Sanjay Bhargava: Patterning a Fair Trade Prototype with Quilts
As one of Paypal’s founding employees, Sanjay Bhargava knows how much people appreciate fair, secure transactions. During his 2002-2003 fellowship year with Stanford’s Digital Vision Program, Sanjay tackled trade again. But this time, instead of streamlining payments for online retailers, Sanjay wanted to create a Community Friendly Movement (CFM) that would be as profitable for the developing world’s artisans and their communities as it was for entrepreneurs.
“The potential of eliminating retail waste excited me. I also felt that, just as the Body Shop became a commercial success, a ‘community friendly movement’ could succeed in doing a lot of good and making a lot of money,” Sanjay said.
Naming his project SuVyapar, which means “good trade” in Hindi, Sanjay thought big, but started small. His mission: to start a Community Friendly Movement that could be adopted by entrepreneurs to enable 10,000 communities worldwide to sell $1 billion in goods and create a million jobs within five years.
Reflecting on the project in September 2004, Sanjay said, “The idea of making the project open source was to make a small contribution that others could build on. We also wanted to document what did not work so that the prototype serves as an interesting resource base for entrepreneurs around the world.”
For his project’s first community, Sanjay chose quilters from his mother’s hometown — Jaipur, India. Sold for hundreds of dollars in specialty stores, Indian quilts make money for stateside boutiques and linen outlets, but the artisans behind the rich dyes, intricate patterns, and hand-stitched seams reap shockingly small portions of those profits. Sanjay sought to cut costs by eliminating retail waste. He created an eBay store, bypassed middlemen to find his own exporter, and steered clear of expensive marketing and advertising tools. Using such tactics, Sanjay learned he could charge $70 for handmade quilts, a price much lower than those of most U.S. retail stores, and still return increased profits to the artisans. To date, SuVyapar has sold $45,000 in merchandise and distributed $3,000 to 81 artisans in an October 2003 fund donation ceremony. In a country whose per capita income is approximately $470, the $37 donation each artisan received was a welcome bonus.
SuVyapar may not have made $1 billion, but Sanjay remains dedicated to socially responsible entrepreneurship as a viable method for transforming communities worldwide.
“The subset that interests me most is generating sustainable productive employment for people who have the desire and ability but lack opportunity,” he explained.
After six years in the Bay Area, Sanjay returned to India in 2004. Through his company Transfinium, he continues to explore projects that benefit developing communities through innovative approaches to entrepreneurship. SuVyapar was just the beginning.
—Lorraine Sanders