This femtech startup helps women navigate the triangle of influence: career, relationships, and health
Mumbai-based femtech startup Say Cheese, founded by Rajpreet Kaur, aspires to be the ‘go-to place’ for women and help them find happiness in career, relationships, and health.
In her corporate career of over 15 years, straddling both corporate treasuries (Tata Consultancy Services & Bharti Group) and the banking industry (HSBC, Standard Chartered), Rajpreet Kaur believes she had several learnings as a woman.
“Juggling between work and a perfect mother resulted in an overtiring circle of guilt and emotional swings. Further, there were experiences at work where I felt that in many pockets across organisations, being part of powerful coteries determined the growth of individuals. I also experienced that women had to go that extra mile to prove their worth,” she says.
While she was making a significant impact and getting recognition for her work, she felt that her life had a larger purpose. Breaking “free from the cells of spreadsheets”, Rajpreet discovered her calling as an entrepreneur and founded Frenztastic (Say Cheese is the brand name) in December 2020.
Rajpreet, a computer science engineer and an MBA from MDI, Gurgaon, a certified FRM, and a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Commerce, feels women today are more successful and “have access to far more opportunities than at any time in history”.
“However, they continue to face a plethora of issues - glass ceiling, body shaming, unsafe environment, biases, compromise, work-life balance, marriage pressure, patriarchal mindset, stereotypes, sacrifice, discrimination, boy’s club, financial dependence, lack of self-love, loneliness, health issues. The list is endless,” she says.
Making a difference
Rajpreet started Say Cheese to make a meaningful difference in the lives of Indian women by helping them navigate the triangle of influence – career, relationships, and health.
She interviewed about 500+ women to identify the problems they face and these three broad themes emerged. She says Say Cheese aspires to be the ‘go to’ place for women just like LinkedIn is for professionals and Amazon is for shopping.
Its services have their foundation in the Happiness Model, which is based on global research, and world renowned theories on happiness along with real experiences of women interviewed and the Say Cheese team.
Rajpreet explains, “Right from the time a user enters the platform, her personalised journey begins. We measure her happiness levels through our proprietary assessment- Happiness Evaluation report (HER), which give as output the scores around the various elements of our Happiness Model.”
The user is then recommended coaching services that help identify the root causes of the challenges she is facing and various solutions through technology-enabled modules are offered to choose from and build her personalised journey.
All-round holistic development
It aims to build a community of closely connected women, offering services across various areas like coaching, mentoring, fitness, mental health, upskilling, peer-to-peer learning, among others.
Apart from Rajpreet Kaur, the Say Cheese team comprises Pradeep Wadhwa, the Fractional CMO, and Amandeep Singh, Director, Nabeela Moosani - Sales and Customer Engagement Lead, and Nainika Hira and Divina Tejwani, psychologists. In total, there are 24 people working in various capacities at Say Cheese.
While the platform is open to all women, the initial target audience is career women and master’s students between the age group of 24 and 42 years of age from the top 10 cities across India.
It works on four revenue streams – a transaction fee, subscription fees, a freemium model, and pay as you go.
Say Cheese has over 3,500 registered users on its platform. In January 2021, Say Cheese was named the 1st Runner-up at the Wharton Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (EAP): Scaling Your Business.
It has also tied up with the Bengaluru chapter of International Coaching Federation (ICF). This partnership helps users gain access to world-class coaches and advisers, who can guide and help women identify and solve the root cause of their challenges, be it in their career, relationships, or health.
Say Cheese has also entered a multi-year agreement with Kritical Edge Consulting (KE), who is its strategic marketing partner.
“In early January, we announced our flagship, women leadership convention titled ‘Invest in Yourself: Transform into an Unstoppable Woman’. The event, which was held virtually on March 14, 2021, featured a line-up of corporate leaders, personalities, influencers, and entrepreneurs from various walks of life,” Rajpreet says.
In March, Say Cheese received its first round of funding from an Indian angel investor, Naved Khan, an entrepreneur from Sydney.
“In 2021, have set ambitious targets that include building our network to 10,000 members, personalised approach based on HER assessment, onboarding several women leaders as mentors, and create a robust services eco-system that garners opportunities for women across various sectors,” Rajpreet says.
Edited by Teja Lele