Founder Story

The long, unglamorous way to a real business.

No inflated case studies. No clients I haven’t actually had. Just what happened, in the order it happened.

Akshesh - founder of SarvaMangal

“I started in retail arbitrage — a small idea, small stakes, and the feeling that this could actually become something.”

For most of the first year I was learning the boring things. How to list properly. How buyers actually make decisions. How platforms reward the sellers who don’t cut corners.

Then I tried a model that looked clever on paper. It didn’t work. I lost time. I lost money. I stopped talking about it online and spent months quietly figuring out what a real business actually needed to look like on these platforms.

What worked in the end wasn’t a hack. It was a slower, more honest version of what I’d been trying to do all along – with better sourcing, better systems and a much clearer idea of who I was selling to.

The Failure I Don't Hide

I ran a restaurant in India before any of this. It closed. Not because the food was bad or the idea was wrong — it closed because I didn't know how to run operations. Staff, supply, systems, the unglamorous machinery behind a business — I didn't have it, and it cost me a huge loss. I'm not telling you this to be humble. I'm telling you because it's the reason I obsess over operations, processes, and account health now. I learned the hard way what happens when you don't.

Starting Over in the UK

December 2022, I came to the UK to study Management, on the back of a Computer Science degree I already had. To pay my way, I worked as a chef. Long shifts, physically brutal, the kind of job most people use as an excuse to switch off when they get home.

2024 — The First eBay Attempt: Dropshipping

In 2024 I opened an eBay account and started dropshipping. I did it for 9 months. I'm not going to dress it up — dropshipping taught me the platform, the mechanics, the customer service headaches, but it wasn't the model that built anything sustainable. It was tuition, paid in time and small losses, not a success story.

Where I Am Now

Right now, my eBay and eCommerce work generates six figures. Not from one lucky product — from three years of getting it wrong on dropshipping, getting it right on arbitrage, and paying close attention to what actually made money versus what just felt busy.

August 2026 — The Next Chapter: AKSCENT LONDON

In August 2026, I'm launching my own perfume brand, AKSCENT LONDON — a registered trademark, not a side hustle. This isn't me pivoting away from what worked. It's me taking three years of retail and platform experience and finally building something with my name on it instead of reselling someone else's stock. Where scent becomes memory — that's the brand. I'm building it the same way I built everything else: hands-on, no shortcuts, willing to be wrong in public.

Why SarvaMangal Exists

I'm blunt. I don't sugarcoat. If I tell you something will work, it's because I've done it and it worked. If I tell you something's a waste of your time, it's because I already wasted mine on it — dropshipping taught me that lesson directly. SarvaMangal is me teaching what I actually did: the account creation, the product sourcing, the platform mechanics, the mistakes that cost me money so they don't cost you yours.