TOP Business Insights & Competition Hacks ft.The Mom's Co's Mohit Sadaani | Raj Shamani | FO 122

India is a large market and the number

of states in India is almost equal to

the number of countries in Europe we are

very very complicated country to solve

for why did Hyundai succeed in India

Shahrukh Khan

innovated and the santro if you remember

was the first hatchback

they see Indian families career genuine

the Indian Insight if you can do that

then I think you can succeed

someone in my team said I am frustrated

she sent an email to Jeff Bezos Jeff

Bezos forwarded the next day it got

solved what they will do everything

possible to make sure my customer has an

amazing experience because they are very

proud saying we are the most

customer-centric brand in the world

welcome to figuring out the Indian dream

a good series episode

I

mean

Indian companies

business

from the lens of international big

companies and from Indian startups as

well

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tell me tell me a quick journey of

actually let me put it in a hard hard

way okay when did you start 2016 2016

2017 March we launched okay 2017 new

March we launched so this was the idea

Honest Company so

um

had was born in London from India and in

India we discovered very quickly that

she actually has eczema okay right when

she was a baby doctor doctor said

actually

please don't use any of that important

so we started importing like any other

parent would do

then my younger daughter was born Sana

she was born with baby asthma and again

went to the doctors doctor said they who

at the end of five years she will grow

out of it and not have asthma for rest

of the day but five years you have to be

very very particular

so madika my wife and then co-founder

she got very particular about care

product use Curry looking at the back of

the tables

and she was going down this journey and

almost became a cosmetologist singer

products

so she started that path against me

in Paris I joined Snapdeal snapped with

me I was heading growth heading strategy

uh after seven years in McKinsey

foreign

and we came together with her ideas on

product and brand and me on growth

and social media

so 2017 with that idea we launched

India's largest range of pregnancy care

products to start very Niche very Niche

so we said we because no one can compete

with us

pregnant mothers are so small at any

point of time is such a short phase of

life

we competing because

as the moms go that's smart yeah so we

started with only pregnancy first

and then

uh going back to those wow moment ideas

we said yeah

we said what we do is JoJo pregnant

Mother's Day

babies

we are starting our baby brand because

you win a customer of us and you trusted

us we want to thank you for sending your

free baby sample kit so individually

mother can be made WhatsApp lists looked

at every single one Google street

automated message

and we sat and punched six thousand

orders or rosari mothers now mothers go

mom's cooking free baby product and that

was our effect to the zero cost

marketing launch of the brand of the

baby care brand

so that's how then this happened baby

happened then mothers came back and said

yeah

but why are you stopping what happens

after not pregnant baby what about me

I'm having hair for them having Face

issues I'm having pigmentation

she said okay so then we expanded the

definition of mother from pregnancy to

post pregnancy then uh older mothers as

well so today moms go is a very clear

brand we talk to mothers only

of all ages starting for pregnancy

onwards still once you're a mother

you're a mother for life right so

pregnancy onwards we talk to mothers and

we solve for genuine concerns for

mothers and babies that's it that's

that's right

the mom's company

because you always said

at some point of time we can go into

other categories the mothers have every

participle need

um

so we never thought the brand is

limiting we said that TG is fantastic

we want to solve for Indian mothers

we solve for whatever needs she has

interesting that's so you thought this

is a big obviously this is a big enough

market because you thought key

to this consumer group because I care

about this consumer I will go very wide

on categories I can give her everything

right whatever she needs consumer is

sorted but that makes it so easy and

good life yeah because now your

communication assorted

um

foreign

I have to talk to a college going kid I

have to talk to my mother I have to talk

to somebody who's just an early job

going I have to talk to my grandmas

a Brand's basic job in life is to

minimize risk for the consumer right

McDonald's

it may not be the tastiest food but I

know I'll get decent safe food at a

decent price

that's the brand value that McDonald's

offers to a consumer to anywhere you are

in the world true same thing with

Starbucks right you know the character

experience you will get okay coffee but

the experience will be great images

allow me to sit foreign

because you are everything to everyone

um our logic was my job is for the

