Daring, driven and different

Shafeena Yusuff Ali, 31, Founder, Tablez Food Company, Abu Dhabi

The coastal city of Kochi is known for its port and cantilevered Chinese fishing nets. When it became a port in 1341, opening its harbour to Arab, Chinese and European merchants, one could never imagine the rapid growth as one of the most sought after tourist spots in the country. And today, any travel blog worth its salt will tell you that aside from the usual haunts near Fort Kochi and its quaint bars and restaurants on the waterfront serving the most delectable Keralite curries, there exists India's second largest mall, the Lulu Mall, an outpost of a group by the same name founded by MA Yusuff Ali in Abu Dhabi. Ali, who is originally from Trichur, near Kochi, is now worth a whopping Dollars 5 billion and his rags-to-riches story is both inspiring and well-documented.

Little is known, however, of his equally enterprising daughter, Shafeena Yusuff Ali, who founded Tablez Food Company (TFC) in 2011. As she inconspicuously enters the Marriott Hotel annexed to the glorious Lulu Mall in Edapally, it becomes clear why. The silently fierce and always headscarved Shafeena, 31, isn't one for being the centre of attention, so when we were informed that she landed in a chopper and pulled up in a maroon BMW 7 series, it came as a total surprise. The reserved businesswoman and mother of four runs an empire, the turnover of which is projected to be in excess of approximately Dollars 33.2 million this year, while simultaneously pursuing an Executive MBA at Oxford University. She has always been at the top of her game. "Of my three sisters, I would say I was the most mischievous and troublesome, I'd give my mum a lot of panic attacks," she chuckles. "I was the boldest and the loudest and the most adventurous. I always wanted to do and be more." And she succeeded. She was school house captain, a sports champion and head girl. "I played basketball, badminton, I used to run, sprint, long jump, whatever it was, I was up for it. If there was a play I was in it," she recalls. Today, the successful entrepreneur who grew up listening to Mohammad Rafi and the Backstreet Boys, is big on books and is reading three books at any given point in time. With 3,000 books on her Kindle and Stephen King as her favourite author, Shafeena says she has a book for every mood. "I read whatever I can get my hands on. Everything from airport paperbacks to your next soulbooks," she says. "Usually, I read three books at a time. One is something I re-read which gives me peace after a busy day. One is a new book, something that's caught my eye or someone's told me to read. Another is usually non-fiction or biographies." Currently flipping through The Inheritance Trilogy by N K Jesimin, she is also a huge Potterhead and Arundhati Roy fan.

It was this diversion that prompted her husband Adeeb Ahamed, CEO, Lulu Exchange, to gift her The Prophet by Khalil Gibran once their nuptials were arranged. The two today invest a lot of their time and money building a collection of first editions of their favourite books. They have a first edition Peter Pan, The Prophet and Winnie the Pooh, among others. "He is not your typical damaad. He is one of my dad's best friends. He pays more attention to where my mom is than me," she says. Referring to Ahamed as her "safety net", she explains how he encouraged her "without a blink of the eye, even with four children, a business and all the crazy things going on in our lives" to pursue an MBA at Oxford. In fact, it was Ahamed who also suggested to her the idea of starting her own cupcake store when they returned from London to Abu Dhabi, realising that she "wouldn't just sit around at home". This push and her passion for food led to the inception of Tablez. The name, simple as it sounds, has a profound reason behind its selection. "I believe everything happens on a table, whether it is a good conversation, a good wedding proposal, a good Storymeeting, or a good argument. A table gives you distance and it give you intimacy," she says. When the couple moved to London after marriage, with Ahamed doing his MBA from Royal Holloway and Ali studying business at Richmond University, she was exposed to a variety of food and cuisines, and it both piqued her interest and made her ponder over the lack of a successful casual dining scene back home in the Middle East and in India. "In the Middle East, there's always the regular bar or a high-end restaurant but that casual dining space wasn't being saturated and there wasn't anyone in it at that point of time," she says.

