(Our Bureau, May 21) Indians love their chai and tea exports have created many successful business ventures for decades. But a new breed of entrepreneurs have stepped in to blend technology with tea sourcing and quicken the supply process to ensure tea lovers globally get their first cup within days of production. Meet three Indian startups that are brewing success by redefining tea exports.
Teabox: Kausshal Dugarr-founded Teabox eliminated middlemen and cut down the travel time between the produce and the end consumer from a minimum of five months to a few days. Backed by investors such as Accel Partners and corporate stalwarts like Ratan Tata, Siliguri-based Teabox has sold over two billion cups across 120 countries.
VAHDAM: Founded in 2015 by then 23-year-old Bala Sarda, VAHDAM sells its superfood teas, drinkware and elixirs in 104 countries, raking in a turnover of ₹159 crore. Its clientele includes celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Mariah Carey, Martha Stewart, and Chris Prat.
Udyan Tea: Three friends — Punit Poddar, Parvez Gupta and Soveet Gupta — started Udayan as an online brand when tea e-tailing was virtually unheard of. Today, they source teas directly from more than 150 estates in India and Nepal and export to over 40 countries.
(July 15, 2021; 12.15 pm) Beauty is big business and everybody wants a share of the pie. Store fronts and e-commerce platforms are filled with perfectly made out models screaming the power of makeup. Lately, there’s also more spotlight on toxin-free products and clean beauty is fast turning into the buzzword. It’s no longer about buying only big, luxury brands anymore. Probably why, several Indian startups are finding the right audience both in India and overseas markets when it comes to offering clean, affordable beauty products. Here Global Indian looks at five of the most promising Indian beauty brand startups that are at par with any international label. Juicy Chemistry [caption id="attachment_4915" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Megha and Pritesh Asher; Photo Courtesy: The Weekend Leader[/caption] Launched in 2014 by husband-and-wife duo Megha and Pritesh Asher, Juicy Chemistry is all about clean beauty. The no-chemical, organic cosmetics company sells everything from soaps, scrubs, essential oils, shampoos to toners and dry shampoos. Set up in Coimbatore, the company fuses science with tradition. From starting off with experiments in their kitchen to now having a presence in 30 countries and retailing across several e-commerce platforms, Juicy Chemistry has come a long way. The idea for Juicy Chemistry came about when
[caption id="attachment_4915" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Megha and Pritesh Asher; Photo Courtesy: The Weekend Leader[/caption]
Launched in 2014 by husband-and-wife duo Megha and Pritesh Asher, Juicy Chemistry is all about clean beauty. The no-chemical, organic cosmetics company sells everything from soaps, scrubs, essential oils, shampoos to toners and dry shampoos. Set up in Coimbatore, the company fuses science with tradition. From starting off with experiments in their kitchen to now having a presence in 30 countries and retailing across several e-commerce platforms, Juicy Chemistry has come a long way.
The idea for Juicy Chemistry came about when Pritesh happened upon an “all-natural” beauty product whose ingredients he realized are used as raw material in their petroleum products plant. The irony wasn’t lost on him: despite its natural label, it was filled with preservatives, parabens and mineral oils. Their hunt for pure and natural products too came to naught and that’s when they decided to launch their own clean beauty line. The couple leveraged on Pritesh’s knowledge of formulation and launched a skincare line that replaced mineral oils with butters and carrier oils, synthetic fragrances with essential oils, and plastic exfoliants with organic AHA rich sugars. All of their products also come in plastic-free packaging to a large extent.
Initially a bootstrapped company, Juicy Chemistry raised $6.3 million in series A funding led by Verlinvest earlier this year. Today the brand has over 100 products and is certified organic by Ecocert (France).
When Ghazal and Varun Alagh were looking for toxin-free products for their baby boy, they were stumped at the lack of options in the country. They had to rely on bringing in products from abroad. That’s when the couple decided to bridge this gap by launching their own company and launched Mama Earth in 2016 with six baby care products. Today, the company, which is backed by Sequoia India and Fireside Ventures, is Asia’s first personal care brand with MadeSafe certified, toxin-free products for mothers and children.
