The iconic Coco Chanel said it best – “Every day is a fashion show, and the world is your runway”. Her words ring true, especially today, when technology has embedded itself into virtually every part of our day-to-day and can even govern our sense of fashion. That said, it’s a two-way street and works just as well in reverse.
When it comes to fashion, accessories, even the technologically forward ones, have taken the world by storm. The most recent, although not new to the scene, is the ever-so-trendy smartwatch. Today, almost everyone wears one, but the question is, can it really help complete your daily style quotient as well?
Let’s put it this way if you have a boAt Smartwatch, it definitely can!
Aside from the extremely versatile hardware, boAt smartwatches feature a wide range of watchfaces, pre-loaded and customisable, that allows you to seamlessly change the way your watch looks depending on your outfit du jour. Here are some of the primary features to get started:

• Download thousands of themes as a watchface to match your personal taste
• Create your own watchface, complete with designing, colouring and embellishing
• Choose from a wide palette of colours
• Interchangeable watch straps to match different outfits
• Choice of widgets like time, step count, heart rate monitor, blood pressure levels, stress level analysis and more
• Track your workouts with a multitude of Sports modes

In fact, with the customisable watch face, you can match the watch to your outfit, setting and mood. Here's how -

For the Dedicated Gym-goer Look

Training at the gym or at home, your boAt Smartwatch dial can match your gear when you choose from a range of sporty styles. Of course, the major advantage is the watch’s ability to track your workout with 100+ Sports Modes.

The Dapper Executive Look

When dressing up for the office, don’t forget to set your watch face to properly match your professional attire. Choose a formal style so that whenever you check the time or take a call, your smartwatch always maintains its official composure.

For The Party Vibe

Letting your hair down on a weekend doesn’t mean you leave your smartwatch out of the loop. Your ready-to-party look can be accentuated with a stylish watch face that goes with your Little Black Dress (LBD), smart casuals, or even that trendy dinner jacket.

For the Festive Mood

Festivals and weddings are times to go back to our traditional routes, and the ever-so-popular ethnic look, complete with jewels and the full regalia, is the best way to do it. With custom straps and watch faces to match, boAt smartwatches have you covered.

For That One Lazy Day

Everyone needs that little ‘me’ time at home, in their pyjamas, getting ready to binge-watch their favourite series/movie. Switch to a simpler watch face that doesn’t give you more information than you need, and you’re all set.
One watch with five and more different uses. This takes versatility to a whole different level.
 
Customising the watch face of your boAt Smartwatch
Now that you know how your boAt smartwatch can complement different looks, it’s time to move to the technicalities - the process of customising a watch face.
Here are the steps to change the watch face per your preference –

• Download the boAt Crest App on your smartphone and pair it with your smartwatch.
• On the app, choose ‘More’ and then ‘Device Features.’ Choose ‘Watch Faces’ and then click on ‘Create Watch Face.’
• Watch the tutorial before you proceed.
• You will then be introduced to the tool to create a design. Start with the background from the available range of themes, colours, and image options.
• You can also add different widgets - the date, health vitals like heart rate, steps taken, distance covered, battery level, etc. and also choose how the time is - digital or analogue.
• There’s also a possibility of editing widgets - double tap a widget to access editing options. Now you can alter the functionality or appearance of the selected widget.
• You can create multiple watch faces and save each one or select something from the many existing presets. You will find them under the ‘My watch faces’ section on the app.

Don’t settle for a generic watch when you can have a versatile, stylish, and customisable boAt Smartwatch to complement your every look. Channel your inner fashionista and make every day your runway with boAt.

We live in a world where your wristwatch can become an extension of your personality. With the advent of custom watch faces and the rise of innovative watch face designer tools, the wearables industry is advancing rapidly.

That said, even the traditional watch face has evolved from providing basic functions to a customisable canvas of options. Understanding the changing necessities of users, boAt smartwatches elevate this. With a few taps and swipes, you can choose from a wide range of elements to create a watch face that is as unique and functional as you need it to be.