So, when Shafeena returned eight years ago, pregnant with her oldest son, she founded Bloomsbury, a cupcake shop which her best friend and pasty chef Bivo from the UK helped establish. From there, one opportunity after another presented itself and today Tablez operates 22 outlets, with another three under construction. The business-from its inception in 2011 with three home grown concepts-changed its strategy in 2013 and decided to acquire franchise rights of various established international restaurant brands including chains such as Galito's, Grimaldi's, Famous Dave's, Sugar Factory and more. This strategy has worked well and the business has been clocking a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 41 per cent for the last four years. Shafeena was keen on entering the Indian market when she discovered that even residents of Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities were ready to embrace the casual dining space, even if only once in a while. "I think now is the right time. India is catching up to the food scene. People are discovering cuisines other than Indian and even with Indian cuisines people are discovering and appreciating regional cuisines more," she says. "In that aspect, I felt like the causal dining scene would be the right space and time to enter and to build that personal space." In fact, one of Shafeena's favourite TFC restaurant is Bloomsbury in Bengaluru, because she says it is a "community-centric space". "What do people in Whitefield, Bengaluru want? They want a break from their monotony of coding. So how do you give them that? You create a space where you can do something like stand-up comedy nights. An experience beyond the restaurant."

She constantly evolves her already existing chains, so they don't stagnate and become boring, both for the staff and the consumers. "When the opportunity arose to open an Indian restaurant in one of my dad's malls, we wanted to do something different so we interpreted how the food in India had changed with colonial rule. We did that with Peppermill." Her role in the company evolves too, from being the only person who worked out every last detail independently, she has learned to allow the team to come together and run the business with her. "When it was just one store, it was easy to do everything. Quickly you realise, the bigger you get the more you need people who think like you, your placeholders. I was lucky to find such people," she says. What sets Tablez apart and ensures sustained success is their business model. Shafeena and her team work the model backwards and assert that the mistake most food chains make is to run things the other way around. "We know what profit we want to make. So, when we analyse or take a location, we would have run the numbers for it already. We analyse how many seats we need in the restaurant to achieve that profit, then we analyse whether we have the right amount of people coming in, and then we sort out budgets for the decor," she says.

The self-professed empathetic boss says if there is anything she learned from her father, it is to treat your employees and people who work for you like your family. "I don't bring professionalism into my family life, but I definitely bring a little bit of family into my professional life," she says. And it's true beyond inviting employees to family dinners and creating a close-knit community within the organisation. She learns more negotiation skills from her eight-year-old son than most other people at work. "I was at a wedding and I wanted him to wear a kurta, but he wanted to wear a T-shirt," she says. "He wanted a coin for Dollars 1.99 on his game app. I said no. He called me back and said, 'It's so itchy and uncomfortable, if you give me that coin it will be so much easier to wear it!,'" she chortles. And other members of her family too have taught her more about life and business that most courses could ever hope to. "No matter how many universities I go to, no matter how many degrees I get, no matter what I do in life, nothing can compare to even spending an hour with him. He's an institution on his own," she says about her father.

The ever-inspiring Shafeena wants to use her example to inspire women. She believes education and exposure is the key to empowering women to step out and make something of and for themselves. The multi-tasker, who finds peace in scrapbooking, and can simultaneously watch an episode of Narcos, cook a meal, take care of her children and get on a con-call for work, leads by example.

5 rules of doing business

1. Businesses must be seen from a long-term perspective. It has to be more than money, rather a vision. Often, people settle for short-term gains, and forget the reason why they started something in the first place-their dream. A business is more than profits; it's a living entity built with purpose, passion and values.

2. Try not to do it all by yourself. Invest in the right people. Finding the right people is about finding the right attitude. Give me someone with the right attitude and the rest can be taught. In the long-run, what makes someone productive, creative and lasting is their attitude.

3. Business is not an easy pastime. You need to focus every single day. To stay prepared with a task list, prioritising tasks based on their importance is an emotional investment in your dream. A business always tests you, how serious you are, and the amount of self-belief you possess.

4. The fear associated with taking a risk is a clear indicator of the change you must initiate to achieve success. Changes are an alien territory. We all fear changes but playing too safe never gets anyone far. Leaving our comfort zone is necessary for success and any failure must be considered as a learning experience.

