After spending 17 years in California and learning about the impact of activity-based learning on children’s potential for school and beyond, we decided to launch our startup in educational toys and games space in May 2017. Our focus was mainly to bridge the gap in the Indian market with high-quality educational games and toys to nurture natural curiosity and creativity, Says Mr Manish Joshi Founder and CEO “Zigyasaw”.
How did you come up with the idea? Your inspirational moment
We were in California for 17 years. When my elder daughter was about 7-8 years old, she was very fond of Origami. To our surprise, one day she asked if she could sell her origami flowers and she sold one for 25 cents. That triggered a passion for business for the family.
When our younger daughter was 2.5 years old, she would sit for hours and try to put the giant floor puzzle about various states in the US. At the time, she could not read. By the time she was 3.5 years old, to everyone’s surprise, she knew all 50 states in the US and what they were known for. I thought that that was fascinating. She would do the world map puzzle with her grandparents and they all would have a great time putting it together. Her grandma would ask how we come to the US from India, what airlines we fly, what routes we take, what countries we visit en route, etc.
What is Zigyasaw?
“Zigyasaw” is derived from the Indian word Jigyasa meaning “Curiosity” and Jigsaw Puzzles. Zigyasaw is committed to creating a screen-free childhood for kids and has been designing and making a premium selection of Educational Puzzles, Flashcards, and other Learning items to foster Curiosity, Creativity, Skills, and more in Children. Our products from Zigyasaw cultivate a sense of learning and build confidence as they help to bring out a child’s potential.
Zigyasaw
Then we would buy the floor puzzles available in the market. I thought being an Indian parent, it would be a great idea to explain to her about India and Maharashtra through similar means. Every year, we would visit India during vacations and look out for similar puzzles in the Indian context.
There were puzzles, but very small pieces and not great quality. This is why we decided to do it ourselves. We did a lot of research and talked to a lot of folks. Finally found a partner in our family. My brother-in-law who is an alumnus of JJ School of Arts, Mumbai, also runs a creative ads agency in Pune. Quickly he was on board and Zigyasaw was born. We were thinking about naming the company CurioCity.com or QurioCity.com. Those domains were taken. Jigyasaw means curiosity in Indian languages. We combined that with jigsaw. Hence the name ZIGYASAW 😊
Brief about the organization and founding members
Founding members – Manish Joshi (CEO)
Manish Joshi (CEO)
Asawari Joshi (COO and Creative Head)
Kapil Kalyani (CMO)
Team members – Dinesh Jain (CFO) and Kapil Kalyani (CMO).
The detailed journey, like what all you want to share with readers.
In addition to the story mentioned above in 02, we found that initially there were not a lot of takers for our products since the quality was high in price sensitive Indian market. Our initial customers were families and friends. Slowly word of mouth started getting spread. We reached out to distributors, retailers, online marketplaces, and schools. Found out there are different channels to distribute our products. Online was relatively easy. Started with Amazon.in (India), Flipkart, firstcry in 2018 and then launched on Amazon.com in the US in Sept 2019.
Around Dec 2022, we appointed our national distributor in Gurugram, HR for offline. Slowly and steadily we started growing and repeat orders started coming from metros, tier 2 and 3 cities. We plan to diversify and reach out to other geographies such as Europe and Middle East and Australia. Our products are compliant with all international safety standards such as ASTM F963, EN 71, Gulf Mark, and BIS.
We started getting direct feedback from our growing customers and reviews were very heartwarming. It was good to see what we experienced as parents, our growing customer base also experiencing. Our products help families spend time together, and make learning fun and hours of pure screen-free fun.
All bootstrapped and circulating the proceeds back into the business to scale and grow. We have strategic investors (INFSPL.com) on board now and getting help to raise funds and keep our books in order. We are cautious and build our foundation very strong, which can withstand time.
Challenges and Opportunities/ Marketing Strategies
Our big competitors have started noticing us and copying our bestsellers, plus the growing online gaming industry is always a challenge. But there is no substitute for offline play especially in early childhood years. We want to stay focused and add value.
