today I’m here to share my journey oh
happy Sunshine’s journey and leave you
with a few takeaways that’ll hopefully
help you in your journey back in school
I was a very naughty kid I gave my
parents a really hard time and I’ve got
all the more difficult when my sister
would come home with ninety percent
marks while I was still making up
excuses for all the bad grades that I
got why am I telling you this by just
not scoring good enough in school your
teachers or maybe your uncles and aunts
they start putting labels on you and you
don’t know when or how you start to
believe them how are you even supposed
to know that you are capable of doing
something awesome when you carry that
label in your head and subconsciously in
your heart ten years back when I was in
college my big dream was to get a decent
job earn some money and then in a few
years see the other side of the globe
let startups are an aspirational thing
now going on site was the big thing then
and I was among the few lucky ones to
get that opportunity very early on in my
career I would never forget my first
flight ever
American Airlines a eight to nine – from
New Delhi to Phoenix the air hostess
walked up to me and said ma’am would you
like to have a glass of juice or wine
and when I reached a uniformed taxi
driver was waiting for me holding up
like out of my name in bold
I felt so important life was good in
fact it was perfect couple of years
passed by and I got married my husband
and I we moved to Minnesota and we were
welcomed by the most beautiful snowfall
I’ve ever seen in my life slowly and
gradually we set up our apartment what a
first second and car settle down life
was good
I had been in workforce for more than
five years and it had gotten a little
monotonous so I quit my job and was
looking for some time off but it so
happened that the snow that looked so
good at first started making my days
very dull and quiet and the time off
that I was really looking forward to
made me wonder what do I do with all the
time that I have at hand with only snow
that I saw out of the window I started
wondering but why are we wasting a lot
of snow here there should be a way to
clean it up pack it into bottles and
send it to India the lot of people who
needs water there and we really don’t
need the snow here anymore so when my
husband came home from work that day I
told him about my brilliant idea he
looked at me smile and said honey what’s
wrong with you so out of boredom I
started a website called Cybercom sapa
in punjabi means problems it was meant
to be a portal where people could post
their problems and others could offer
solutions not necessarily there’s no
problems but in general like your car
breaking down in the middle of a freeway
or your manager being after your life of
the time but it so happened that no one
absolutely no one ever posted any
problems on the website instead people
started posting jokes and funny pictures
so a beautiful idea that had come into
my mind ended up being an online joke
book so with that idea not working as
planned and the snow scene not getting
any better I started playing around with
strips of paper from magazines and
flyers I curled them and made into tiny
cards and bookmarks and posted on my
website which I called Indy Beansie the
joy that I got out of making those
beautiful masterpiece was immense
I would lose myself completely working
on those cards
only to suddenly realize but I had been
sitting there for five long hours
without moving an inch few months later
random people started posting comments
on my blog and I got very excited and
then one day a stranger called me to say
I need 125 handmade cards for a baby
shower I was like this is totally fake I
was pretty sure this was one of my
friends playing a prank on me but when I
received the request in an email I
realized it was for real I would give
myself a huge pat on my back because I
did complete the order after spending
six sleepless nights only to suddenly
realize that I did not earn a single
penny out of the order instead I ended
up paying $40 from my pocket so this
left me with one big lesson that Matz is
a very important subject so then my
friends and relatives started asking me
to make cards for them and my
card-making business started to grow
spreading smiles through my cards
brought a lot of happiness and sunshine
into my life but the real sunshine
stepped into my life when a beautiful
daughter Sahana was born that moment is
still very fresh in my mind
when I held my daughter for the very
first time she was bundled in pink and
white her twinkly eyes her tiny little
hands curled around mine it was magical
that very moment I knew that I’m going
to give her all the joys of the world I
would do anything and everything for her
to see her smile but soon after I
stumbled upon the biggest problem every
new mother faces nursing her child when
she is not in the closed confined
comforts of her home World Health
Organization recommends that all infants
must be
I breastfed for the first six months of
their life to achieve optimal growth and
development let’s have a quick look at
the numbers an estimated 1 to 5 percent
of the women have the inability to
produce enough milk for the babies among
the remaining 95% who do have the
ability to breastfeed only 17% continue
to exclusively breastfeed until the
child is 3 months old the number further
drops down to 14% until the child turns
4 months older as for the national
health infant feeding survey in India
only 1% only 1% of the women continue to
exclusively breastfeed until the child
is 6 months old why because our society
doesn’t normalize the idea of
breastfeeding a new wage mother
especially in India faces a lot of
stigma while nursing in public
potentially inhibiting her desire to
continue it is like she’s given two
choices either give up your social life