They procure ingredients from around the world and ensure that they are ISO, GMP and Non-GMO compliant. Their product range includes skin and hair care products for men and women as well as products designed especially for expectant mothers.
The company is said to be in talks to raise around $100 million in funding from European investment Sofina.
Nykaa
[caption id="attachment_4921" align="aligncenter" width="499"] Falguni Nayar; Photo Courtesy: Outlook Business[/caption]
Launched in 2012 by former banker Falguni Nayar, Nykaa was initially an e-commerce platform that curated a range of beauty and wellness products. The fact that it was a one-stop shop for all things beauty and also brought to India some luxury brands such as Charlotte Tilbury, Farsali, Chopard and Chloe, helped it cement its place in the sector. Soon after they diversified into fashion and also offline stores. More recently, Nykaa stepped in with its own labels such as Nykaa Cosmetics, Nykaa Naturals, and Kay Beauty that feature formulations hand-picked by actor Katrina Kaif. Their products range from skincare essentials to make-up products. In 2018 they also launched Nykaa Man for men’s grooming.
The company has raised several rounds of funding and counts Steadview Capital and Sharrp Ventures among investors. Currently valued at $3.5 billion, Nykaa gained unicorn status a couple of years ago and is now looking to go public. According to recent reports, Nykaa is in talks to raise anywhere between $50 million to $150 million through a secondary sale of shares.
SUGAR Cosmetics
[caption id="attachment_4923" align="aligncenter" width="453"] Vineeta Singh and Kaushik Mukherjee[/caption]
Ever since its launch in 2015, SUGAR Cosmetics has been all about breaking the proverbial glass ceiling. Founded by IIM-Ahmedabad alumna Vineeta Singh and Kaushik Mukherjee, the makeup brand found popularity among customers with its signature Scarlett O’Hara lipsticks and foundations that catered to most Indian skin tones; a feature not offered by leading international brands. By 2020, the Mumbai-based brand had managed to clock in an annual revenue of $1 billion, something that took bigger brands like Revlon years to achieve. Today, the brand offers a host of makeup products such as primers, bronzers, lip colors, foundations, face palettes, eye makeup and even a skincare range.
In February 2021, the cruelty-free makeup brand raised $21 million in a series C round led by Elevation Capital with participation from existing investors A91 Partners and India Quotient.
Plum is India’s first 100% vegan beauty brand and was founded in 2014 in Thane by IIT-Bombay and ISB alumnus Shankar Prasad. The entrepreneur had earlier worked with companies such as Hindustan Unilever, Everstone Capital and McKinsey before he decided to branch out on his own and dive into the world of beauty. The idea came about when he found a list of cosmetics brands that were Peta-approved but the companies were under no such regulation in India. He decided to launch a truly cruelty-free brand and today Plum offers a range of 60 skincare and body and bath products that are made using plant-derived chemicals and are completely free from all sorts of animal products, even dairy and honey.
With a footprint across 6,000 retail stores in 200 cities, Plum is backed by investors such as Unilever Ventures and Trifecta Capital. In November last year, the company raised $1 billion in funding in a round led by Faering Capital and is expecting its annual revenue to touch $2 billion crore by this year.
(November 27, 2021) "Don't just do it, do it right," puns the Thaely slogan, taking a dig at an international shoe brand. Rightly so, as Thaely sneakers are 100 percent recycled, and made from plastic trash. In fact, truth be told, CEO and founder of Thaely, an ethically produced ecologically fashioned sneaker brand, Ashay Bhave, is as honest, sceptical and idealistic in life as he is in deed. This, and a talent for art saw him create a niche with his vegan sneakers which he shrugs off – "This is just the beginning of greater things to come." Modest words. Interestingly, his first art installation at the Jameel Art Centre in Dubai, a show he curated too, got government attention, and he was given a UAE Golden Visa. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Thaely (@thaely.inc) Thaely has an ethos of sustainability as the 23-year-old Ashay upcycles plastic bags and bottles to create shoes. Named after the common place plastic bag's Hindi word for it, thaely, the shoes use plastic waste with cutting edge design. "We are the only company that uses plastic bags to make shoes. When you look at their aesthetics and design,
Thaely has an ethos of sustainability as the 23-year-old Ashay upcycles plastic bags and bottles to create shoes. Named after the common place plastic bag's Hindi word for it, thaely, the shoes use plastic waste with cutting edge design. "We are the only company that uses plastic bags to make shoes. When you look at their aesthetics and design, you would never know that they are made from plastic," says the creator. Each sneaker uses ten plastic bags and 12 plastic bottles – an overall whopping 50,000 plastic bags and 35,000 bottles have been used so far.
