Graduating from the prestigious IIT and then Harvard University is no less than a dream for many around the world. And then, landing a lucrative job is all one needs to get set financially. But not in the case of Ahana Gautam.?
At the age of just 30, Ahana Gautam?took a bold decision to leave her lucrative job and start her own company focused on healthy snacks. The Harvard University and IIT-Bombay alumna said that although starting her healthy snacks startup Open Secret was a risky move, her mother's faith in her gave her the guts. The company has now reported a Rs 100 crore turnover.
Gautam told News18 that she came up with the concept of "unjunking" Indian snacks while pursuing her MBA at Harvard. After visiting a Whole Foods store in the US, the overweight woman from a small city in Rajasthan who loved gujjia realized how important eating healthily was." They only had better-for-you products. They did not place any junk products in these stores and that made me wonder, why in India we don't have that access," she said.
Ahana Gautam's mother had reportedly succumbed to Covid during the pandemic’s second wave. Ahana was raised by her single mother in Bharatpur, Rajasthan,?
After completing Btech (in chemical engineering) from IIT-Bombay and then MBA from Harvard Business School, Ahana began her career at Procter & Gamble (P&G), after which she also went on to work at General Mills and Fox Star Studios.?
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When Gautam talked about how important her mother was to her success, she even mentioned that she gave her the original seed money to launch the business.?
"Whatever I am today is because of my mother. She always used to tell me two things: Number one is that education levels the field. It doesn't matter what your gender is, or which small city you come from, if you have a great education, you can make a difference in the world. Those words inspired me and were the fuel for me to go to IIT-Bombay and Harvard Business School," Gautam said. "The second thing she always told me was to be financially independent.
'Once you're financially independent, you can make the decisions of your life.'"
The founder and CEO of Open Secret, the startup she founded in March 2019, added that her mother even acted as a shield and protected her when others insisted she get married before launching the company. "She told me: this is your dream, this is your passion, work at it. Her courage acted as a shield and protected me from biases."
In her nearly four years of her entrepreneurial journey, Ahana has encountered many tough moments. Sharing with Forbes, she had said that during one of her investment pitches, a venture capitalist was not comfortable with the swag of the founder who was confident about her business plans. “I think you are too confident.?Zyada?confidence?theek nahin hai?[too much of confidence is not good],” was his feedback. Ahana replied “Mushkil se toh confidence seekha hai. Kya?problem?hai sir?[I have learnt it the hard way. Is there a problem]?”.
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