To cope with the new growing demand for better sustainability, organizations and brands are opting for different chemicals while manufacturing that are quite hazardous to our health. Starting from food materials to household products, nowadays everything we buy or use is laden with harmful chemicals. Even people have become aware of those bad effects and have started going back to traditional organic products. However, taking advantage of the demand surge, many organic firms have been selling their products at a higher price making them unaffordable for the common people. To help people get used to affordable organic household products, Vedashree started her organic household as well as a cosmetic manufacturing firm, Fromvedas.

Through the firm, Vedashree has been offering chemical-free as well as affordable handmade organic household products throughout the country. Within a year of its launch, her diligent efforts, as well as eco-friendly affordable products, have helped the firm win many prestigious awards while experiencing outstanding growth. Recently acquired by SustainKart, Vedashree aims to push the organization to achieve new heights as well as enter the global market.

In an exclusive interview with Women Entrepreneur, Vedashree shares her early experiences, her motivation behind venturing into the organic household industry, and much more:

Shed Some Light On Your Early Educational Journey And The Prior Industry Experience That You Bring To The Table. How Did You Develop An Interest In Following The Natural And Clean Way Of Everyday Life?

After completing my BBM in e-Banking and Finance, I joined my family business and worked there for two years, which helped me gain experience in handling the manufacturing as well as everything else that comes with manufacturing such as giving salaries to the employees and so on. After working for two years in the family business, I did my master's in Advertising and Marketing at Leeds University, UK, which helped me learn a lot about advertising as well as to be more practical when it comes to manufacturing. After my master's, I came back and again worked in my family business for some time before starting my venture.

I was brought up in an organic environment by my parents in my childhood and where all the food items, vegetables, and everything else we used to use was organic. We never realized the importance of household products until the pandemic hit us, as we didn’t have our helpers at that time. While doing things such as washing clothes or doing the dishes, I realized that the products available in the market are filled with a lot of chemicals, which are hazardous to our environment. So, I started doing research and making recipes in the first lockdown itself where I tried to incorporate many traditional methods into my products and that’s how the story started.

What Motivated You To Establish Fromvedas? Tell Us About The Chemical-Free Household And Cosmetic Products That The Brand Is Known For?

While there have been a lot of factors that motivated me to establish Fromvedas, the major one has been the products, available in the market nowadays, are filled with a lot of chemicals. While these chemicals are needed for the longer sustainability of the products, they are, in reality, have hazardous effects on our health. During the pandemic, while I was washing vessels, my hands started getting dried and peeling off and that’s when I realized the seriousness of this issue and started my research. After sending the samples to my friends and family, I realized that even other people also think the same about those products. Coming to the firm, started just a year ago, Fromvedas manufactures household chemicalfree products as well as cosmetic products, such as lip balms, hand washes, and so on. We follow the traditional methods to manufacture these products.

At Fromvedas, the majority of the products contain a lot of Glycerin that helps protect our skin and is personally made by me. I support local vendors by sourcing the raw materials directly from them and then preparing the products by myself. As of now, we are concentrating mostly on household products. Starting from basic dishwashing liquids to machine dishwashers and cloth washing bars, we have a lot of products that have a basic coconut oil and olive oil base. For example, to prepare the activated charcoal dishwashing liquid, the coconut shell is burned down, and the ash is used for the liquid. So all of our products as well as the packaging are handmade. As a firm, we try to support women who want to work and employ only women entrepreneurs.

What Are The Various Roles And Responsibilities That You Shoulder As The Founder? What Are Some Of The Most Pressing Business Challenges That You Face In Your Current Role And How Do You Overcome Them?

When I started the firm, I didn’t have any other employees, and starting from manufacturing to marketing, I was handling everything. Recently Fromvedas got acquired by SustainKart which helped me focus on the manufacturing unit whereas the SustainKart team is taking care of the marketing. Manufacturing has always been a plus point for me, as I've been bought up in an environment where we used to do a lot of manufacturing. So for me, the major challenge was to procure the certificates such as organic product certificates, MSME certificates, and so on.

"Burning your hands at the beginning is the best learning that anyone can get as it helps you realize your potential to do more"

As I was on my own initially, doing all these things along with advertising, doing the marketing on Sundays, and so on was a huge challenge. But now, we have grown as a team. We're a group of seven women and each of us has a dedicated domain to take care of. Presently, I take care of the overall aspect whereas the other employees take care of the operations such as manufacturing, packaging, taking orders from customers, and so on, in individual groups.

How Do You Foresee The Growth Of Chemical-Free And Natural Products In The Near Future? What Is Your Vision For Fromvedas’s Next Growth Phase?

From a growth perspective, I can see a huge potential for organic products in the market. When it comes to brands like us, rather than the pricing, we are more focused on the product. We don’t want to give the impression that just because it’s an organic product, it’s going to be expensive. We have competed with the regular brands that are available in the market, which makes people comfortable buying our products. Even people irrespective of their class can afford our products. We made sure to make people get used to eco-friendly products than chemical products.

From the organization's perspective, we want to grow our base on a national level while trying to reach the global market simultaneously. Presently, we are shipping across India and also have small kiosks in cities such as Pune, Jaipur, Vijayawada, and Hyderabad for people to pick up products in case they are not comfortable with the online mode of purchase. After the acquisition, we are planning to place our products in supermarkets and are also developing our manufacturing unit.

What Have Been Some Of The Major Milestones That You Have Achieved So Far In Your Professional Journey? Any Advice For The Young Women And Girls Who Also Aspire To Become Business Leaders And Entrepreneurs In The Future?

After starting the firm, we had to struggle a bit for the first few months while trying to get everything in place because of the lockdown. However, we started getting recognitions at the very early stages. Within months of starting the firm, we were awarded 'The best ecofriendly products by Times of India'. The next major milestone was when we won the Business mint award as the best emerging eco-friendly brand. So starting from an order of 5 per month, we have grown to around 10,000 orders per month.

We are also getting a lot of bulk orders mostly by families for their monthly supplies. The advice I would like to give to budding women entrepreneurs is not to stop dreaming. Even though you face failure, don’t stop. It’s the failure that teaches you how to grow. Burning your hands at the beginning is the best learning that anyone can get as it helps you realize your potential to do more. So, never get discouraged and keep going.

Vedashree, Founder, Fromvedas

Realizing the harmful effects of the chemicalladen household products, Vedashree started her affordable organic handmade household product firm, Fromvedas and within a year has helped the firm achieve excellent growth as well as a loyal client base across the country. Recently acquired by SustainKart, Vedashree has envisioned for the firm to expand globally.

Awards & Recognitions: 'Best Emerging Eco-friendly Brand' by Times Business Awards, Business Mint Nationwide Award as the best emerging ecofriendly brand.