Abhishek: Hello everyone, welcome to another Wit Wittle Spots episode. Today we have Rubs with us who is building Singla Singla Intimates and also Triken app. Let us hear her entrepreneur journey and how is she managing you know her serial entrepreneurship. Hey Rubs, how are you doing? I'm doing great. I'm doing great. Thanks for asking. But yeah, take us through your ⁓ I why

Rubaina Singla: Hey how are you? Good.

Abhishek: And when did you start? And what was your background before getting into starting Singla singla or like you know triken?

Rubaina Singla: Yeah, for sure. ⁓ so I think growing up, I was always sort of entrepreneurial without knowing what that word ever was. So I was always starting little businesses, whether it was selling like almond butter to people on my street or selling phone cases or starting little like any way I could make a product and sell it. That was always super fun for me. Like school projects where I would start little businesses as a project. I was always really passionate about that. I started my career in the fashion industry working at ⁓ a really popular Canadian brand called Aritzia. ⁓ just in in the sales department, and I worked for a couple other fashion brands from a young age, was always super interested in fashion. and my first company, Singla Intimates, started around 2021 during COVID, after I'd worked in the fashion industry and just gotten really passionate about this new wave of better for you brands. So I think now it's really popular, right? Like everything's sustainable and non-toxic and Clean and clean beauty at Sephora. But I think five, six years ago, like that was like really emerging. Like Everlane and Reformation were still new. ⁓ so that's really where my passion for the space came from. And I felt like I could make an impact. ⁓ I chose the intimates category because I felt like it was a little bit more untouched versus something like swimwear or active wear or socks. ⁓ still honestly massively growing categories, but I thought intimates, I was like, hey, like are is is any big competitor really challenging Victoria's Secret? Obviously, yes, like we have Skims now, we have NYX, like there was Fenty by Rihanna at the time. Like there are some great like new players in the market, but I think Victoria's Secret is one of those legacy companies like a Lululemon that hasn't been challenged in a long time. And I was like, great, like I honestly really naive at the time. I was still in business school. ⁓ it was kind of my first taste of real entrepreneurship, but I was like, I can make an impact here. ⁓ I put together some of my ideas, pitched it to friends and family.

Abhishek: Right. Okay.

Rubaina Singla: Pitched it to some local accelerators and pitch competitions and ended up getting my first round of funding ⁓ to bootstrap this thing. It was like $15,000, $20,000 at the time. ⁓ I knew nothing about manufacturing and sourcing. So I went down this, like again, I wanted to play in this better for you area, and I had no experience doing that. So ⁓ I did two things. Like one, I went down this massive manufacturing rabbit hole. I started talking to everyone and from From Italy to China to India on like manufacturing, like how to make a great product, but also working for other people, which I think is not maybe talked about enough in entrepreneurship. Like obviously you have to be a go-getter, you have to be a starter. And I think all entrepreneurs are a little bit different and weird, and like there's a reason you want to work for yourself. But I've always been of the mindset of like, I need to be coachable, I need to learn from other people. So I ended up getting a job working for some other D2C founders in Toronto. I learned ton. ⁓ I also ended up moving to Sweden for six months to work in the sustainable textile manufacturing industry. Super niche on a whim off of a cold email. I was like, I need to go to the root of like where this industry is all starting. So I moved to Europe for a bit, because Europe is really where fashion lives, right? I was like, yeah, I could start a brand in Toronto, but the way people are doing it here and just drop shipping things from China, I don't want to do that. I want to be Different. I want to build a business that is here to last a really long time instead of just making some quick cash from D2C projects, which I've like done in the past. So yeah, I moved to Sweden. I worked for a bunch of other people while all while like sourcing product for my brand and getting it up and running over two years. So the process was a bit slower and untraditional versus what you should be doing, right? Like you should be launching fast and iterating fast, but I did not take that approach at all because I knew I wanted to build a brand that would last for like 20 plus years. That was like my only goal. So I I wasn't trying to I wasn't racing against a clock, which is not the typical startup advice. And obviously not the advice you should get like would give to like a tech founder, for example, but it worked for me. so I've been operating SingLough like properly for like three years. ⁓ we started off again, like I said, a school business project, a s a lifestyle project while I was working in the industry.

