Whenever I complained about “bad luck”, my mom always said that success is about what you make out of a situation, good or bad. Shruti, Founder and CEO of ApnaKlub is a true personification of this. I am so happy to do this episode of Women who Build with her, as I have personally followed her journey and am so proud of how she is impacting the lives of thousands of small businessmen/women through her company. She is also one of the very few founders who practices spirituality in her day-to-day, a trait that I feel builds up resilience like nothing else!
Shruti built an entrepreneurial streak early on during her time at IIT Delhi, where she organized initiatives for her hostel, Himadri. Post her under-graduation, she worked at Bain and Omidyar Network India. It was during this time, giving founders advice to do x,y,z things, that she built conviction about starting up herself. She went to Harvard Business School to study business and is now back in India, building for the small businesses here.
Apnaklub is a B2B social commerce platform. It digitizes and organizes the FMCG procurement market by connecting buyers and brands through a single platform. Despite a full transition from Sair to Sair Mall to Apnaklub, all during COVID, it has served over 5,000 partners across 6,000 pin codes in India and raised funds from the likes of Sequoia’s Surge, Blume Ventures, and Whiteboard Capital.
In this episode, we will learn -
- Shruti’s journey of pivoting during COVID
- FMCG distribution and white spaces within
- WhatsApp as a tool for businesses and building teams to support WhatsApp
- Importance of generalists in a 0-1 journey
- Spirituality and entrepreneurship
- Impact that the words of great leaders can have on you
Finally, I want to thank Azeez Gupta, Shruti’s partner, who was generous enough to share Shruti’s journey and growth as an individual and professional. You absolutely helped frame this.
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