pursuing - but with my good friend Adarsh, I decided to jump on this opportunity.

He had a background in textile manufacturing, and I had just worked with a bunch of D2C startups helping with creating marketing content. This partnership seemed perfect - combining his manufacturing expertise with my marketing experience from the digital space.

The Product Vision

We created modular backpacks that were perfect for any environment. Our backpacks were designed to be easy to use, lightweight, and durable, meaning they could be adapted to meet various needs. Whether someone was looking for a bag to take to work or to the gym, AltPack was designed to have them covered.

Our backpacks were spacious, organized, reliable, and comfortable. They were designed with the user in mind and came with plenty of compartments and pockets to keep items organized and secure. The backpacks were made with tough, durable materials, and featured adjustable straps and cushioned back panels for maximum comfort all day long.

This is a stop motion video of the backpacks showing the modularity.

My Role & Learning Experience

My responsibility was web design, marketing content generation, and Meta ads. The website was built on WordPress - my first real taste of web development, self-hosting, server setup, and maintenance. This gave me a chance to put my learnings from working with D2C startups into practical use.

The Harsh Reality

Unfortunately, the product didn’t work like we expected. We were burning a lot of money on marketing, but there was no interest. We had made a huge mistake with our supplier, and the quality of goods was very poor - a critical flaw that undermined everything we were trying to build.

We tried everything:

• Varying prices to find the sweet spot
• Hiring influencers for brand promotion
• Generating and experimenting with different types of content
• Adjusting our messaging and targeting

But nothing worked. The fundamental issue of product quality couldn’t be overcome with marketing alone.

Lessons Learned

Finally, we had to shut it down. This was my last time working on a physical product - not a very good experience for me and not something that I found very interesting. After this experience, I’ve mostly stuck with service and software-based startups.

However, it was still a great learning experience. AltPack taught me about:

• The critical importance of supplier relationships and quality control
• The challenges of inventory management and cash flow in physical products
• The limits of marketing when the product-market fit isn’t there
• The complexities of manufacturing, logistics, and customer service for physical goods

While AltPack didn’t succeed, it was an essential stepping stone that helped me understand my strengths and preferences, ultimately guiding me toward the digital products and services that would define my future ventures.