Abhishek: Yeah. Mm.

Rubaina Singla: I also like I have a bunch of a bunch of different corporate experiences. I was like in venture capital for a bit, then I was in corporate CPG, like skip all that. And then we actually ended up opening a brick and mortar store in Toronto for Singla. Again, really untraditional D2C advice, right? Like you should build online first, build in public, get a social following, then explore retail. But I had always been passionate about retail and I was like, because we're doing intimates, that's the way we can stand out. So we opened up a pop-up store in Toronto here at Stacked Market. ⁓ we had a great run. We got to meet our customers in real life. We had honestly this like the sales, the economics, like they actually really worked for us because we were intimates and people needed to try it on if they didn't know about our brand. And that is actually how we got our real start in like D2C and like got the flywheel going on D2C. Is like we had all these customers from in-person who became recurring online. And then we kind of did more like organic marketing online. And yeah, so the brand has been on a very Untraditional journey for the last five years. Like I like not necessarily advice I would give to every other D2C founder, but it's ⁓ yeah, I think that's the beauty of entrepreneurship. You can make it work for you. And along along the way, I've dabbled in other, you know, like I said, I was in venture capital on the investing side for a bit. I've worked for other founders, you know, in the in the just in the last six months, I think with AI and Claude and becoming so mainstream, like.

Abhishek: Right. Mm-hmm.

Rubaina Singla: Different friends or people have approached me on like different opportunities. So like I've definitely had a bunch of side hustles while doing Singla, but now I'm really focused on building Singla and something new I'm working on called Try Kin, ⁓ which is software in the fitness industry, which all kind of ties in with my focus on like consumer health and wellness and consumer brands. But yeah, that that's my spiel. That was really long.

Abhishek: Right. Makes sense. I mean, you pretty much you know I I I was loving this point that you want to keep it sustainable in terms of building the brand for the next twenty years or making the brand stay in the market for next twenty years where a lot of f young founders out there are not keeping that as a you know, this fast success, you know, f fast, you know, exits like many other brands has done. in D2C space, I feel it's not the way to go as a business founder in D2C, being in D2C, not as a tech founder as you have mentioned rightly. But w what is that point that made you to I mean made you to feel that I have to build this brand for the next 20 years? What is that you know hit or why?

Rubaina Singla: Yeah, that's a good question. And things, you know, things can always change, but it's I think any any s like fashion brand founder or like physical good founder who's a solo founder feels this way. Like it's just my baby. It's like raising a kid. It's like, ⁓ like I I designed this product, I sourced it, I created this brand out of nothing, and now we have people who repurchase products like five times. Like that is just insane to me.

Abhishek: Hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Rubaina Singla: ⁓ and I think the beauty again of we have things like Shopify, right? It's not like I have to sit in a physical store and commit to it for 20 years. We have the beauty of Shopify and like the internet and I can communicate with my customers through social media and email. So the business can be whatever I want it to be at that point in time. Like I can take a break for six months if I want to. I could go on this hyper scaling journey if I wanted to. And I think it's just

Abhishek: Right.

Rubaina Singla: So it it it is a passion project, like I I will admit. Like I na that's why I'd never raised venture capital or like took that route. ⁓ Yeah, so I just love it.

Abhishek: Coming to the product, what is the USP or like why are you trying to solve this problem? What is the problem actually there in the product side? And what are you trying to, you know, let's say a USP with the big brands out there which you have mentioned? How are you trying to compete with them?

Rubaina Singla: Yeah. So I think it comes down to I think that's the interesting thing. I think any physical product or fashion product, even though it's unique, at the end of the day, it's a commodity. Like you're gonna create something unique, but then like a hundred brands will also follow. So I I can't say like the product is like proprietary, but I think the brand and like where we're positioned is this middle ground between hyper fashionable, I don't know, like

Abhishek: Mm-hmm. Right. Well.

