No better time than right now to be in the space of entrepreneurship: Pallavi Utagi

Adgully has been turning the spotlight on the entrepreneurs who fought against all odds to bring their dreams to fruition in our special series – START-UP STARS. We at Adgully wholeheartedly support the ‘Vocal for Local’ movement and have been featuring numerous local/ homegrown businesses, brands, and Apps in the country launched in the last few years.

SuperBottoms is an online-first sustainable brand of reusable cloth diapers and baby products, focused on awareness and increased adoption of reusable cloth diapers in India, besides the daily needs of babies and toddlers. Run by a core team of parents, 90% of whom are mothers, it is trusted by 20 lakh+ parents. SuperBottoms UNO, the company’s flagship product, is an organic reusable diaper with the capability to stay dry all night. With one-size-fits-all functionality, it has a patent pending for its innovative buttoning system that enables the same diaper to be used for babies up to 3 years. A leader in the cloth diaper category in India, it is also a bestseller on online marketplaces like Amazon India.

In an interaction with Adgully, Pallavi Utagi, Founder & CEO, SuperBottoms, speaks about her entrepreneurial journey and growth of the SuperBottom brand. She also mentions the key insights about the challenges and opportunities that SuperBottoms has faced in its journey, as well as the key learnings, and more.

Please take us through your journey as an entrepreneur. What motivated you to establish SuperBottoms?

In 2014, when I had my son, I was perplexed when he started getting frequent inflammation as a reaction to regular disposable diapers. While discussing the same with my fellow mothers, I realised that I am not the only one facing this. We visited a couple of doctors only to find out how the diapers barely run the job. My husband, Salil, was also concerned about the environmental impact of disposable diapers and so began our journey to look for a solution. This led us to international cloth diaper brands, which although made well, were not the best suited for Indian babies.

Cloth nappies have been used by Indian moms for their babies over generations, but have their shortcomings. Disposable diapers offer an apt solution, but aren’t good for the babies or the planet. Enter SuperBottoms. We bring the best of the age-old cloth nappies and the benefits of disposable diapers in our one-of-their-kind Cloth Diapers that not only promise no spill, but ensure that the baby is dry.

What is the core business proposition of SuperBottoms?

SuperBottoms is more than simply a product; it is a simple, cost-effective solution for every family. SuperBottoms is a parenting partner with a passion for curating solutions, while preserving the basic values of quality innovation, conscientious parenting, and sustainability. SuperBottoms exemplifies what it preaches, whether it is by providing the easiest cloth diaper ever or by acting in a gender, racial, and colour-neutral manner.

SuperBottoms has continuously innovated to think outside the box – be it diapers, the langot, or basic underwear! For most ordinary to heavy-wetting newborns, Free-size UNO lasts between 10 and 12 hours when used with the booster pad. Together with unique goods like Dry Feel Langot, Diaper Pants, Potty-Training Pants, and many others. For new mothers facing incontinence and bladder leaks postpartum, SuperBottoms has launched India’s Most Absorbent Period Underwear, which marks us as a pioneer in the postpartum incontinence category in India.

What were your key learnings so far? How do you see the SuperBottoms ecosystem progressing in 2023?

Considering that our product is innovative, we feel generating first-hand interaction with customers, especially for our revolutionary products in new categories such as cloth diapers, period underwear, upcycled toys, etc., can help build awareness faster. With that idea, we are now diving into the omnichannel experience and have already launched our first few Kiosks. We will be expanding this initiative further and aim to have a deeper penetration across the country to make SuperBottoms synonymous with quality baby and mom care.

SuperBottoms aims to become the No. 1 bottom wear brand in India. Currently, the Indian market, especially in langots and underwear segment, is highly unorganised. We hope to organise the market by giving parents what I never had as a new mom – a trustworthy, comfortable, and safe brand that they can use for their baby, worry-free.

How is digital helping you further your business?

We are available pan-India only because of our digital-first approach. Our ParentTribe, which is largely connected through digital and social media is a 74k+ rich community and continues to grow. At every level, the Tribe provides us with insights and criticism. We believe that because our team is made up exclusively of mothers, the first-hand experience and feedback enabled us as a brand to connect deeply with our customers.

How did you identify your TG? Did you carry out any feasibility study prior to starting your business?

Since the beginning, our TG has been new mothers and families. We as a brand have grown to develop and share our expertise in the segment by providing innovative and specialised products and services.

I formerly worked with multinationals like Strides Arcolab Limited, and Piramal Healthcare in the pharmaceutical sector. As a part of the product development team, I oversaw the ‘I’ category at Piramal, which included i-pill, i-sure, and i-can. While my stint there, I was deeply involved in product research and innovation which also included in-depth analysis and understanding of the target audience. This knowledge sets a strong foundation for a detailed understanding of the target audience.

Moreover, nothing teaches one more than personal experience. As a mother, I understand what other parents face when in such a situation. Being personally connected to them through the strong communication and review mechanism of the parent tribe- our 75k+ rich community of parents has enabled a major learning curve.

What were the challenges that you faced in your start-up journey and how did you overcome them?

As a start-up attempting to establish a completely new category in a highly competitive market dominated by giants, we faced numerous, one-of-a-kind challenges. In order to generate strong organic recommendations, we concentrated on creating a community around a fantastic product in the remotest parts of the nation.

One of the biggest challenges that we faced became our learning curve. After hundreds of tests, we created the world’s simplest cloth diaper, which helped in the comfortable and exponential expansion of the adoption of the category at large. As a bootstrapped organisation, it was also difficult for us to put together an extensively professional team. We could overcome this hurdle by building a unique team out of our customers who were on maternity breaks. This provided us with invaluable First-Hand, Real-Time feedback from the team!

What would be your message for budding entrepreneurs?

There’s no better time than right now to be in the space of entrepreneurship. Now is the time for you to take a leap of faith in yourself and your idea, take the plunge, and solve a problem that is waiting for you.