Episode 47: Ahana Gautam-Un-Junking the Indian snack industry

The One Percent Project- Entrepreneurship, Leadership & Resilience

About Ahana Gautam:
Indians love their snacks. We have grown up having our samosas, chaats, namkeens and mithais. There are hundreds of local and national snack brands in India.
The Indian snacking industry crossed an annual sales of $14 billion in 2020 and is projected to grow by $2.88 billion from 2022 to 2026. While snacks do magic for our tastebuds, they dont always work wonders for our health.
Today on The One Percent Project, I am speaking to Ahana Gautam. She is the CEO & Co-Founder of Open Secret, a Harvard Business School and IIT Bombay alum. Open Secret is on a mission to un-junk the Indian snack industry.
Some Key Highlights:

• We take creating a meaningful difference in the world as a responsibility, not a choice.
• Every business's biggest moat is its customer.
• Culture is the thread which helps companies scale. So without that thread, products won't exist.

In this conversation, she talks about:
00:00 Intro
01:45 What makes Ahana a unique founder?
03:45 How has moving away from instant gratification helped her find her space in the world?
05:15 How has attending Harvard and IIT impacted her thinking?
08:11 How mothers are the north star for Open Secret?
10:34 How does a business create moats?
13:39 How has Open Secret been able to penetrate beyond tier 1 cities in India?
25:18 How does Ahana assess talent?
27:10 How is Open Secret creating impact? Is it through culture or its products?