The sneakers won the PETA's Best Vegan Sneaker Award 2021. Head honcho Anand Mahindra tweeted his interest in funding and buying these ecologically attuned sneakers.
This is awesome!
A startup in India 🇮🇳 is making these sneakers (a $70 billion market) are made of garbage (12 plastic bottles and handful of trash bags). And for $110, they will be shipped anywhere in the world.@Thaely_inc
Today, Thaely sneakers are sold out. Behind the minimalistic and soft leather shoe is a boy with a curly shock of hair forming a whimsical halo around his artistic head, with an endearing schoolboy drawl. He rattles off the science behind the shoes, fabric, and his depth is clear to see. The boy who studied at DY Patil in Navi Mumbai, comes from a Maharashtrian family - his mother Sheetal Bhave is a counsellor, and father Sameer Bhave works in Dubai at an oil company, and he has a younger sister.
The birth of an eco-friendly sneaker
Thaely was initially developed as a design exercise by Ashay using recycled material from waste at the Eureka competition during his final BBA entrepreneurship semester at Amity University (Dubai) in 2019. "I wanted to find a solution to the 100 billion plastic bags used each year that use 12 million barrels of oil which kill 100,000 marine animals annually," quips Ashay, who finished 12th and went to the Big Apple to study accessory design. A year into the course, unhappy with his progress, what work the alumni were doing, job prospects and the cost of the course, he signed up for a BBA in Dubai.
"I was doing a few design projects for fun - one was Thaely. Plastic bags are a huge problem, most marine animals confuse them for jelly fish. I experimented at home with different household appliances - irons and hair straighteners. I got familiarised with some industrial equipment during design school, and tried to replicate the tech used in t-shirt printing to form a texture called ThaelyTex with PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) used for coating, shoe bands, etc while the soles are from discarded tyres," he explains. With a rough idea of the fabric that he developed over two years; a prototype was made at a neighbourhood shoe repair shop. That prototype and design, he pitched along with a business plan at Eureka as proof of concept. Ashay won the competition, was spotted by a judge, Matteo Boffa, a Dubai-based Swiss social entrepreneur, who funded and mentored Ashay who was only 20 at the time. "I definitely needed guidance when it came to business and enterprise," says the designer who has since sold out his inventory.
Quote Unquote
"As soon as I heard Ashay’s pitch about Thaely I fell in love with the concept. Being a serial entrepreneur in the field of sustainability and social impact, I saw a great fit. The idea was great but the person behind was even better! The brand can compete with the giants of the industry. We have a real and concrete positive impact on hundreds of people in India," says Matteo Boffa, Social entrepreneur, Forbes 30under30, and co-founder of Thaely.
Ashay identified Trio Tap Technologies, a waste management plant in Gurgaon for plastic bags. Then, the pandemic hit. All work came to a standstill. Beginning 2021, Bhave again started work and finally launched the recycled sneaker.
"It is difficult to create a sneaker with those specs, so we designed a process that is scalable and efficient. Thaely is a casual sneaker. I took inspiration from the many basketball and skateboarding shoes of the 80s – the design is timeless, minimalistic and easy to style. It looks like a leather sneaker," explains the designer, who started off as a freelance designer creating album art, packaging, animation, toys, etc. A name in Dubai already, he now wants to impress the rest of the world with not just products but also his art.
