A journey through visual stories
Welcome to my Stories
Eleven years, two companies and one very long year in between. This is the version with the photographs in it.
Nusrat Chowdhury
Co-founder, Thread & Co. · Banani, Dhaka
I co-founded Thread & Co. in 2018 with one sewing unit in Banani and a website I built myself over a weekend. We sell direct to customers in four countries now and employ about ninety people.
Before that I freelanced for six years and told everyone it was a choice. It was not. The first company I tried failed in 2017 and I have found that saying so out loud is more useful to people than any of the advice I could give them.
Four chapters, one of them bad
- 2015
Freelance, and pretending it was a plan
Six years of other people's deadlines. I learned how to price work and how not to answer a client at eleven at night.
- 2017
The one that failed
A marketplace nobody wanted. Eight months, my savings and two friends who are still friends. The post-mortem is on the blog.
- 2018
Thread & Co.
One unit, four machines, and a decision to sell direct rather than to a buyer. It took two years to look sensible.
- 2022
Profitable, finally
The first quarter where the number at the bottom was black. We have not had a red one since.
She told a room of two hundred founders about the company that failed, in detail, with the numbers. Nobody does that.
Organiser, Dhaka Startup WeekThe only supplier who has ever sent us a delay email before we noticed the delay.
Buyer, London