[Mother’s Day] Meet four mothers who started up with their daughters and daughters-in-law
From adorning celebrities with floral jewelry to offering sustainable daily products and cosmetics for a better world, here are four mothers running successful businesses.
Almost everyone seems to have an opinion about mothers and motherhood, whether they are singing praise or otherwise. However, no amount of hyperbole can do justice to how unassumingly mothers go about their day — catering to family needs, multitasking at home and juggling at work. And then there are those who also effortlessly don the entrepreneurial cap — managing households and their organisations with ease.
On Mother’s Day, HerStory presents four mothers who teamed up with their daughters or daughters-in-law to tide over the challenges of running successful businesses.
Asa Beauty
The popularity of clean beauty alternatives is at an all-time high. Mumbai-based D2C makeup and skincare brand
is one such brand catering to the growing consumer base here.Founded by Asha Jindal Khaitan and her daughter-in-law Sukriti Jindal Khaitan in 2020, the brand offers a wide range of vegan beauty products that undergo rigorous testing methods that go beyond the required Indian standards.
Seeing the difficulty of starting anew at the start of the pandemic, the duo built a strong brand narrative around the message of ‘beauty with a purpose’. While Asa Beauty cannot provide the traditional experience of in-store shopping as a digital-first brand, it leverages social media platforms and works with influencer-led product experiences to reach wider audiences.
Carragreen
Hailing from a business family, Surabhi Shah always wanted to become an entrepreneur but before taking the plunge, she completed engineering in information technology from SRM University, Chennai, and sought corporate experience.
However, seeing an image of a helpless tortoise with growth deformity from swallowing the cap of a plastic bottle prompted her to initiate change towards a more eco-friendly lifestyle.
In 2018, she founded
, a startup that produces biodegradable stationery and packaging solutions with products such as pens, pencils, seed paper diaries, and monthly calendars.Incubated at IIM-Bangalore with a grant of Rs 6.5 lakh, the startup’s B2B customers include FMCG giant Haldiram as well as hotels, schools, and conference organisers.
Joined by her mother-in-law Chetna Shah on the venture, the startup also acquired Rs 50 lakh in funding on Shark Tank India from Peyush Bansal and Anupam Mittal.
Junekeri Homes
Setting up a new home is no easy task. Uniquely for former Delhivery employee Ayessha Gurung, it led to starting a home decor brand called
. While setting up her home, Ayessha had come across a host of generic home decor brands and thought of bringing heirloom-quality pieces that can add value to modern Indian homes as a promising business idea.Teaming up with her mother Sudha, the duo travelled widely, and found crafting families and workshops in the remotest villages in the northeast, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and West Bengal to establish a strong connection, and started Junekeri Homes in 2020.
Now the D2C homegrown brand specialises in home textiles and interior objects without having to work with middlemen. Bootstrapped so far, Junekeri clocks a GMV of Rs 1.5 crore per month and is looking to raise a seed/angel round in the next two quarters.
Floral Art
Kavita lived most of her life tending to household chores till she started Floral Art in 2002. Two decades later, the venture has been a part of coveted events like Mukesh Ambani’s 50th birthday ceremony in Jamnagar ten years ago. More recently, Kavita designed the corsage worn by Alia Bhatt during her Mehendi, and has adorned other celebrities like Karishma Tanna, Katrina Kaif, Kajal Aggarwal, and Sonam Kapoor in the past.
In her thirties, Kavita had learnt Ikebana from Lalita Kalambi from the Ohara School of Ikebana, and the skill is paying dividends now, as appreciation and business for floral art have grown over the years.
Now her daughter Srishti Calcuttawala handles the marketing, communications, branding, and social media for Floral Art, with social media being a key platform to acquire new customers.
The mother-daughter duo’s bridal jewellery starts from around Rs 7,000-8,000 and can go up to Rs 25,000, the decor pieces start from Rs 25,000 and can go up to over a lakh.
Edited by Anju Narayanan