5. The success of a business is about the value it creates for the customer. It is the oldest rule in the book and still remains the most important.

How to conquer the foodscape

1. A good question to start with is what's different about your food offering from your competition. Otherwise it becomes everything about competitive pricing and the one with the biggest pockets wins. Today, engaging customers through visual content on social media to drive product differentiation and creating conversations is a winning formula.

2. Word of mouth has a great say in driving business. It is important that you create a unique experience for the first-time customers. Families with children, a key segment in food business, relies much on word-of-mouth. For me, customer loyalty is an emotional decision and depends on the experience you create around your food.

3. Comfort foods are making a comeback We are slowly realising that a lot of culinary red flags related to lifestyle diseases were just false alarms. Comfort foods are about our dearest memories, an experience closer to home, and an occasional indulgence that can result in a good frame of mind.

4. Innovate, innovate, and innovate The menu must keep evolving. Inculcate a spirit of experimentation, devise new recipes, shop for lost recipes from traditional homes, bring a new twist to traditional dishes, and accommodate modern tastes. The trend says people are willing to experiment with new dishes and will go anywhere for such an opportunity.

5. Home delivery has grown big time and is a key segment for the food business. Even if you lack a proper infrastructure, there are online delivery services you can partner with to grow your business. It opens up a new revenue stream and also brings in customers who are already patrons of such services without an extra investment.

By Asmita Bakshi

Pooja Shetty-Deora, 39; Aarti Shetty, 36, Board Advisory and Creative Consultant, Imagica, Mumbai

Sisters Pooja Shetty-Deora and Aarti Shetty claim they are "very contrasting personalities", but their shared love for theme parks and a driven commitment to succeed has led to the creation of Imagica, India's entertainment theme destination. Daughters of Manmohan Shetty, founder of Adlabs Film Entertainment, the sisters noticed that a theme park was always on their itinerary during their international travels and found a glaring space which needed to be filled in India. Imagica took four years to conceptualise and launch and the brand has now created a water park, snow park, Novotel Imagica and several other initiatives in Mumbai, which make it a happy-hub for an entire family outing.

What are the challenges associated with setting up a theme park in India?

Theme parks are not yet a regular part of an Indian consumer's diet. Building a culture of theme parks is a major responsibility and takes a lot of hard work. Keeping the Indian consumer at the helm of all ideas has helped us take small steps towards success. Through them, we know that as a park we have excelled in the product mix.

How has Imagica fared in terms of numbers, where did you begin and where have you reached?

When we started off in April 2013, we received an overwhelming response, welcoming over a million Avisitors in the first year itself. Today, after four years, three parks and one hotel later, we have greeted over five million guests, 1,000 plus corporate groups and eight weddings at Imagica. We have built Imagica as the destination for not just families, but also as an ideal MICE and wedding address. We have seen an overall year-on-year growth with Rs 189 crore as our turnover in the first year of going public, to reaching a turnover of Rs 239 crore in the last year.

What advice, if any, has your father given you?

He doesn't really gives us any advice. But we have watched him work over the past decade and a half and his simplicity, hard work, love for the country and passion to bring entertainment formats for the Indian consumer is inspiring. There is a lot for us to learn from him.

Making a mark

1. Believe in yourself

2. Pay no heed to restricting views and voices that tell you what you should or shouldn't do as women

3. Stay focused on your goals and work through the challenges

By Asmita Bakshi

Natisha Saraf Saraogi, 30, Founder, Natty, Bengaluru

A decade ago, the lure of foreign travel was purchasing products that no one had. Then global brands set up shop in India and travel became cheaper; making homes and wardrobes look alike. People were forced to go to the usual suspects. No one understood this better than Natisha Saraf Saraogi, who after completing her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania, US, returned to India in 2009 to gain experience in her family's hotel business. A few years later, in June 2016, she launched Natty, a curated e-commerce marketplace for emerging creative Indian businesses that make and sell unique lifestyle products.

