At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring some of the meaningful and powerful stories from around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. This week, we invited passionate entrepreneur Jyothi Sri Pappu to know more about her interesting journey so far and the way forward. She is the founder of Nutreat. Her startup Nutreatlife provides real handcrafted homemade foods for babies and kids. Let’s learn more about her background and her journey!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with her;
Talk us through your background and your journey as a women entrepreneur, please;
It was in the year 2012, when my first son was born I was researching about his first foods in the market. But none of them hiked me as, almost all of them are with preservatives and being a pharmacy student (pursued my masters from Sri Ramachandra University) I know the side effects these ingredients well. So, I thought I would make this on for my little one.
For this, I had to research again by consulting some paediatricians, friends, and internet and finally, it was my Grandmother who gave me the real traditional recipe for baby food and she warned me that I should only process this using stone grinder. After my son, I shared this recipe to most of my friends but as most of them are working they asked me to prepare. These requests made me think about crafting it commercially with the support of my husband in 2015.
Initially, when we started giving it to near and local retailers. But a call from Gujarat (I dunno how she got the pack) saying “thanks for this, my baby eats only this and she is gaining her healthy weight now” was the real moment that made me confident about my products. As I was totally a newpreneur I didn’t even ask her to write a testimonial. Day by day we are growing and developing the skills in marketing.”
This made me think about Nutreat more personal & started handcrafting it from the year 2015.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a corporate career?
It was so accidental that I became an entrepreneur and now feel really proud that I am, as I am able to create some Impact on people regarding choosing local foods that are real.
Please share with us some of the challenges you faced in your journey;
As the path we choose was completely unique though it is a primitive technique every step was challenging before and now. The main challenge was getting helpers. People are not that interested in producing the flour in a stone grinder after these modern electronics. But still, we had overcome this by offering more than regular daily wages for them and the second biggest was the “people”. We always look for easy and fancy things but not the facts. The same way people are much interested in Baby foods imported than produced locally. Most of the people even well-educated think imported foods are always superior. For this I had to work for about a year, convincing the customers about the preservatives added, regarding the empty calories and providing the samples in large amounts. But once they tasted no customer bought highly processed foods. Besides these, the place where we live was a big hurdle in the early stages as it is a rural area I got no chance of retailing or exhibiting. People in our area are no scope for marketing my product initially. I had to find my market through lots of research until I signed up for Amazon.
Crafting Process
What is your USP?
Apart from handcrafting we have our sustainable USP i.e “Customization”, this made Nutreat one of its kind and we proudly say that we are the only one to offer handcrafted customized foods so naturally according to the customers need.
What is your Business Mantra: Money or Emotions?
“It is not always about getting your bank account credited but your life account getting credited”
We have won almost 10K people and most of them connect with us personally to get customized packs done. We deal with empathy that always drives others to get connected. Now we are in a state that people trust Nutreat than their home food.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
When you do what you really love, the pressure and the stress are not felt. As an entrepreneur, pain is a part of the journey that has to be experienced and enjoyed and suffering is only one’s choice so you have to embrace it.
Stress, excitement and nervousness are all part of an entrepreneur’s journey.
But however as we deal with human and no machine we definitely face a lot of pressure but our “customers” are our stress-busters, many always keep us motivated with personal feedback texts.
Team Nutreat preparing hygienic homemade food while using all safety precautions
Please share with our audience about your future endeavours
Now we are a part of SVM from Mori (The first smart Village) we have our collaboration with SVM in training & empowering more rural women with handcrafting foods & also influencers of SDG goal -12.
We do only against the order and hence there is no wastage of food that promotes responsible consumption & Production while encouraging our customers to buy more local foods thus encouraging local farmers too.
All our techniques are purely associated with human and zero pollution-free. So completely eco friendly.
What has worked well for you so far?
I am really fortunate to have all the luxuries in my life with no roller coaster rides and we belong to Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, but however, it was never that interesting till I have started crafting Nutreat. Most of my family members are group-1 holders and expected me to be the same.
After my marriage, we have to live in a rural area where my husband works for ONGC as an EE, and almost all the gates were closed for my career plans. Some of the pharmacy colleges around us were the only option if I wanted my career. But teaching will never sync with my mind. It was in the year 2015 when my son born and I was researching about his first foods, I found no product as a homemade food with lots of preservatives & artificial ingredients. This really made me think about making his first foods on my own. The recipe & process of preparation were shared by my grandmother. Her only condition was to prepare it in a traditional way to get the maximum and true benefits.”
To say our USP is customisation, we customize foods according to people’s requirement. Each customer is unique & so their requirements are. This is our Success mantra which made us unique in the entire country.
Given the rapid pace at which the world is changing, what are the leadership traits that are necessary for success?
The world is always quicksilver and we need to adopt for that and I always believe that building the trust, bonding, transparency and organic marketing strategies help us in growing, this doesn’t mean you can’t promote your product but the product should speak & the word of mouth wins the game.
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures we have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
For this you have definitely visit our site https://www.nutreatlife.com/covid-19/ you can have a clear image of what we do actually even before COVID-19.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
My mantra of success is just being available to the end customer personally so that they trust us more than the product. Once they believe us everything goes smooth.
It’s the bonding with your customers, employees, helpers & whoever supports you in your entrepreneurial journey. At the end of the day they are all humans and they definitely support us by all means in success.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring women entrepreneur?
Sure, especially for women who are married I would say “if you really feel that you are thrown out of this world after marriage try coming back and look the real world. It is different, there are many helping hands. The attitude of people nowadays has changed. All that you need to do is express yourselves without any hesitation and catch the opportunity when it knocks your door.”
The world is small now due to globalization and the media is very supportive. Step out and make the move and here starts your journey!
Visualize your future positively and this is going to happen in the same way.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