Rubaina Singla: Fleur DuMal, Victoria's Secret, like Gucci, like really like late like sexy, like lingerie and intimates. There's a ton of those brands. And then there's like all the value prop of brands like Pact or all those like really sustainable, better for you, 100% cotton brands. Or like NYX, all all of these brands I love, by the way. I just I feel like there's this middle ground where like the consumer is looking for something more elevated in the better for you segment.

Abhishek: Mm. Yeah, yeah. Right. Right.

Rubaina Singla: So like Pact is amazing, but if you're someone who cares about fashion and you your identity is tied to brands like Road or Ilya or like Clean Beauty or Westman Atelier, like these elevated brands for women, there is no and intimates is kind of a forgotten category. Like I think there's a ton in clean skincare. I think there's a ton of cool activewear brands like, you know, Voori and Set Active. I think underwear is this forgotten category where like the

Abhishek: Right. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Rubaina Singla: the repurchase rate like should be repurchase should be higher. Like consumers should be purchasing it more because it's like you have to replace your underwear. But it's something people aren't thinking about. So I think it's driving education of like why you need underwear, why you need better for you underwear, and then fitting into the lifestyle of a s very specific type of consumer, like not trying to be for everybody.

Abhishek: Like Right, right. So let's go back when you source the product, you know, manufactured it. Then when is that product market fit happened that you feel like there is a gap in the market and I found the right product? And what is the channel that you have used to, you know, to reach your first customers?

Rubaina Singla: Yeah. So at the beginning, I will say when I was building the product, also untraditional advice, but I wasn't bringing my customers along the journey with me. I was building for myself. I was like, I want to do this. I'm just gonna build a product that I like because I think I have good taste. Really naive. Yeah, which is like super naive, right? Like that's rarely true. Like people always say they're building for themselves, but even I know that's not true.

Abhishek: Yeah. You're becoming a customer by yourself. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Rubaina Singla: Again, like I was it was my first time. It was like a low stakes venture in the beginning. So I was like, I'm gonna build for myself. So I I tried to and like fashion is notorious for having really high MOQs. So like my first challenge was like making the smallest possible quantity of first collection possible with this like really premium material from Italy. so I did that and our first collection, which was the Nordic Black collection, it actually sold out and people really loved it. Like

Abhishek: Yeah. Right. Mm. Mm-hmm.

Rubaina Singla: Fingers crossed, but I've also had L's. Like I've had collections that have like not sold. And I'm I still have the inventory. So ⁓ in terms of product market fit, I think we were really lucky to have like so how did I reach my I mean there's a questions. So how did I reach my first customers? I really used

Abhishek: Right. Yes, yeah. The channel you've reached through them, is it like Amazon, is it like a marketplace or where you have you placed your product? Or is it like a network inner network and a community that you have built and reached out to them? How is the product market fit that you have made, you know?

Rubaina Singla: I think it's three things. I think the number one thing that worked the most was leveraging in-person activations because the product is just a really great quality when you touch it, plus it's intimate. So like people just don't trust us yet if we're a new company. So I leverage anyone who would give me a shot. I even rented I would rent like one day pop-ups in studios around Toronto and do like a one-day show, like at people come like people come look at the product.

Abhishek: Right. Mm. Right. ⁓

Rubaina Singla: ⁓ so that was like the number one thing that really worked for us and got the flywheel going on D2C. But we also focused on obviously organic TikTok and Instagram, girls behind the scenes building. I honestly in all of this, I made I made a ton of mistakes as well. Like it's not all been smooth sailing, but then yeah, the organic kind of worked. And then lastly would be partnerships and leveraging communities that already exist. So other businesses that already have communities that align with ours.

