Banter and playful shenanigans are what sibling bonds are all about but what makes their connection unique is the love and understanding that ties them together.
From starting a food venture to finding a solution to farm waste, these siblings are thriving in the corporate world as they march to the beat of their own drum. This Raksha Bandhan, The Better India highlights five such brothers and sisters who stuck together through thick and thin to script their success.
1.Shivang & Shivika Sood
These Pune-based entrepreneurs have worked together since 2017 to turn their mother’s delectable kheer recipes into a full-fledged business venture.
La Kheer Deli mixes flavours of the modern palate with the comfort of traditional homemade kheer.
“My sister, Shivika, was bored with eating just kheer, and on a whim, decided to put a spoonful of Nutella and oreo in her bowl. The result was delicious,” 27-year-old Shivang told The Better India.
The initiative began as a weekend dessert cart and turned into a franchise with the sibling duo owning six outlet stores across the city today. Coupe Dry Fruit Kheer, Coupe Gulkand Kheer, Coupe Nutella Kheer, Coupe Mocha Kheer, Coupe Brownie Kheer and many other delights earn them an annual revenue of over Rs 1 crore.
They also purchase their own seeds, and according to Marketing Minds, the brand has sold over 3 lakh seeds since its inception. The team urges customers to plant the seed in the cup left behind after consuming the kheer, ensuring that it reaps benefits even beyond the threshold of their stores.
2.Nikita & Arjun Hari
Nikita Hari and her brother Arjun have coupled their skills and passion to develop WUDI, an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based career advisory startup.
While studying in the UK, Nikita became Vice-President of the Cambridge University Graduate Union. By engaging and addressing the problems faced by graduates, by working with the different bodies of the university, she told Deccan Chronicle how she acted as a channel between the university and the students. Arjun, on the other hand, was trying to figure out his career path during his first year of MBA at IIM Kozhikode. He was an engineer by education, but wasn’t sure of what he wanted to do in the field.
Upon sharing their experiences, the two decided to begin a venture that aimed to help young students discover their career potential free of judgement and scepticism, and use it to gain higher employability.
Their product Edu-WUDI analyses students on subjective grounds of interest, talent, and potential. “We are aiming to transform the educational space by helping students realise their talents. A poet should be analysed in terms of their literary skills rather than their skills in geometry,” Nikita told The Better India, while speaking about their venture’s goal.
3.Avantika and Mrityunjay Jalan
Leaving the urban life of high-income jobs, this brother sister duo have come back to their roots, quite literally.
Avantika and Mritunjay have been working in sustaining organic tea production on their 600-hectare tea estates at Chota Tingrai in Assam.
From their startup Mana Organics, working with the rural population of India, they went on to translate their home estate into a platform for sustainable income generation for the tea lovers it hosted.
“I wanted to recreate that model in Chota Tingrai and show that organic and sustainable systems can work in tea. A 100 hectare of the plantation has been converted into organic,” she told SheThePeople.
Later, Mritunjay took over the logistics and management of the business. He told The Better India, “We don’t want to judge people by the number of years of experience they bring but by what they have learnt in the years they have worked.”
Together, the two have braved skepticism against organic farming to get the local planters to grow better tasting, eco-friendly tea.
“We are trying to provide authentic organic Assam teas, which come from the socially responsible estate,” Avantika told Daily Hunt.
4.Nikki Kumar Jha and Rashmi Jha
Growing up in Naya Tola Dudhela village of Bihar, the brother-sister duo were witness to the sheer wastage of horticultural produce due to inadequate storage infrastructure.
Together, Rashmi and Nikky have built a unique storage device called ‘Sabjikothi’ under their startup Saptkrishi.
‘Sabjikothi’ comes as a low-cost, self-assembled storage device that increases the shelf life of fruits and vegetables from 3 to 30 days. “The best part is that we can even transport it on thela (cart). It only requires 10 watts of power which is equivalent to the amount of power required to run your mobile phone. Our storage device is powered by a small lead-acid battery, although we have plans to switch over to lithium-ion,” the entrepreneur told The Better India.
Together, the two raised funding through Nidhi Prayas with IIT-Kanpur and came up with extensive marketing strategies.
“Our focus is to scale business by setting up omni-channel sales through trade fairs, FPOs, and digital mediums such as ecommerce and social media. Going forward, we want to eliminate mandi intermediaries by purchasing produce from farmers at a fair price and selling directly to retailers via an app,” he told YourStory about their mission.
5.Aayush and Aanchal Poddar
A mutual love for travel has earned this sibling duo an annual turnover of Rs 6 crore.
In 2015, this brother and sister bootstrapped a startup to fulfil an apparent gap in lifestyle.
“We were on our annual UK trip when we noticed beautiful travel accessories, but they lacked a personal touch. We thought of blending the two and introducing the idea here in India, and that is how The Messy Corner (TMC) was formed,” Aanchal had revealed to The New India Express.
This birthed the idea of creating their first ever product — passport covers. The product was brainstormed, designed, and marketed from a cosy little room in their own house. This is where the inspiration behind the name came from as well.
“Our mother used to keep shouting at us to clean the room and we did try, but, in minutes, it became a mess again,” she told YourStory.
Today, their personal efforts have grown into a 20-member team selling products ranging between Rs 299 and Rs 3,999.
Together they are breaking the market with quality products like diaries, wallet tags, desk accessories, etc. Their journey has created a great example of how together, a compatible duo can bring affordable standards to consumerism at large. As Aanchal had added, “Why flaunt designer labels when your name can be your own brand?”
Edited by Yoshita Rao
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