Innovation on offer "I have personally handpicked every brand on Natty for its story. Each one makes or sources products with a difference," says Saraf. There's a Delhi-based brand that uses waste fabric from garment factories and employs women to weave them into clutches and tote bags. A design studio in Pune is working with traditional coppersmiths to create sleek carafes for water. Jaipur designers are working with thathera (metal utensils makers in north India) to take their craft from large utensils to candle stands and dessert plates that we can use in our homes. A Chennai-based, PETA-approved vegan brand run by two 20-something, animal-loving women uses only cork to make wallets and handbags. Number crunching "We invested about Rs 45 lakh as capital expenditure. For the first year, our team was small with four members and a monthly salary spend of under Rs 2 lakh. After a year, we have now added new members to the team and plan to double our strength," she says. In their first year of operation the company completed Rs 41.59 lakh sales with about Rs RS 9.1 lakh commission through both online and offline channels.

Handy hints

1. Don't get bogged down by competition

2. Believe in your concept, don't be afraid to grow and evolve with time

3. Winners don't do different things, they do things differently

By Ridhi Kale

Eshanya Karle, 30, Director, Karle Group of Companies, Bengaluru

Established in 1972, the Karle Group of Companies started out in the garment industry and has many verticals now including Karle Properties, Karle Infra and Cymbio Pharma. "I was the youngest member of the management when I first joined the business," says Eshanya Karle, Director, Karle Group of Companies that has firmly established itself for over four decades starting out in garments and venturing into real estate and pharma companies. "It took me time to establish myself. Once people are convinced with your work and ideas, all their doubts are erased," she says. From beginning as an entrepreneur with a low cost clothing line for tier 2 cities, in 2011, she took a plunge into the family real estate business Karle Infra working extensively with the design team on their project, Karle Town Centre, Bengaluru, a 72-acre mixed township project. "I enjoy delving into consumer behaviour in every industry," she says. On the other hand, her keen eye on employee requirements and focus on emotional intelligence have brought about key changes in the company. "We weren't looking inwards enough. It isn't always about employee programmes only but helping people from different backgrounds align with the company's vision is a task in itself," says. From stringent policies against sexual harassment to increased maternity and healthcare benefits and employee engagement programmes, she has helped improve the employee experience by leaps and bounds. "We come from the garment manufacturing industry where we have worked with women tailors for a long time. We've had facilities like creches at factories before people knew what they were. So, employee satisfaction has always been embedded in the core of the company," she explains. Though she admits that the industry itself isn't disadvantageous for women, there are roles that are still male-dominated.

Ready for the ride

1. Women have the ability to multi-task and can do well in all sectors of the business

2. We need to have more women engineers

3. Strive towards making people believe in your idea

By Prachi Sibal

Tanvi Malik and Shivani Poddar, 31, Co-founders, FabAlley, Delhi

Photo: Yasir Iqbal

It was while working the 9 to 6 grind in their corporate jobs that school friends Tanvi Malik and Shivani Poddar hit upon the idea of creating a homegrown fashion brand that could take on global behemoths such as Zara, Mango, ASOS and H&M in terms of trendiness while keeping Indian sensibilities in mind and being easy on the pocket. That's how FabAlley was born in 2013, initially boot-strapped by these young founders with an investment of less than a crore.

What is the concept and rationale behind FabAlley?

An array of design differentiated, trendy with a twist and quirky products ensure that we resonate with women who have distinctive taste when it comes to fashion. We started as an online brand but now have offline presence as well, with 50 shop-in-shops with Central Mall across the country, and one exclusive outlet in Bengaluru. All the products are designed and manufactured in-house.

Tell us about the company's growth in terms of reach and new collections?

We got funding from IAN (Indian Angel Network) for an undisclosed amount in October 2013, when we launched the brand. Post that, we raised our Series A funding round from India Quotient for Rs 12 crore in 2016. We have grown from Rs 20 lakh monthly sales in 2013 to Rs 6 crore in monthly sales.

What's the USP of your collections?

