[100 Emerging Women Leaders] This architecture graduate said no to her family business and built her own wellness brand

On any given day, Mansi Biyani would be more than happy to explain the benefits of age-old ayurvedic medicines. But she took her own sweet time to develop her love for ayurveda. 

“Ayurvedic wellness and medicine have been a family business since the 1960s when my grandfather laid the foundation after he moved to Madhya Pradesh from Rajasthan. But I was not interested in joining the business. So, I went ahead with architecture and moved to the UK,” says Mansi. 

It was in the UK that she realised that foreign countries were adopting plant-based products into their lifestyles, especially the ones produced with Indian plants. This prompted her to go back to her roots and learn about the benefits of ayurveda and ayurvedic products.

Finally, Mansi decided to fly back to India and start Million Billion Dreams Hub or MBDH Wellness, a wellness company, in 2019. Headquartered in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, MBDH Wellness is a premium health brand with products for sexual wellness, eye care, digestive issues, immunity, liver health, etc.

Mansi says she decided to not merge the company with her family business and built it from the ground up.

“I wanted to do something new. MBDH belongs to not just ayurveda, but the billions of people who are connected to each other through nature and the earth,” Mansi says. 

But the path to building a company on her own without the help of her family was a challenge in itself. 

“People were not confident how can I, an architecture graduate, start something like this in my late 20s. My father said no when I first shared my business idea with him. But I remained adamant,” recalls Mansi. 

Coming back to India after spending five years in the UK and starting up was a challenge. She complained about the slow processing speed in government departments. In one such instance, a government official initially assumed her to be an employee of her company and not the founder. 

“When I identified myself as the CEO and the director of the company, he (the employee) gave me a blank expression and passed a comment, ‘Abb ladkiyaan bhi yeh sab karne lagi hai. Pata nahi iss desh ka kya hoga?’ (‘Even girls have started doing this. I don’t know what is going to happen to this country.’)”, she recalls. 

After months of struggling with the paperwork, the same official eventually had a change of heart and helped her get the approvals while commending her resilience and perseverance. 

“If we need to change the Indian mentality regarding what women can or cannot do, we as women need to be more assertive and stronger. If I need to be in this industry, I have to be 2000 percent stronger and more hardworking than men,” Mansi adds. 

Advising women leaders, Mansi says, “Don’t listen to everyone. Pick the right mentor for yourself and be adamant about what you want to do.”