Ayushi Gudwani, the founder of Fable Street, transitioned from a corporate job to being an entrepreneur as she wanted to build a venture that impacted lives on a larger scale. “I wanted to do something impactful. I was sure that I didn’t wanna stay in consulting for long”, says Ayushi Gudwani. As a consumer, Ayushi felt that the women’s apparel space has adequate opportunities and a multi-billion dollar business as work wear options for Indian working women were very few.
“You always know that one in 10 or maybe, one in 20 startups succeed, right?” says Ayushi. The journey of transitioning to an entrepreneur requires a lot of grit and self-assurance. More often than not, being an entrepreneur is considered a risk as opposed to a traditional ‘job’ that offers a fixed permanent income. However Ayushi’s experience taught her otherwise. Ayushi explains that “we are well educated, so if we try to take a break for a couple of years, it is not a risk.” Even if the venture fails, one can always go back to the job, as one’s career is a long-term journey. However, if it works, there is no turning back. She believes that entrepreneurship is not risky for people with sound educational backgrounds. “There is almost zero risk. We have the opportunity to go back to work. We will always find jobs. It’s just a mindset,” explains Ayushi.
Ayushi’s MBA training and her role as a consultant at McKinsey helped her develop a strong understanding of running a business. Also being a consistent learner, she gained the technical knowledge for running an apparel business. However, her background made her competent and gave her the required comfort and confidence to successfully run her business. Taking the right decisions and being surrounded by a set of people you trust is crucial to fruitfully run a business. Ayushi talks about three things that every business leader must ensure. Firstly, every leader must identify their leadership traits and amplify them. Secondly, build a team that nurtures diversity yet shares a common value system and approach to doing things. Lastly, it should be a conscious choice of building an ecosystem and a set of people one wants and likes to work with. The most important lesson that Ayushi learned as an entrepreneur is, “running a business is a marathon and not a sprint.” Building a business that is profitable and sustainable in the long term is not achieved by working hard or working tight for a couple of months, or a short duration. One needs to understand the ecosystem that is created for building a business such as a team, well-wishers, and advisors as they can be the cause of happiness or a reason for your stress.
Statistically, women entrepreneurs find it difficult to fund their startups due to the biases that exist. Ayushi’s advice to all women entrepreneurs is to stay confident, nurture a strong business acumen, bring in the right team, and scale the business profitably. The biggest challenge that Ayushi faced in her early days as an entrepreneur was making decisions and staying accountable for them. “You have to make decisions on a day-to-day basis. You have to be responsible for your decisions, whether they’re right or not, you take accountability for them. That’s a very hard journey that you have to go through” shared Ayushi. She urges women to train themselves to make decisions comfortably and confidently and build intuitiveness to process a lot of data swiftly.
Listen to the interview here.
About Ayushi Gudwani: Ayushi Gudwani is the CEO and founder of FS Life, a line of purposeful, contemporary products that fulfil the unmet apparel and lifestyle needs of the modern Indian woman. Ayushi started her entrepreneurial career with FableStreet in 2016 after she noticed a lack of well-fitted, trendy, and comfortable work attire for women. She transformed Fable Street into FS Life, a multi-brand organization that provides women’s workwear fashion for every body type. Before Ayushi began her entrepreneurial journey with FS Life, she worked for McKinsey & Company as a consultant and for Lehman Brothers as a senior analyst. Ayushi attended top institutions such as IIM Calcutta and UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. An optimist and dreamer at heart, Ayushi gets her energy from the people around her. Her hobbies and interests include working out, travelling, listening to music, and occasionally indulging in Thai food.