Ameet Sandy

Till the time, a brand or category crosses a certain threshold ( 100 cr plus in the categories we operate in), the primary job of the founder/category head is only two things: - Figure out who is buying and why are they buying. Identify cohorts of consumers and their reasons. Figure out the biggest cohorts and reach out to more of these people with the message that resonates - Figure out cohorts of category buyers at same price points who are rejecting your brand. And figure out the reasons for rejection.Address these barriers through communication or product/pricing tweaks  Everything else is secondary and table stakes If you do superficial work in these 2, you will fail. And if you have great depth in these 2 things, you will 100 percent succeed

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Sachin Tendulkar just launched shoes at ₹5,499 and targeting ₹35 crore revenue within 18 months. First, the timing looks smart. India's athleisure market will hit $21 billion by 2033. That's massive growth. Sachin entered at the right moment. But let's talk about the competition: 📍HRX by Hrithik Roshan crossed ₹1,000 crore in revenue.  📍Virat Kohli invested ₹40 crore in Agilitas Sports. These aren't side projects anymore. They're real businesses fighting for the same customers with lower prices. Now here's what Sachin is doing differently with Ten x You which he launched few days back: → He partnered with Karthik Gurumurthy as CEO. Karthik Gurumurthy scaled Swiggy Instamart to ₹600 crore monthly in 2.5 years. That's not celebrity window dressing, that's serious operational muscle. Also, they're backed by Peak XV Partners and Whiteboard Capital shows they're serious about scale. → Sachin isn't just the brand face. As Chief Inspiration Officer, he's involved in product design. They have actually tested shoes with cricket academies since March. Designed for wider Indian feet, not just copied Western sizing. → The pricing is premium. ₹5,499 for regular athletic shoes, ₹9,000 for cricket-specific. They're not competing on price. They're betting on quality and brand loyalty. Their revenue target: ₹35 crore within 18 months. But here's where my 22 years in sourcing makes me pause. Premium pricing works only if you can maintain quality at scale. Most celebrity brands collapse when orders are increasing, vendors renegotiate, quality drops, customers switch. Karthik's operational experience gives them a real shot. But supply chain execution is what separates lasting brands from launch-day hype. Would you spend ₹5,499 on shoes from a celebrity brand?

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If i have to sum up building new age consumer brands in a paragraph, it will sound something like this Have a product proposition which is both relevant to the category and differentiated vis a vis other players. Use that to create a brand proposition which is again relevant to the category and differentiated vis a vis other players. Use bottom funnel performance marketing to acquire initial customers. Make the brand widely available across channels and easy to buy. Create distinctive brand assets and remain consistent with your core proposition. Continue spending on high reach and impactful top funnel media to build brand salience and reduce dependency on performance marketing. Once you reach a certain scale in a category, enter other categories keeping the brand proposition true. Keep at it for 15-20 years No rocket science. But incredibly difficult to execute

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Why Are Stores Closing at Garden City Mall? It's Bigger Than Just “The Wrong Side of the Road.” There’s been an ongoing debate around the recent closure of shops at Garden City Mall. One argument is that it sits on the “wrong side” of Thika Road ( inbound rather than outbound) making it less convenient for evening traffic. In my honest opinion: I don't think so. Indulge me for a second... While that may hold weight for impulse stops like petrol stations or fast food joints, malls are not just pit stops:- They’re destinations. And in Kenya’s fast-evolving retail space, the real story runs deeper. Here’s what I believe really matters especially in Nairobi: 🔍 1. Catchment Area vs. Roadside Positioning A mall’s success depends on who lives nearby not just who drives by. If the target demographic isn’t aligned with the mall’s offerings, footfall will suffer regardless of road direction. But some will argue that Garden City get busier over the weekends. My observation is, its never about a high footfall, its always about the right footfall. Hence shops like Panda Mart might make more sense for that set up than lets say Giordano. 🚗 2. Accessibility & Traffic Flow Even with prime highway frontage, Garden City’s entrance isn’t as intuitive or seamless compared to malls like TRM. We as Nairobians value convenience especially with rising fuel costs and worsening traffic. A good case is Runda mall which sometimes is hectic in the evening, despite it being outbound. (Personally the parking set up at Runda Mall is quite unbearable.) 🏢 3. Anchor Tenants & Footfall Drivers Malls thrive when they have magnets. Its more than just an anchor supermarket, its differentiating yourself on things like entertainment, gyms, kids' zones. If these are weak or inconsistent, the ecosystem breaks. 🎯 4. Differentiation & Experience Retail is now experiential. People are looking for more than stores . they want dining, community spaces, and memorable family outings. Malls must compete not just on goods, but on feel. 💰 5. Tenant Mix & Affordability If rents are high but returns are low, smart businesses will exit. Some retailers also misread the area’s consumer profile, assuming affluence where price sensitivity dominates. 📌My Key take away for this debate ? Being on the “right side of the road” won’t matter if you're not on the right side of your customer’s lifestyle. Let me know your thoughts on this #RetailKenya #UrbanDevelopment #MallStrategy #ConsumerInsights #GardenCity #BusinessInKenya #RealEstateTrends #NairobiRetail #LeadershipThoughts

