Before launching Boult Audio (now GOBOULT) in 2017, co-founder Varun Gupta had launched three startups and worked for three companies, including Snapdeal, each of which, he says, guided him to the right path. The first was an ‘advertising in notebooks’ business, which he launched in 2012 while pursuing MBA from the International Management Institute, New Delhi. The second was a classifieds for smaller communities and the third an e-commerce consulting firm. “Through all this, I learnt the nuances of running a business. Particularly, during my third startup stint, I used to work with many audio companies that took music online. This helped me acquire expertise in the e-commerce and audio space,” Varun, 36, says.
This experience, combined with his deep passion for music, helped him identify a white space and convert it into a winning business model the fourth time around with a smart wearables and hearables manufacturing company.
From startup stumbles to GOBOULT’s breakthrough
His brother and co-founder, Tarun Gupta, 39, who was working in the US at that time, also decided to join. For one year, before launching the startup, Varun frequently travelled to China and spent a lot of time on product development in the Shenzhen Guangzhou Belt, which is like the electronic manufacturing hub of China.
Finally, in 2017, after a year of work on this, the brothers launched GOBOULT and partnered exclusively with Myntra. “Myntra said, you take care of the supply, we’ll take care of the demand. That meant we didn’t have to worry about the sales part. And, because of the exclusivity, we had preferential visibility, access, etc.” The first purchase order was 1,000 units of headbands, called Space, at Rs 1,400 each. For this, the founders had to take a loan of about Rs 13 lakh from a bank. “We then brought these goods to India, paid the duties, got the packaging done in India and finally launched here in June 2017 during the Myntra end-of-season sale,” Varun recalls. To his surprise, all the units got sold out in the first 24 hours. This product-market fit gave the Gupta brothers the confidence to grow further. That’s how GOBOULT’s journey took off.
From day one, the brothers were very clear about design being the firm’s moat, because till then, the industry, dominated by international brands and unorganised players, was mostly selling black coloured boring-looking headphones. Also, from day one, the founders were sure of focusing only on wireless, which was an upcoming category.
Bootstrapped growth to IPO ambitions
For the first few months after launch, they hired only one person to take care of customer service, and worked with freelance consultants for R&D work and factory agents for manufacturing their products. “We didn’t have the luxury to hire more as the first purchase order was only Rs 13 lakh.” With this, they launched their next batch of 5,000 units of headbands on the Independence Day sale, which got sold in another 3-4 days. Then they went back in stock with about 10,000 units and the journey continued.
Today, the firm sells a wide range of products, including headphones, earbuds, smartwatches, speakers, and lifestyle accessories, across offline and online channels, including Myntra, Amazon, etc. And Varun continues to be hands-on with product design and marketing while Tarun focuses on product development and manufacturing.
The co-founders say that their passion for business and persistence also stems from their father, who runs a cloth and stainless steel utensil trading business in Delhi. “Dad had told us that we should build our own career and not bank on him to join his business.” That’s why when Varun, also an engineer from Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology, New Delhi, quit his well-paying job at Snapdeal, it was a big shock for his family. “They didn’t support it because they resonated with stability.”
GOBOULT’s first office was a four-seater cabin in a co-working space, which moved up gradually to 60 seats. By 2022, the brand had hit a revenue of over Rs 240 crore and it was time for a new office at DLF Plaza Tower, Gurugram. Today, GOBOULT has about 650 employees. The firm closed FY25 at Rs 800 crore revenue, from Rs 700 crore in FY24 and Rs 498 crore in FY23. For FY26, GOBOULT is aiming for a revenue of Rs 1,000 crore. The firm has also stayed profitable from day one and is growing at an annual growth rate of 75%.
The co-founders had decided not to raise any external funding as they thought it would curb their autonomy. “We wanted to focus on building a sustainable startup from day one rather than wasting or investing energies into speaking endlessly with investors.” GOBOULT has stayed bootstrapped till now.
The firm is also moving towards premiumisation, offline and international expansion as it prepares for an IPO in 18 months. “At a corporate level, we are becoming an AI-first and futuristic tech company in the wearables category. We are also investing over Rs 30 crore this year in R&D and in-house manufacturing capacity,” Varun says.