"The installation show was a pretty important point - it helped me become more established. I got government attention, and was offered a UAE Golden Visa. I had designed a fake toy with a packing and gaming console - it was basically critiquing world leaders acting like children and sort of playing with our lives," says the avant-garde thinker.
With funding, the second prototype was made, and the recycled "kicks" were on their way to make feet accountable and responsible. Thaely sneakers are currently sold at Level One, among the biggest shoe stores in the world at Dubai Mall, and online.
"We were sold out on all the shoes produced – 1,600 pairs with 500 pre-orders – mostly from Europe, some from America and Australia. India is not a very big market right now," says Bhave, who is grateful for the acclaim, and success, "It was my dream to be in design or a CEO of a fashion brand - now that it has come true, I am thrilled," says the eco entrepreneur who wants to diversify, and add more colours too (Thaely sneakers are in white, white-brown and white-blue, and pre orders of all-black).
Like other 20-somethings, sneakers are an appendage and lifeline – his, he says, are comfortable and function like regular shoes. They are different though, "We are 100 percent recycled, completely transparent on production processes, our shoes have a QR code, and we are cheaper than other sustainable sneakers at $99 (others are $150, etc)," adds the Global Indian.
Proud parents, a sister who is a tad intimidated by attention, and impressed friends, Bhave knew they all had "pretty high hopes" (for him), and admits they expect much more now.
Mentor Matteo has been instrumental in giving Ashay a deeper perspective, "He is pretty young – 30, and (is) always inspiring me to stretch my boundaries," says Bhave who loves sci-fi movies, art and fashion.
Not many know that Ashay was a national level rifle shooter from sixth to eleventh grade in Mumbai, and even today loves going to the range in Dubai when he visits his parents. His larger aspiration is to make Thaely a lifestyle brand – clothing, furniture, other accessories – recycled and sustainable. Sneakers done, now it’s back to the drawing board to create more from trash.
(January 29, 2024) As the co-founder and COO of Make My Trip, Keyur Joshi has seen a 360-degree change in the Indian hospitality and tourism sectors. What was a totally unorganised sector has now grown into one of India’s fastest-growing areas, with a record number of Indians travelling like never before. The entrepreneur has now taken an interesting turn in his journey with the launch of Wildlife Luxuries, a visionary venture set to revolutionise the hospitality industry with a focus on personalised experiences and a commitment to conservation. Keyur, who grew up in Ahmedabad, has used his experience of nearly three decades in his new venture and brings an unparalleled level of luxury that combines luxury with sustainability in a unique manner. A wing and a prayer Belonging to a family that had a business of textile chemicals, his childhood was typical of the 80s: playing cricket with friends, focusing on education, and taking a family holiday once a year. “It was a different era. A socialist India where typically anything you wanted was never available—from Amul cheese to Coca-Cola and even a tennis ball. If you had something, you really treasured it. Interestingly, provision stores too sold cheese by
family holiday once a year. “It was a different era. A socialist India where typically anything you wanted was never available—from Amul cheese to Coca-Cola and even a tennis ball. If you had something, you really treasured it. Interestingly, provision stores too sold cheese by the cube and not a packet! It was a sign of those times,” the entrepreneur recalls, as he connects with Global Indian for an exclusive interview.
After a bachelor's in chemistry, Keyur went to study at the University of New York in 1994. After finishing his education, he returned to India to work with Tatas at the erstwhile Telco (now Tata Motors). He went back to the US in 1998 to work at a typical travel agency in Seattle at a time when the internet was just taking off and people started to do just a little bit more than mailing, and travel was one of the first big things that took off online.
[caption id="attachment_48612" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Keyur with former CEO of Make My Trip, Deep Kalra[/caption]
A lot of Indians who moved to the US never even considered moving back to India, but Keyur was clear that his heart lay in the land he was born in. The entrepreneur explains, “The American dream never excited me. I saw India as the land of real opportunity. I loved visiting and studying in the US, but India was also the place to settle down because of my knowledge and understanding of the country.”
