Many startups have grown out of simple ideas and the same was the case for the couple from Jaipur, Nidhi and Alop Mehta. Alop has always been known as an excellent product manager with expertise in program management. He has extensive experience working in several roles in different companies. Nidhi on the other hand, Nidhi is a serial entrepreneur, with several successful venture under her name. She has an MBA in finance and over a decade of experience.
NeedyBee is e-commerce (B2B & B2C) venture in the kids & mom e-tailing space providing “Head2Toe” accessories and apparel for kids and moms as one stop shopping destination. It is the brand of kid’s pure cotton clothing & accessories is available at all leading kids’ stores in India and overseas. The products are mostly handmade and made of natural materials and environmental friendly.
Please provide a brief overview of your product/ service.
NeedyBee offers a vast array of products with over 5,000 unique designs including Accessories (Shoes, Socks, Hair Accessories, Jewelry, Sunglasses, Ties, Scarves, Totes & Purses, Stoles, Bag Hangars, Quirky Accessories, and Belts), Organic/cotton apparel, Beddings, Room & bath décor, Organic Plush Toys, Gift Sets, Family (matching) ensembles and Mom’s Corner (JaipurSe: bags, jewelry, bedding, home & kitchen soft furnishings). The company continuously adds more than 100 products each week to well match the changing styles and trends.
What inspired you to build the above product/ service?
Our first born is a boy. After two exciting years of trucks, trains, planes, dirt and searching for colourful tees in the boys section, our daughter was born on 07/07/07. Overnight, we were surrounded by beautiful clips and bows and the fun of dressing up a girl… I have been obsessed about my daughter’s hair accessories ever since and as I’ve met more mums with baby girls, I was struck with the realization that all of us moms were always looking out for something cute, beautiful and unique as accessories for our tender and beautiful babies as well as our friends’ babies as gifts!
So, when we thought of relocating to India, after a couple of decades of making our career overseas, we both decided to take this opportunity to cater to our respective interests:
- Nidhi’s in designing kids accessories and apparel with a paramount stress on quality.
- Alop’s in creating an organization that would help us give back to our community with something unique all the while fulfilling a need!
All of the products, from the raw material to its packaging is thought through. NeedyBee products are mostly handmade, organic and environment-friendly, as we believe in the mantra – functionality and comfort are as relevant, as the style itself.
What is your life mantra?
Our life’s mantra is to create and live experiences that become lasting memories. For us work is fun. It doesn’t overtake our personal lives. We are continuously learning and exploring. That keeps our mind active, excited and helps us grow! We believe in touching peoples lives in special ways.
What was the most challenging part of your journey till now?
The most challenging parts of our journey have been our initial struggle to get things set up infrastructure wise. Sometimes things take so long in India to happen that it gets very frustrating. We have also had an employee stealing company data and starting out on her own. These things just put a bad taste in your mouth. But we have learnt a lot from these incidences and now are better for it. Overall, the growth and the team we have has been our strength and it keeps us going.
How did you overcome those challenges?
Challenges are meant to teach us important lessons. Fortunately, we met with a few important challenges that helped us to gear up security measures and do things differently. The work style in India is definitely very different from that in the USA or Singapore so the challenges faced by us helped us to adapt quickly to our new business environment and thus we have been able to grow consistently.
Share some details about the investments that you have been able to fetch for the business till now.
So far our venture has been self-funded. Now as we plan our next phase of expansion we will be tapping into other resources like Venture funding.
How do you protect yourself from the problem of Brain Drain?
We have been fortunate not to have faced the brain drain issue. We are a small team and we have always believed in Quality over quantity. We want to stay lean and have efficiency through processes and by hiring the right people for the roles. So far we have been successful in this attempt. Our work culture is very open. Every employee is a contributor and is rewarded for creative thinking and that keeps them anchored with the organisation.
According to you, what are the three qualities an individual must have to achieve success?
HardWork, Integrity and Punctuality
Which online tools/ services/ apps do you use the most and would like to recommend as well?
We use a lot of Google for business and Facebook for our Marketing.
Share any one habit which you think makes you more productive.
Writing down the tasks for the day a night before helps us to have clarity on how to plan the next day and finish off what’s due!
Share any one habit which you wish to change in yourself.
We wish to be early risers!
Answer in less than 50 words
Success to us means being able to create value addition to our society, to the people who work with us in an ethical way. Success to us does not just mean money – it means growth, learning, uplifting, finding a solution to a problem, contributing and creating a legacy.
- One mistake you believe every individual must avoid:
Dwelling in the past!
- One most important lesson that you have learnt till now:
Have no Fear! What is the worst that could happen? Once you can overcome that fear you will be able to achieve anything!
What are your plans for next 3 years?
Founded in 2012 with a seed capital of Rs. 3 lacs by Founders Nidhi Banthia Mehta & Alop Mehta today, the organisation is growing at a rapid pace and is ambitiously aimed to have a valuation of over 200 crores in the next five years.
If you get a chance to start your career again what would you do differently this time?
Start the entrepreneurship journey earlier!
What are your top three getaway destinations?
Phuket (and any other beach destination), Anywhere on the hills, Europe
Share a quote that inspires you the most.
“There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness. Happiness comes from our own actions. We should be kind always.”