This is where boAt comes in. Our custom watch faces are a gateway to a world of possibilities. How, you may be wondering? Read on…

What is a Custom Watch Face?

A custom watch face refers to a personalised design or layout that can be added to the display of a smartwatch. You can optimise your device by selecting a variety of functions and visuals to appear on the screen.
To create a custom watch face, you can use a watch face designer tool that's built into boAt Crest App. It provides a user-friendly interface that allows you to customise various elements of the watch face, such as the background, colours, fonts, and also allows you to add widgets.

Advantages of Custom Watch Faces

Information Accessibility

A watch face that you designed helps you prioritise the information that matters most to you, without having to navigate through the menus. This allows for quick and convenient access to relevant data, such as calories burnt, step count etc.

Personalisation

As you create your own watch face with your own sense of design, it takes personalization and self-expression to the next level. You can express your individuality and style by creating a unique design that is an extension of your personality.

Aesthetics

With the amount of flexibility that you get with cusomised watch faces, you can move beyond the basic watch faces and choose from a plethora of cloud watch faces and if that is not enough, you can make your own with DIY Watch face Studio (our watch face designer tool) to match your sense of style.

Functionality

When you make your own watch face, you can choose what information you wish to see in the home screen for easy access. This makes it easier to access and get insights like step count, calories burnt by just glancing at the home screen of your smart watch.

Adaptability

With customized watch faces, the possibilities become limitless. You can make anything you want with anything you can possibly think of. This gives you limitless choices with the option of effortlessly switching between different styles and themes according to your outfit, which means unlimited adaptability.

Uniqueness

Since you create your own watch faces, every design that you’ll create on the watch face designer tool will be unique be truly you. And with that, you can fashion your uniqueness on your smartwatch.

Impact on the Wearable Industry

Enhanced User Experience

Customisation, has taken user experience to the next level. Users can customise their watch faces to display the information and functionalities that are relevant to them. So when they wish to access information that they need the most, they can simply glance at the screen and get it.  

User Empowerment

With the choice of what your watch face will be displaying, it gives users control over their smartwatches. The user can now decide what their custom watch faces will show and how it will look and are not just limited to the options of preset watch faces.  This in a way gives user the power to fashion themselves the way they like by empowering them with unlimited choices.

Conclusion

Personalisation allows freedom of expression, and hence custom watch faces are getting popular in the wearables industry. Our smartwatches not only come with multiple functions and custom watch faces but are also extremely durable for the ultimate user experience. So, our boAtheads don’t have to choose between fashion and usability.
As technology advances, we can expect increasing potential and functionality to emerge, making personalised timekeeping an integral part of our daily lives.

Smartwatches have certainly made our everyday lives easier and more efficient. But it is not limited to that, the watch faces in your smartwatch can help it become an extension of your personal style while enhancing your day-to-day activities. With the ability to customise the design of the watch face, you can create trendy watch face design that reflects your unique personality while optimising its functionality to suit your needs.

Crafting a watch face for optimum benefits isn’t tough. You just have to use the right widgets and features correctly. You just need to understand and evaluate your everyday activities and customise the widgets, features, and themes of the smartwatch accordingly.

Here are a few customising ideas that would help you create the right watch face for boAt smart watch seamlessly.

For The Office Goer

Incorporating the right features and widgets would enhance productivity and connectivity in your workplace. Customise notifications and prioritise alerts from essential apps or contacts. Display upcoming calendar events and reminders on your watch face, ensuring you stay organised and never miss an important meeting. You can also change the design of your dial into a minimal or sleek analogue for a professional setting.
 

 

For the Fitness Lovers

Optimise your workout routines and track your progress with built-in step counters on your boAt smartwatch. Set your watch faces with dedicated quick access to fitness widgets like steps covered in a day or calories burnt. Additionally, stopwatches and timers allow you to read and understand your progress.