Keyur moved back to India in 2000 and soon started Make My Trip. He recalls, “A lot of things went wrong with the Internet and travel. 9/11 happened, and there was a lot of flux in the sector. Online was a very niche market; online payment was not possible, and only a few households had a basic dial-up connection.” So Make My Trip strategically focussed on one market that gave them perennial business: Indian NRIs, so the website made a pivot into a firm that catered to Indian residents abroad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0XgMj4gzdw
The entrepreneur shares, “The Afghan war and the SARS outbreak ensured that travel was in limbo. But for Indians abroad, it didn’t make a difference, as we tend to make a pilgrimage to our country of birth at least once a year. It helped us stay focused and drive our business.”
The turning point
What changed in 2005 was the advent of India’s first low-cost airline carrier, Deccan Airways, which started flights for as low as Rs 99, something unheard of in the Indian aviation sector. How it helped Make My Trip was that tickets for the airlines were available only online, unlike the previous model of booking through travel agencies. “Flying till then was expensive, with only Air India and Jet Airways being the big players, and fares were high. The implication of Deccan Airways tickets being sold online had great repercussions for the internet industry, including Make My Trip,” shares the entrepreneur.
Also, at the same time, Indian Railways went online, which meant that the internet was being used by the middle class. Soon, Make My Trip received funding of 10 million dollars, and an ecosystem for internet players was born, which saw the advent of other players like Yatra enter the market. Slowly, people started booking hotels online too, and by then, Make My Trip had become a significant player, even being listed on the stock market, For the entrepreneur, the journey was exhilarating. Having seen the industry transform and grow, he quit the company in 2015 to pursue other dreams. He says, “It was a wonderful journey. We started in 2002 with a small office, and now it was time to do something else. One thing I was always fond of was nature and wildlife, and it was time to see if one could do something in that space.”
The one aspect of the hospitality industry that Keyur always wondered about was how the setting seemed stuck in a time warp and the industry was highly standardised. “There was an assembly line approach, like breakfast from 7 am to 10 am, even on New Year’s Day in Goa, without understanding what a guest needs. Hotels refused to use data and technology to enhance the experience.”
A new beginning
Having researched the need to change paradigms in the hospitality industry, the entrepreneur bought land near the Tipeshwar sanctuary in Maharashtra for his venture, Wild Life Luxuries, Tipai. After delays due to COVID, the getaway started operations last year. “I wanted to create a sustainable space that can be personalised. Each traveler wants a different experience while traveling with friends, family, or for business purposes. It’s the same person, but one needs different things depending on their purpose. For example, hotels place wine bottles for guests without even asking if they like a tipple. If you are traveling with kids, I would rather place board games than wine,” the entrepreneur explains.
Crafting a personalised experience, the entrepreneur is confident in heralding new standards in hospitality. With customisation as its forte, the space offers guests a unique experience. Keyur feels that a new India needs a new style of traveling. He states, “Even till the 90s, people never traveled, and if they did, they opted for the cheapest versions, a train, and second class at that. Now, there are more disposable incomes, and Indians are hooked on Instagram which entices them to explore new places. They want the best, and we need to offer it to them.”
The entrepreneur is now looking at creating his next Tipai. It could be a lake, a mountain, a hill, or a beach, but something that pushes the envelope further!
Take three
Best vacation ever: I always felt that it is never about the place but about your frame of mind. My best vacation was with family in the Maldives in 2010.
Most preferred destinations for Indians: Remains Goa.
A property or group that does hospitality well: The Casino Group of Hotels from Kerala stays true to what they believe in, and their Coconut Lagoon is one of the best properties in India.