A quote from the founder on the journey, dealing with the challenge, or any inspiring moment.
Whether is our team, our customers, or anyone part of our ecosystem should have fun, learn, and grow. Hum sub khelate khelate jo sikhate hai, vo hamein jindagi bhar yaad rahta hai. Yahi vichar hamare har product design me hain.
Your hook-up point, if any (something unexceptional you have done for your startup)
After spending 22+ years in IT, quit my job and dived full-time into my startup not looking back. Got into product design, and learned everything from scratch despite not having a family business background formal education, or an MBA in business functions.
Provide some statistics like revenues and the number of clients you worked with.
Have 80 K+ customers in India and the US. In the US alone, we have more than 20K customers now. We get orders from the length and breadth of India from different and diverse backgrounds families
From Founder’s Desk
After forming the company in May 2017, our first goal was to come up with a list of subjects for the puzzles. After doing a lot of research about the marketplace and puzzles in general, we realized that a lot of companies do puzzles of princesses, spider-man, Iron Man, Motu Patlu, or some comic characters. I recall when my elder was 9 years old, one day she said, Daddy, I have realized that there is no such thing as a princess and real life is so different. She also said now I know who the real Santa is. That was touching. Given this context, I thought we should select subjects based on life and social skills for our puzzles. So, children can relate to real-life scenarios and situations. Around the same time, my little girl Radha was 5 years old and she was in prep II or Senior KG in Sesame Street preschool, Pimple Saudagar Pune. One day she learned about different seasons in the school. She came home and drew a picture of seasons like below. She showed that to me and said, Daddy can we make a puzzle of this? I thought that was a terrific idea. We created a brief for our artists and gave Radha’s picture as a guideline… We named this puzzle “Beautiful Seasons”… It has become “Amazon’s Choice” and one of our bestsellers. See the making of this puzzle in the below pictures…
#MyZigyasawStory
We were in California for 17 years. When my elder daughter was about 7-8 years old, she was very fond of Origami. To our surprise, one day she asked if she could sell her origami flowers and she actually sold one for 25 cents. That triggered a passion for business for the family. When our younger daughter was 2.5 years old, she would sit for hours and try to put the giant floor puzzle about various states in the US. At the time, she could not read. By the time she was 3.5 years old, to everyone’s surprise, she knew all 50 states in the US and what they were known for. I thought that that was fascinating. She would do the world map puzzle with her grandparents and they all would have a great time putting it together. Her grandma would ask how we come to the US from India, what airlines we fly, what routes we take, what countries we visit en route, etc. Then we would buy the floor puzzles available in the market. I thought being an Indian parent, it would be a great idea to explain to her about India and Maharashtra through similar means. Every year, we would visit India during vacations and look out for similar puzzles in the Indian context. There were puzzles, but very small pieces and not great quality. This is why we decided to do it ourselves. We did a lot of research and talked to a lot of folks. Finally found a partner in our family. My brother-in-law who is an alumnus of JJ School of Arts, Mumbai, also runs a creative ads agency in Pune. Quickly he was on board and Zigyasaw was born. We were thinking about naming the company CurioCity.com or QurioCity.com. Those domains were taken. Jigyasaw means curiosity in Indian languages. We combined that with jigsaw. Hence the name ZIGYASAW 😊…
#ZigyasawIndiaPuzzle
Around Dec 2014, we were grappling with some family issues. My little one was 2.5 years and we were constantly struggling to keep her away from screens. Could already see the impact of the screen on her. She used to be cranky and agitated at times. At that time, one of our family friends gifted us a US map puzzle from Melissa and Doug. Both of us used to put together that puzzle. It was a giant size puzzle and our little girl just used to love putting it together. Slowly, we started realizing the benefits of puzzles. She would sit for an hour or two to put it together. Her focus and attention span would improve. Once it was done, expressions on her face were priceless.. as if she had achieved something. She used to clean up the puzzle and put it again. This went on for a few weeks. We both used to have interactive conversations about each state and what it is known for, etc. By the time she was 4 years old, she knew all the 50 states. We were pleasantly surprised and proud. We started looking for similar puzzles and would buy those to keep her interested. One day, it just occurred, being an Indian and Maharashtrian parent, I thought it would be great if she knew about our roots and culture through similar means. Every year, we would come to India during Summer vacations and look for such puzzles. What we found were very cheap quality puzzles. We bought a couple of those.