Abhishek: Yeah. ⁓

Rubaina Singla: seeing how I can partner with you or shop at your store and put my product there. Those are the those are the initial things that are really hard to do from scratch. Like opening up a brick and mortar store or you're starting an Instagram page but you have zero followers. Like it's all easier said than done. But those are the things I did in the beginning and some combination of those worked out. And that's how we built our email list and now we're focused mostly on like retention and then like getting more customers through Instagram.

Abhishek: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right, right. And I reas I mean I can see that you have recently started building your personal brand. Right. So ⁓ your feed shows a strong mix of lifestyle, fitness and product. You know, is there an intention of building that personal brand or does it directly, you know, comes off ⁓ naturally?

Rubaina Singla: Yeah. Yeah, I think my entire journey with Singla, I mean Singla is my last name. So people have always like, you know, me me and the brand have been so intertwined. I've had like amazing people on the team as well. But I think at the end of the day, the brand has just been so tied to my identity. And when I talk about the things that I'm passionate about, when I go deep into the textile science and why we use the fabrics we use and why they're from Italy and

Abhishek: Yeah, you can see that. Right.

Rubaina Singla: My ethos behind the brand and the sourcing journey that I've been on and my experience in the textile industry, when I talk to like face-to-face with people about that, they're they always get into it. So from day one, people, the feedback from my community and my customers and my advisors has always been, you need to build a personal brand, you need to talk about this online. I was always hesitant. Again, I was in a different stage of life. I was in business school, plus I was working in corporate. So like my online brand for the many years, I didn't want to

Abhishek: Nice. Mm.

Rubaina Singla: I I honestly I was like I was nervous and of ⁓ like as afraid of you know putting myself out there because I didn't know what direction my career would take at the time. Like I could have been in finance, I could have been in in, I don't know, like many, many I could have done many different things. ⁓ but people have always told me, like Rubiana, your thoughts and the way you talk about things, like it deserves a personal brand. And I've always thought about it and I've never executed on it. ⁓ so that's why I've recently just started because now I'm truly just on my own building and

Abhishek: To be public. Yeah. Right.

Rubaina Singla: Why not? And I think it's become really destigmatized. Like I think six years ago it was a little bit different. Now, today it's like everyone has a personal brand and if you don't, you're you're the odd one out.

Abhishek: Right. It is exactly I mean it is a go to market strategy for every ⁓ for every founder out there. Either he's building a tech product or like a D2C product. That is one of the first GTM strategy, which is right now we see that's how we met. See, simple as that. I I from from Toronto I've seen you in my feed, then I've you know we have got connected and we are doing a pod today.

Rubaina Singla: Yeah.

Abhishek: And that's how personal branding is working right now. But ⁓ I c I could completely relate to you know what you were mentioning that you know ⁓ I since I was being ⁓ entrepreneur for the last five years and this is the year I've started my personal brand as well because the same reasons that you have in to you have gone through. And and also another part that I was in Paris ⁓ for like a six months course. Summer course where I've done luxury brand management and I've closely work with you know ⁓ Carl Lagerfield's founder and the team behind there. Right. So ⁓ when it comes to a luxury brand, when it comes to a a brand which is addressing more, I mean, ⁓ middle ground markets, what is that difference? You ⁓ you know, try to find a way to reach your

Rubaina Singla: Mm.

Abhishek: customers what is that small thing that you try to place it in your brand to reach to the right customer. It might it shouldn't go to the upper class, it shouldn't go to the middle. It should inner reach the right consumer. How are you trying to figure that out?

Rubaina Singla: I think positioning in adjacent consumer categories is important. So having an outline for who is my ideal customer. And this is through again like five years of like hundreds of customer conversations. Like it's not gonna show up on day one. On day one you're gonna have an idea that's gonna be totally wrong and then you'll improve it. But now I know I have this idea of like my ideal customer, what do they eat? What do they put on their face? How do they do their hair? What what's what brand is their t-shirt? What brand is their pants?

Abhishek: Yeah, yeah.

