John Bissell, Founder of Famous Brand FabIndia

John Bissell is the founder of FabIndia which is an Indian retail company that sells clothing, furniture, fabrics, and cultural objects made by rural Indian craftsmen. Fabindia began as a home goods exporter before expanding into domestic retail in 1976, when John Bissell, an American working for the Ford Foundation in New Delhi, opened the first store in Greater Kailash, New Delhi.
Fabindia derives its products from 17 community-owned businesses in India, with craftsmen and craftspeople owning a portion of the company’s stock. The majority of Fabindia’s products come from villages, contributing to the creation and support of rural jobs in India.

John received his formal education at the Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts, as well as at Yale University. After finishing college, John worked as a buyer at Macy’s in New York, where he developed an appreciation for the look and feel of hand-woven fabrics. Both of his passions collided in 1958, when he was awarded a two-year grant from the Ford Foundation to teach Indian villages how to make export-ready goods.

The Economic Times named Fabindia “Best Retail Brand” in 2004. Fabindia was featured in a special CNBC TV report on India in 2004. The Fabindia brand does not advertise and relies heavily on word-of-mouth advertising. In 1992, John Bissell founded The FabIndia School in Bali, Rajasthan. It is now a co-educational senior high school with 600 students, 40% of whom are female. Bissell is an angel investor who has made a number of investments in a variety of industries, including Juggernaut Books, Wow! Momo, and Foradian, an educational and school software firm.