Biggest mistakes I made while growing my 4Cr ARR D2C wellness brand.

For those of you who do not know, I run 2 businesses, Porcellia, & Manzuri. Over the past few years, i have used Manzuri as a platform for experimenting, and taking big risks, the learnings from which I transfer to Porcellia, which is a D2C growth consulting company that specializes in the wellness niche, and new category creation. But that’s not how Manzuri started….

We started Manzuri in the middle of the covid pandemic when I saw an opportunity to capitalize on the non existent sexual wellness market in India. At the time, Menstrual cups and sanitary pads were the only products available in the name of sexual wellness, and the femtech space when it came to “pleasure” was completely unexplored.

While it took us 3 years to reach 4Cr in ARR, that too with 0 spends on paid marketing, my business internally was chaotic, unorganised, lacked processes, and unscalable unless I pivoted (massively).

Here are the biggest mistakes I made while growing Manzuri.

To make the article more actionable, I’ve also mentioned what I would do differently instead if starting from scratch. 

Acquisition - Biggest Missteps & Learnings

1. Not leveraging video

As a rule of thumb, it is essential to invest resources in the fastest-growing trends in marketing. Some of those trends, such as “clubhouse (2021) are seasonal, and some stand the test of time. We knew well before video became mainstream that video will become mainstream. Neither co-founder was willing to get out of their mental comfort zone and dive deep into solving this problem. Just because we are introverts, does not mean we can use that as an excuse to not do something that has to be done.

Lessons learnt? I had to write a whole new blog article for that.
Are you an introverted founder? You still need videos to grow your brand. Here’s how you can do that.
How to leverage video content? (For camera-shy D2C founders.)....coming soon

Here is the download in a nutshell:

1. You don’t have to do it yourself. Get a co-founder who can do it.
   Early in, you can give away small equity to a big name/influencer. Content creators are often great at content creation but but may not be business-minded.
   
   You will only see the need to do this if you don’t have any funds and/or angels backing you. The 2nd option is a better idea if you have access to some capital.
   

2. Hire a full time social media strategist + Jr. content creator.
   Linkedin is full of college kids who are happy to create video content as a full time job. Find one you can count on, but you will need to hire a content strategist nevertheless (or you can learn how to do it yourself) 

2. Dependent on a single-channel

We generate 80% of our revenue through SEO, Quora, & Reddit, and the remaining 20% through a combination of social, affiliates and influencers. While it may seem all rosy and fun, because HEY!! - we generate 5Cr ARR with 0 spent on paid marketing, the reality is not all rainbows and sunshine. Here are the biggest pitfalls we fell into because we built our whole acquisition strategy around one main channel.

1. Because we were not doing paid media, we had almost 0 CAC. Instead of enjoying high profit margins, we reduced prices to beat the competition. Which we did. But because nobody knew about us, the reduced prices turned out to be a terrible decision; one that we’re still suffering the consequences of.

2. Similarly, we increased fixed costs in areas like rent, team size etc, because we figured that we will never need to factor in the cost of paid acquisition.

3. SEO algorithms changed in September 2023 and we lost nearly 70% of our organic traffic. While we’ve recovered most of it, the losses we faced for the months following this catastrophe was humbling.

4. Competitors with funding and bigger resources caught up. They were able to invest more in this vertical and outrank us with time.

5. Points 1 & 2 caused massive overheads, which we were unable to deal with when our traffic and revenue fell after the SEO algorithm updates. We were unable to start paid ads as a result even though we desperately needed to. 

Your best-performing channel could be a big strength, or a big weakness, depending on how fast you are able to open new channels and diversify risk. 

For most brands, their performance channels are their biggest weakness. Turn off ads, and revenue falls by over 80% in some cases. We make it a conscious effort from day 0 of working with a brand that we slowly but surely invest in other channels to acquire new users.

Key Lessons Learned

1. Invest in email marketing from day 0.

2. Your main acquisition channel needs to be something you can turn on or off at your whim. Nothing beats performance marketing when it comes to acquiring your first 5000 customers. 

3. Be sure to invest equally in facebook & Google. It’s a very common problem/pattern for early stage D2C brands to ignore google. Youtube is becoming massive in terms of ROI % and IG with it’s most recent paid creators update is getting worse by the day.

4. Always factor in discounts and paid CAC when deciding on pricing. Your margins should ideally be 70%+ else you won’t be able to spend on ads.

Retention - Biggest Missteps & Learnings

1. Not maintaining sustained relationships with our first set of superusers

While we started email marketing and whatsapp marketing at a very early stage, we made the grave mistake of treating our first 1000 customers like the rest of them that followed. This alienated us from our first set of users & superusers and the damage done to this relationship is quite irreparable.
Indian consumers are very non forgiving and they are spoilt for options when it comes to most categories. We took them for granted and we hope you do not.

