The next 5-10 years will be phenomenal for beauty care companies: Chaitanya Nallan

While the global pandemic has bought economies to a halt and massively disrupted businesses, it has also fuelled start-up dreams and we even saw several Indian start-ups achieve Unicorn status during the pandemic period. The times have never been better for the budding entrepreneurs to give wings to their start-up dreams.

The Government, too, has come up with various schemes to support its ‘Vocal for Local’ drive. A case in point is the recent Rs 1,000 crore Start-up India Seed Fund announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Start-up India International Summit 2021 held earlier this year.

Adgully is 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 over the next few months will be featuring all local/ homegrown businesses, brands and Apps.

After graduating from IIT-Kharagpur and ISB Hyderabad alum Chaitanya Nallan was running his company mGinger, an advertising platform. In 2011, he, along with Sangram Simha and Veerendra Shivhare, founded IncNut Digital, which operated two women-centric digital media platforms – Stylecraze.com and Momjunction.com. They used to promote a lot of skincare brands through these platforms and got feedback from customers. These feedbacks revealed that most women did not like the products that they were using.

On the personal front, Nallan noticed how his wife’s skin changed and became ultra-sensitive during her pregnancy. He noticed his wife’s patterns as well – she would buy a bunch of new stuff, and then throw a lot away.

Through IncNut’s platforms, the team conducted in-depth surveys to understand women’s issues with skincare products. After the results, they decided to talk to dermatologists to understand why most products did not work on customers. This led the company to build its customised skincare brand – SkinKraft.

In conversation with Adgully, Chaitanya Nallan, CEO & Co-founder, Incnut Digital, provides insights into the beauty care business during the pandemic times, why offering customised skincare & haircare products to customers is of utmost importance for brands, the increasing dependence on online shopping, leveraging digital and much more.

What need gap did you want to fulfil with your start-up? What is the core business proposition?

What’s more than a USP and acts as a differentiating factor is that it provides customised skincare products for its customers.

After visiting various dermatologists, we understood that a hair or skincare product has to be customised based on an individual’s hair/ skin type. A generic product, mass produced by an FMCG company cannot be the most effective way to care for your skin. In fact, these products encourage trial and error, which in the long term leads to premature aging of the skin. Currently, we are catering to skin issues such as anti-ageing, skin pigmentation and acne as well as hair issues such as hair fall.

The concept of customisation is very new to the Indian landscape, specifically to consumers who have been bombarded for decades with the notion of one-size-fits-all. Our endeavour with SkinKraft is to break this notion as well as the vicious cycle of trial and error, which leads to unsatisfactory results and hence, frustration.

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

Our media businesses operated two women-centric digital media platforms – Stylecraze.com and Momjunction.com. We used to promote a lot of skincare brands through these platforms and got feedback from customers. Most women did not like the products that they were using. Unaware of the reason behind such feedback, through IncNut’s platform we conducted large in-depth surveys to understand women’s issues with skincare products. After continuous discussions with dermatologists, the team zeroed in on the fact that no two people have the same skin and that skincare products needed to be customised. Women make up about 80% of our core target audience.

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

SkinKraft was born out of two undeniable truths about the current skincare industry. First, women trying to find even basic skincare products are often caught in an unrewarding cycle of experimentation. Second, despite growing levels of frustration among their consumers, skincare brands continue to churn out generic formulations catering to the mass market. Skin type, skin issues, skin support systems, pigmentation levels, skin damage levels, hydration levels, and several other aspects make an individual’s skin unique and have to be catered uniquely. So, a generic product, mass-produced by an FMCG company cannot be the most effective way to care for your skin. In fact, these products encourage trial-and-error skincare, which in the long term leads to premature aging of the skin. This led us to build our customised skincare brand – SkinKraft.

At SkinKraft, skincare starts with the customer. Through a holistic assessment of the customer’s skin, similar to a dermatologist assessment, we create a skin profile. A detailed analysis is given to the customer in which we explain the problem areas and also the ingredients required to manage their skin. Along with this, we recommend a customised skincare regimen that includes the ingredients corresponding to the specific requirements as outlined in the customer’s skin profile. SkinKraft has generated over a million skin profile records until now.

What were the clearances that you required for your venture from various authorities?

Drugs Control Administration (DCA) license , Telangana.

Funds/ finance is the prime issue for almost all start-ups. What can the industry and the Government do to address this issue and ease the capital requirements of start-ups?

While the government has various schemes and initiatives that have encouraged entrepreneurship, tax subsidies, rebates and low cost funding are always welcome.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Modi announced a Start-up India Seed Fund. How do you see start-ups benefiting from it?

This should give the guys, who have a great idea but no funding, the encouragement and the confidence to continue doing the hard work.

How is digital helping you further your business?

The ongoing pandemic has made people realise the importance of online shopping and customised skincare products. These factors have given an extra edge to the business in comparison to other traditional players. Being a pure E-commerce player has added 2x growth to the business during the pandemic year.

We see the brand to be the de-facto destination for customised products in haircare, skincare, and wellness for men and women. Every one in three women will opt for customised products by 2025 due to the confluence of three significant trends – mass Internet adoption enabling feedback loops and user input, AI-enabled understanding of ingredient effectiveness, and modern manufacturing technologies. The next 5-10 years will be phenomenal for beauty care companies.

What were your key learnings from 2020? How do you see the start-up ecosystem progressing in 2021?

The pandemic year has taught us the importance of being agile, nimble and fluid. When the first lockdown happened and everything was shut, we were able to change gears and reopen to operation within 10 days. Another important aspect is the diversification of distribution channels. The availability of the product needs to be multiple channels.

What would be your message for the budding entrepreneurs?

Stay put on the crease and keep taking singles and good running between the wicket. And wait patiently for the loose ball/ opportunity to dispatch that to the boundary.