Entrepreneurship · Business Design · Studio Building · 2017–2024
I built a studio from zero.
Pivoted it through a pandemic.
Then closed it to learn more.
Chapter 01
Starting From Nothing
In 2017, I registered Innovheads Design Studio in Ahmedabad with no clients, no team, and one skill set: interior design. The first year was learning what a business actually requires — not just the creative work, but the pricing, the contracts, the client management, the difficult conversations.
By the end of year two, I had built a reputation for delivery discipline. Clients came back. Referrals started.
Chapter 02
Scaling
Between 2018 and 2020, the studio grew from a solo practice to a distributed team of 8+ designers. Revenue grew approximately 60% year-on-year for four consecutive years. At peak, we managed 10–25 active client engagements simultaneously across residential, commercial, and visualization projects.
I built systems for this: onboarding processes, project management frameworks, KPI tracking, role definitions. The studio stopped depending on me being in every conversation.
Selected Work from This Period
Chapter 03
COVID and the Visualization Pivot
When COVID-19 hit and all on-site work stopped overnight, I had a choice: wait, or redesign.
My journey into 3D visualization began as a response — not a plan. I realized that the team, the tools, and the skills we had could be redirected toward work that could be done entirely remotely. Over the following months, I trained the team in 3D rendering and visualization, and rebuilt our service offering around it.
What started as a survival move became a genuine capability. We built a small but capable visualization studio that delivered photo-realistic, emotionally resonant renders for architects, designers, and emerging professionals across India and beyond. The pivot worked. Geographic constraints disappeared. Delivery speed improved.
Chapter 04
The Decision
After eight years, the studio was running. Clients were steady. The team was capable. I was comfortable. That was the problem.
I had been solving the same category of problems for eight years — with better tools and more experience, but the same fundamental questions. I wanted to understand why design worked, not just when. So I closed the studio, moved to Milan, and enrolled in Politecnico di Milano’s MSc Strategic Design programme. It was not a career pivot. It was a deliberate acceleration.
Eight Years in Numbers
“The hardest design decision I ever made was closing something I had built and loved — because I knew the next version of me needed to start from zero again.”