In This Episode You’ll Hear About:

• How her love for food was a part of her family culture and why she originally thought she’d pursue medicine or law
• How New York City changed her perspective on what was possible and what her many internships taught her during her time at NYU
• Why she pivoted into the tech industry and then took some time in the venture space, learning a lot about startups, venture capital, the ups and downs involved with building a brand, and that she loved being an operator
• What brought her to her next step, the creation of Brightland, after olive oil became a pain point in her own household
• Why she decided to bootstrap first, what her experience with fundraising was, and what advice she has for other founders when it comes to raising
• What team building has been like for Brightland and what lessons Aishwarya has learned in building her team and building her brand
• What advice she has for aspiring entrepreneurs and what is new and exciting for Brightland

To Find Out More:‍

Brightland.co‍

Quotes:

“I went to a venture firm, spent some time there, but realized that I actually love operating. I love being in the weeds of a company and being a part of that growth rather than sitting on the sidelines.”

“Eventually I took my own just digging into why I had this fear or kind of working it through with my own inner critics. It was a lot of deep work that I had to do to then be like, you know what? I am going to try this and do this.”

“People are discovering brands and entities on their phones and people's attention span is two seconds. So I think that it is important to have, if you can, something that's striking, that is memorable, and that then usually means that there's a design aspect to it.”

“It's a numbers game. You have to talk to a lot of people. And it's tiring because it's taking up time that you're like, oh, well, I could be furthering the business or doing something to push the envelope or push the ball forward. But then when you meet the people that make sense for you, then it clicks into place.”

“Always having a mindset of abundance over scarcity... If you're playing the scarcity game and feeling that, then the person on the other side can feel it, too.”

“I think we also have the luxury because we are a small team and I'm building this with a lot of intentionality and not just trying to like blitz scale it in any way, so we have capacity to be a bit more thoughtful about who we're bringing on.”

“If wellness and what you're kind of ingesting can be considered beauty, then our product certainly can be."

“Your website is basically your storefront, so really understand the story that you want to tell. The more personal you can tell, the greater resonance and customer loyalty you'll build.”

“When you feel like you're getting overwhelmed, just take one step forward at a time rather than looking at the big picture.”

“Your team is everything, and you are nothing without them and being able to recognize that and celebrate them and be able to understand. Empathy is important for everything.”

‍