It is often said that all great things have small beginnings. Take the case of IT professional Mallika Muralidhar who, after 14 years of techno-functional experience in the with an airline company, founded Jarlie, which has already taken Hyderabad by storm and made a mark in the food industry.
Mallika recently went on to win the Top 5 Exciting Young Startups Award at the CADD Global Achievers Conference 2018, marking yet another achievement for the food and travel enthusiast.
Talking about her experience at the CADD Global Achievers Conference 2018, she says, “It was a great honour for our brand to be nominated for the Top 5 Young Startups Award by a selective jury. The speakers reiterated that entrepreneurs can be and are responsible for job creation and nation building,” says Mallika.
Of course, there have been roadblocks and challenges too. As a female entrepreneur, what are the challenges that she — and women in general — face? “A woman entrepreneur has to face numerous challenges. Our society needs to stop presuming gender roles. There were occasions where I would present our product at exhibitions and people would assume that this was a home-baked product and not a company or brand. Women have to work really hard to rid people of these preconceived notions,” says Mallika.
Mallika also reveals that she has faced a negative bias from stakeholders too. “I have had vendors who would not take me seriously in the initial discussions. However, when I continued talking to them earnestly about my product, their lack of respect actually turned into awe!,” she says.
With her incurable addiction to desserts and an unrelenting quest for that perfect recipe, Mallika takes care of the product research, development and operations while her husband and co-founder Muralidhar, who recently got equipped with an MBA degree, takes care of product distribution, sales, marketing, HR and channel expansion.
HT02