She was never interested in those. She would say.. not interested, parts are not fitting properly, pictures are not very clear, etc.. I realized she was talking about smaller pieces and the poor quality of the board that’s used. I as a parent was upset and thought she may lose interest. Then sometime in March 2016, I met my bro-in-law in Pune. He is an alumnus of JJ School of Arts and we decided to do this puzzle manufacturing ourselves. My father-in-law suggested we should do the Maharashtra puzzle as May 1st was approaching (May 1st is Maharashtra day). Looking into the manufacturing logistics of a large-size puzzle, we were a little skeptical. Kundan (my brother-in-law) listened quietly and did not say anything.
I was to return to the US on May 9th, he called me to his office and gave me the Maharashtra puzzle. He wanted to surprise. Yes, we could do it. It was simply mind-blowing. And my little girl was happy to do this puzzle. Again, within a few weeks, she knew all districts in Maharashtra, our place Sangli, Jat, and our friends’ places too…My grandparents were happy to see their US-born grandchild was slowly getting connected to the roots and proud of it. The next step was manufacturing our first lot and we paid special attention to the India puzzle as we really wanted our own children to know more about India and its Heritage. A brief was created to include stuff about our culture along with geographical information, monuments, our festivals, etc. Our creative team threw shades of blue (the Indian sports team jersey is blue) and colors in the national flag.
The result is our bestseller #zigyasawIndiaPuzzle.
Now, my little one is 7 years old and she knows all states of India and our neighboring countries. Slowly started realizing the benefits of interactive games and how they can help everyone stay engaged in a group environment.
We realized puzzles are also an important educational learning tool for toddlers and young children as they provide many skills and mental learning benefits and opportunities.
Benefits of Playing with Puzzles
Cognitive Skills
Problem-Solving
Fine Motor Development
Hand and Eye Coordination
Social
Self Esteem
#ZigyasawGlobalWarming
On June 1, 2017, United States President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would cease all participation in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation. After seeing this news, I was disheartened to see the most powerful president of a very powerful developed country refusing to accept the reality. Just occurred, we as responsible global citizens should do something about climate change or global warming as some call it. After traveling around the US and India, I started realizing that temperatures are rising everywhere. Winters do not feel like winter anymore in some cases, summers just become too hot to handle, and even in rainy seasons, it becomes uncomfortable at times. Incidentally my elder one was in 7th grade at the time and she had a chapter on Global warming in her Social studies. Looking into the causes, slowly started realizing the side effects of global warming – reduced green cover, shortage of groundwater, etc. During research, we found that Global warming means that Antarctica and Greenland ice sheets are melting and the oceans are expanding. The term “global warming” was created by Wallace Smith Broecker. Recent climate change would still cause a 6-meter (20 ft) sea-level rise even if greenhouse gas emissions were reduced in 2015 per a scientific paper in Science.[15][16]
Studies show that Global warming is a slow and steady rise in Earth’s surface temperature. Temperatures today are 0.74 °C (1.33 °F) higher than 150 years ago. Many scientists say that in the next 100–200 years, temperatures might be up to 6 °C (11 °F) higher than they were before the effects of global warming were discovered. Low-lying areas such as Bangladesh, Florida, the Netherlands, and other areas face massive flooding. In a nutshell, whether you are one day born child or old enough to go to the grave, we all are getting impacted by this issue every single day. I thought we would create an educational puzzle so children can learn while playing. More importantly, we decided to state some obvious things so they become aware and start thinking about how they can help in their capacity. Another thought was today a lot of world leaders talk about protectionism. However, we have this one challenge and opportunity to cross all borders of nations, religions, casts, and languages and do something for our own selves and Mother Nature. Hence our punch line.
#ZigyasawGlobalWarming – Go green before green goes.