 

For the Health Conscious

Allow your watch face to display data from the heart monitor, oxygen meter, and sleep tracker to get insights into your health and body patterns. In addition to that, you can also set notification alerts and reminders for healthier habits. This would send you reminders to drink water, take a walk, and more to help you break your sedentary lifestyle.
Your boAt smartwatch can also send you reminders and information about your menstrual cycles and stress levels. A Quick flash of the data on your watch nudges you into making informed and quick decisions about yourself and your lifestyle.

 

For The Fashionistas

With boAt smartwatches, you customise and personalise the watch face to match your style, mood, or occasion so you can match the trends of watch faces in 2023. You can find trendy watch face designs pre-loaded on your device or customise them using the various widgets, graphics, and fonts available. Find the right combination of colours and patterns to match your style and make your own trendy watch face design.

For Everyday Use

Watch faces in 2023 are designed to handle the complex stuff for you. Using simple widgets for weather updates and alarms can keep you prepared for the day. One can keep the weather updates widget on the trendy watch face design that you made, and it will give real-time updates and information on the homescreen of your smart watch.

Once you have customised your watch face for boat smartwatch, you can save it on your boAt device. This would help you switch through different watch faces throughout the day according to your needs and activities. You can change the look of the widgets so that you don’t only get the utility of the features, but your smartwatches also match your style. It only takes certain tweaks and a little creativity to make your boAt smartwatch truly your own.

The smartwatch is a versatile, all-in-one accessory that can elevate not just your personal style but your entire lifestyle. This marvel of technology has come a long way. It is more than a tool that tells time. With the latest tech-enabled features, especially smartwatch faces, the device doubles up as a fitness tracker; health monitor; phone to make and receive calls; device to check and reply to messages and even emails; alarm clock, stopwatch, an timer; and even a GPS-enabled mini-map for finding your way around.
The list goes on and certainly makes the device seem like the ultimate must-have tech accessory. Many smartwatches, like those offered by boAt, also offer the facility of customising the watch face to add extra layers of versatility, allowing you to create your own style to match your persona, mood or need. Let’s talk about that some more.

What Are Custom Smartwatch Faces?

The concept of custom watch faces is quite simple – you can change the look of your smartwatch by changing the dial, i.e., the watch face background. Think of it like changing the wallpaper of your smartphone. But when you choose boAt, there’s more; besides changing the watch face wallpaper you can set a preferred colour palette, add functional or informative widgets and more.

Why it’s the Ultimate Tech Accessory?

Smartwatches by boAt go the extra mile when it comes to customisation by providing some of the best watch faces that you can personalise, basis your wants or needs. These offer multiple benefits in various scenarios.

Matching Your Watch Face To Your Fashion Sense

Ethnic, western, Indo-western, traditional, whatever your wardrobe choice, your boAt smartwatch can match it. Right from the colour patterns of the watch face background to go with your mood and your outfit, along with a quick change of the strap to bring it all together, a boAt smartwatch can add that necessary touch of glam to your look. Choose from prints, shapes, a wide colour palette, and even funky smartwatch faces to create the perfect look that matches your taste, outfit, and occasion.

Monitoring Your Well-being

Whether you’re consuming enough water or walking enough every day, the smartwatch helps you keep away from slipping into a sedentary lifestyle. This is where your boAt smartwatch can lend a helping hand. Aside from using the stand-alone features, by customising your current watch face to include various tracking widgets like step counts, calorie tracker, heart rate, etc., it’s just a matter of raising your hand to get a readout of your current progress. Not only does the device track your sleep cycles and provides updates on your REM and deep sleep, but it also monitors your stress levels and checks blood oxygen.

Being Your Workout Buddy

The activity tracker on your boAt smartwatch makes the perfect gym buddy. It has several sports modes for a variety of activities. Every workout, from walking and running to climbing, lifting weights, cycling, etc., can be tracked. All you got to do is gear up with your watch and go work out. You can also take your boAt smartwatch for a swim and monitor your laps. Set up a smartwatch face with sports widgets to monitor your workout, and you’re ready to start.

Keeping Work On Track

A smartwatch can make your work-life easier with alerts, notifications, and meeting/event reminders right on your wrist. You can set reminders to pop up on your smartphone watch face, and take or hang up on calls without ever looking at your phone. Choose a watch face that lets messages like emails, WhatsApp or social media messages, or even missed call alerts be highlighted, and you’ll always be on top of things.

