ZingSync

Within weeks of arriving in Australia, things were looking pretty grim for Katt Srinivasan.

Mr Srinivasan, who was born in India, completed his postgraduate degree Down Under before working in the US and Singapore for a number of years.

But he’d fallen for the Aussie people and way of life and had grown tired of constantly relocating — and the expense that comes with that.

So on January 1, 2008, Mr Srinivasan touched down in Australia for good, with $100 in his wallet and full of optimism that he’d soon nab a job and settle in.

That didn’t happen.

• Dodgy magic number survives grilling

• Sad demise of Aussie beauty legend

• Ridiculous word billionaire wants banned

For weeks on end he struggled to find work, and his meagre savings were dwindling — fast.

“After a few days in Australia I had only $100 in my wallet and things were really looking bad — I literally had no money for a pair of thongs, it was crazy,” he told news.com.au.

“I didn’t have a job when I arrived but I thought I’d find one in a couple of weeks — but January was really slow, and there was nobody around.”

Luckily, he eventually found part-time work to tide him over before landing a full-time job after six weeks, which allowed him the freedom to work on his side project — a little website called The Bargain Avenue.

It was a discounts and coupons website, inspired by the online shopping phenomenon Mr Srinivasan had noticed during his stint in America, as well as his own love of buying online.

“I got the idea because online shopping was crazy in America and I did a lot of online shopping myself — I used to share deals on online communities and forums, to help people to save money,” he said.

“I was always passionate about web design and I wanted to do something with an online business.”

But sales were slow.

“Online shopping wasn’t that popular back then and not many people knew about shopping deals so it took a good three years before it finally took off,” he said.

“It started with a few $10 sales, then $20 before going into the hundreds then thousands.”

In 2011, three years after launching the site, Mr Srinivasan had an epiphany during a holiday — it was time to quit his day job, and focus on his side hustle full-time.

It was a big gamble, and his loved ones told him so.

“It was hard to convince my family and friends because they weren’t sure if it was going to work, but I had the belief it was going to pay off in a few years,” he said.

“I worked hard late at night and into the wee hours of the morning to follow my dream because I wanted to work online.

“Quite a lot of businesses closed down during that time but I just stuck around.”

But that gamble ended up paying off.

The Sydney man said online shopping soon started to grow in popularity, while the arrival of discount giant Groupon was the “turning point” which marked the beginning of the online coupon craze.

Today The Bargain Avenue is one of Australia’s leading discounts and coupons websites with an annual turnover of more than $1 million.

Since launching, Mr Srinivasan said his customers had saved “millions”, with the site also raking in more than $200 million in sales for its retail partners.

“It was the best decision to come to Australia. There was a gap in the online shopping market — it was already really big in America, so it was only a matter of time before Australia picked it up,” he said.

“Obviously there was a lot of trial and error in those years, and ideas change and it just keeps evolving. To be honest, when I started I didn’t know how everything worked at all, I had to do so much of learning repeatedly.

“I’d just like people to know that anything is possible, if they follow their dream, work hard, persevere and stick around.”

Continue the conversation @carey_alexis | alexis.carey@news.com.au

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7r7HWrGWcp51jrrZ7xaKlmqaTmnyjwdKipZ6ro2S%2FpsDAoqNooJ%2BseqOt0aCYoqZdlsOmutSeZJ%2BnpaOxpr6MpJitrF2ov6q6yK%2BYrJmeYq%2B2tcutZJplk6TCsbvNZpymqJmnsnC6xLCqZqukpL%2B6e5Zrmptok2iupK%2BUnZ1qmZSbsHGClp5ommuVaLB0fZNp