Brief introduction about yourself and tell us something about The Violet?
TheViolet.in is the hottest e-commerce subscription start-up that pampers you during your period with luxury indulgences and sanitary essentials. The Violet Box has luxury and vegan cosmetics, exquisite teas and coffee, gourmet chocolates and your choice of period essentials. The brands change every month giving their subscribers a product discovery platform. For every box sold Violet donates the sanitary essentials to those in need.
What ignited the spark in you to start Style The Violet?
Each lady spends over 1500 days of her lifetime having periods. In India there are over 300 Million women in the age group of 15 to 45 & around 60 million girls entering adolescence this year. In spite of this, women hygiene is still a taboo subject here which is shocking. Girls need to be pampered and treated specially at this time of the month. TheViolet.in thus came up with a subscription platform to pamper women with luxury indulgence boxes.
As per BBC and TOI, 70% of Indian women cannot afford sanitary napkins even today. This inspired TheViolet.in to donate period essentials to those in need for every box sold by them.
Please share your future goals.
To empower women in India. Says Yogita, the founder of Violet, ‘If women today start subscribing to companies like The Violet, could solve the sanitary napkin problem in our country’.
Something about the challenges you faced while starting The Violet.
I am a Chartered Accountant and Ernst & Young alumni. My co-founder Laukik was an associate at McKinsey & Company and an INSEAD MBA. It was challenging to make the choice of quitting our jobs to invest all our time and effort in a start-up. We decided to take the leap!
Violet launched its mobile app in early 2016 as an e-commerce platform purely for feminine hygiene products. We got feedback from our customers saying they could buy the same stuff from FlipKart, Amazon and other e-commerce sites. After this failure, our friends and family questioned our decision to quit our high paying jobs to run a start-up. We were persistent and determined to create impact. Our customer feedback for the app directed us to explore the period pampering space that was very popular in the US and UK. That is when we pivoted and the Violet Box was found.
What are your views on the thought, that as compared to male counterparts, it’s harder and more struggling for females to make a mark professionally?
India is still striving to empower its women. A lady has her family and work both as her primary responsibility unlike men for whom work is their primary responsibility and any contribution towards family is appreciated as a favor. Given this, I urge the women of our country to support other women in their life. It is we who have to change our attitudes towards each other so that the world will accept the change.
What piece of advice would you like to give to the aspiring youth who wish to pursue their dream of becoming an entrepreneur?
My advice – Don’t wait for the right idea to come along, start with the right intent, eventually one of your business ideas will click. Most importantly, do your maths before starting the business, it is important to know and understand your market size and customer needs before you hit the ground.
According to you, what are the top three essential skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
Persistence, Vision and Motivation
Would you like to share your secret success mantra with our readers?
I strongly believe that one should enjoy their journey and if life gets stuck somewhere, then it is time to find a new direction. It is not about winning or losing, it is about enjoying the journey.
What are your views and opinions towards the ambiguous need to promote women entrepreneurship and women empowerment in India?
A TED talk by Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code really inspired me. It has a message that every women and women entrepreneur should hear. ‘Most girls are taught to avoid risk and failure, be perfect, and look pretty. Boys on the other hand are taught to play rough. They are habituated to take risks after risks. In Silicon Valley they take you seriously only after you have at least 2 failed start-ups. In spite of this, we are raising our girls to be perfect and our boys to be brave. Teach girls bravery not perfection. Teach them to be brave in school and early in their careers. Show them they will be loved and respected not for being perfect but for being courageous. ‘