Rubaina Singla: Like you have to have an idea in every other category they're consuming in, what are they consuming and what brand and what price point and how are those brands positioned. And then every time you're writing a copy or making a content or doing anything for your business or designing a product, you have to think, okay, like this person on paper consuming all of these brands that are positioned in this way, do they want that? So I think I always go back to like how we're positioned in those adjacent categories.

Abhishek: Yeah.

Rubaina Singla: I I'm I don't have it perfectly figured out, but that's what I'm doing.

Abhishek: That is a really that is a really good insight. That is a really good insight. I think I've never heard this insight from any of the D2C founder out there. That is, I mean, that it becomes easy when you try to check out other brands where they are placed for targeting this consumer. You can easily know where you have to place yourself. That makes really sense. Right. Nice. So yeah, what coming to you know a biggest.

Rubaina Singla: Mm-hmm.

Abhishek: you know, red flag you have faced in entrepreneurship, you know. When you were in a you know deep hole situation that you w you had to navigate and, you know, make things work. What is that, you know, situation that you have navigated? Have you come across it? Please take us through that.

Rubaina Singla: Mm, like biggest obstacle or challenge.

Abhishek: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rubaina Singla: I think in fashion, ⁓ like I I guess there's so many, but I I don't feel like I feel like everything is just kind of have been able to figure it out. Like I think initially manufacturing, sourcing, and designing is the hardest in fashion. Because if you don't want to drop ship, it is really, really hard with no exp and most fashion founders have no experience in fashion and they just try to start a fashion brand.

Abhishek: This one. Right.

Rubaina Singla: And you will get, you know, manufacturers will give you really high MOQs. You know, they'll say one thing, they'll execute another, you'll create samples, and the fit and design isn't what you asked for, or the sampling went well, but the actual batch came in and it's bad quality and it's damaged. That happened to me. My first collection was 60% damaged. So I think manufacturing's always been a constant struggle, managing both quality and timelines with manufacturers, right? When you're a small, even a medium-sized brand, like They don't have time for you, right? Like you have to really sell them on your brand and why they should give you their time. So that's been challenging to navigate and our supply chain has really changed every single year. Now I'm in a in a actively in a phase of redoing our supply chain. I'm actually going to China this year. I will be like figuring things out again. Cause like Europe has been, it's been challenging. So and and like customer demands are are changing as well on like on the the qualities and the styles they want. So I think manufacturing has been really hard, but you just have to be like really persistent and not give up. That's what I would tell any fashion founder. Like, don't give up, but all and be very skeptical of every conversation you have. Like, don't just trust people, like make sure there's paperwork in place. other than that, I think the biggest challenge is like finding good talent and building a team. I think that's really hard. But I think it's always good to be in that sense, building in public, building your personal brand. So

Abhishek: Right.

Rubaina Singla: You're always meeting great talent ⁓ to work with you along the way. ⁓ Yeah.

Abhishek: Mm. Yeah. Right. ⁓ how's it been, you know, building being a solo founder? I mean, I guess you've been building it ⁓ solo all the while. How's is it difficult or is it your way to take things ⁓ like that or have you ever felt like I would have had a co founder? You know, it would have been great.

Rubaina Singla: I think that ⁓ so I I mean shout out to two people, Katie and Cindy, who were partners in the business at different points in time, who were like a big who like supported me a lot. So I I was never alone, but I did, yeah, like I am a solo founder and the brand is like really my vision. ⁓ I think I've gotten comfortable with that. It took me a long time to be okay with that because I see a lot of other consumer brands and companies with co-founders, right? There's that typical YC advice of like.

Abhishek: Uh-huh.

Rubaina Singla: We only invest in co-founders. ⁓ I see the value in a team. I think entrepreneurship's really hard. And if you have a partner or partners to do it with, all the better. But I've really come to terms with the fact that I am actually really good operating as a solo founder. ⁓ and I'm really I'm confident when I say that. I'm not a I would love to have a co-founder someday, maybe in a different business or a brand. ⁓ I love collaborating with other people. In the past few months, you know, I've started some side projects with some friends and I I do love collaborating. I'm a big collaboration person, but I am a good solo founder. Like I I genuinely think I know I am very decisive. I know how I like things. So it works for this company.