(September 24, 2021) On September 22, 2021, an Indian startup created history when it became the first-ever software maker from the subcontinent to list on the NASDAQ. The Indian startup ecosystem erupted in joy as Girish Mathrubootham, his family and a small group of Freshworks employees celebrated the momentous occasion by ringing the opening bell. What sets the Freshworks success story apart is the fact that it is one of those rare decacorns (a company evaluated at over $10 billion) that has emerged from a sea of unicorns. Freshworks Inc had a blockbuster listing on NASDAQ taking the company’s $3.5 billion valuation to $13 billion. [caption id="attachment_11260" align="aligncenter" width="549"] Girish Mathrubootham and his family before the IPO[/caption] For a company that was founded 11 years ago, this is no mean feat. The listing helped Girish turn 500 of his employees into crorepatis, proving that he’s a man of his word. He had once told Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin that while launching Freshworks in 2010 he’d told his wife Shoba, “I’m not starting a company for me to buy a BMW, I’m starting this so that everybody (employees) can do that.” Soon after the IPO, Girish in an interview with MoneyControl said, “I feel like an Indian athlete who has won
s founded 11 years ago, this is no mean feat. The listing helped Girish turn 500 of his employees into crorepatis, proving that he’s a man of his word. He had once told Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin that while launching Freshworks in 2010 he’d told his wife Shoba, “I’m not starting a company for me to buy a BMW, I’m starting this so that everybody (employees) can do that.”
Soon after the IPO, Girish in an interview with MoneyControl said, “I feel like an Indian athlete who has won a gold medal at the Olympics. We are showing the world what a global product company from India can achieve."
Born in Tiruchirappalli in 1975, Girish’s parents separated when he was seven. Their separation became a defining moment in many ways in his life and prepared him for his entrepreneurial journey. He realized the importance of independent decision making, a practice he carries not just in his life as a parent, but also as an entrepreneur and mentor. “I believe as parents we shouldn’t be taking all the decisions for our children because, at the end of the day, when you take your own decisions, you learn to live with the consequences,” he told Entrepreneur in a 2018 interview.
Raised in Trichy, Girish went on to do his engineering from SASTRA University in Thanjavur before moving to Chennai to do his MBA from University of Madras in 1996. Upon graduating in 1998, he bagged his first job with HCL Cisco ODC where he worked for a year before moving on to eForce as a senior software engineer. In between his job stints, Girish would teach JAVA, in fact, he quit his job with HCL in the US to move back to India and launch a training company in 2001. However, he found that from being all the rage in 1999 (when he first began teaching JAVA) he now had to convince people why JAVA was still relevant.
[caption id="attachment_11263" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Girish Mathrubootham and his family with Rajinikanth, the mascot of Freshworks[/caption]
He ended up taking up a job with AdventNet in 2001, which was later rebranded as ZOHO in 2005 and Girish once again moved to the US in his job as Vice President of Product Management. The decade he spent working at ZOHO opened his eyes to the opportunities SaaS presented. When he returned to India in 2010, he happened to have an unpleasant experience with a household goods company. Repeated calls and emails came to naught. But when he left them a scathing remark on Twitter, the company jumped into action to right the wrong. "That’s when I realized that there exists an opportunity to build a fresh helpdesk. It wasn’t difficult as I had built multiple helpdesks as a part of the management team at ZOHO. In customer support helpdesk was still something new. That’s why we called the company Freshworks,” he said.
A decacorn was born
Back in 2010 when Girish co-founded the company with Shan Krishnasamy, it was called Freshdesk. The company’s flagship product of the same name became a game changer in the industry. What began as a single product focused on customer service has now bloomed into a company that operates globally to deliver a comprehensive suite of products to over 50,000 clients. These products include tools for sales, marketing, IT service management, and HR. Backed by the likes of Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, and Accel, the company rebranded itself as Freshworks in 2017.
[caption id="attachment_11264" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] Girish Mathrubootham at the IPO of Freshworks Inc[/caption]
With its IPO, Girish says, the company has had its Roger Bannister moment. “He was the first athlete who broke the record for running a mile in under four minutes and then in the immediate year after, you had so many other athletes that did it. I see this moment of Freshworks as the equivalent of that,” he told Economic Times in an interview. “There are more startups waiting in the wings, and over the next few years we will see them all coming out. I personally believe that SaaS for India is as big as the IT services moment that happened in the 90s.”
