Shark Tank Judge Vineeta Singh recalls on her initial days in Mumbai and her entrepreneurial journey.
Shark Tank Judge Vineeta Singh recalls on her initial days in Mumbai and her entrepreneurial journey.
Vineeta Singh is a part of Shark Tank India season 2 a very popular realty show for entrepreneurs.
For those unversed, Vineeta
is an highly recognised and dynamic Indian businesswoman and CEO, Co-founder of
Sugar Cosmetics Corp an high-end makeup brand. It is touted as one of the most successful and popular cosmetic brands in India focussing predominantly on Indian skin tone. In an exclusive conversation recently with a news agency Vineeta Singh revealed on her initial days when she shifted to Mumbai and her struggles to understand the city, and what made her to fall in love with Mumbai, the financial hub.
Vineeta Singh shared that she moved to Mumbai with her first start-up at 23, and it was hard as at that time she had to really figure a way out to live independently, that meant renting a house and getting help in place. Her salary at that time around was Rs.10,000k which rose to 25,000k which then eventually ended with 50,000k. It then seemed like a luxury. Her first few months were really hard.
Continuing, Vineeta affirmed that , “Interestingly, she moved after graduation, which happens in like March, April, so she moved in July, probably the worst time anybody can choose to move to Mumbai. The first three months of stay was an harrowing experience for Vineeta as the next two-three months was monsoon, and there was a seepage in the house.
Even getting a rickshaw was extremely tough and had to walk a kilometer before getting rejected by 100 rickshaw drivers. As for Vineeta, before all the 100 BC rejections, she got 100 rickshaw driver rejections in her whole journey.
On falling in love with Mumbai,
the Shark Tank India 2 judge cleared that she used to think what is this city when she grew up in Delhi and campus where the houses used to be big, there were lawns, roads were wide, traffic used to move fast. T
For Vineeta Mumbai was like an entrepreneur adding that Mumbai is just like an entrepreneur an unstoppable city that’s what an entrepreneur’s life also is.
Vineeta has experienced rough weather through the worst failure, rejection, and worst day of life, but next 5 am came to show up for your customers.
This is why she felt Mumbai is a great city to build and emerge as entrepreneur. When once you have an office close to your house you don’t have to struggle with all the traffic.
life is amazing. Now I love this city, but yes, the first three or four months were hard because Iwas a hardcore Delhi girl.
Vineeta Singh reveals how she dealt with self-doubt:
Throwing light on it, she said, people still tell her that she has wasted a seat at IIT.and also mentioning that when one is grown up, having things easy then they are not used to failure. She expressed that she went through extreme self-doubt but also revealed that her father always pushed her to be ambitious. The Shark Tank India 2 former judge also said that she was used to thinking big and always wanted to do big as she had grown up with that inspiration she got from her father.
Vineeta also revealed how her starts-ups failed due to several reasons before her brand Sugar started. She explained that it was her lowest point, and that was the first time after five years of trying to be an entrepreneur. She stated how she questioned her capability and started questioning everything about herself. Vineeta also revealed how there were books only based on men entrepreneurs, and the first book she read about a woman entrepreneur was in 2016.
Vineeta also mentioned that she thought being an entrepreneur was her wrong career choice. Those months of self-doubt were very hard, but that was the time when she started running marathons to get that self-esteem. She started doing ultramarathons, triathlons to really get some of that self-esteem back. Luckily it was also the time she got married and started thinking about the family. There were many things that kept her away from the void she was feeling. Vineeta shared self doubt was hard, but somehow she found the courage to not give up.
News Input K.V.Raman