Abhishek: Yeah, yeah. sense. And also building from Toronto as a D2C founder, you know, what's the biggest advantage or like this entrance? You found it there than other hubs. You know, as as you said, you have been in Europe for a while and you know, how's it is it tell me the difference of D2C space in Toronto or like ⁓ in other countries.

Rubaina Singla: I love this question. I think Toronto has such a unique D2C ecosystem that doesn't exist anywhere else. Like it's so many brands that you, especially in in the space that I'm in, consumer health and wellness and in fashion, that are have gotten big around North America, like NYX, ⁓ Sahajan, ⁓ 437, ActiveWare, ⁓ Grooms, no, they're from the they're from the US.

Abhishek: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Is grunts from there? Grunts. No. Okay. Okay.

Rubaina Singla: ⁓ we have, you know, Tarabosh with smart sweets and snackish. We have Lul Lululemon, Aritzia, we have there's honestly I I'm blanking right now, but truly some of the like in s most insane

Abhishek: Mm, mm. No, I think you have named the pickies already.

Rubaina Singla: Yeah, like Saks Underwear, Trent Kitch. He went to my business school. Like I'm so grateful for the community of D2C founders we have in Toronto. Like I'm a part of this WhatsApp group of D2C founders who is just absolutely insane here. I think the challenge is that in Canada, we are just like any small European country. We have not many consumers, not many not much population, and people don't have deep pockets here. We have a very small segment that is like premium that can afford to

Abhishek: Right. Mm.

Rubaina Singla: spend and can disc like discretionary income. We have higher higher taxes. ⁓ So it's it's a tough consumer landscape in terms of local consumers, but it in that sense it's a great place to test. ⁓ See that's why for me that all those physical activations having a store here, I was able to really test with every type of customer and now and like build

Abhishek: Mm. Right. And the feedback is also very, you know, I would say being I don't a lot of those brands, the customers' feedback is very on the upper note.

Rubaina Singla: Yeah, and they're still very picky, right? If they they have limited dollars to spend, they're picky. And so it builds very gritty entrepreneurs here. To actually get a Canadian recurring customer for your D2C brand or consumer brand is very hard. But it's a great place to test because then you're not putting yourself, you know, in those embarrassing early days, you're not putting yourself in front of people in New York who can just walk over to your competitor and buy that product who don't have patience for your BS, you know? So

Abhishek: Exactly. Right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rubaina Singla: Canadians also have more of a heart. They they they like good storytelling. But I think after you've tested like like ⁓ like othership as well. ⁓ they're expanding rapidly in the US, like nut bar is opening in the US. They all started in Canada. So it's a great place to test. There's so many great founders here. I think it's an underrated place to build and plus you can get cheaper talent and cheaper

Abhishek: Okay, okay. Yeah. Hmm. Hmm.

Rubaina Singla: Everything's cheaper, like resources, email, rent, like it's a good place to build. But then once you do, you have to go to the US. You cannot scale D to C without running paid ads in the U. Like you I guess you know this. You do this for a living and you d you do paid marketing.

Abhishek: Mm. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. A follow-up question for this is that you know, where are your consumers? Who's your like most which continent is your you know, is consuming your brand more and why? Was you and is there a surprising element that hey ⁓ you know I got a consumer from this part of the continent? Was it ⁓ was it something like that? Have you experienced anything, something like that?

Rubaina Singla: Yeah. ⁓ I'd say honestly, at this point, we're early days still. Like like 80% of our customers are in Canada. Like I'll be so honest about that. But the our US customers, like we've been trying to grow in the US more now through content, and they're weirdly like all coming from the middle of the US. Like I'm not getting a lot of orders from like LA or like anything like that. So Cause I think those consumers are really picky. They have so many options. So

Abhishek: Yep. Yeah. No cool. Right. Yeah, yeah.