completely stay indoors and take care of
your child or introduce formula feed for
your child
despite the roxas recommendation so what
did I choose to do RIA is a new mom she
loves taking care of her baby and wants
the best for her all her friends and
relatives come to see the baby
she sometimes finds it awkward or
embarrassing when they walk into her
room while she’s feeding but somehow she
manages one of her first visits to the
doctor she had to feed her baby on the
way
using her shawl but even in her own car
she couldn’t avoid the eyes of the
curious onlookers in the slow-moving
traffic now she’s planning to visit her
parents but she’s worried about how
she’ll feed her little one on the
five-hour journey she looks for various
options in the stores but can’t find any
good solutions for nursing where it’s
readily available
she speaks to her new mommy friends and
one of them tells her about this new
online store oh happy sunshine
they made comfortable nursing shirts
tops and suits for new moms the clothes
are designed in such a way so it’s not
to compromise your privacy she jumps
online – oh happy sunshine calm and
quickly orders a feeding table she’s
really happy with the new top and so is
her baby she’s much more confident about
feeding her baby no more feeling
embarrassed about sharing the most
special bond with your little one no
more worrying about attending family
gatherings or people walking into your
room and no more compromising on your
sense of privacy or style what are you
waiting for
check out oh happy sunshine calm and
order now so that is how oh happy
funshine was born it was an outcome of
the nervousness and fear I had as a new
mother
as I launched my store they have about
seven sales in the first couple of weeks
and I kind of figured out that if these
seven people found the product valuable
enough to purchase and I got good
feedback I think I can improve and grow
from here since then we have come a long
way but we’re still a small organization
small in terms of office space and small
in terms of number of employees but in
this day and age what really matters is
not how big you are but how big an
impact you are creating with each
product that I sell I know somewhere I’m
making the life of a mother and her
child better I would like to share three
lessons with you which I have learned
from a few things that worked a few more
that failed and a lot of which never saw
the light of the day a very common
advice which you might have heard is if
you build they will come well when I
built supper they never came just left
me with one big lesson that product
another thing which you guys might have
heard and heard a lot is follow your
passion follow your heart in my card
making business I did follow my heart
when I made cards it did not matter to
me what others thought about it I made
cards because I loved it but I kind of
figured out that handmade greeting cards
did not have enough demand in the market
and there was only so much that I could
do so I understood that passion is
important to help you sail through tough
times but again it is not enough so the
missing piece of the puzzle was the
problem and in case of oh happy sunshine
the problem was real and it was big and
there were enough people out there who
were ready to pay to see the problem
solved so it is that at that
intersection of the product passion and
problem that you find the recipe of a
sustainable business second is start and
start small every great business starts
with an idea and the most important
thing for you is to strong form that
idea into action and that is where many
of us start to feel overwhelmed we lose
a lot of our energy in the ifs and buts
all you need to do is drop those ifs
kick those putts
oh happy sunshine started with the
two-person team five designs and zero
inventory when we received an order I
used to rush to the tailor to get the
dress ready the same day if I had waited
long enough to set up a huge inventory
build a huge manufacturing unit hire
professional tailors I would have never
started so the key here is to start no
matter how small that weighs you will be
able to validate the problem without
putting everything at stake the third
one is the relationships business is
about one thing it’s about relationships
it’s about being helpful to as many
people as possible
I still remember those moistened eyes of
Srinivasan Anita my first tailor and his
wife when my husband and I handed him an
amount of one lakh rupees as an advance
he used that money to buy a new machine
for his son so that would provide an
additional source of income in their
household so the point I want to make
here is that you really cannot draw
alone there’s so many people you connect
on the way as you grow you need to help
them grow as well as a new mother myself
I understood that how after the birth of
the baby suddenly the focus shift from
the mother to the baby so in order to
make the new mom feel special
I send my product not just as a regular
package but as a gift nicely packed with
bows and ribbons and a personalized
handwritten note and today I receive
more thank-yous for the cards than the
dress itself so in this day and age the
world is so much connected by technology
and devices let any little effort that
you build to take to build that personal
relationship it does go a long way I
would like to leave you with this
closing part sometimes things work out
the way you want them to and many times
they don’t following your dreams will
never be easy stepping out of the
comfort zone and venturing into the
unknown will always be challenging and
you don’t know which of those challenges
will knock you off your feet that you
start doubting your ability in yourself
what you need to do then is what I tell
my two-year-old get up brush it off and
keep moving forward thank you
[Applause]
[Music] you
