Somewhere between chai breaks and casual “what if…” conversations, OneByTwo began to take shape. We didn’t have a business plan, a logo, or even a clear product idea. What we did have was an itch.
Back in 2019, we were just two freshly minted grads, back from the US, doing what responsible people do—getting “real jobs.” One of us was in finance, the other in urban planning. And while we were very busy being professionals in Ahmedabad, there was always this quiet restlessness. The kind that shows up at 9pm on a weekday when you're exhausted but still pulling Pinterest boards for “modern Indian furniture.”
It took us two years, several badly drawn sketches, and countless chai-fueled evenings to say it out loud:
Let’s start something. Together.
So we did.
Garage Beginnings and Clumsy Firsts
Our first “studio” was a garage. Our first workshop had two machines and one very confused mistrī who (fairly) asked, “Su banāvavānū chhe tamne?” We didn't have all the answers. Actually, we barely had any.
We’d go to our day jobs, come home, open our laptops, and design pieces in software we hadn’t touched in years. Sometimes what we imagined came out of the machines. Mostly, it didn’t. But what did come out—slowly, clumsily—was our first collection: Round The Corner.
Every product passed through our hands: from cutting to polish to packing to explaining to the courier guy why we were dispatching from a house. On May 15, 2023, we launched on Instagram with a page, a post, and a lot of hope.
Year One: The Art of Figuring Things Out
The first year was exactly what you’d imagine—total chaos. Beautiful, exhausting, exhilarating chaos.
We learned how to build a website (one painful page at a time). We discovered what not to do with polish samples. We said “soon” a lot when customers asked about timelines. We experimented with materials, juggled vendors, misread tax codes, and made friends with logistics people out of necessity.
But we showed up. Every day. Even when we had no clue what we were doing.
Slowly, systems started falling into place. We moved into a new workshop—still modest, but fully ours. No more backroom finishes and makeshift packaging corners. We launched two new collections—Once Upon a Time, our kids’ line full of whimsy and nostalgia, and Sabha, inspired by Indian forms and tradition.
The biggest win? We weren’t just figuring it out anymore. We were building something.
Year Two: Owning the Mess
We still panic before launches. We still work on the floor when needed. But now, we know the rhythm. The mistakes feel less scary, the decisions feel more instinctive.
What started as an after-work side hustle now feels like a full-grown, living thing. And every time a new product goes from sketch to reality—or a customer sends a message saying “this made my day”—we feel it in our bones.
This year, we’re focusing on depth: tighter systems, more thoughtful collections, and collaborations that challenge us in all the right ways. We’re finally sleeping a little more (a little, not a lot). And we’re proud to say we’re no longer just two girls with a dream—we’re a growing team with tools, calendars, and a lot of WhatsApp groups.
We’ve learned that perfection is overrated. But persistence? That’s where the magic lives.
So here we are, at the start of year three—with more clarity, more courage, and an unreasonable amount of gratitude. For our small team, our patient makers, our community of customers who cheered us on, and our early courier guy who never questioned a package leaving from a garage.
Here’s to the mess, the madness, and everything in between.
Here’s to onebytwo turning two.