Being Your Travel Buddy

A smartwatch can come in very handy while travelling. Set up a dual dial as your smartwatch watch face, so you’ll always know the time back home and where you are. Some smartwatches also feature built-in GPS modules and mapping software that allows you to find your way around a place without using your phone.

Updating Your Smartwatch Face – The Process

With Watches powered by Crest+ OS, updating and customising your boAt smartwatch face is simple. You’ll need to download the boat Crest App on your smartphone, connect your smartwatch through Bluetooth and begin.

The app has a ‘Create Watch Face’ function under ‘Device Features.’ Click on it and check out the easy-to-follow tutorial. Start creating your personalised smartwatch face by choosing a background, colours, widgets, and where you wish to place them.

Widgets can be a handy way to personalise your watch’s home screen with readouts that you need. There are quite a few options to choose from, including time (digital or the analogue display format), date, heart rate, steps taken, distance covered, calories spent, and battery level.

Depending on how you use your boAt smartwatch, you can choose the widgets and even edit them to an extent.

It’s possible to design different watch faces for different looks, occasions, and outfits, situations or just pick some of the best watch faces from the extensive list of existing designs. Let your creativity run wild, save each creation under the ‘My Watch Faces’ option so you can use them whenever you like. Whatever your mood, you’ll have a watch face to go with it.

The Final Word 

The boAt smartwatch is a versatile piece of technology that makes life easier and complements “You”. Whether you’re dressing up for the office, relaxing at home, going out for a party, heading to the great outdoors or your nearest gym, your boAt smartwatch is more than a trendy accessory, it can be your best friend thanks to its many features and handy smartwatch faces.

Step into the future of cricket training with groundbreaking sensor technology that is revolutionising how the game is played and coached. Sensing technology, powered by advanced sensors and AI-based game coaching, is changing the way cricket is played and coached.

Get ready to unlock your full potential on the pitch as you dive into the exciting world of cricket training technology, where proximity sensors and innovative advancements make cricket training smarter and more effective than ever before.

What is Sensing Technology?

Sensing technology refers to the integration of sensors and data analysis tools to capture and interpret various metrics during cricket training. These sensors, often embedded in wearable devices or equipment, can measure a wide range of parameters such as bat swing, bowling speed, angles, power, and efficiency. 

By collecting and analyzing this data, players and coaches gain valuable insights into their performance, enabling them to identify strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement.

How Sensing Technology is Revolutionising Cricket?

Real-time Data Analytics

Cricket training has traditionally relied on subjective observations and manual analysis. However, sensing technology has brought real-time data analytics to the forefront of training methods. Sensors integrated into cricket equipment, such as bats and balls, capture a wealth of information during practice sessions and matches. 

This data includes bat speed, ball spin, shot accuracy, and more. Coaches and players can access this information instantly, enabling them to make data-driven decisions on technique, strategy, and training regimes.

Real-time data analytics provide insights that were previously inaccessible, enhancing performance and refining skills.

Wearable Technology

Wearable technology has made its mark in various sports, and cricket is no exception. Sensing technology incorporated into wearable devices like smartwatches allows players to monitor their performance and training metrics in real time.

These devices can track vital statistics like heart rate, distance covered, and calories burned, giving players a comprehensive overview of their physical exertion levels. 

This information helps players optimise their training routines, prevent injuries, and ensure peak performance during matches. Wearable technology has made training more efficient, personalised, and convenient, catering to the needs of modern-day cricketers.

AI-based Game Coaching

This has emerged as a game-changer in cricket training. By analysing the vast amount of data collected through sensing technology, AI algorithms can provide personalised coaching and insights to individual players.

From bowling techniques to batting strategies, AI coaches can identify strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. 

These AI coaches offer tailored suggestions, training programs, and drills based on the player's specific data, enabling them to optimise their skills and unlock their full potential. AI-based game coaching has made high-quality coaching accessible to players of all levels, driving performance improvement across the board.

