Aligarh’s 24-YO asked ChatGPT for the exact chemicals needed for an instant car scratch remover - now sells it and eyes Rs 1 Cr monthly

Entrepreneurship, especially when it sprouts out of Tier II and Tier III cities in India, has a special glow to it. 

Simply because it often carries a powerful story: of someone rejecting limiting mindsets, outgrowing societal conditioning, and becoming bigger than the city they were born and brought up in. 

For Chirag Sharma, Aligarh wasn't the city he wanted to escape. It became the very ground he chose to expand on. 

“I have always been into doing something of my own. This is despite the fact that my father often recommended finding a stable job and a steady income. After multiple attempts at building something from the ground up, caring for automobiles became the field I chose to work in,” Chirag Sharma (24), founder of Wheelwash, tells Startup Pedia in an exclusive interview. 

Founded in December 2024, Wheelwash is a car and bike care brand that offers a comprehensive range of products including a DIY scratch remover, car shampoo, heat protectors, complete bike care kit, complete car care kit, etc.

THE BACKGROUND 

Hailing from Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh, Chirag Sharma grew up wanting to start a business. 

“In smaller cities, anyone who does something of his own gets a special kind of respect. I wanted to earn that feeling. Eventually, this translated into a genuine desire to add value,” he says. 

After finishing schooling in his hometown, Chirag went to the Jain University in Bengaluru to undertake his undergraduate degree in computer science, with a specialization in artificial intelligence.

At 18 years of age, he joined a network marketing firm that sold women's sanitary products. According to him, it is here that he absorbed the most about the art of selling and conversing. 

At 20 years of age, Chirag started an online pet product brand where he white-labelled products and sold them to Indian customers. 

“I had achieved a sale of Rs 1 crore, but ultimately the business wasn't scalable. I was also juggling college at the same time. Then, around the time I turned 21-22, I opened a small canteen (Madhubala Canteen) in a college in Noida. We were making Rs 15,000 in sales every day, but eventually disputes got it shut down,” Chirag Sharma tells Startup Pedia. 

Now…if you're wondering how Chirag funded all these ventures, then earnings from teaching are the answer. 

While studying in college in Bengaluru, he would coach young students on the functions and operations of Figma (a design software). He would save the money and then invest it in entrepreneurial ventures. 

“My father didn't even know I had started a canteen. I was scared that he wouldn't understand and would think I was not focusing enough on college. So I never told him,” Chirag laughs. 

In 2024, Chirag finished college and came back to Aligarh. He began immersing himself in market research and eventually zeroed in on the Indian automobile industry. 

He discovered that Asia is one of the biggest markets for automobiles in the world, owing to its vast population. 

When it comes to India, two-wheelers and four-wheelers have a special place in every household. 

“People end up buying a bike or a car after saving for months, sometimes years. Naturally, they care for their vehicles with a lot of heart. Some wash them on weekends, and others spend close to Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 by getting a complete car wash service every month,” entrepreneur Chirag Sharma explains.

“I wanted to build a brand that offered doorstep delivery of affordable and highly functional DIY bike and car care solutions. I knew it would change how Indians care for their vehicles and just make everyone's lives a tad bit simpler,” he adds. 

That is how the idea of Wheelwash was born. 

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JOURNEY AND CHALLENGES

With Rs 65,000 that came from his savings, Chirag Sharma bootstrapped Wheelwash. 

This amount was split into designing the website, running advertisements on Meta, obtaining raw material, and packaging the products. 

“The first product that I decided to make was the DIY Scratch Remover. The reason? Everyone keeps bumping their cars against branches, pavements, and sometimes other vehicles on the road. And literally everyone gets bothered by the scratches. I decided to offer an at-home solution that could effortlessly remove scratches and offer a premium finish,” startup founder Chirag Sharma explains. 

Other scratch removers available in the market were just temporary. Use them once and the scratch would be visible after one sweep of a cloth or one splash of water. 

At Wheelwash, Chirag wanted to offer true comfort and convenience when it came to bike and car care. 

But wait…he wasn't an engineer. So how did he come up with the chemical formulation of the DIY Scratch Remover?

ChatGPT!

Yes, ChatGPT. A single prompt, and Chirag had a list of the exact chemicals he needed to make a scratch remover that actually worked. 

“I took the list of chemicals to a manufacturer I know in Aligarh. He then connected me to a chemical supplier who was ready to ship the contents to Aligarh. That's how Wheelwash started manufacturing products,” the entrepreneur claims. 

Initially, for months, Chirag Sharma couldn't find label and packaging designers in Aligarh. So he sat down for hours in cafes and did everything himself. 