Rubaina Singla: And we we've gotten some orders from Europe as well. I think like lingerie in Europe is like really big. ⁓ Yeah, I think there's so much opportunity for a brand. Like I'm a big world traveler. Like I love traveling and living in other parts of the world. I've like lived in and anytime I go, obviously I'm like carrying a suitcase of product around with me and talking to to local people and ⁓ I think I think

Abhishek: See, yeah. I could see the I could see that. Yeah. Getting their ears.

Rubaina Singla: Yeah. Like I think intimates is growing. It's one of those things that is it's a you really need money to be able to invest in your underwear, right? Like that's a weird concept. Like you need to be could it's a privilege, right? To like, ⁓ I can just expend money on underwear. Like I'll be so honest, it's a that it's a l that's a luxury, but I think that segment of like ⁓ like of accessible luxury is growing in general.

Abhishek: Right, right. Right, right. But I also think ⁓ Rubina speaking to you that a APAC markets has also a really big market for you because the deep pockets here are increasing in number, as you can see globally. ⁓ what is your thought and because me b I know I do paint marketing for a living and I see, you know, global brands trying to target us as con you know ⁓ consumers.

Rubaina Singla: Mm-hmm.

Abhishek: Now, what is your point on it?

Rubaina Singla: Interesting. I've honestly not had many conversations about this, so I'm not maybe like the best equipped to answer, but I think I've I've s I've heard this. I've heard the sentiment and I do see

Abhishek: Right, right. I'll tell you a reason, other reason because APAC markets don't have many options. Whereas the markets you're targeting are pretty competitive. But whereas when you try to reach people here and you give a good product and a good storyline, I think you can capture the market ⁓ here is what I is what I know I see in a lot of, you know, brands growing their markets in APAC markets and I think you should try it out.

Rubaina Singla: Yeah. That's a great idea. Yeah. I'm yeah, we should take that conversation offline. I do, I remember I had one customer from Dubai order buy a bunch of stuff. They came to our store, they bought like 10 things. and I was like, ⁓ like have like just tell me like why, like, what brought you into this store? And they just were like, apparently in Dubai, that's a big market for investing in underwear and stuff like that. I I had no idea, but I would be interested. I think Dubai.

Abhishek: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm. Mm. Right. Right.

Rubaina Singla: Or even Asia. Like I'm I'm Indian, right? So like sometimes I like family or friends, like, ⁓ we should do this in India.

Abhishek: Right. You know, India Ind India is another i it's like an underdog now. It's like have you heard about a brand called Comet or like Comet is a shoewear brand, right now? Or like blue orange.

Rubaina Singla: with a K or with a C?

Abhishek: ⁓ C O ⁓ E T.

Rubaina Singla: I'm gonna search it up. But yeah, continue.

Abhishek: Yeah, and there is another brand called Blue Orange. Go through these two brands and they have just built a brand out of India targeting Gen Z markets and they've clocked now they are clocking twenty-two, thirty million dollars revenues, both of them. So if you go deep into Indian markets, Gen Z mindset and now people are ready to spend.

Rubaina Singla: Mm-hmm. Yes.

Abhishek: How much ever you ask if you're giving them a quality or a story and on your product.

Rubaina Singla: Yeah. ⁓ yeah. Yeah. It's something to think about for sure. I think it just comes down then to logistics for where I live, ⁓ distribution, warehousing, shipping, and having a team there. But that's interesting.

Abhishek: But I I think I'm selling India right now here. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Let's I mean I think we can take this conversation offline. Right. What's I mean, ⁓ is there an inspiration that, you know, ⁓ while you were building singla? I mean, is there a founder or is there a brand that you have inspired a lot and you know, try to, you know, see all of us build different things and we take inspirations of whatever we whatever you do.

Rubaina Singla: Totally.

Abhishek: Is there someone like that or how did it how d how how is that to you?