Betting and Security

Sensing technology has introduced a new level of integrity and security to cricket. With the use of sensors, monitoring and detecting almost every activity on the field is now possible.

For instance, proximity sensors embedded in the pitch can alert officials to any tampering or manipulation, ensuring a fair and transparent game. This technology has significantly impacted the integrity of cricket matches, enhancing the trust of players, spectators, and betting agencies.

Changing Cricket Training Technology with Our AI-based Game Coaching

Enter Us! With our latest innovation, SensAi, we have taken cricket training to unprecedented heights.

SensAi is a feature embedded in our Lunar Call Pro smartwatch, powered by StanceBeam™. It introduces cricket analytics that gives players deep insights into their performance, enabling them to optimise their training regime.

Comprehensive Performance Insights

SensAi offers cricket enthusiasts a wealth of information about their performance. Users can gain insights into their bowling speed, and bat hits & misses. Armed with this data, players can identify areas for improvement and work towards honing their skills.

Bowling analytics

SensAi measures crucial bowling parameters such as speed, accuracy, and spin rate. This allows bowlers to fine-tune their techniques, adjust their run-up, and experiment with different grips to become more effective on the field.

Batting analytics

SensAi feature analyses bat hits & misses, power generated, and shot selection. With this information, batsmen can identify their strengths and weaknesses, work on their shot execution, and make data-driven decisions during matches.

What's the Bottomline?

Sensor technology has ushered in a new era of cricket training, where data-driven insights and personalised coaching are readily available to players of all levels. Our SensAi, integrated into their Lunar Call Pro smartwatch, is a game-changer that provides deep insights into cricket training technology so players and coaches can tailor their training. 

As the sport continues to evolve, embracing technology becomes imperative for anyone looking to excel on the cricket field.

So, why wait? Pick the right smartwatch for the cricket enthusiast in you and unlock the power of SensAi.

We take absolute pride in how India trusts us and supports our every new innovation and technology. However, with all that love and support comes the responsibility of giving it back to the community.

For us, passion holds utmost importance. The philosophy of Do What Floats Your boAt stems from that very zeal that inspires our hustle and pushes us towards achieving even more milestones. To support and strengthen that belief to always follow your passion, we collaborated with some changemakers last year. 

Hear Me Roar - A Campaign Supporting Underprivileged Kids and their Passions 

Hear Me Roar was a step towards employing the message of Do What Floats Your boAt by offering support to underprivileged kids who wish to pursue their passions across dance, music, drama, and cricket. We collaborated with Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation and added another layer to their Bal Mitra Mandal programme with our philosophy. The initiative, which is a year-long training program, focuses on empowering youngsters and providing opportunities to develop and showcase their talent in their respective fields.  

The children who were a part of the programme were also invited to the boAt office to perform and interact with the team. The day was filled with overwhelming performances, including an inspiring rap, a street play, and a dance performance that truly showed how passion drives them and pushes them to do what floats their boAt despite all odds.

To culminate the programme, we hosted an event on 11th January 2023 to celebrate Surakshit Bachpan Diwas with the participants, Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi, the Minister of Social Justice, and empowerment Hon. Mr Virendra Kumar, and Co-founder and CMO, boat Lifestyle, Aman Gupta.

Freedom To Play - A Talent Development and Girl Empowerment Initiative in Sports

 

With the aim of addressing the issue of providing quality education and opportunities to young girls in the field of football, we collaborated with Shikhar Dhawan Foundation under the ‘Freedom to Play’ initiative. Focusing on working towards community upliftment, ‘Freedom to Play’ hosted 130+ girls from across Delhi NCR and provided talent development scholarships to gratify the best performers with an opportunity to embrace their skills. The tournament was kicked off by Aman Gupta, Co-founder and CMO, boAt, and Shikhar Dhawan, Indian cricketer and founder of the foundation.