happy Sunshine’s journey and leave you
with a few takeaways that’ll hopefully
help you in your journey back in school
I was a very naughty kid I gave my
parents a really hard time and I’ve got
all the more difficult when my sister
would come home with ninety percent
marks while I was still making up
excuses for all the bad grades that I
got why am I telling you this by just
not scoring good enough in school your
teachers or maybe your uncles and aunts
they start putting labels on you and you
don’t know when or how you start to
believe them how are you even supposed
to know that you are capable of doing
something awesome when you carry that
label in your head and subconsciously in
your heart ten years back when I was in
college my big dream was to get a decent
job earn some money and then in a few
years see the other side of the globe
let startups are an aspirational thing
now going on site was the big thing then
and I was among the few lucky ones to
get that opportunity very early on in my
career I would never forget my first
flight ever
American Airlines a eight to nine – from
New Delhi to Phoenix the air hostess
walked up to me and said ma’am would you
like to have a glass of juice or wine
and when I reached a uniformed taxi
driver was waiting for me holding up
like out of my name in bold
I felt so important life was good in
fact it was perfect couple of years
passed by and I got married my husband
and I we moved to Minnesota and we were
welcomed by the most beautiful snowfall
I’ve ever seen in my life slowly and
gradually we set up our apartment what a
first second and car settle down life
was good
I had been in workforce for more than
five years and it had gotten a little
monotonous so I quit my job and was
looking for some time off but it so
happened that the snow that looked so
good at first started making my days
very dull and quiet and the time off
that I was really looking forward to
made me wonder what do I do with all the
time that I have at hand with only snow
that I saw out of the window I started
wondering but why are we wasting a lot
of snow here there should be a way to
clean it up pack it into bottles and
send it to India the lot of people who
needs water there and we really don’t
need the snow here anymore so when my
husband came home from work that day I
told him about my brilliant idea he
looked at me smile and said honey what’s
wrong with you so out of boredom I
started a website called Cybercom sapa
in punjabi means problems it was meant
to be a portal where people could post
their problems and others could offer
solutions not necessarily there’s no
problems but in general like your car
breaking down in the middle of a freeway
or your manager being after your life of
the time but it so happened that no one
absolutely no one ever posted any
problems on the website instead people
started posting jokes and funny pictures
so a beautiful idea that had come into
my mind ended up being an online joke
book so with that idea not working as
planned and the snow scene not getting
any better I started playing around with
strips of paper from magazines and
flyers I curled them and made into tiny
cards and bookmarks and posted on my
website which I called Indy Beansie the
joy that I got out of making those
beautiful masterpiece was immense
I would lose myself completely working
on those cards
only to suddenly realize but I had been
sitting there for five long hours
without moving an inch few months later
random people started posting comments
on my blog and I got very excited and
then one day a stranger called me to say
I need 125 handmade cards for a baby
shower I was like this is totally fake I
was pretty sure this was one of my
friends playing a prank on me but when I
received the request in an email I
realized it was for real I would give
myself a huge pat on my back because I
did complete the order after spending
six sleepless nights only to suddenly
realize that I did not earn a single
penny out of the order instead I ended
up paying $40 from my pocket so this
left me with one big lesson that Matz is
a very important subject so then my
friends and relatives started asking me
to make cards for them and my
card-making business started to grow
spreading smiles through my cards
brought a lot of happiness and sunshine
into my life but the real sunshine
stepped into my life when a beautiful
daughter Sahana was born that moment is
still very fresh in my mind
when I held my daughter for the very
first time she was bundled in pink and
white her twinkly eyes her tiny little
hands curled around mine it was magical
that very moment I knew that I’m going
to give her all the joys of the world I
would do anything and everything for her
to see her smile but soon after I
stumbled upon the biggest problem every
new mother faces nursing her child when
she is not in the closed confined
comforts of her home World Health
Organization recommends that all infants
must be
I breastfed for the first six months of
their life to achieve optimal growth and
development let’s have a quick look at
the numbers an estimated 1 to 5 percent
of the women have the inability to
produce enough milk for the babies among
the remaining 95% who do have the
ability to breastfeed only 17% continue
to exclusively breastfeed until the
child is 3 months old the number further
drops down to 14% until the child turns
4 months older as for the national
health infant feeding survey in India
only 1% only 1% of the women continue to
exclusively breastfeed until the child
is 6 months old why because our society
doesn’t normalize the idea of
breastfeeding a new wage mother
especially in India faces a lot of
stigma while nursing in public
potentially inhibiting her desire to
continue it is like she’s given two
choices either give up your social life
completely stay indoors and take care of
