The art of entrepreneurship is drawn along the lines of efforts, dedication, and innovation along with the ability to stand through the thick and thin that the brainchild may go through. All of these abilities are extra needed in the case of startup founders. It’s almost a mom’s role; nurturing the business and creating opportunities for the people who belong there. While we appreciate such women startup founders, Saloni Anand, the co-founder of Traya deserves the honour as an inspiring leader in the realm of healthcare (trichology). In an exclusive conversation, she shares about her journey, company, leadership secrets and more.
Take us through your early journey and the prior industry experience that you bring to the table.
I grew up in a family of 'Hum educated service class hai!' My mother is a doctor and my dad’s a loyal employee of a Pharma company. The day I went and told my grandmother that I am starting a company, she asked concernedly if the market is too bad and I am not getting a job! As for education, I did a Computer Science degree from Cummins College of Engineering after which I worked in Healthcare for four years. I further went on to pursue an MBA in Marketing from IBS Hyderabad, I then led a tech product called Upshot.ai (also a tech30 company) in Hyderabad; before starting Traya.
What motivated you to co-found Traya? Tell us about the underlying idea behind the venture.
About three years ago, my partner Altaf was facing hair fall (Male Pattern Baldness or Androgenic Alopecia) which was accelerated due to an uncontrollable thyroid, stress and a poor lifestyle. During this journey, we realised that the current hair fall treatment market is haphazard and no products actually work. We visited a dermatologist but still no luck. We were pushed to take expensive treatments like PRP. We soon realized hair loss and thyroid cannot be fought by Allopathy alone. We also realised hair fall is an internal issue with root causes - the biggest gap in the market. We mixed dermat-prescribed products with other sciences like Ayurveda and food science which was a game-changer. The biggest takeaway was that like any other chronic disease, hair loss does not have a single- product solution, it needs a holistic treatment that involves working on internal health. On realizing that a combination of these three sciences can bring about a preventive approach, we set out to help friends and families facing similar issues. This led to instituting the company in 2019.
How has Traya's growth journey been so far as a brand?
Traya has grown 5x from March to October and we aim at making it 7x pretty soon. Traya’s success doesn’t just depend on growth. Our North Star metric has always been the LTV of the customer. We have achieved a repeat rate of 80 per cent with our consumers. We are in the business of managing hair loss and the disease is such that it takes 4-5 months to see the desired results. Our primary focus is not to sell 1 million SKUs of a product but to get 1 million people to benefit from the treatment. We’re building a brand that does not compromise efficacy and is loved by customers. We are also known for our 93 percent success rate and transparency.
What steps do you intend to take to align Traya with the industry trends?
Indian hair care is a million-dollar market yet to be disrupted. We want to be synonymous with the terms hair fall and hair care and be known for our efficacy and honesty. If in India someone talks of hair fall, they should know Traya has a solution for it. In order to do that, we have broadened our customer awareness by onboarding celebrities like Sunil Grover, Maniesh Paul, and many more. Our ultimate goal is to get every young Indian onto the #thetrayawayoflife to manage lifestyle-triggered health issues and to do this we are also branching out to new avenues of health concerns with our new launches lined up in the near future on Female conditions like Pregnancy, PCOS, Menopause, and Damage repair range.
“Running a company is not just about design and production that looks good and is appealing but rather targeting what the customer needs”
How has entrepreneurship impacted your life? What has been your success mantra so far?
I’ve always wanted to become an entrepreneur. It’s the reason I took up a job in a startup, but never had a clue about how to get started. Had I been alone, I would just have kept dreaming and never started. It all changed when I met Altaf, who was running a food start-up. He is the 'real entrepreneur' and the executioner among the two of us. Even then we had no intention of starting a company. Almost a year later, by helping a lot of friends and family with chronic health issues including hair loss, we decided to pay closer heed to this space. We realised that we both were extremely passionate about solving chronic health issues that a millennial faces. In further research, we chose hair loss as a disease line to begin. It was the most crowded but also the most corrupt. As we researched more on the diseases and their types, we realised nothing out in the market can ever work. The issue is considered cosmetic but in reality, it is internal. We took up the challenge to change the way the hair loss industry works and have been nailing it. My success mantra is attaining consumer insights every step of the way. Running a company is not just about design and production that looks good and is appealing but rather targeting what the customer needs; Are we communicating to them in the right way, are we addressing their.
Saloni Anand, CO-Founder, Traya
A data-driven leader, Saloni enjoys solving challenging and unique business problems. She is experienced in developing growth strategies including new product introductions, customer experience transformations, and business models.