 

A Unique Scholarship for Prathamesh Sinha

 

When Shark Tank’s 11-year-old contestant Prathmesh Sinha visited our office in Hauz Khas, it brought more than just a wave of enthusiasm. He always wanted to spend time with his favourite shark, Aman Gupta, so we gave him a day to be the CEO and interact with the team. We together played lots of games, jammed on live music, and ate all of his favourite food! After a heartfelt day full of high-spirited activities and conversations, we awarded him with a unique scholarship that would further aid him in attaining a fulfilling and empowering educational environment. 

We also wished to help him in his journey of becoming a motivational speaker. At the boAt leadership meet, Prathamesh had the stage to himself where he stole all our hearts and left us speechless. 

Like they say, “Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much.” Here is to hoping that this generation keeps chasing their passions and we continue shaping these communities by encouraging them to do what floats their boAt.

Having cemented its position as the number two player globally in earwear, boAt is ready to ramp up its footprint with a fresh round of investment. The leading D2C electronics and wearables start-up by founders Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta has announced the raising of INR 500 crore ($60 million) from current investor, Warburg Pincus, and a new investor, Malabar Investments. 

This latest series of funding ‘reflects continued conviction and confidence from investors in the boAt story’, according to the official statement. As a result, boAt has now set its sights toward expanding its footprint across geographies and channels, with an emphasis on establishing boAt globally and augment its status as a category leader in audio. R&D, design and boAt’s support of the local Make In India manufacturing ecosystem will also receive a timely impetus.

When Will boAt Launch Its IPO?

This development arrives at a time when boAt has been mulling over launching an IPO after it was allowed to raise INR 180 crore before getting listed. However, as a consequence of the fresh fundraise and in compliance with SEBI regulations, the company has ‘proactively’ withdrawn its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) filed in January to launch an IPO worth INR 2000 crore this year. 

Now, boAt’s IPO launch is expected to be reassessed in the next 12-18 months, with the company officially stating that it intends to go public ‘once we have scaled up our wearables business and when financial markets improve’. According to the latest data, boAt registered INR 3000 crore in revenue with a 100% year-on-year growth in FY22.

Towards Becoming a Global Leader

Since its launch in 2014, boAt has fast-tracked its growth to become a market leader across smart wearables and audio electronics. boAt also enjoys technology partnerships with globally-renowned players like Qualcomm, Dirac, and Dolby. Recently, it also entered into a joint venture with electronics manufacturing services player Dixon Technologies. At present, boAt manufacturers over 1 million units of its products in India on a monthly basis. 

boAt’s focus on diversifying its portfolio has resulted in five brands to its name, including boAt, as well as the likes of Redgear, Tagg, Defy, and Misfit –the company’s own personal and grooming brand. With fresh investment providing a fillip to turbo-charge its growth further, boAt is now ready to become a global leader across categories. boAt Co-Founder and CMO Aman Gupta emphasised on this point further: 

We now want to make smartwatches our second core and will replicate the boAt digital playbook to become global leaders in this category as well. The new funding will allow us to invest significantly to disrupt the smart watches space with more innovative products.

Like the last 7 quarters, Imagine Marketing India, the parent company of audio & wearable brand boAt, has ranked among the top 5 global wearable companies this quarter too.

The leading market research and advisory firm, International Data Corporation (IDC) deemed Imagine Marketing India 5th position globally in its Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker Q2CY2022. According to the reports, in all the top 5 leading companies, Imagine Marketing is the fastest growing company in 2Q22 with a positive Y-O-Y growth of +76.6%

Another fascinating thing to note here is that Imagine Marketing India has also firmed its leadership position in the Indian wearables market by capturing a 31% market share in July-22. 

Not only the wearables market but Imagine Marketing India also leads the TWS category with 40%+ market share in July-22. 

For TWS, the company was ranked keeping the affordability, availability, seamless & advanced functionalities such as ANC, and introducing low-latency for gamers in its innovatively designed products.

Whereas for the wearables sector, this globally 5th ranked company has introduced Bluetooth calling, AMOLED Display & bigger screen sizes. The wearable category has also proven to be the fastest-growing category for Imagine Marketing India, showing strong momentum with >145% growth over the last year. 