Employees first
While Freshworks has been impressing clients with its impressive suite of products, it has also ensured that its employees grow along with it. In an interview with CNBC TV 18, this Global Indian said, “We don’t really believe in hiring people who believe in solving the same sets of problems on the same scale. We believe in hiring smart people and letting them work on the job and get stuff done. We are willing to put in time to build the people we want, the way we want them to be, rather than expecting readymade talent.”
It is also evident in the fact that with the company’s successful listing, 500 of its employees have become crorepatis: 70 of them are below the age of 30.
In a country where the focus is traditionally on academics, Girish has been pushing for all round development through the promotion of sports. He founded FC Madras, a residential academy that offers free scholarships to talented players and promotes grassroots youth football in Chennai. He also organizes sporting events for youngsters like the Trichy Premier League, a minor cricket league played with tennis balls. “We’ve been an opportunity-scarce country for a long time, but not anymore. So, with that mindset, we made education an enemy of sport,” he said, explaining that we appreciate students who get 100 in math, but not if they are good at football or cricket. “A champion should be celebrated, be it a scientist or a sportsman,” he added.
(April 15, 2023) Sharmin Ali runs a multi-million-dollar company, but there is plenty more to her than that. She’s also a TEDx speaker, a theatre artist and an author. Her journey, fraught with challenges, has been a lesson in persistence and resilience. She went from grappling with a speech impediment to becoming an accomplished thespian and public speaker. Ali is currently the founder of InStoried, an AI-driven company that helps businesses increase and drive digital engagement. Today, Instoried has over five million users worldwide and their Content Generation service has over 500 companies as clients. As she worked to overcome her speech impediment, her therapist advised her to take up theatre. Not only did it help her overcome it, she was also able to raise funds using theatre as a medium. "It was theatre that helped me get better at my speech because I would perform in Kolkata, my hometown, where we had to speak without microphones. I did some 300-hours of voice training which helped me overcome my fear of public speaking,"Sharmin Ali Ali says, speaking to Global Indian from San Francisco, where she now lives. Ali's mother is also a theatre artiste and her innate love for theatre
rophones. I did some 300-hours of voice training which helped me overcome my fear of public speaking,"Sharmin Ali Ali says, speaking to Global Indianfrom San Francisco, where she now lives. Ali's mother is also a theatre artiste and her innate love for theatre comes from there. "I have been performing for the last 14 years. I have grown up seeing her perform at Durga Puja events."
Until the age of 21, speech was the biggest challenge. Today, she speaks as well as anyone else, perhaps better. There has been no dearth of people in her life who would mock her, but she never retaliated. Instead, she would recall her mother’s advice: "Steer your negative emotions into a direction which would yield result-oriented outcomes.” It remains her philosophy even today.
Sharmin Ali came to Bangalore to pursue a degree in engineering. After her degree she began to work as an analyst but with her leadership team soon realising that she is meant for sales, she was moved to the US. "After coming back here I worked with a number of Fortune 500 companies for the next five years," she says.
Nonetheless Ali was disillusioned. She worried that her work wasn’t adding any meaning to her life. She returned to India and resolved to work on creating her own venture. "She returned to India with a vision to build India's very own Netflix, so in 2015 Art-Right-Is Productions was born. We ended up writing over 70 scripts and had more than 500,000 followers and 7 million views on YouTube and Vimeo.” It became one of the first companies to enter the OTT space in India, creating digital content, and writing and ideating scripts.
This was before the startup boom and monetisation was the main challenge. Also, Ali’s idea was ahead of its time. “Indian audiences were used to consuming content on their television sets, not on their mobiles or laptops. Moreover, the Jio revolution was just starting. We understood that we were a little early in this space and decided to sell the copyrights of all the scripts to a Mumbai-based production house,” says Ali.
Scripting Instoried
In 2019, Sharmin decided to give entrepreneurship another shot and founded InStoried, “the ‘ChatGPT” for marketers and designers, so to speak. "Basically, we use AI to help optimise marketing content. We started this back in 2019 when GPT 3.5 was not available. We used 70 million data points and built our own chatbot," Ali explains.