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WILL RELIANCE GET BACK IN THE QUICK COMMERCE GAME WITH AN ACQUISITION LIKE ZEPTO ?? Retail giant Reliance despite its largest network of physical #retail stores seems to have missed the bus in terms of quick commerce while there’s been the standalone #startups that have literally become synonymous with quick ordering and in the large metros ordering through platforms like Swiggy Zomato bigbasket is definitely the most popular way of ordering one’s groceries rather quick It may be worth understanding that Reliance in fact was one of the first to buy out some of the fast growing startups like Milkbasket and the delivery platform Dunzo too and had ideally should have happened is that Jio Mart would have been been at the front end through this In a recent announcement, they’ve shared that there’s 800 Dark stores that have been opened up with a very healthy profit of over 12,000 crores, but then is it about just opening up these dark stores and getting ahead Or then just typical of this large behemoth that known to be about disruption and acquisition as a strategy that they’re going to be back in this aggressive game with various players acquiring the independent one like Zepto This could be the game changer, while the independent one has grown significantly the combined strength of the distribution engine that the startup has already put in along with the various formats of retail that Reliance is present in, this could be the best strategy for Jio Mart isn’t it ??

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In a country where 90% of beverage sales still come from general trade, Lahori Zeera didn’t build its brand on advertising. It built it on access. When most beverage players were chasing margin led SKUs and “premiumization,” Lahori went back to the basics of Indian retail, the ₹10 price point. That single decision unlocked something most brands underestimate: instant trial. At ₹10, the product sits in the same decision frame as a packet of chips or a small biscuit. No hesitation or evaluation, just an impulse purchase. And in India, that’s scale. The brilliance lies in how Lahori turned that pricing into its growth engine: ₹10 isn’t a discount, it’s a penetration strategy. The low barrier to trial fueled repeat purchase through familiarity and habit, not advertising. And once volumes kicked in, economies of scale did what marketing budgets couldn’t. From ₹83 Cr in FY20 to ₹530 Cr in FY25 is not just demand; that’s design. A design that understood India’s consumption psyche better than many MNCs operating here for decades. What makes this story even sharper is the contrast: While legacy FMCG players chased high-margin subcategories and D2C brands built for urban aspirants, Lahori doubled down on Bharat’s middle belt where affordability equals accessibility. We’ve seen this pattern before. 👉 ParleG built generational loyalty at ₹5. 👉 Frooti’s ₹10 tetra pack made mango drinks part of every child’s summer. Lahori is simply the newest name on that list but it’s playing the same timeless Indian game: price first, brand later. Because in a price sensitive yet high volume market, the right entry price isn’t just about affordability, it’s about building the funnel for trust. As someone who’s spent years decoding retail behavior, I believe Lahori’s biggest innovation wasn’t product or packaging. It was restraint. The discipline to stay mass when the market glorifies premium. That’s how you build adoption before aspiration. And that’s exactly what creates long term category leadership. #retail #pricestrategy #consumerproducts

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Why was Third Wave Coffee’s ₹50 cr loss inevitable? ☕📉 Third Wave Coffee posted a ₹50 crore loss in FY24 despite ₹120 crore in revenue. 💸 Premium rents, high CAC (customer acquisition cost), underutilized stores, and limited repeat business have strained unit economics. 📊 With only 15–20% core coffee loyalists, the chain’s aggressive expansion has deepened losses instead of fixing the core business model. #coffee #thirdwavecoffee #india #business #startup

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Why is it that out of the 4000 D2C brands doing $1M of monthly revenue on Shopify, not a single brand is from India? The answer is a mix of technical and cultural reasons. I will start with cultural. Because that is valid not just for D2C but for other industries like SAAS and tech as well. 1. Our processes rely on people instead of systems. And as warm and loving as that sounds, it simply doesn’t work at scale. It is also the reason why Indian orgs have so much internal corruption as they scale. 2. We are a risk averse nation. Government jobs. Education. Safety net. These are the values typically passed down and get hardcoded in our DNAs. So even when we start a business, concepts of credit and debt are not used as efficiently as they should be. Heck even our investor community is the most risk averse in the world. Everybody wants to copy and follow what’s working. Nobody wants to take the leap and innovate. 3. Entitlement comes very fast Anybody who has earned a couple of crores in their lives thinks they are God. Several socio economic reasons for this that I won’t get into here. 4. We care too much about not looking poor. We want to spend like the west because it “looks” cool. A person on a 50k/m salary has a 1L iphone. A person who earns 20L a year as a 40L car. A D2C business owner who earns 10L per month pays 4L in salaries. A founder who just raised a round of funding will overspend on IIM/IIT talent and swanky offices they don’t need. 5. We outsource/delegate too early. Because labour is cheap, we are quick to hire. We don’t do our dishes and laundry at home so then why would we do the dirty work of our own business? (Entitlement again) ______________ Moving on to the non cultural factors now. Specific to D2C only. 6. Founders have no grip on their P&L fundamentals. Nobody knows what their real breakeven roas is in the 0-1 stage and they keep pumping in more money until they run out. 7. Marketing, Finance, Inventory, Creatives & branding are all deeply correlated. But founders are not building businesses trying to prioritise all of these together. The founder who is great at branding ignores finance metrics completely. The founder great at performance ignores branding completely. And so on. 8. Founders don’t know enough about their own businesses. Remember point 5? This causes a gap. And this gap keeps growing with scale. 9. We are 5 years behind western markets in technology adoption. Purely because of points 2 (risk) and 5 (early delegation). Case in point -> First party data adoption. This is the one single technology switch that has enabled US brands to keep scaling without dropping MER and nobody in India is talking about it. But why is nobody talking about it? Because the people directly responsible for growth are MBA peeps, not founders themselves. These MBA peeps are even more risk averse. This would have never happened if the founder had upskilled and kept up with what’s new in the world.

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