[100 Emerging Women leaders] How actor Sonakshi Sinha and lawyer Srishti Raai collaborated to start a beauty brand

The story goes back to when Shrishti Raai came across press-on nails, on a visit to the United States of America. She had never tried them before and was intrigued. 

Upon returning to India, she looked for the product in the Indian market but her experience this time was quite different.

“The quality was not up to the mark, and I was not very happy with it. I wanted to aggravate that, and the process of product development started the very next day,” she says. 

Raai was also involved in House of Commons—an online art platform by Sonakshi Sinha and her brothers, Luv Sinha and Kussh Sinha. 

She approached Sinha to try a pair of press-ons she had created, and Sinha recalls, “I was completely sold.”

The next few steps involved secondary research, understanding the product, and concept testing. Post the same, they launched SOEZI in May, 2022. 

When it comes to being an entrepreneur, Sinha reveals that she has surprised herself throughout the process. 

“I did not know that I had it in me to be able to balance both acting and entrepreneurship. With acting, I had a lot on my plate, but it never used to feel like work because I used to enjoy doing that, and the same applies here,” she says.

A lawyer by profession, Raai holds a master’s degree in business management from the University of Birmingham, England. She reveals that she wanted to be an entrepreneur since she was much younger.

“I have always been in and around business. Even in school, our summers were always about interning, experiencing the ecosystem of a classic business ground up, behind the scenes,” she says. 

Challenges faced by women entrepreneurs

Like most women, Raai is not alien to biases in the workplace. During SOEZI's ideation phase, she was asked by shareholders to consider getting married and focus on starting a family. 

“Even the major sectors are high testosterone. You are always the minority on a team, even in a boardroom. The glass ceiling is still very prevalent,” the entrepreneur adds. 

“I believe many women kill their aspiration to even get into business or do what they want to do because they are unable to cut that noise out. If you have a vision, you need to cut the sound out,” she says.

How does she wade past the challenges? Passion. “This is what I want to do and what I know to do best,” she says. 

Sinha's trick is to “keep your head up and power through”. She also highlights the importance of being independent. 

“It eliminates a lot of things that you have to deal with because you don't have to count on anybody else to get your stuff done,” she says.  

Another workplace bias that women talk about is age-related judgments. Yet again, Raai has faced hindrances related to the same and she did succumb to self-doubt sometimes. 

“But I just held on. It is sad in a way that we have to take the brunt for sure. And I do not have an answer for why we have to do that extra round and see the downside of it, but I believe we are all in it together. I feel like it'll change in time,” she says. 

Further, the duo has noticed that many women involved in the manufacturing phase, who are in their early or mid-20s, tend to drop out. Either they have to get married or their families do not permit them to work.  

Raai says, “I am actively working on understanding how we can incentivise it or how we can put out mini reforms in the company which will motivate them to fight that extra battle if this is what they want.”

Advice to women leaders

Sinha says, “I'm proud of SOEZI because it is a woman-led organisation and all our employees are women as well. It screams girl power.”

“Take that first step. That's probably the most difficult and most intimidating part. But I promise, when you do end up doing it, things just get better from there. Also, it is never too late. We are made to believe that. But it's not true. For example, Srishti has been into business her whole life. She's only 26 years old. I got into it after having a thriving career in acting at the age of 35,” she advises.

Raai adds, “Just hold on to yourself. If you know what you want to do, you have to stick to it… Also, when we work in synergy, we can create magic. So women starting off, we have to support each other, as opposed to becoming competitive about it.”