Our key differentiator is understanding the pulse, the zeitgeist of fashion well before our competitors, translating it into our products while keeping the pricing low; all this at breakneck pace. Our lead time from trend-mining to product production is less than three weeks, which means that we are able to pioneer the fast fashion retain model in India. Trend-centric products is our strong point and our design process starts from identification of key trends for the upcoming season.

Road to growth

1. Take the risk. You never know the outcome of your efforts unless you do it

2. Know your customer

3.Build a great team

By Shelly Anand

Akanksha Kapoor, 28, Co-founder, I Say Organic, Delhi

Photo: Chandradeep Kumar

Sourcing products ranging from fruits, vegetables, grains, lentils, oils, ghee, honey, and spices from 12 states, working with over 3,000 farmers in nine farmer groups, I Say Organic delivers fresh food directly from farmers' groups to customers across Delhi and NCR. It operates seven days a week and allows customers to pay online or at the time of delivery by cash or credit card. The company was started with the vision of making organic farming viable for farmers across India with an investment of Rs 4 crore.

How sustainable is it to go organic given the challenges of urban life?

Going organic is the way forward and that's how we see it at I Say Organic. We have made our services convenient for everyone by offering home delivery. We want to bust the myth that eating out means eating bad. Even hotels are opening up to the idea of organic menus or adding organic ingredients to dishes.

What made you quit your job and become an entrepreneur?

The company was started by my brother, Ashmeet, in 2012, and I joined a year later to head the marketing department, and now retail as well. I wanted to create and be part of the movement that helps people lead a healthier life. I personally experienced the benefits of going organic. My PCOD reversed and I stopped getting acidity.

Women entrepreneurs whose brain you'd want to pick?

American billionaire businesswoman and founder of Spanx, Sara Blakely, and fashion designer Stella McCartney.

Make a note

1.Don't let perceptions get to you just because you are a woman

2.Set your own terms, see what works for you

3. Push your team towards the goal and look for positive results

By Mohini Mehrotra

Neha Motwani, 31, Founder and CEO, Fitternity, Mumbai

Photo: Milind Shelte

With 2.5 lakh people using the app to book gym workouts, yoga sessions or dance classes over the past three years, Fitternity is a platform for those who want to pick the best fitness options in their city, book a trial session or enrol for even a one-off workout. An MBA from Mumbai's Welingkar Institute, Neha Motwani launched Fitternity.com in 2014 after noticing a void in the area of booking fitness sessions online. "As an individual user, I struggled to find the right workout option near me. We wanted to make fitness accessible to consumers," she says. She began with a research study of 500 people across six cities and bucketed them into three categories-sitters, seekers and hunters depending on their desire to enrol for a good fitness programme. "More than 95 per cent of the apps were targeting seekers and hunters, there was almost nothing for the entry level customer," she says. On Fitternity, users can book trials, memberships and even pay-as-you-go. They have personalised diet plans and calorie-counted meals for the health conscious. "We have a total volume of annual sales of Dollars 3 million. But when Fitternity launched, there were zero online transactions, achieving Dollars 3 million sales has changed the way fitness is consumed in the country," she says. The model works well for both the service provider and the consumer who can book trial sessions and experiment with different fitness options. If you are travelling to a city where Fitternity has partners, you can even book a pay-as-you-go session. In three years, Fitternity has gone from 100 customers to 2.5 lakh users.

Chasing success

1. Understand how to build a prototype with minimum funds

2. Analyse your market size and revenue model

3. Stay connected with the community you wish to impact

By Aditi Pai

Aditi Avasthi, 35, Founder and CEO, Embibe, Bengaluru

Photo:Nilotpal Baruah

An edutech company that aims to improve learning outcomes through data analytics, Embibe is designed to impact three of the most important metrics for education stakeholders in the short-term-grades for students, revenue and cost for teachers and education businesses.

How did the idea of Embibe come to you? What influence did your own educational experience have on it?

Embibe has been a part of me for a very long time. My own early education experiences made me realise that exposure plays a big role in making informed choices on things that can sometimes shape your life permanently. Travelling and working abroad further cemented the belief that certain intangibles like confidence and independent thinking are fostered better if the school experience is about seeking information and making decisions.

What were the changes that you have brought to the business and how has your journey been with them?