mother the moms go should be her version

of natural safe product

right any product any category when I

launch a product she should have the she

should be able to do it furiously okay

for this particular for my needs

to be natural

and it is solvent this is the risk that

I never take with the Moscow I like how

you put it Brand's job is to minimize

the risk

that's I don't know how often people use

it I've heard it for the first time I

really like it

up second question when you start it

right

now

I think it's too bold of a statement

probably I'm just talking about from a

consumer

lenses

like whatever happened happened with

them right but

Johnson Johnson then your Himalaya was

there these are the last two Brands

I think Chico or something

and at the same time

did they start at the same time

foreign

foreign

so that belief and then Translating that

belief into actual execution on the

ground how the team behaves the products

that is on for the categories think

about it that makes a difference

so I think the interesting

companies

it takes time so India make can you

imagine this

we were the first company that created

the model of shops inside hospitals

so we went to the hospital we spoke to

the doctors

let no other mother say that I'm not

there

so with that very simple we started a

kiosk we trained our mom counselors and

she was a counselor she wasn't a

salesperson

how does the moms go solve for it and we

just went and offered a sample packs and

her next visit she would come and buy

because she said you solved my problem

hospitals

so it took time now there was a point of

time after three years

they paid lots of money so what you said

happened

my job was done I've already established

same thing with products we were the

first person in the country that said

for pregnancy product example data for

pregnancy a body butter is actually

great for stretch marks better than a

stretch mark oil okay okay but body

butters are very heavy Indian climate

which is very hot which is very rainy

body butter beans

we worked on it we did research with

customers that said

a very simple solution single pack which

is stretch mark bundle we spoke to

customers came up with the inside tested

and launched

our number one stretch mark solution in

the country online

but again by that time I had moved on

right so

what we were relying on was compared to

other competition we would be closer to

the customer and we will be faster to

execute

Cycles will be okay nice

I like it

we went and spoke to all sort of Friends

Network in fmcg the best advice we got

was don't be in love with your problem

don't be in love with your solution yeah

and because as founders

this will solve all of your problems and

the customer says

yeah you made a problem here but not so

painful that I'll spend so much money on

it

yeah

right so that's an interesting fact

that's that's true you know there's one

inside I remember there was this I think

koi Germany

can you tell me the story Amazing Story

So rocket didn't basically started and

they said

uh the two brothers and the friends so

three of them they came up with an

Insight saying

the basics are changing at the same

speed smartphone

mobile network right that is changing

technology all of that because

technology is changing

at the same sort of speed everywhere the

same new business models should come up

everywhere right so they created rocket

internet in Germany

I don't want you to innovate they have a

massive super Playbook like fashion

Marketplace this is a Playbook month on

month and month this is how you build a

fashion e-commerce Marketplace company

anywhere in the world they said okay go

and hire very smart people so they hired

only from like the top investment Banks

right the consulting firms saying I

don't want to take risk on person

because I don't want you to use your

brains and execute week on week this is

the Playbook

that's what they started with they were

very successful for some time but then

they didn't do well because I think then

what happened was after the basics are

done then there is a culture of the

Nuance do China with Basics the first

wave of e-commerce if you see is

Amazon first way of e-commerce right

Amazon clones work or Amazon itself has

taken over yeah but if you look at

second wave of e-commerce social

commerce in China it's completely

different from social commerce in India

true completely different from what Tick

Tock shopping is now doing in us so the

second wave here

not building on technology change inside

that people in China shop from

influencers at Mega scale right there

are influences in China today who are

bigger than e-commerce companies in

India yes right it's obscene but that's

how China shops so that's cultural

Insight yeah and there was I forgot this

lady

who's doing live Commerce in Chinese

it's mad I never thought

she sells kitchen appliances or

something I forgot a name because it's

not a name where you can easily remember

right

my name is

so now we're getting to this this

interesting time in the world

usually

[Music]