The brand is now able to introduce items more quickly and at affordable prices as "Make in India" scales up. According to the brand's plan, they aim to produce 6 million units in H1FY23 under the Make in India policy.

The company's strong omnichannel presence, whether online or offline has turned out to be a big success.

In The Words Of Aman Gupta (Co-founder & CMO):

Design, innovation, and customer centricity are core to our business. The success of our brand can be credited to our agility, fast innovation cycle, and constant listening to our boAtheads. We are humbled and overwhelmed with the confidence and support entrusted by customers over the years. It is a moment of pride for all Indians as it validates the growing acceptance of home-grown brands globally. With the support of our Govt., we will aim to become a global lifestyle brand. We at boAt understand the requirement of millennials and will continue doing what we do best to serve the community of boAtheads.

When two powerhouse brands collaborate, the result is sure to be magnificent. This is what happened when India’s leading earwear brand, boAt, and Warner Bros Consumer Products & DC came together to create superhero theme audio wear designs products under boAt | DC. 

The iconic characters of Batman, Superman & Wonder Woman are selected for this one of a kind campaign. boAt’s top-performing audio wears, including Airdopes 131, Rockerz 450 & Stone 190, are freshly dipped in the new DC skins of the Trinity. 

From raging red like Wonder Woman to the dark aesthetic of Batman, these products have been painted with the coolest designs for you to don. One of the best kept secrets of this collaboration is Airdopes 441 Pro which comes in a special Batman edition. 

Both Mr. Aman Gupta, the co-founder & CMO of boAt and Mr. Vikram Sharma the Head of Consumers Advertising and Partnerships, Warner Bros. have expressed how ecstatic they are with this new alliance.

Aman Gupta, who is all about the boAt community, mentioned: “We feel our boAthead community would really appreciate this truly unique collection.”

Those products are mainly headphones,a lifestyle statement for every youngster. There lies the moolah €“ the company clocked more than Rs 100 crore revenues - for the brand last year. Aman, a Bollywood buff, knows the big picture and regales me with Salman Khan, Amitabh Bachchan analogies. The story of boAt surely sounds like one, a box-office hit in the making. boAt doesn't operate like one of the fancy startups I get to meet often. Aman tells me that boAt was operating out of Social, a café doubling up as an office space, and also found some of his employees there. In January the company shifted to Lets Cowork.

The company has 15 brand ambassadors on board. It is an impressive line up €“ Kartik Aaryan, Hardik Pandya, Jacqueline Fernandez, Shikhar Dhawan and more. They all hardsell the brand on their social media handles. boAt has two Co-founders, twin head offices, one in Delhi for sales and marketing spearheaded by Aman and the other in Mumbai headed by Sameer Mehta catering to product, logistics, and the operations side of the business. The founders meet in Delhi, Mumbai or Bangalore where their investor Fireside Ventures has its office. Else they visit China once in two months where the contract manufacturing is happening for all boAt products. I go more hotel nights with Sameer than with my wife. I call it an arranged marriage between Sameer and me, laughs Aman.

THE BROTHERS OF MUSIC

The founders come from different backgrounds, never interacted prior to setting up boAt and have been sailing in this startup journey togetherfor the past five years. Sameer didn't like being part of the rut, just managing a traditional family business called Kores India Ltd, and Aman, who is a CA byqualification and an MBA from Indian School of Business, found his love in sales and marketing while working with JBL. Both of them wanted to do something in the audio space via the online medium. When asked how his qualification helped in his startup, Aman says, I ensure wherever we spend we get money out of it. That's thebaniya plus CA in me. In the initial days, Sameer says,  We approached international companies to distribute their products in India but realized we are yin and yang and will complement each other, become better andbigger. Ten days later we found the company. We didn't have enough funds to experiment on 100 products so we decided to first get international brands to know what people want and what price point works, post that we launched our own brand. The company is clear on what to keep and what to outsource. When Aman partnered with Sameer he knew as the latter understands the Chinese manufacturing system well he can take the idea further. Aman always wanted to start something on his own and a friend introduced him to Sameer and both worked on production and marketing.

