Janani Prabhakaran is the founder of Unbaggaged; the world’s first on-demand luggage management network that collects, stores and transports bags for travellers to their chosen destination within a city. It works by connecting travellers with taxi drivers who can pick up and return the bags when needed, wherever is most convenient.
Janani came to the UK from India to study an undergraduate degree in Business at University of Strathclyde, graduating in 2019. As someone who travelled a lot during her studies, she discovered some common issues when trying to store her luggage. On one trip in London, she had to check out of her hotel in the morning and carry multiple heavy bags around the city before her flight later that evening, not allowing her to enjoy the day to the fullest. She decided to come up with a solution for this in a student project in her university course, along with some classmates.
Deciding to pursue this business idea further, Janani registered for support through Strathclyde Inspire. She attended a Start-Up Bootcamp where she worked on a Business Model Canvas, which gave her a clear and goal-oriented path to progress from idea to execution. She has continued to receive support from the University’s Start-Up team since, who she says have supported her every step of the way with everything from development of an entrepreneurial mindset to human resources and correcting first time founder mistakes.
The Start-Up team invited Janani to join the Accelerator Programme, which helped her to grow her business and network, while receiving invaluable guidance and advice from the Strathclyde Inspire Supporters. She credits Strathclyde Inspire events such as the Inspire 100 – an event which gives University start-ups and spin-outs the chance to pitch to an audience of investors and experts for a portion of a prize pot – key in providing opportunities for promotion and networking with other entrepreneurs. She has received a variety of grant funding from the University as well as other organisations, enabling her to raise the necessary funds to get the business off the ground.
After receiving recognition in the digital transformation sector – Janani was featured in the Daily Telegraph’s ‘100 Female Entrepreneurs to Watch’ list and was named a winner in the Scottish EDGE Awards where she received a £40k award – the immediate goal of the luggage story company is to expand from Edinburgh to Glasgow with the help of this funding. In the longer term, Janani hopes to integrate the business with other booking platforms to create a seamless booking process for customers.
Janani offered some advice to any budding entrepreneurs:
I truly believe skills can be learned, and as an entrepreneur you can’t be the master of all trades. Persistence and resilience are key to being a successful entrepreneur. Get your service or product out to the market quick, fail fast and cheap, and learn even faster. In my opinion, these are the main underlying principles to a successful business.