foreign

um

in the early days

we actually use two handwrite cards and

gift cards

so what we started doing on the website

was we started taking names of people's

babies

that's in your name address

then in that we used to write a letter

to the baby oh as the first letter right

thank you for joining the family right

we are so blessed that you're part of

our life right and we hope you like our

products and all of that nice and so we

had the people sent us videos of mothers

reading those cards to their babies

that's so good I'll give you the best

example early days

um she looked at us Malika was

recognized by then she said are you the

momsco founder like I said oh better

better

she made us sit she went and said

she the Bachi came out she looks said

and then the mother says

she's the founder of the mom's company

she looks at her and she says

and then she opened up and she had saved

the letters

wow and so those were those moments were

amazing because it kept coming back to

this realization that you are never

selling a product you are selling a

status symbol

or you are selling someone's Identity or

you are selling an experience

the biggest problem is when you think I

am only selling a product and it's a me

to product in today's world you are

never ever selling just a product

you have to go beyond the product to the

experience

I look at the OG in the space here Nike

if you look at Nike's ads they are never

about the product they are about the

feeling that everyone is an athlete yeah

emotion it's always emotion it's always

the story

moms go the reason momsco spread was

always the story associated with the

products and what we did

and how it was created and how it made

the person feel it was never the product

damn but what about

a lot of people talk about their

their feature which maybe can be

distinctive correct

fog no gas perfume huh do you think

people should talk about that because

it's a they're just trying to talk about

products if it's differentiated enough

yeah

okay if it's not differentiated then

status Identity or experience so you

will always get there right

[Music]

