Miniature Bhutan, the winner of the 5th Startup Weekend, is making its mark on the Bhutanese souvenir market.
Almost three months after its miniature work of a 0.3cm Buddha statue carved out of the lead of a pencil won the best entry, Miniature Bhutan has been flooded with orders, mostly from travel agents.
“We have in two months done a lot of market validation,” says Sonam Tashi, the brain behind the miniature art.
“We went to banks to validate our products. We also went to a lot of offices and places and received positive responses. The journey was very interesting.”
It hasn’t been without challenges though. “Some of the organizations don’t take entrepreneurship seriously. We are not given a chance in the first place.”
Miniature Bhutan’s other notable works include writing names on grains of rice.
After an initial investment of Nu 5,000, the Miniature Bhutan has so far spent around Nu 55,000 in establishing their venture.
The team is currently devoting its focus on packaging as attractive packaging would help sales.
It is seeking to make Bhutan’s unique cultural heritage popular through their trademark miniature art works.