Packaging the DIY Scratch Remover was a whole different ballgame. 

Buckets full of patented chemicals would arrive at the Aligarh depot. Chirag would bring them to the manufacturing space, and then pour and mix the chemicals to make the scratch remover. 

“I was assisted by just one manufacturing person. At the time, I didn't have funds to hire packaging people. So I would sit for hours, pour the liquids into the small bottles, tightly cap them, and stick the labels. From December 2024 to April 2025, this continued. It was only after April that I was able to afford building a packaging team,” Chirag Sharma shares.

In the beginning, the largest chunk of orders came from places like Maharashtra and Karnataka. But the problem was the delivery timings. 

Chirag would ship the products to Delhi, and then from Delhi, they would reach the end customers. This process took Wheelwash 9-10 days. 

“Customers weren't very satisfied with the delivery timing. In an age where everything is available in 10 minutes, waiting for 10 days sounds unreasonable. Ultimately, I found someone in Delhi who was ready to keep my products in the warehouse, and ship them directly from there. Our delivery periods improved then,” the startup founder tells Startup Pedia.

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FOUNDER-LED MARKETING STRATEGY 

Initially, Chirag Sharma invested in UGC creators who would charge upwards of Rs 10,000 per video to showcase the car and bike care brand’s products. 

But due to limited funds, the founder decided to do this himself too. 

He used a simple phone camera and went out on the roads to display the efficacy and efficiency of Wheelwash’s DIY Scratch Remover. 

“These live tests and demos helped the brand grow significantly. We used the same videos to run Meta ads as well. People saw me as the founder and the credibility of the brand went up,”Chirag says. 

Currently, Wheelwash engages in multiple kinds of marketing – organic marketing, influencer marketing, and paid marketing such as YouTube, Meta, and Google ads.

WHEELWASH: STRESS-FREE VEHICLE CARE AT HOME

Today, Wheelwash offers a comprehensive product range that fulfills complete car and bike care needs. 

From the DIY Scratch Remover, Bubble Burst Car Snow Foam Shampoo, Car Freshener, to the Car Sunshade Protector, Complete Bike Care Kit, and Complete Car Care Kit, Wheelwash has something for everyone. 

“Our Complete Care kits come with everything you need to keep your car and bike maintenance stress-free and easy: shampoo, polish, scratch eraser, perfume, and a microfiber cloth that leaves no streaks while cleaning,” entrepreneur Chirag Sharma shares with Startup Pedia. 

In one year of the brand’s launch, Wheelwash’s DIY Scratch Remover has emerged as its hero product. 

It is responsible for 95% of the brand's sales. While it removes scratches and scuff marks in just 30 seconds, it also restores faded areas. Even after washing the car three to four times, the scratches do not resurface. This is what makes Wheelwash's scratch remover different from the other products in the market. 

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GROWTH

Since its market launch in December 2024, the complete car and bike care brand has witnessed steady customer growth across India. 

In its first month of business (December 2024), Wheelwash catered to 331 customers. Approximately one year later, in November 2025 alone, the brand has fulfilled orders for 9,000+ customers.

“For December 2025, we are projecting more than 10,000 customers,” Chirag adds. 

Having started with just Rs 65,000 in savings and an undying spirit of building something from the ground up, Chirag’s Wheelwash achieved a monthly revenue of Rs 60 lakh in November 2025. 

For growth comparison, take a look at the steady revenue growth of the brand:

• December 2024 - Rs 75,000

• January 2025 - Rs 3,29,000

• February 2025 - Rs 4,24,000

• March 2025 - Rs 8,61,000

• April 2025 - Rs 5,55,000

• May 2025 - Rs 7,80,000

• June 2025 - Rs 6,05,000

• July 2025 - Rs 5,05,000

• August 2025 - Rs 8,62,000

• September 2025 - Rs 21,68,000

• October 2025 - Rs 41,35,000

• November 2025 - Rs 60,00,000

The complete car and bike care brand aims to close December 2025 with a monthly revenue of Rs 1 crore. 

WHAT'S NEXT

Knowing fully well the risk of running a business or brand that has just one hero product, Chirag Sharma is working tirelessly to expand Wheelwash’s SKUs, and include products like tyre and trim restorers. The brand also aims to enter the space of ceramic coating in automobiles.

By 2026, Wheelwash will also set up its own manufacturing facility in New Delhi

“Where you're born, what you are, how you were conditioned by society - nothing matters. All that matters is what you want out of your life. Entrepreneurship is a difficult road, but I promise you, it's one filled with a lot of personal wins. Wins that cannot be measured by monetary figures. Wins that just are. Between you and your sense of self,” Chirag Sharma signs off.

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