The woman entrepreneur who pitched breast milk jewelry on Shark Tank India

Preety Maggo started Magic of Memories in 2019, manufacturing keepsake jewelry from breast milk, hair, umbilical cord parts, and blood. Although she didn't receive funding on "Shark Tank India", she is confident she can scale her business.

In 2019, Preety Maggo started Magic of Memories, making keepsake jewelry from breast milk, hair, parts of the umbilical cord, blood, and more. She may not have received funding for ‘Shark Tank India’, but she’s confident of scaling her unusual venture. When Preety Maggo pitched her venture, Magic of Memories, on Shark Tank India Season 2, she did not receive any funding.

Preety’s unique idea of custom-crafted keepsake jewelry made with breast milk and other keepsakes, such as a baby’s first hair or parts of the umbilical cord, sounded bizarre as well as unique. But, despite the evident show of disgust, Preety faced all questions with confidence and ended the pitch with the conviction in her belief that Magic of Memories would work, despite the doubts raised by the Sharks.

The experience was phenomenal, Preety tells HerStory, a few days after the pitch was aired on national television. While the idea of keepsake jewelry is not unknown in the West, Preety came upon the idea while crawling on Instagram and discovering a German company making breast milk jewelry. The optometrist hit upon the idea of bringing it to an Indian customer base, though she understood that it would not be easy because of its niche. 

Preety started researching to offer “safe” jewelry that can be won by parents, babies, and even a pregnant woman. Mother to a baby girl herself, she wanted to preserve her breast milk in a piece of art. She started designing jewelry and started Magic of Memories in 2019. Soon, people outside her friends’ circle started reaching out to her and placing orders.

She started with hair and breast milk and then kept creating new variants using parts of the umbilical cord, or pieces of clothes of dear ones. She creates jewellery based on client requests, for both the product and its treatment. For example, she dehydrates breast milk before it is used, and uses a dry form of human blood (when requested) in the jewelry.

“Since I have a medical background, I use the basics of physics and chemistry to preserve the particles in the jewelry,” Preety says. She continues to research what could be used to help people have unique keepsake jewelry. While people may titter at the idea, Preety believes it’s all about memory. For instance, a client had a few drops of her father’s blood and wanted to preserve them.

Getting jewelry made was emotional for the family, she says. She has made 600 custom pieces for clients so far. The number increased to 50,000 in just 25 days,” she says. Most of her orders come for breast milk jewelry, followed by those for hair and parts of the umbilical cord. On Shark Tank India, the sharks questioned her ability to scale and thought she should just concentrate on a single piece of jewelry, for example, hair. Since it’s new to them, they reacted in a certain way,” Preety counters.

“If I offer only hair jewelry, I will not be able to cater to a wider customer base. I can say 20% are against the concept, even asking me how I could talk about breast milk on television, not understanding it’s a natural process. Several investors have also approached her since the pitch, but Preety wants to improve upon certain aspects before she joins hands with anyone.

Her ask at Shark Tank India, she points out, was a mere Rs 25 lakh. “I am confident that I will raise more than what I had asked for, and also scale this business and make profits,” Preety says.

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