Because they spend the majority of their time improving their work, environment, and ideas, founders are sometimes referred to as “business-oriented.” Some couples, on the other hand, are lucky enough to be able to balance their personal and professional lives.
While living together has become increasingly challenging in pandemic times, there are a few couples on the earth that are “made for one other in every way,” regardless of whether they are business partners or equal partners.
Here are six examples of successful couplepreneurs who have demonstrated that personal and business life can go together:
1. Vineeta Singh and Kaushik Mukherjee – SUGAR Cosmetics
In 2015, Vineeta Singh and Kaushik Mukherjee founded SUGAR cosmetics, a global leader. The couple exemplifies how a strong understanding leads to not only a happy family but also a successful partnership. Vineeta Singh is the CEO of SUGAR Cosmetics, and Kaushik Mukherjee is the COO.
The couple met at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, where they both studied and worked in investment banks before starting their own companies. Vineeta graduated from IIT Madras with a degree in Electrical Engineering and then went on to IIM Ahmedabad to study business. She became India’s first B-school graduate to turn down a “Rs 1 crore” job offer from an investment business at the age of 23 and start her own HR firm.
Kaushik graduated from IIM Ahmedabad with an MBA and worked for Oracle Corporation in Hyderabad from 2004 to 2006. By 2022, Sugar Cosmetics will have a network of five million cosmetics enthusiasts spread across multiple platforms, with a workforce of over 1500 individuals, 75 percent of whom are women. The brand’s global supply network includes over 10,000 retail shops in 130 cities. The SUGAR cosmetics app has over one million downloads and a significant social media following.
2. Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku – Mobikwik
Mobikwik was launched in 2009 by Upasana Taku and Bipin Preet Singh and offers a wide range of services including mobile phone-based payment technologies and network wallets. For the past 12 years, Upasana, the firm’s director, and Bipin, the CEO, have worked together.
Upasana Taku completed her education in Surat and then went on to the National Institute of Technology in Jalandhar to earn her B.Tech in Industrial Engineering. She then went on to Stanford University in the United States to earn her MS in Management Science and Engineering. On several occasions, Bipin has been recognised as one of India’s top IT entrepreneurs.
Before founding Mobikwik, Bipin worked as a Platform Architect for Intel, Nvidia, and Freescale for 7 years.
3. Shubhra Chadda and Vivek Prabhakar – Chumbak
What would you say to a couple who decided to sell their home one day in order to start a business selling brightly coloured kitschy-chic products with a distinct desi flavour? Shubhra Chadda and Vivek Prabhakar succeeded, and Chumbak, one of India’s most well-known businesses, was born. Shubhra Chadda and Vivek Prabhakar founded Chumbak, a leisure company. Chumbak was founded in 2009 by Shubhra and Vivek, who married in 2005.
Chumbak is a lifestyle brand that specialises in indescribably gorgeous and unique home furnishings and fashion items.
They bought a house before getting married mainly to be able to customise it to their liking. Shubhra, the company’s head of products, and Prabhakar, the company’s chief marketing officer, come from a military family and have never had the opportunity to stay in one place for long, but Bengaluru became their permanent home in the early 2000s. Chumbak, based in Bangalore, has 54 retail locations across India and sells its items online through a number of different e-commerce platforms.
Chumbak established an integrated paradigm a year ago in conjunction with major e-commerce giants Myntra and Amazon, which has become a central element of the business, allowing consumers to look at products digitally and then go to the store and buy them. The majority of today’s purchases are made through mobile devices and applications.
4. Anand Shahani and Mehak Sagar – WedMeGood
In 2008, while interning at GlaxoSmithKline, a health nutrition company, Anand Shahani and Mehak Sagar began dating. They married later that year, in 2012. Finding the right venue, providers like band-baja, and food services were among the hurdles the couple experienced when planning their wedding. As a result, in February 2014, WedMeGood was founded.
WedMeGood is a bridal website that helps couples locate the best specialists by providing a list of vendors such as photographers, make-up artists, jewellery designers, and designers. Anand is the CEO of WedMeGood, and Mehak is in charge of writing and web marketing.
After graduating from the Xavier School of Management (XLRI) in Jamshedpur, Anand worked for Abbott Nutrition as a marketing manager, while Mehak worked for American Express as a risk manager after graduating from the Delhi School of Economics (DSE). When asked about their business, Anand said to Your Story,
While Mehak said,
“We stress on ‘modern’ because our content is tailor-made for today’s generation — one which understands the difference between candid and traditional studio photography, one which wants to do something unique and different, to take just a few examples.”
5. Ghazal Alagh and Varun Alagh – MamaEarth
Ghazal Alagh, a Shark Tank India judge, and her husband Varun Alagh created Mamaearth, a subsidiary of Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd, India’s first chemical-free baby care firm, in August 2016. Mamaearth promises to create products that are both natural and safe for both kids and parents.
Mamaearth, a direct-to-consumer (D2C) company created by Varun Alagh, with Ghazal Alagh as its Chief Mama and Chief Innovation Officer. These couples have figured out how to efficiently manage life and a business together. The business had a turnover of around Rs 460 crore for the fiscal year ended March 2021, according to Economic Times reporting, and is expected to end the current fiscal year with at least a higher estimated income.
Ghazal worked as a Corporate Trainer at NIIT Limited for two years and six months before becoming the Chief Mama of India’s largest beauty company, where she taught SQL, J2ME, and Oracle to managers from various IT firms. Prior to starting Mamaearth, Varun worked as a senior product manager at Coca-Cola in Gurgaon from 2013 to 2016.
The duo has opted to take their business outside of India, to places like the United Arab Emirates and Nepal, where it has received favourable feedback, with plans to expand to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the future. BBlunt’s products and beauty activities in Mumbai have been sold to Godrej Consumer Goods Limited (GCPL).
6. Rohan and Swati Bhargava – CashKaro
CashKaro, a reward and discount service, was developed by Swati and Rohan Bhargava, a husband and wife partnership. The couple started off as acquaintances before becoming not only domestic partners but also business partners. In April 2011, Swati and Rohan started Pouring Pounds, a compensation business in the UK. In 2013, the two moved from London to Gurgaon and founded CashKaro, a similar business concept.
CashKaro’s shareholders include Tata and Kalaari Capital. CashKaro offers exclusive coupons and cashback in addition to savings on over 1500+ sites across a variety of categories. According to PTI sources, the site’s non-sale annualised GMV was around $650-750 million last year, a 3.5X rise year over year. CashKaro’s Co-Founder Swati Bhargava told PTI,
“We have scaled our performance marketing spends this year by 2X to leverage the offline to online shift in e-commerce. This year, we’ve not only seen an uptake in sales but also so much growth in the D2C space as well. In 2021 alone, we have partnered with 300+ D2C brands. We can drive more ROI for our partners compared to previous years, and that can be seen in our GMV numbers.”