In 2015, after being one of the earliest educational technology businesses to raise a substantial amount of funding, we decided to make our product free. We wanted to make an actual dent in education outcomes and not just sell content online. All engagement on the product was only through paid students and not scaling fast enough. Making that decision was not easy.

How difficult is it for a woman to be an entrepreneur in India?

I am lucky to have a family that never questioned my choices based on gender. However, there was concern about job security.

Words of wisdom

1. Liberate scores from learning and allow every child to get personalised learning paths

2.There is need for more women who can be role models for having it all

3. Stick to your idea and let it take concrete shape

By Prachi Sibal

Shuchi Pandya, 34, Co-founder and CEO, Pipa plus Bella, Mumbai

Photo:Milind Shelte

Shuchi Pandya grew up in a family of jewellery aficionados. While she forayed into the industry working on the sales and business development segment of her father's jewellery export business, she set up her own venture Blue Banyan, a jewellery brand in 2007. She founded the e-commerce portal Pipa plus Bella, which retails affordable, contemporary fashion jewellery, in 2012.

Was an e-commerce portal for jewellery an obvious choice for you?

Yes and no. It was obvious in the sense that it was a sector I knew well. I grew up listening to talks on supply chain management and knew the strengths of the industry. But using technology for the business didn't come naturally to me. I had no experience and had to experiment a lot for it to become a strong part of the business model. From setting up your first jewellery venture Blue Banyan to Pipa plus Bella, what has been the most fun part of the journey? Seeing the business thrive. Blue Banyan was a smaller scale project meant to motivate craftsmen in villages by providing them with platforms to showcase their work and marketing their products. It was very creative and a lot of fun reconnecting with ancient Indian handicrafts. With Pipa plus Bella, the challenges were much more to do with scalability. The idea is to use technology to reach out to consumers.

You introduce 100 new designs each week on the website. How do you manage that?

Our supply chain is really lean. We invest in 10 to 15 pieces, which are easily sold out and so the next week we introduce different designs. This way we ensure our users have something to come back for too. It is essential that we keep them engaged. Initially, we were only curating designs, now we design and manufacture our own too.

What has been your biggest advantage as a woman entrepreneur?

The fact that I have a female customer base is perhaps my biggest advantage. It gives me the upper hand on understanding my consumer. That's not to say that men would lack the ability; but I use the product myself on a daily basis, and the user experience allows me greater insight.

By Moeena Halim

Aditi Balbir, 38, Founder, V Resorts, Delhi

As curious child, who travelled a lot across the world with her family, Aditi Balbir would look forward to her six-week vacations through the year, during which her parents made sure they immersed themselves into the culture of the country being visited. Perhaps that came in handy first in launching and now in running her company, V Resorts, an alternate accommodation provider in the leisure travel space. "Travel has been an integral part of my life with my first trip to Japan at the age of six. We travelled on a shoe-string budget and commuted by the metro to get a real, on-ground feel of the place. These snippets, experiences and exposure stayed with me," says Balbir. She stumbled upon the idea of starting V Resorts in 2011 while working with Bedrock Ventures, conducting research for them. "People who wish to travel to unexplored domestic destinations face challenges such as lack of information and reliance on travel agents to book and manage their holidays. I decided to launch V Resorts to offer them an experiential, curated travel experience," she says. The company was started with an investment of Dollars 1.5 million, and over the years, has received a total of $9 million in funding from investors including Seedfund and RB International. V Resorts in principle manages and operates resorts, hotels, camps, houseboats, home stays, and farmhouses for customers to holiday at, enjoy local expe-riences, culture and nature. "We solve the problem of on-ground experience of a leisure customer by ensuring control of the staff and properties. We do not outsource any component of our business, we even have an in-house call centre," she says. With over 70 resorts, with room capacity ranging between 10 and 25, in 16 states, V Resorts provides a personalised travel experience centered around the destination.

The golden rules

1.Have a comprehensive plan and funds to survive at least 18 months

2.Look for people within your circle, friends and family, for initial financing

3.Be ready to pivot

By Shelly Anand