always Source status identity always had

yeah

20 women after him they always said that

right the reason acts got completely

ravaged in the market and four came over

because fox fox said yes but by the way

value for money

I don't sell empty gas yeah right 10x4

fume will last you so much longer so on

so on so for the same customer if you

offer significantly better value

products customer will move hmm

but when now that every perfume is no

gas perfume now it's time to get back to

again maybe experience identity status

or a differentiated product so

you know I think the interesting reason

the value comes in is if you're offering

someone's status identity reason to feel

good about themselves when he takes out

his perfume in front of his friends his

friends

right because we are still value Society

right India may you have to give great

value for money whenever you have some

product to sell you cannot ignore that

with the base case here that's what if

you come up with far better value for

money that is overshadow status GTM

should be the differentiator value for

money or should be the status there

should be the differentiator assuming

the status is correlated okay

right or Kim Kardashian best Kim

Kardashian another lingerie brand that

she came up with on Saturday which is

like it's not like with some special

material that stretches like crazy to

give you the best body shape right very

functional product but because it is Kim

Kardashian who exemplifies that body

shape and her status is Deco this

this incredible idealistic in their

world or her world body they go hand in

hand that status matches the product

function

type Synergy here then you see the

compounding okay so do question of

course is

almost is non-existing I don't even know

exist because

you should ask the opposite question

seeing how did Amazon come and take over

India

I think it was that's what really

happened right if you think about it

right there was a lot of e-commerce

commercials lots of them right before

Amazon came and when Amazon came in I

remember having conversation with lots

of people in e-commerce Amazon doesn't

understand

but look at what genuinely happened a

reason my circle everyone is a Prime

member I personally shop on Amazon three

times a day same right like

same I think what

I don't over time what Amazon does well

is the customer Basics they understand

best assortment to the customer and now

working with Amazon as I said though how

do I guarantee best price for the

customer and how do I solve for amazing

frictionless delivery um

deeply around the world that they had to

tweak it for India right

companies

right you're starting fresh and these

guys are coming with if you look at her

country a number of years so like

Decades of experience

with super smart people and unlimited

Capital they just solved it better than

anybody else

because the again going back

Joe Amazon just those

um to Amazon e-commerce create Kia or

India specific name

right so they were almost guaranteed to

win from the start now if you take a 20

30 or Horizon and you simply the same

copy paste

same people who've solved this elsewhere

I can come and do it

right so I think that's what happened to

the entire e-commerce wave but not every

company succeeds everywhere again

problems

I will give you unlimited capital and

I'll give you unlimited time and people

um

how do I tell you I'm thinking of an eye

thinking of for example of an example

like who came to India General Motors

yeah

GM came and left Ford almost four came

and left but because the cars they were

producing was still Us cars made for

India they didn't create India specific

cars

why did Hyundai succeed in India

yeah

right no known celebrities for the other

American brands

should Nike even innovated and the

santro if you remember was the first

hatchback yeah right

premium sort of hashback they see Indian

families genuine the Indian sight then

UK

I have to solve for service so they went

and massively plastered and created

service centers most service centers and

showrooms yeah so they genuinely said

right as in if you can do that then I

think you can succeed we are I think

people forget

India is a large Market

and the number of states in India is

almost equal to the number of countries

in Europe we are very very complicated

country to solve for very large

population

needs different examples of what we

appreciate different aspirations

different languages

then you can make a great business in

India

so they have to show money

the um

I'll tell you the difference

um

I think very few Global Brands can

really deliver the value that the Indian

customer requires

okay

I want amazing service I want amazing

quality products

Indian

Brands can't do it right Amazon does it

because Amazon sellers do it for them

right Amazon solves for I will get the

product to you on time but cost

product quality etc etc with reviews

right so the best sellers win so Amazon

is winning because of combination of

their infrastructure and the sellers and

what sellers can achieve on the platform

Uber by itself is competing with your

own

you can't compete with that at some

point of time it has varies all the

customers also but beyond the point it's

harder to scale

um

that's one of the reasons why people

have stopped using it right now

foreign

right but Amazon gives me great

customers

very simple to Amazon users Amazon has

cracked it's the most

customer oriented company Amazon store

here very interesting okay

when we were a

third one

we are a four member team we launched

pregnancy products only Swift Chart

products

right so my I think dude

we were too small he didn't bother

someone in my team said I am frustrated

she sent an email to Jeff Bezos

right

you are not solving this my customers

are continuing

Jeffries was forwarded the next day it

got solved what for us for that tiny

little customers she escalated she said

wow and you will hear this consistently

again

they will do everything possible to make

sure my customer has an amazing

experience because they are very proud

saying we are the most customer-centric

brand in the world

now customer Centric they said

customers at the center of it

right

there's some there's a very interesting

image just search for Amazon flywheel

customer wants assortment assortment

will drive all the sellers to me

and we'll try the best price and then

more customers

nice so yeah Amazon flywheel why do you

think Snapdeal and Flipkart you can't

compete with the best on this on their

own tough on what they've exported over

decades

the same example we gave before it I

couldn't compete as the moms go with

traditional brands in the same format

that they are great at

I have to innovate and create something

completely different so you just feel

the reason for let's say Snapdeal by

yoga Amazon I think Amazon won in India

versus techno with large of India

because the needs they are solving for

for the customer are very basic needs

improving

over time they know how to crack it any

other company trying to crack that on

Amazon's terms is very hard

social commerce came and did that if you

see how misho took off in the last few

years with the models of I will sell to

Housewives who will sell onwards Amazon

couldn't crack that and Mishu became a

very large company on that single

insight and that amazing new business

model yeah right if you look at live

Commerce in China and the examples you

gave Amazon

and it's a very different business

business do you think that

quick Commerce zapto like companies

zepto will be able to be dmart value

proposition I tell you why okay demand

capital

is

um

the question is

very interesting is

a very tight Market it's always very

crowded

it's all this price it's always offers

you have to come with great offers yes

BOGO Brands can give great offers to

dmart um

they have to deliver to your house

again dmart proposition is not

assortment like Amazon

um

I don't know the numbers

right one

percentage level

chips

it's a different proposition

and I think more than that India is what

India's a three trillion dollar economy

today right in the next three years is

going to become ten trillion dollars

every business model will find a partner

or we'll find a segment yeah

business model

you don't know like if someone asked me

my simple logic is here India my

business but now the time is now the

moment is now

just start and build a business

[Laughter]

