An IT engineer's dream journey starts with Rs 50,000 and approaches Rs 6 crore

Imagine a girl from Jamnagar, a Tier-2 city in Gujarat, who was more interested in sports than academics but still managed to get her IT degree from the G H Patel College of Engineering & Technology, Vidyanagar. A state-level volleyball, badminton, and table tennis player under 19, Riddhi Sharma found her true passion in entrepreneurship after marrying Ripul Sharma.

At age 25, Riddhi, along with her husband Ripul launched their first venture, WebPixel Technologies, in 2011 with just Rs 50,000 of their savings. Following the birth of her child, Riddhi discovered the specific needs of infants and launched BabyOrgano, an exclusive Ayurvedic health and wellness brand for babies, with an initial investment of Rs. 2 lakh in March 2020.

Their first company, WebPixel, is successfully running with a revenue of Rs 70 lakh and employs 40 people, while BabyOrgano has quickly grown, closing the last fiscal year with Rs 2 crore in revenue and aiming to finish at Rs 6 crore this year.

Riddhi recalls her humble beginnings with a smile, "When I first started working after college, my salary was just Rs. 2500 a month. Riddhi, who graduated with a BE in IT from G H Patel College of Engineering & Technology, Vidyanagar in 2008, initially started her career as a coder in an IT firm located in the same city.

It was during her time at this firm that Riddhi's path crossed with Ripul Sharma, who was working at OpenXcel in Ahmedabad. That year, they started WebPixel Technologies, a company that is into website design and development, mobile application development, SEO services, and web maintenance and hosting.

"Initially, Ripul and I put together Rs. 50,000 from our savings to start WebPixel. We began working out of a small 500 sq ft office in Paldi, Ahmedabad,” says Riddhi. “At first, it was just the two of us, but soon we brought on board two developers and a designer to help out—two of whom are still with us. ” In the first of year of business, they made revenue of Rs 20 lakh. "In the beginning, Ripul and I were balancing full-time jobs while trying to grow WebPixel,” says Riddhi.

"Now, we have a strong team of 40 employees at WebPixel Technologies, serving clients from all over the world," says Riddhi proudly. "I was quite skeptical about the ingredients in the health and wellness products available for babies from well-known brands.

Luckily, my grandmother, who stayed with me for a while, prepared homemade Ayurvedic products for my baby," Riddhi shares. Her 89-year-old grandmother prepared Ubtan powder, a mixture of turmeric, chickpea flour, and sandalwood, known for its benefits to the baby's skin.

Riddhi's journey into ayurvedic wellness for babies began when her son, Kayaan, suffered from colic at 4-5 months old. Her grandmother's remedy of applying diluted Asafoetida (hing) on the navel worked wonders, helping him sleep. After her grandmother went back home six months later, Riddhi, who had started working again, found herself in a tough spot.

She didn't have time to make these homemade products for Kayaan. She looked for Ayurvedic baby care products but couldn't find any Indian brands that catered specifically to babies. In March 2020, Riddhi launched BabyOrgano, an Ayurvedic brand dedicated to babies, with an initial investment of Rs. 2 lakh, operating right from her home.

Partnering with a manufacturer, Riddhi supplied all the necessary ingredients for BabyOrgano's products, which started with 13 different items. By the end of their first year in 2020-21, BabyOrgano made Rs. 8 lakh. The following year, the revenue shot up to Rs. 37 lakh, and in the last fiscal year, they finished at Rs. 2 crore.

Riddhi is projecting Rs. 6 crore in revenue for the current fiscal year. Riddhi, a voracious reader of self-help books, attributes much of her success to the power of manifestation. Such books encourage you to think big, adapt discipline, and work hard to succeed in life,” says Riddhi.

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