From corporate marketing leadership to cultural entrepreneurship, Bhawna Prabhakar is building HunarHatti to empower artisans and keep India’s handmade heritage alive.
In an age where mass production dominates marketplaces and algorithms decide taste, a quiet revolution is taking shape — led by founders who believe heritage deserves a future. One such changemaker is Bhawna Prabhakar, the founder of HunarHatti, a curated e-commerce platform dedicated to preserving India’s rich handmade traditions while empowering artisans across the country.
After spending over 25 years in B2B marketing leadership with Fortune 500 companies, Bhawna’s career had everything most professionals aspire to — leadership roles, regional strategy ownership, team building, and revenue growth. Yet beneath the corporate achievements lived a deeper calling: a connection to art, creativity, and India’s cultural roots. HunarHatti is where her professional expertise meets her personal passion, transforming boardroom strategy into a mission-driven marketplace for artisans.
Bhawna’s professional journey spans more than two decades in corporate marketing, where she led regional initiatives, built high-performing teams, and drove business outcomes for global organizations. While the corporate world sharpened her strategic thinking, it slowly revealed something missing — ownership of purpose.
After 23+ years of executing others’ visions, Bhawna realized she was chasing goals that weren’t truly hers. The turning point arrived unexpectedly at a local craft fair. Amid vibrant stalls and handmade treasures, she noticed something unsettling: immensely talented artisans struggling to find buyers, while machine-made products crowded retail shelves.
That moment sparked a fundamental question: Why are we letting our heritage fade while factories replace craftsmanship? For someone naturally drawn to art, the answer became action. HunarHatti was born from a simple yet powerful belief — handmade tells a story machines never can. What began as reflection soon transformed into a platform with a purpose: protecting tradition while creating sustainable livelihoods.
The problem Bhawna observed was systemic. On one side were artisans from remote parts of India with limited or no access to markets. On the other side were customers searching for authentic handmade products but unable to identify trustworthy sources.
Between them stood an inefficient middleman system, often exploiting creators and inflating prices, while large e-commerce platforms flooded the market with machine-made goods falsely labeled as handmade. This not only misled customers but slowly pushed traditional art forms toward extinction.
HunarHatti was designed to bridge this divide — directly connecting genuine creators with conscious buyers who value authenticity over convenience. Bhawna’s vision wasn’t just to sell products, but to build a trusted ecosystem where heritage survives through commerce.
HunarHatti is a curated e-commerce marketplace featuring exclusively handmade Indian products — from paintings and home décor to textiles, personalized gifting, and traditional crafts.
What truly differentiates the platform is verification and storytelling. Every artisan and every product is reviewed to ensure authenticity. In a market crowded with mass-produced items disguised as handmade, HunarHatti offers transparency customers can trust.
But the experience goes beyond transactions. When someone buys from HunarHatti, they support a real artisan — often working from a village or small town — whose livelihood depends on preserving a cultural craft. The platform removes unnecessary middlemen, ensures fair pricing, and brings diverse Indian art forms under one digital roof.
This philosophy is perfectly captured in HunarHatti’s tagline: “From Our Hands to Your Hearts.”
Building HunarHatti wasn’t easy, especially as a bootstrapped solopreneur venture. Bhawna faced three defining challenges.
The first was onboarding artisans. Convincing creators to trust an unknown platform required relentless outreach. Bhawna made countless cold calls, explained her mission repeatedly, and built relationships from scratch until artisans believed in the vision.
The second was earning customer trust in a digital environment crowded with fraudulent platforms. Credibility, she learned, is earned slowly through consistent quality, transparency, and honest storytelling.
The third challenge was financial discipline. Being self-funded meant balancing visibility, technology, logistics, and marketing with limited resources. Every rupee had to deliver impact. Wearing multiple hats — founder, marketer, customer service, and accountant — became her daily reality.
She overcame these hurdles through persistence, authenticity, and staying focused on mission over quick profits.
One milestone that validated HunarHatti’s vision was winning the “Most Attractive Stall Award” at Business Jatra Mumbai 2026. It signaled that people resonated with both the products and the story behind them.
But Bhawna considers the true breakthrough to be crossing 100 orders in under 10 months as a completely bootstrapped venture. Each order represented trust — not just a sale, but a customer choosing heritage over mass production. Repeat buyers and referrals confirmed that HunarHatti was evolving from a store into a movement.
Bhawna’s ambitions are bold yet grounded in purpose. The next phase includes scaling from 100 orders to 100–1000 orders per day, onboarding more unique art forms from every region of India, and expanding into B2B partnerships with corporates and hotels seeking authentic Indian décor.
She also envisions taking Indian craftsmanship to global markets, ensuring heritage receives international recognition. Alongside this, she aims to collaborate with government bodies to amplify artisan empowerment.
In five years, Bhawna sees HunarHatti as India’s most trusted handmade marketplace, preserving art forms that might otherwise disappear.
For Bhawna, entrepreneurship starts with purpose. She advises founders to build with meaning, not just money. Starting after two decades in corporate life without prior business lineage taught her resilience and discipline.
She encourages entrepreneurs to build trust patiently, be prepared to do everything themselves initially, and stay committed when no one else believes in the vision. According to her, the market rewards persistent execution, not perfect planning, and bootstrapping teaches lessons no funding round ever can.
Bhawna Prabhakar’s journey from corporate marketing leader to cultural entrepreneur reflects a powerful idea — businesses can scale not only revenue, but relevance.
Through HunarHatti, she is ensuring India’s handmade heritage is not just remembered, but lived, purchased, gifted, and celebrated. In doing so, she’s proving that when passion meets strategy, startups become storytellers — carrying tradition from artisans’ hands to customers’ hearts.
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Mirza Ali Danyal, co-founder of **Startup Times**, brings energy, vision, and a wealth of experience to the world of media. With a Master's degree and a deep understanding of the industry, Danyal leads his team in crafting authentic, dynamic content that empowers startups. His innovative leadership drives the agency’s success, inspiring creativity and growth at every turn.
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