‘Sugar Cosmetics’ company worth ₹500 crores raised from 4 lipstick shades : Shark Tank India Judge and Business Tycoon
A middle class girl dreamed of becoming the number-1 business woman of the country. She worked hard day in and day out to start her work after turning down lucrative job. First loan was not available for the first business. Second loan had to be closed in 5 years, but she did not give up. She believed in herself, she wanted to be a role model for the women of the country. She wanted the daughters of the country to be encouraged by seeing her and they too become successful business women. Of late, her hard work paid off and she became one of the fastest growing business women of the country by launching the brand ‘Sugar Cosmetics‘.
We are talking about Vineeta Singh, the popular business tycoon of the show ‘Shark Tank India‘, seeing whom millions of women have started dreaming of becoming business women.
Self Believe
Vineeta Singh dreamed with open eyes and realized her dream herself. The dream was big, so the struggle was also big. ‘Chasing your dreams day and night and never giving up till you achieve them‘ has been her key to success. Today 2500 women are working with Vineeta Singh. They are building a brand and that is what known as ‘Sugar Cosmetics’. The brand was launched in 2015 and currently its turnover is around ₹500 crore.
‘Shark Tank India’ brught her fame
Brand name Sugar Cosmetics became popular very quickly, but people did not know her personally. It was popular show ‘Shark Tank India‘, people started knowing her. When she joined as judge it was a new concept for the Indian audience, but people liked it a lot. This shows that Indian youth is progressing very fast which is a matter of pride for all of us.
Any woman can become a business woman
Whenever people see her after the show ‘Shark Tank India’, they talk about business, girls take selfies with her and say, ‘You are our role model‘. Today’s girls have talent, faculties and exposure as well. Apart from her, she has many role models like business women Falguni Nair, Ghazal Alagh, Namita Thapar, whom she can gather courage from. Earlier, business women did not get funding easily, but now they have many options. In the next 10 years, Indian girls will do wonders. Coming from a middle class family, if Vineeta can become a business woman, then any girl can become. Parents should not stop their daughters from moving forward. You can’t even imagine how far your daughter will go tomorrow.
Vineeta was ambitious from Childhood
Vineeta’s parents are medical scientists, so she was brought up on the AIIMS campus in Delhi. She was born in maternal grandmother’s house i.e. Gujarat. After birth, She lived in Gujarat for two-three years, then came to Delhi. She loved maths, so decided to become an engineer. She prepared for IIT and got admission in it. She did electrical engineering from IIT Chennai in 2005. She got a lot of exposure by going to IIT. During that time she read many books. Then she realized idea of her own business. That alone can bring a big change in the society. At the age of 17, she decided to do own business, not a job. She realized and got to know at a very young age what she wanted to do in life. Many people get this clarity very late.
Vineeta Singh Started making business plan with studies
While studying at IIT, she also started thinking about two-three business. She understood that engineering alone is not enough, a big change can be made only by starting a world class company. Then she started to think that such products should be made from the waste (waste things) which are very beneficial and their manufacturing can also provide employment to many people. The dreams were very big, but she did not know where to start. There was also a fear in her mind whether a middle class girl should dream so big or not. But she dreamt, she pursued, she realized and made it big.
First business plan was made in New York
She worked on Wall Street in New York for a month and Central Bank in London for a month. There was no money to go by car, so after the workshe would go for a long walk. Going around the market there, which brands are popular, what is new in the market, her mind was always storming. What do buyers want? To know where India will be after ten years, it is necessary to travel abroad. Not everything is known at once, but a lot of clarity is gained.
First business closed before it started
At that time i.e. in 2007 she thought of launching a lingerie brand like ‘Victoria’s Secret‘ in India. At that time, fancy lingerie brands had arrived in foreign countries, but women in India did not have such beautiful options. Then in our country, lingerie products were sold by hiding them in black bags. More than 32, 34, 36 size, women were not aware about this.
Vineeta and her co-founders Devashish and Vishal Bhushan, who were her batch mates of IIMs, booked the brand name ‘Carress‘. Created a business plan as well. They also calculated how much money we needed, but at that time they did not have one crore rupees to start business. When they met 10-15 investors to arrange the money, they started laughing at them. They said you don’t have any experience, we can’t give you money.
Five years passed, but there was no growth in the business. It was becoming difficult to meet the expenses of the staff. In a city like Mumbai, it was not easy to survive on 10 to 25 thousand on your own. Then the whole month there was worry that how the salary of the staff would be jugaad on the first date. Whether there was money in the pocket or not, but the staff had to pay the salary on time.
Had to close another company in 5 years
Whatever business plan we were making required money, so we thought to start a service business, in which there is no need to invest money. We started the business of providing all the services that HR people need, like hiring, background verification, etc. There was a lot of struggle in the initial days of the business. Earnings in this business were very less, so one by one all the co-founders left the company.
Five years passed, but there was no growth in the business. It was becoming difficult to meet the expenses of the staff. In a city like Mumbai, it was not easy to survive on 10 to 25 thousand on your own. Then the whole month there was worry that how the salary of the staff would be jugaad on the first date. Whether there was money in the pocket or not, but the staff had to pay the salary on time.
Research got the idea of a cosmetic brand
Vineeta and Kaushik Mukherjee were together from IIM Ahmedabad. Kaushik supported her step by step. They got married in 2011. In 2012 they had to close business. In 2012 itself they started an e-commerce company. While running that company, they got the idea of ’Sugar Cosmetics‘. Through the e-commerce platform, they were understanding the likes and dislikes of millions of women, their needs. They would give women subscription forms and ask them to give their feedback. In this way, they had got feedback from lakhs of women.
Understand the needs of women
While doing research for an e-commerce platform, they come across feedbacks from many women. Most of the women have the same wish, like- I am a working woman or a college girl, I want a lipstick that stays on the lips for a long time, looks good on my dark complexion and is also suitable according to the weather of India.
They would reach out to the women’s demand brands and ask why you don’t make such products. They do not get satisfactory answers from them. They understood that they are not able to understand the needs of today’s Indian women. They were still making such makeup products that women could apply for parties, weddings or festivals. The daily makeup needs of women were not being met.
‘Sugar Cosmetics’ brand started with 4 lipstick shades
This time they were too scared to start a new business, yet after gathering courage, Kaushik and Vineta together launched new cosmetic brand ‘Sugar’ in 2015. The special thing is that they started this brand with only 4 lipstick shades. These 4 shades of lipstick were created keeping in mind the preferences of today’s global Indian woman. They put all research into making them. Thier hard work paid off. Bright pink, nude, berry and red – these four lipstick shades were so much liked by women that in a very short time the ‘Sugar’ cosmetic brand became popular. This time they also got a loan of one crore and success too. Very soon they repaid the loan and the growth of the company also started increasing steadily.
So we can see, the journey has been so easy but they sailed through and oday Vineeta dreams to make Sugar Cosmetic no 1 brand of India.
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