Sometimes, the most crucial events in your life motivate you to start something entirely devoted to that cause. When Varun and Ghazal Alagh had their first child, Mamaearth’s seed was implanted. As new parents, they felt the need to have a brand of childcare products that they could trust. Hence, Mamaearth was born! Little did they know at the start of their venture that this company would scale so well in such a short span. Ghazal Alagh feels that persistence can make anything possible. Mamaearth is India’s first and only childcare company that manufactures chemical, natural, and toxin-free products for babies.
Let’s take a sneak peek into her personal and professional life.
Early Life and Education
Ghazal Alagh hails from Chandigarh. Born as Ghazal Sahni in 1988, Ghazal was a student at Punjab University and then went ahead to complete her post-graduation from the New York Academy of Art. She was brought up in a conservative joint family, where no other woman had ever stepped outside the house for a job. But her parents were thankfully different and always preached to her to be financially independent if she wanted to be successful in life.
She got her first job as a corporate trainer at NIIT. As a corporate trainer, she was required to visit different corporates in companies and educate them about using the software they had created at NIIT. She had never had any prior experience teaching or handling corporate clients. Yet, her perseverance made her successful in this feat. She continued her job here for 4 years.
She got married soon after and gave birth to her first baby, Agastya. It was then that her Mamaearth journey started.
The Mamaearth Journey
Ghazal’s son, Agastya, was born with a skin condition that would aggravate as soon as she would apply any chemical-laden baby care products. Like every new mother, Ghazal wanted to provide the best for her new baby, but she found no Indian company suitable for her needs. She realized that she can only use international brands and none of them are available in India. She had to depend on friends and family traveling abroad to bring home the baby products she needed.
She got her starting kick when after cribbing for length in front of her husband regarding the Indian products, he told her to try out something on her own. She then decided to start a company of her own specializing in natural and chemical-free childcare products. She had had no formal training in business and was not even from a business background.
Her initial journey was not easy and she faced many hardships. She had to initially import ingredients from abroad, take advice and suggestions from customers and almost coax her customers to try her new product range. During her research on Indian products, she came to know about toxins.
She learned that there are more than 15 products, banned abroad for infants, that are allowed in India. She realized that there is no regulation in India concerning certain toxic elements used widely in Indian products. During her research, she came to know that certain elements used in international baby care products were not only easily available in India but are also widely exported abroad.
Her persistence finally worked and people started recognizing her brand. Mamaearth made headlines as the only Indian company manufacturing baby care products for Indian babies. Initially, there were only 6 baby products in their product line. Before launching her product line, she had done extensive research and one-to-one connection with moms to know their feedback.
What is normally called marketing of one’s products or services, she begs to differ. She feels it was her way to connect with her customer base to ensure that she is providing exactly what they need.
With a great response to her baby care products, moms around India started suggesting she start with a mom care product line as well. Soon, fathers too joined in and started asking her why don’t they launch products for dads. This led the Mamaearth team to decide that they will make family care products.
Mamaearth then expanded its product line and started experimenting with hair care, face care, baby care, and such products. They started working with bloggers and influencers slowly to market their brand.
How did Mamaearth Win the Trust of Indians?
When connecting with moms and dads to get feedback for their products, the co-founders were bombarded with questions like, ‘Why should we trust you?’ To be able to give reliable answers to their customers, they started working with Made Safe – a small international non-profitable trust that licenses products that are safe for marine animals, the environment, and baby’s skins. A lot of effort was put in by the co-founders to get their authenticity certificate.
Interesting Tidbits from her Life
- While researching on different Indian baby care products and those from abroad, Ghazal got into the habit of reading the labels behind each product. She used to research chemical names and discuss them with her doctor at length. Her doctor had already told them not to use several products for their baby’s sensitive skin, which landed the parents in a dilemma. The doctor was impressed with their concern and started calling them ‘Google Parents.’
- In a funny incident, once when she tried to educate her customers about her products being sulfate-free, one of them asked her, what is it that they will get free with the product! She realized that she needs to educate the Indian consumer a lot about the kind of products they are using on their children.
The lady who launched a first-of-its-kind safe baby care product brand in India, stresses again and again how only perseverance made her succeed. She stubbornly tried to educate Indian customers about what is good for them and their babies. Her success attracted the team of Shark Tank India and they invited her to grace their platform by being a judge and understanding the perseverance of other budding startups.