which was your favorite consumer brand

in India my favorite consumer brands in

India a gold traditional

actually my favorite new brand in India

is attenborg everybody you need to stop

writing

uh I think coming into a category which

is so price sensitive launching at

Double the price point of others and

then selling on function is very hard to

do right and they really cracked a

genuine Insight in a category

that's a very unique very little

competition and coming in at that price

very interesting 100 crores a month

that's insane I think what they're

genuinely cracked

Indian consumers very value conscious

and there are some Brands who come in

and say yeah this is I think

Adam will be one of those yeah the it's

not price it is valuable it's genuinely

yeah I think that's what they are

showing constantly yeah now others have

come in and raised the price so now

we'll see now big competition has come

back and says

so let's see so you feel attenborg story

is

there are three how I divide the atomic

brand okay one is the product

factories

technology

that is one side

second is the really cracked the

aspiration level

s

India started spending a lot on

Interiors people have started doing it

yeah and that's the second part is

aspiration and third is

completely online it's online influence

but purchase is offline current right so

it has to be digital first but purchase

POS has to be offline so no no Channel

Market fit both

stronger which one do you feed which

obviously Tino goes hand in hand or hand

in hand and that's why they've been able

to crack it but which one do you feel is

the bigger part of their success out of

all three

it's

without the product nothing would have

happened

right so that started it which is why I

think is the most important rest

got cracked along the way

but genuinely they created with came up

with a new product inside and a new

product

it is here I really like their thing

communication because I feel what they

did is what luxury brands do so atomberg

learned from luxury Brands and what

luxury Brands usually do is

they come up with

obsessively expensive product

and they

they communicate a language which

justifies the reason for that purchase

right look at let's say Louis Vuitton

and I was at Louis Vuitton showroom and

they have a perfume 1.1 lakh 1.2 Lakers

they communicate that perfume by saying

is

particular ingredients

right okay now they're giving me a

reason to justify that purchase in my

head Key by whale vomited

and technically what atomberg did the

same thing I'm giving you a show of

products

so every time you tell your brother you

tell your people together

it makes sense I think that's what they

did and that's what like Jordans do

that's what other brands do right okay

which was a large old traditional brand

crack cream crack cream amazing bread

foreign

single product in every distribution

Channel possible

on a on a particular India inside not

copy pasting area Indian customer needs

this is

wrong but okay that and then of course

Bye darshan by Patel knows something in

the country there has to be he

understands

the pulse of Indian market I don't know

how one person may come up with so many

good products yeah

nobody

it's wild as well it's amazing you know

darshan by Patel for everybody you don't

know is

um

foreign

[Laughter]

okay so now the question was India

culture specific brand you said how do

you understand India

what have you understood about India

countries

I think value for money which is

consistent but

consumers it's not just

price it is genuinely value for money

value

important

second abhi

it's

it has to genuinely solve a problem

because disposable income

and money to waste

right we're getting there like where

people will start consuming but

consumptions

so people consume when there's a need

right so if you see just everybody all

those amazing Brands like crack cream

that came and genuinely solved for needs

consumers are going to spend on

right this is

also do you need yeah and so people and

the product says exactly what it does

and so it can scale nice I think that's

genuinely second third I think India

made the

we are very very family and friends

oriented okay right

there's joint families and lots of

places people are tied to the United

communities so products that help you

stand out in front of your community

status status

solve for status in your community they

make sense

right yeah and those do well so which is

why the attenborg example saying

a status for that Community yeah so it

solves for it like us

and people don't go to each other's

houses here people are concentrating

each other's houses

which is why a Crockery your home

furnishing what it what your fan is

right you know India is probably the

only country in the world fridge

right so your fridge has to do good

that's in India inside yeah so if you

look at fridge ads there are some

fridges which is solve for function

function function but a lot of fridge

ads we'll talk about looks

yeah have you noticed this pattern and

that's one of the reasons

at scale

because

if you look at U.S market

and I'm just pointing out based on what

you said so correct me if I'm wrong

um

I think the difference is

India

your friends and family make you feel

good that's why you spend time with

people because it's a very close culture

feel good

that if you're living alone they need to

entertain yourself in the house you

don't have company so then you feel good

there are different and what you spend

on is different yeah you know my third

like one of the therapists I met she

used to crack a joke and she was like us

that's a good one

but it's so true

[Music]