your child or introduce formula feed for
your child
despite the roxas recommendation so what
did I choose to do RIA is a new mom she
loves taking care of her baby and wants
the best for her all her friends and
relatives come to see the baby
she sometimes finds it awkward or
embarrassing when they walk into her
room while she’s feeding but somehow she
manages one of her first visits to the
doctor she had to feed her baby on the
way
using her shawl but even in her own car
she couldn’t avoid the eyes of the
curious onlookers in the slow-moving
traffic now she’s planning to visit her
parents but she’s worried about how
she’ll feed her little one on the
five-hour journey she looks for various
options in the stores but can’t find any
good solutions for nursing where it’s
readily available
she speaks to her new mommy friends and
one of them tells her about this new
online store oh happy sunshine
they made comfortable nursing shirts
tops and suits for new moms the clothes
are designed in such a way so it’s not
to compromise your privacy she jumps
online – oh happy sunshine calm and
quickly orders a feeding table she’s
really happy with the new top and so is
her baby she’s much more confident about
feeding her baby no more feeling
embarrassed about sharing the most
special bond with your little one no
more worrying about attending family
gatherings or people walking into your
room and no more compromising on your
sense of privacy or style what are you
waiting for
check out oh happy sunshine calm and
order now so that is how oh happy
funshine was born it was an outcome of
the nervousness and fear I had as a new
mother
as I launched my store they have about
seven sales in the first couple of weeks
and I kind of figured out that if these
seven people found the product valuable
enough to purchase and I got good
feedback I think I can improve and grow
from here since then we have come a long
way but we’re still a small organization
small in terms of office space and small
in terms of number of employees but in
this day and age what really matters is
not how big you are but how big an
impact you are creating with each
product that I sell I know somewhere I’m
making the life of a mother and her
child better I would like to share three
lessons with you which I have learned
from a few things that worked a few more
that failed and a lot of which never saw
the light of the day a very common
advice which you might have heard is if
you build they will come well when I
built supper they never came just left
me with one big lesson that product
another thing which you guys might have
heard and heard a lot is follow your
passion follow your heart in my card
making business I did follow my heart
when I made cards it did not matter to
me what others thought about it I made
cards because I loved it but I kind of
figured out that handmade greeting cards
did not have enough demand in the market
and there was only so much that I could
do so I understood that passion is
important to help you sail through tough
times but again it is not enough so the
missing piece of the puzzle was the
problem and in case of oh happy sunshine
the problem was real and it was big and
there were enough people out there who
were ready to pay to see the problem
solved so it is that at that
intersection of the product passion and
problem that you find the recipe of a
sustainable business second is start and
start small every great business starts
with an idea and the most important
thing for you is to strong form that
idea into action and that is where many
of us start to feel overwhelmed we lose
a lot of our energy in the ifs and buts
all you need to do is drop those ifs
kick those putts
oh happy sunshine started with the
two-person team five designs and zero
inventory when we received an order I
used to rush to the tailor to get the
dress ready the same day if I had waited
long enough to set up a huge inventory
build a huge manufacturing unit hire
professional tailors I would have never
started so the key here is to start no
matter how small that weighs you will be
able to validate the problem without
putting everything at stake the third
one is the relationships business is
about one thing it’s about relationships
it’s about being helpful to as many
people as possible
I still remember those moistened eyes of
Srinivasan Anita my first tailor and his
wife when my husband and I handed him an
amount of one lakh rupees as an advance
he used that money to buy a new machine
for his son so that would provide an
additional source of income in their
household so the point I want to make
here is that you really cannot draw
alone there’s so many people you connect
on the way as you grow you need to help
them grow as well as a new mother myself
I understood that how after the birth of
the baby suddenly the focus shift from
the mother to the baby so in order to
make the new mom feel special
I send my product not just as a regular
package but as a gift nicely packed with
bows and ribbons and a personalized
handwritten note and today I receive
more thank-yous for the cards than the
dress itself so in this day and age the
world is so much connected by technology
and devices let any little effort that
you build to take to build that personal
relationship it does go a long way I
would like to leave you with this
closing part sometimes things work out
the way you want them to and many times
they don’t following your dreams will
never be easy stepping out of the
comfort zone and venturing into the
unknown will always be challenging and
you don’t know which of those challenges
will knock you off your feet that you
start doubting your ability in yourself
what you need to do then is what I tell
my two-year-old get up brush it off and
keep moving forward thank you
[Applause]
[Music] you
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