With over 2 million startups in India, a startup needs all the help it can get. When you can build one with your mother and twin sister it’s a whole new level of depth. However, the mix of family, research and the powerful drive of ambition is what has led the creators of Hibiscus Monkey to create a rapidly expanding personal care product line that is changing the body care landscape in India.
Hibiscus Monkey isn’t some random concept or a simple side project; it’s the result of the efforts of three people, mother Mona Mehta, identical twin sisters Naina Mehta and Roshni Mehta. Rather, it came about through years of research, academic rigor and a conviction that the body care solutions that the Indian consumers desired were better.
The founders say that the concept came they were at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The sisters took the time to learn about the consumers’ problem before rushing to launch a product.
They had done a lot of research with almost 100 Indian women and found that the bulk of their skin issues, like strawberry skin, keratosis pilaris, ingrown hair, dehydration and skin coloration were usually overlooked by the mainstream beauty brands.
This study found a huge opportunity in the personal care market in India. Face care had expanded into a category but body care had yet to be explored much. This knowledge eventually turned into the product development vision of Hibiscus Monkey.
When it came to forming a business partnership with Roshni, it was an obvious choice for Naina. Research slowly turned into business opportunity. Mona, their mother, later joined the business, and established a distinctive three-founder team of trust and shared values.
It sounds like it should be perfect working with a family, but it also has its challenges, the founders admit.
The group calls themselves a ‘passionate Punjabi family’ where ‘debates abound’ and ‘strong opinions are encouraged. They do not shy away from disagreements, but take them into their decision making process. The founders say that they have learned that some of the best ideas they have come up with have happened when they had good debate, and different opinions.
Meanwhile, family can mean that the business comes with them to the table. Stressful situations at work can creep into daily lives, so setting limits on work/family time is important. They have, over the years, been more conscious about the detaching of two.
The beginning of Hibiscus Monkey was a difficult time. Both sisters pursued rigorous academic schedules along with the rigors of building startups while in school at Harvard and MIT.
Allot of days spent in class, case studies, academic programs etc. After work hours and weekends were devoted to consumer interviews as well as research analysis and product concept testing.
The founders took a slower and more considered path as opposed to the ethic of the hottest of the start-ups, “Move fast or break things”. Their school environment promoted intensive examination of ideas and concepts, challenged their perceptions and assumptions, and required that all choices be substantiated by evidence.
It’s a thought process that’s still applied by the company today.
Despite the research and confidence in products, there were times the founders wondered if the enterprise would work.
Consumer education was one of the greatest issues that faced them. The founders were not just trying to launch products, they were working to generate awareness on an all-new category.
For so long many Indians consumers considered body treatment just simple cleaning. It was no easy task to persuade people that body skin issues should be addressed and treated.
It was when customers started posting positive outcomes this turned the tide. Users of the products noted some improvements in their skin after the trial, especially for women with longstanding skin complaints. These stories helped reinforce the sense of having a real problem that the founders felt they were addressing.
One of the other unique elements of the brand is its founders’ visibility. Both Naina and Roshni decided to make the faces of the company on social networking platforms even before the era of founder based content.
It was a conscious choice. They thought that consumers would respond better to real-life people than large advertising campaigns. They were able to build the relationships and rapport with their community through direct dialogue with the customer and being transparent with their journey.
The founders also chose to go another way with regards to growth and funding. Most startups go out and raise external funding early, but Hibiscus Monkey has been bootstrapped.
The Harvard and MIT-sponsored environment the team enjoyed was more valuable than funding to the team, the team decided.
It equipped them with the ability to test out concepts fully before committing their resources. It’s this principle that still underpins the company, particularly in the realm of product development. All products are first tested and refined a great deal before it reaches consumers.
Mona feels that the company has prioritized customer needs instead of investor expectations, due to bootstrapping. The staff won’t feel the need to develop products that they just need to get their hands on.
Interestingly, the founders don’t carve up responsibilities along the traditional lines of a corporate structure. As opposed to assigning marketing to one individual, operations to another and finance to another, all three individuals are engaged throughout the business.
They feel this teaming model enables them to remain connected and collectively make more informed decisions.
The founders are excited and cautious as the company moves into its next phase of growth.
Naina is especially excited about the pipeline of products, as several new products are currently being developed. The challenge with her next is to make sure the right customers find the right product the more the company permeates e-commerce channels and moves into the wider omnichannel arena.
To Roshni, the greatest success is for a product beyond the care of her body to become widely recognised. At the time of Hibiscus Monkey’s launch, not many brands were targeting this category. Now, new players and old are now beginning to invest in body care, substantiating the opportunity that the founders discovered years ago.
Meanwhile Mona gets inspired by the work. She has been in the corporate banking industry for 20 years, and says entrepreneurship has given her a new sense of purpose. Whether you’re talking about developing a product or telling stories or crafting a business plan, everything about building the brand is very personal.
Together, the three founders are proving that a family-run business can combine academic rigor, entrepreneurial ambition, and consumer insight to build something meaningful…
<p>The post From Harvard and MIT Classrooms to Building India’s Body Care Category, The Story of Hibiscus Monkey first appeared on Hello Entrepreneurs.</p>
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