The numbers were finally shifting.
After months of riding razor-thin margins, Rootlink's finance sheet—usually a graveyard of red figures—was showing something new.
Profit.Not much, but real. Tangible. Earned.
Aarav stared at the updated dashboard late into the night. The System confirmed it:
Milestone Unlocked: First Break-Even MonthNet Profit: ₹1,42,300Vendor Retention: 98.2%Customer Repeat Rate: 37%Operational Health Score: Strong
He exhaled.
They had done it.
For the first time since he started this journey—alone, broke, and carrying the weight of his family's hopes like bricks on his back—he wasn't surviving.
He was building.
The celebration wasn't loud.
Just a quiet dinner at home.
His mother cooked despite her usual fatigue, insisting on making halwa, even though her hands trembled a little while stirring the ghee. His father brought out a bottle of Thums Up, and Aarav's younger sister, Meenal, had scribbled "CEO BHAIYA" in glitter on an old cardboard box and wore it on her head like a crown.
Aarav couldn't stop smiling.
Not because of the profits.
But because, for the first time in years, the house didn't feel heavy with tension.
It felt… hopeful.
Two days later, Aarav stood at a regional vendor meet in Jaipur.
Dozens of small producers were in attendance—farmers, craftswomen, weavers, forest product gatherers—all looking at him not as a CEO, but as a link between their world and the one that had always ignored them.
He walked to the front, mic in hand, and said:
"We started Rootlink to give you a voice. Today, we've broken even. But this is not our peak. It's just our signal that the world is ready for what we're building. So here's my promise—we're going bigger. We're going fairer. And we're doing it together."
The applause was quiet at first.
Then grew into a roar.
Someone shouted from the back, "Aarav bhaiya zindabad!"
He smiled, blinking faster than usual.
Later that night, sitting in a quiet café with Ritu and Rakesh, Aarav laid out the next phase.
"No more just e-commerce," he said. "We're going hybrid. A physical presence in every region. Small fulfillment hubs. Demo centers. Maybe even branded pop-up stores."
Rakesh leaned forward. "You're thinking retail?"
"Not just retail," Aarav replied. "Representation."
And then he shared the next big dream.
"I want Rootlink to be more than a marketplace. I want it to be a movement. For dignified trade. For local value. For people who've always been treated like invisible hands behind someone else's brand."
The café went quiet.
Even the System chimed in.
New Long-Term Objective Set:Mission—Empower 1 Lakh Small ProducersETA: 3 YearsTrajectory: Achievable
Ritu grinned. "Then we better start hiring."
Rakesh raised a glass of cold coffee. "To Rootlink 2.0."
Aarav clinked his glass gently.
"To them. The ones who believed in us when we had nothing."
And in that moment, Aarav realized—Breaking even wasn't the goal.It was just the beginning of giving back.