How scissors and feedback built our brand

I was dad’s office, staring at a pile of rejected wedding invite samples.

My coffee was cold. My patience was colder. I’d convinced myself that the only way to build a “premium” wedding invite business was to burn money like a Bollywood action scene.

If it didn’t cost a bomb, who would take us seriously?

That was my flawed belief.

I thought expensive meant exclusive. I wanted “Happy Beginnings” to feel like a luxury boutique, not a discount bin.

So I did what most first-time founders do: I spent big.

I ordered every sample, tried every style, and let every vendor upsell me.

For heavens sake we even tried geo-fencing ads. (that’s a story for another time)

The result? A mountain of wasted invites. A sinking feeling in my gut. And a bank account that looked like it had been mugged in broad daylight.

Here’s the gut punch I got: The invites that actually sold? The ones couples loved? They weren’t the expensive, gold-stamped, feels-like-a-wedding-cake-in-your-hand cards.

Nope.

They were the simple, clear, personal ones — mocked up with paper, scissors, and a bit of tape. The ones we could test fast, tweak faster, and get feedback on before spending a rupee on printing.

Basically, the handmade ones.

Turns out, my obsession with “premium” was just my ego talking.

Couples didn’t want to pay for my learning curve. They wanted invites that felt like them. Not like a stationery store exploded.

So we tried something new. We stopped treating every idea like it was the final version. We started prototyping. Quick and dirty. Paper and pen.

Sometimes, we’d cut out sample invites while watching cricket. Sometimes, I’d send WhatsApp photos to a bride and say, “What do you think of this?”

The feedback came back in hours, not weeks.

Here’s what changed:

• We stopped guessing what people liked. We started knowing.

• We didn’t have to print 500 cards just to see if a design worked. We’d make ten, show them around, and toss what didn’t click.

• Couples felt involved. They’d say, “Can you move this flower?” or “Can you add our dog?” We’d do it on the spot.

• And we saved lakhs. Not an exaggeration. Our “R&D budget” dropped to zero as we started adding the design and protoyping to the clients.

if i’m being fully honest here, we had some backlach and even people yelling at us.

but after they see the samples they just wanna give us their money.

It felt like cheating. But it was just smart. We were running a lean wedding invite business without even knowing it.

Like the Lean Startup, but with more glitter and fewer spreadsheets.

The old me thought status meant spending. The new me knows status is delivering what people actually want — and doing it fast, with less waste.

If you’re building something, don’t fall for the “it has to be expensive to be good” trap.

Test ideas like you test a new recipe: small batch, lots of tasting, zero shame in tossing what’s bland. Invite feedback early. Get your hands dirty. Use scissors.

Because in business, as in life, the best stories (and savings) come from cutting out what doesn’t work.

Want the shortcut? Start with scraps. End with smiles.

If you’ve ever wasted money chasing “premium” when all you needed was “personal,” hit reply and tell me your story.

And tomorrow we’ll talk about lean brand sprints.

— shashank

P.S.

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