Ali had always wanted to impact marketing and communication by making content easy to create and analyse. To keep the customers engaged, the team added emotion and tone checkers to ensure that the content is appropriate for that purpose. "It is called neuromarketing, Ali explains, adding, “Since emotions play a pivotal role in decision making. The very basic idea is not to let go of the customers."
Ali says though her first company was in the media and OTT space, content was her first love. She understood that good quality content is king. “That’s how Instoried happened, after I sold the copyrights of all those scripts and when I decided to build my second company again in the content space."
AI storytelling
Reading has been a great part of Ali’s childhood. Her mother would always focus on her reading comprehension. In order to be a good writer, one must be a good reader, she would always point out."Reading helped me explore the art of storytelling which in turn helped me in expressing my thoughts more articulately."
Ali feels a burning desire to write more, especially after having learned so many lessons through her journey. "When I write and create content, I'm a different person. I stop responding to calls if I'm into writing."Ali, who is also an author, wrote her first book in 30 days and second book in six months.
"Writing is basically the very basis of launching Instoried. Writing books helped me realise in developing connections through storytelling."
Ali is now writing her third book which, unlike the previous two, is going to be fiction. It is based on her experiences as a women entrepreneur in a chauvinistic environment.
Meeting challenges head-on
Starting a company wasn’t easy, more so because the Indian investment scene wasn’t so welcoming when she began. "The biggest challenge was to get the right team in place as we were building our own product in-house. However, my cofounder was able to help fix that for me and then we were flowing like water. One after the other, we built features and got the first iteration of the product ready."
She reached out to a number of investors to raise some funds to help support the product development journey. After hustling for two years, they were finally able to launch the product to the public.Ali calls Instoried the world’s first end-to-end content writing tool which not only helps in content generation but also optimizes spelling and grammar, checks and edits tonality, and emotion.
"What makes us different is that we have built it in house, from scratch and we used 70 million data points for this," Sharmin explains.
First among equals
Instoried has also launched Instoried ART, an AI-based image generation tool.
"We are the first Indian startup in the content creation space that uses state-of-the-art technology to generate AI images based on text prompts."There are plans to add more features to make it robust. "We are working on making its capabilities more accessible for content professionals as well as for a common person.”
Besides that, Instoried is also working on increasing the accessibility of their tools across platforms like Chrome, WordPress, and other Content platforms.
A stand for equality
For Ali, being a woman has been another big challenge because a lot of taboos are associated with women's gender. She is a strong advocate of women and gender equality at the workplace.
"There are a lot of things that keep women from achieving their dreams. In our society women are believed to be technically deficit -- which I'm strongly against. Women techies are at par with their male counterparts,” she adds with emphasis.
Ali stresses on the fact that the notion of women being bad at handling data and numbers should be trampled. “I am of the opinion that though women have to put in double efforts to carve their niche, women founders and technology leaders create more impact and are better leaders than their male counterparts."
Sharmin's tips for success
Sharmin Ali calls resilience, perseverance and patience as the most important points to achieve a goal. "No matter whether you win or lose, this journey will definitely give an entrepreneur some great perspective to hang on to, for life."
Right now her focus is to expand the company in the USA and steadily grow sales to ensure growth in the North America market. "I’m aiming for profitability in the next quarter. I think there is no other North Star metric any entrepreneur should pursue."
In order to stay up-to-date on industry trends, she follows a lot of technology publications and industry leaders and their podcasts.Ali believes that a strong team is crucial for any successful business. "Build a great team with very passionate people as that would be the greatest asset to possess,” she says. “Secondly, marketing is more important than technology. So invest in building a personal brand and then sell your company using that."
Megha and Pritesh Asher; Photo Courtesy: The Weekend Leader[/caption]
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Vineeta Singh and Kaushik Mukherjee[/caption]
Shankar Prasad[/caption]
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Thaely's vegan sneakers[/caption]
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Sharmin Ali[/caption]