For 28-year-old Malik Aadil, his first job in south city Bangalore in Karnataka was his last. After working with a prominent e-commerce company for two years soon after completing his MBA, Adil decided to resign and create his own niche.
“After I quit my job, I had a lot of brainstorming sessions about what to do, where to start and what to start,” he recollects. “Since I have come from a MBA background with a specialization in Advertising, I decided to launch a company of my own.”
Adil met his like-minded people, few of them business minded and few of them technocrats. “Probranding365 was born,” he says. “Since my employer earlier was very happy with my work. I went to him with a proposal to be its first client. That is how my journey started,” he says. “Currently we have few big names in the marketing as our clients including Royal Enfield and others.”
While Adil was aiming to expand its Advertising company in Bangalore, the global COVID pandemic struck the world. “I had to move to Kashmir. I sat and decided to work on a lot of things… But every time one or the other reason would become a bottleneck. One day while I was going through some notes in my diary, launching an e-commerce site propped up,” he says, adding “I immediately swung into action. Now with many challenges and resource constraints, I was aiming to give Kashmir its unique e-commerce story.”
Now Groxery is a first-of-its-kind e-commerce application platform in the valley of Kashmir. With ‘everything’ on its list from fresh grocery to custom-cut chicken, homecare to pet care, electronics to stationery, Malik Aadil’s ‘The Store Next Door’ venture has been a ray of hope for many in Kashmir.
Malik found himself in his home, Bandipora, during the pandemic lockdown and witnessed the hassles of everyday life of Kashmiris. With a background of Masters in Business Administration, and experience in marketing for the big brands of India from his other brainchild, Probranding365, Malik knew what he ought to do.