March 19, 2024
What does it take to build a startup? In this episode of Capgemini’s 2024 Leaders in Innovation miniseries hosted by Capgemini VP, Intelligent Industry & Connected Consumer Offer Lead Eric Cohen, Adrich Founder & CEO Adhithi Aji speaks on her experience bringing a startup to life from seeing an opportunity, creating an MVP as told in her Tic Tac box story, and finding early adopters. Tune in to gain insights on the marketing, fundraising, and scaling aspect bringing startups to life as a Co-Founder and CEO.
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Show Notes
- Adhithi had an entrepreneurial upbringing and developed passions for both technology and business.
- She gained experience in engineering and supply chain management before pursuing an MBA and innovation studies.
- Adhithi identified a gap in last mile consumer data for CPG companies through her supply chain background.
- She developed an MVP product usage tracker using electronics in a Tic Tac box to validate her solution concept.
- Early pilots with bars and distilleries showed the solution increased reorder rates by nearly 30%.
- Adhithi co-founded Adrich and iteratively developed the product based on customer feedback.
- She secured early customers, funding, and partnerships by validating traction and value proposition.
- Subscription-based replenishment models often provide more product than needed, frustrating customers.
- Adrich’s technology enables consumption-based replenishment to address this pain point.
- Their solution helps reduce customer churn and switching between brands for CPG companies.
- Adrich’s technology is now integrated into small, discreet smart labels that can be applied to products.
- Their solution has been shown to increase customer lifetime value by 30% or more.
- Integrating usage data with contextual data like weather could provide richer insights.
- Adhithi transitioned from technical to people leadership roles as the company grew.
- Scaling the company requires evolving leadership skills and an experienced management team.
- Adhithi will transition to more of a founder/product role with a new CEO coming onboard.
- Partnerships with companies like Amazon can help scale smart replenishment solutions.
- The technology roadmap includes integrating with roll-on labeling at factories.
- Validating market need and getting early customer feedback was critical to success.
- Bringing a startup to life requires building the right investor relationships required focus on founders’ sacrifices.