okay tell me the three

three things that uh

a Founder should have Founders

definitely need a crazy amount of drive

right because

the value gets created when you're doing

something that others don't believe in

right if everybody else is in it

right when we started the mom's company

we had to go and tell manufacturers

with the smallest of items they refuse

like many of them refuse to work

right but you need to have that little

bit of drive to actually do very very

different things because as a Founder as

an entrepreneur that's where you create

value right so yeah

I think second you have to be very clear

okay what you are starting is a team

sport right you have to be able to be

the captain of the team and take the

entire team along with you yes

right so if you are a solo single

founder

who actually thrives in being excellent

to yourself

find a business that works for you

right if you are very clear okay you've

done work in Life or you've done group

projects as an example or you worked

with other people or you know how to get

the best out of other people your

chances of success are far higher and

because there's no way that one person

can take care of everything in the

business

and I think third is you have to have

numbers on the back of your hand and no

actually

all right I've recently actually in the

last two three years when the markets of

frothy I've met enough people jinka idea

brilliant hair execution

always come back to buy two because

there are enough people in the chain who

want to take you for a ride seven

interesting counter question for you uh

who made app is what it is today Tim

Cook or Steve Jobs both why because

Supply any other team are you an

interesting Insight when Tim Cook took

over what was the valuation of apple and

what is it today

I don't know this so Tim Cook took about

10 11 years ago it was 250 billion today

is 3 trillion 250 billion dollars

today's three trillion

so Tim Cook has taken Apple 12x in

valuation from where it was in 10 years

from whatever Steve Jobs had built till

then right so I think there's a place in

life as Founders for both but the amount

of value that great Executives great

CEOs can come in and create in business

this is phenomenal we like to believe

it's always a Founder story yeah right

but and the founder stories are what are

celebrated and so on but Executives and

people who can constrain and really

align processes systems and actually

creation I keep getting shocked at this

number oh yes

no that's true and there's a story by uh

I think Steve Jobs only said it

somewhere Tim Cooks was gonna join like

a big company some other company

and random file message

right

so this was not supposed to happen Steve

Jobs just found it foreign

I'll see what he's done and of course

then and he became the backbone of

everything yeah he started service

centers he started bringing that thing

iPhone case

all of that is

on the different sizes of the iPhones

the big size and that many experiment

everything

Cooks innovation

and finding those two in one person is

very very hard

finding the disrupter and the innovator

and the scalar right amazing ideas

for amazingly execute because

yeah and especially in one photo there

was the last question which I really

liked

me up

foreign

and all that

all of that

um

right so

I think my big realization was give body

companies

people have very little room to play and

make screw-ups or make errors

independent

relationships

leverage cash

which will make the difference

um

work on relationship in the beginning

work on systems yeah otherwise they

break they can't work on their

relationships

you always get back to that thing and

that's all the relationships

voice

so the same person behaves very

differently because he's part of a

system wow so you set your own system

early on with your manufacturers you

keep building it

so with our manufacturers

relationship based then at a point we

said sorry an initial satta because

we come up with one system that I will

tell you

and so let me move to that system then

when we got better we moved to a weekly

system

saying again very inventory

then we went to a stage where

significance we used to sit in the

factory and do the batch manufacturing

process with them

so you went from being completely you

know oversight to fully understanding

the plant along with them side by side

interesting wow completely running the

plant side by side with them yeah

because they were and they were happy

because they said

yeah so they're very happy we are so

that relationship grew like that company

grew 5x with us that one plant

nice perfect this this became like a lot

of my doubt layering session

I'm so happy that we did this podcast I

really like this kind of podcasts where

until the next episode keep figuring out

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oh

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