AUDIO IS THE KEY

So far audio products have been the domain of established, and mostly international, players such as JBL, Harman, Sannheiser. An Indian player all set to disrupt the audio market was unheardof. The founders spent time on getting the product right from 2014 to 2016. They started with such basic problem solving ideas such as having a charging cable which can endure 5000 bend test (the usual industry standard is 1000 tests) and came up with boAt's first winning product. Says Aman, Our first product was wire. Every time the charging cable used to break. That is the first pain point we solved, we call it jugaad innovation. Our cable is built so strong it will not break. Most products were driven by market demands, like longer cable, wireless airdopes, tangle-free cables. Since 90 per cent of India likes bass the products were built bass heavy. Apart from durability,the second star value of the brand is being fashionable. Whether it's taking a licence of Chennai Super Kings to launching a special range or getting designers on board such as Kunal Rawal the beautifully designed products are like a breath of fresh air. The third aspect the team worked upon was making it affordable for a millennial. Their airdopes come with an affordability price tag of Rs 2,999. The company typically hires people in the age groupof 20-22, for a reason. We didn't bring people with baggage, we wanted raw talent. Fresher blood in the company keeps innovation alive, adds Aman. Talking about the challenges posed by bigger brands, Aman says, As a challenger brand we don't have the mercy of the consumers. If we give them one bad product they will write us off. 

But boAt is sailing smoothly. At the Lakme Fashion Week, the brand displayed the product as the only accessory the models were wearing. The brand plans to cash in on the Make in India campaign and base its manufacturing only in India.

Currently, India is a 10,000-crore mobile accessories market. The market is projected to boom to $3.54 bilion by 2024, according to a report by Research Nester. Headphones are more personal, more to do with lifestyle that is cherished. And so boAt's adoption is swift. The colors are disruptive in its newly launched trippy collection. To be sure there were hiccups along the way. Sharing the initial failures of the brand, Aman says, One year back from wired everything started becoming wireless. We thought we can bring in products fast. And we launched a sub-standard product but that back fired. Then we went back to the drawing room. That failure taught us that you can't take your consumers for a ride. The company now launches 1000 units first, and waits for the customer response. The hit rate usually is 70-80 per cent. If products don't pass they go back to the drawing board.

boAt works with Qualcomm and other technology players to be ahead of time. The company currently has only 60 per cent fill rate. The brand often gets flack on social media for this. Aman says, The biggest problem in our industry is stock obsolescence. It is better to be sold out than be overstocked. 

So the next question pops up. Why only Fireside as an external investor in the company, and that too when the company is profitable? Says Aman: Once an investor asked me, what is our burn rate, I told him ask me our earn rate. We don't burn money, we earn money.  Aman was clear that they would not raise funds like other startups and truly wanted a mentor, and they found one in Kanwaljit Singh. Aman started approaching Kanwal through Linkedin when the company's revenues touched Rs 30 crore and closed the Fireside funding when they were nearing the Rs 100 crore-mark last year. Talking about the value Kanwal brought on board, Sameer shares, We both were managing the business but he showed us the larger picture, he brought in a lot of discipline. He is now helping us in taking the Rs 1000-crore vision forward. The company is now looking at debt funding for working capital instead of venture funding.

Currently 80 per cent of sales of the brand happen through the online medium largely driven by Amazon and Flipkart. Right now the repeat customer ratio is 30 per cent. The company is planning a B2C website for the brand. Since offline is picking up now, the brand has partnered with Croma, Vijay Sales and others. Aman adds, Now when we are going offline, retailers are accepting us because consumers are asking for us. Now boAt doesn't have to prove to retailers. The brand has launched five shop-in-shops in partnership with Croma. The brand is also launching voice-enabled products.

What keeps the boAt team going? I might be passionate but I am paranoid. Every day I feel consumers are changing and I have to change again. Our biggest fear is not to run fast enough else we will be disrupted. 

boAt's 30-member crew will grow to 40 soon. They will ensure the company is agile and create a different sound of music to enthrall its customers.