From being an investment banker to the CEO and Founder of The Wedding Brigade, Sanna Vohra has come a long way as an entrepreneur. A Brown University grad, she was working as an investment banker in New York when she came to India for a friend’s wedding. It was an epiphany moment for Sanna, because what she saw was the unorganised and chaotic side of an Indian wedding. Those made her sit up and take notice. In an interview with Indiantelevision.com, Sanna Vohra dwells at length on her journey, the future plans of The Wedding Brigade, and the role of women in entrepreneurship. Excerpts:
Tell us about your journey that ultimately culminated in the setting up of The Wedding Brigade.
I was working as an investment banker in New York when I happened to come to India for a family friend’s wedding. While here, I saw how unorganized and chaotic the process of planning a wedding was which made me research the market, scope and other players in India. This is how I came up with the idea of starting a wedding-related business and started Indear which was the first avatar of my business which later evolved into The Wedding Brigade. Today, The Wedding Brigade is an all-inclusive platform that allows women to streamline their entire wedding planning process online, right from researching trends to buying outfits to booking wedding venues to getting vendors for decor, food, Mehendi, makeup and more. This is in line with my vision to ease the lives of all Indian brides as well as grooms as they deserve to have a beautiful, hassle-free wedding.
How has been the initial challenges and how did you overcome them?
The biggest initial challenge was to expand the team and find good recruits with a limited budget. Also, working in a startup comes with the daily task of keeping up with different things and not getting distracted by daily fires. It’s important to be focused on the bigger picture at hand and that makes all the difference.
Where do you see your organisation two years from now? What is the expected growth rate and volume?
Within the next two years we expect our products and services to be used by over 500,000 brides across India who will buy their wedding fashion or jewelry through us, book their venue and vendors through us or use our wedding planning tools for their joyous occasions.
What are the future plans?
We plan to expand our venue and vendor booking business to more cities and grow our managed banqueting business, Mogra Banquets by The Wedding Brigade, to other locations within the country. We also intend to expand into new categories in e-commerce, such as cultural-specific wedding apparel, menswear and kids ethnic wear.
How is the Indian wedding market compared to the West? How has it evolved over the years?
The Indian wedding market is much more complex as compared to the West as there is no transparency in terms of pricing, and fewer professional vendors. Indian weddings are a much larger affair where family and friends play a greater role in the planning and execution process. Also, the fact that Indian weddings are very culturally and religiously rooted makes them a much more elaborate affair as compared to their Western counterparts and this affects how the wedding business works here as well.
Are more and more women entrepreneurs venturing into the start-up ecosystem? Is it conducive for women to enter the field and launch more brands?
Women-led start-up success stories like Nykaa and MadStreetDen are definitely encouraging other women in the ecosystem to take the plunge. We are also witnessing a change in the investment scenario as more women are becoming investors and leading investments at funds, too.
What are the advantages and disadvantages as a woman entrepreneur?
A disadvantage is clearly centuries-old in-built biases towards women’s ability to work, create, and lead; this manifests in the fact that less than 2% of start-up funding goes towards women-lead start-ups. As a generalisation, more is also expected of women at home which makes balancing work and personal commitments harder. What is positive is the exposure this issue is getting in the media, and the fact that partners across funds, corporate world and the press are working hard to change this.
The world just celebrated the women’s day. What is the one message that you would like to share with all those aspiring women entrepreneurs?
You will never be 100% ready; there will never be a perfect time. But if you believe in yourself, and you truly believe you are solving a pain point - just start. The learnings you will get from building your own business are unlike anything you can get from the corporate world!