2. Not adding enough value to our customers

At no point, should your customers feel you’re selling to them.

Keep adding value across the funnel.
While selling is important, be sure to always keep educating and positively preaching in at least 80% of the content you put out there.

While Manzuri started off right (we started as an IG handle that did sex-education), we forgot our core values somewhere along the way and it took us a good 1 year + to fix this again.

What I would do differently:

1. Invest more in packaging. Not only did average packaging cost us customer trust, it also cost us a deal on Sharktank India. More on that some other time.

When building out a new category, not only do you need to invest in building trust in your brand, you need to invest in building trust in the category as a whole. Your customer experience HAS to be 12/10 in all areas and the ROI on website good UX and good packaging is pretty much immeasurable.

2. Setup loyalty & superuser email flows from day 0.

3. Start a newsletter from day 0. (remember, everything is about trust)

4. Show my face wherever possible. Socials, website, newsletter etc. people buy from people these days and if you cannot show them WHOM they are buying from, chances are they will leave you and go to another competitor.

Underestimating the Emotional Involvement/ investment required

1. Not being present and giving my 200%

I started Manzuri in a phase where I had just quit a job that had burnt me out. I was not ready for what it takes to be an entrepreneur. My overconfidence in my skills lead me to being blindsided by how how much physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual work the journey entails. The fact is, I was not ready to dive this deep into running a business that aims to solve something so important. 

Key takeaways

You know how “love” is not enough to make a relationship work? - you need to put in the work. And it’s more often than not, very hard work. 

1. Similarly, your passion and skills are not enough to grow a successful business. 

2. Think of the most difficult spiritual challenge you’ve undertaken for yourself and then multiply in by 10x. You need to learn to breathe, eat, sleep - all outside your comfort zone.

3. Just show up. It’s the same advice fitness trainers give. You don’t have to be at your A-game everyday, but you do need to show up everyday. 

2. Not establishing clear boundaries and scope with my co-founder

1. If you have a co-founder, then you absolutely need a written contract with basic key deliverables and expectations from each party in place. 

2. If you’re close friends or siblings, it does not need to be legally binding perhaps. But it needs to exist in order to hold each other accountable and serve as a reminder when one of you is dropping the ball.

3. It should be clear to you and your co founder that your professional relationship is based on merit and not blood, frienship etc. “You would be my cofounder, even if I could choose from millions of other successful people in the world” - that’s what your contract should indirectly imply.

4. And then you need to have key KPIs mapped out against this sentiment. And if you feel that the equity one co-founder has has more to do with their relationship to you, than merit, it’s time to have an open and honest conversation.

5. Don’t have overlapping roles and hold each other accountable in their domain each of you is owning, much like a manager/CEO would hold their employee accountable. This serves 2 purposes: a) it helps you understand the other person’s job better, and b) it prevents you from slacking.

Not finding the right balance between spontaneity and research.

My experience has head of growth @Myglamm proved to be a double edged sword when I started Manzuri. While it gave me all the tools needed to grow the business, it severely overestimated the role of good marketing to achieve the good growth.

• We crafted our business around the principles of marketing, instead of user experience.

• We invested in customer support 1 whole year after we should have.

• We launched products that would sell well, just because they were easy to market. (not because they were solving a big problem)

• We participated in events which gave us easy revenue, but at the cost of brand.

• Hiring folks without adequate background research.

• Doing a big rebranding exercise, prematurely.

• Not investing enough in packaging and product experience and instead investing that amount in discounting.

• Not visiting our factory in China until 3 full years into the business.

• Launching too many SKUs, too fast.

• Spending on agencies instead of spending on upskilling ourselves.

Key takeaways & Lessons

While building fast and failing fast is still a key business philosophy that I abide by, “fast” should not mean uniformed and unprepared. “Fast” is supposed to mean that you do more research in less amount of time.

• “Fast” cannot ignore “First Priciples”.

• “Fast” does not mean burn.

• “Fast” does not mean you can get away by wrapping the shit smelling candy in rainbow sprinkled paper.

Where is Manzuri right now?

While Manzuri is no longer my first-focus, we are fortunate to be stable at a healthy annual run rate, with my co-founder managing most of the day to day operations. And while we’re profitable, our focus is entirely on reinvesting to improve the quality of our products and customer service. 

We are committed to bringing well researched, safe, & certified pleasure products to Indian vulva owners and yes, we still do not spend any money on ads and acquire all our customers through SEO and organic means.