Rubaina Singla: There's there's many, honestly. I love talking to founders, ⁓ either locally or at events. I love meeting founders and learning their story. I've listened to every I think there's a podcast on Spotify called The Founder. It's literally just called the Founder Podcast, where they go through biographies of like all the famous founders and CEOs. And I listen to like every single episode. But I guess a couple that stand out to me

Abhishek: Mm. Right.

Rubaina Singla: Number one, a a little bit controversial, but Chip Wilson f who founded Lululemon. Obviously there's just a lot of like, you know, bad press in the news about him. But I think when I read his from a just from a purely founder perspective, I've read his book and biography and how he thinks about building the brand. And when he started Lulu, it was just with like these really delusional values and like he was truly a visionary on like the ecosystem and the world he wanted to create. And I've always w approached Singla from that lens. I love thinking about like

Abhishek: Yeah, yeah.

Rubaina Singla: our messaging and our pillars and the movement we're trying to create and like I'm a big I'm as much into the brand as I am into sales. Like I'm really big on both. So I think Chip is a great example. Obviously some like more modern role models. Like I I think Tara Bosch is so freaking cool. She's from Canada, dropped out of school. Like I I think she's just a visionary and now she's doing it again with snackish. ⁓ I obviously like Emma Greed, she's cool. ⁓ Sarah Blakely. Like I I I love people who are really scrappy and create something out of nothing that is huge and don't have a typical resume. Like did banking for five years and private equity for five years and then became a founder. I love seeing people who just see a small problem start a small like Nike too, like Phil Knight. He literally

Abhishek: Yeah. Right. being the use there. Yeah. Right.

Rubaina Singla: I don't think he meant to start a global fashion brand. Like it just kind of h it happens over time. And that's what it comes down to. Like it takes years, right?

Abhishek: Yeah. I really love Ben Francis from Gymshark. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And ⁓ so take us through Triken and what are you trying to build out there? A little bit, maybe not not much, but just a little bit what are you trying to do out there. Right. Right. That is so me. That is so me. Yeah. Exactly. Mm. Right. Right right. Right. ⁓ I wanted to share you an article that I've ⁓ you know recently read that, you know, health and wellness globally, the market towards it is, you know, rapidly increasing. For the last decade it has gone up to thirty X, the health and wellness industry. But and also I have seen a lot of personalized ⁓ tools and devices for your body. that you know they take it they take a lot of information about your heart rate or your like digestive system or like nervous system or all of that and give you your ⁓ you know data to it. Just just an idea that you can make it more personalized when you're trying to give your app to a consumer. You can, you know, link these devices to to it and give them a personalized chart or like a diet going forward or like something, a workout that would fit them. To you know get their lifestyle going. Just a random thought. And see have you ever come across these devices and what is your take on there? I'm always concerned about the you know ⁓ you know accuracy they hold. We have n number of devices out there. So how do you look at them? Yeah. Right. Mm-hmm. Nice. Right, makes sense. And ⁓ okay, coming to you know, that let's ⁓ talk about an AI tool or like a tool that, you know, you depend on and you can't build without it. What is that tool that you regularly use in your daily ⁓ business life? Right. No, I think these are pretty much that. See, being you want to try out creatives or like that, and you have you you're using I think and I think nano ban nano banana is the best thing right now in the market that you can use out. So you are using it right. There's nothing that I could give you a suggestion now of. And yeah, but you know, closing this off, I think you know we have gone up to forty two minutes. We have gone very deep. Right. A last question to close off. Rubina, is that best advice you would give something you you would get someone, you know, starting the first venture tomorrow, being a be being a entrepreneur for like five years. What's your best advice to them? Yeah. ⁓ Do it. Yeah. ⁓ I mean if there's if let's say let's take a founder and he's like the my gut is not telling me anything so he he'll be like he'll be pressurizing his gut, you know, to tell him s something about Tell me something. No, it happens. I mean I think it's your own call and I think ownership of your decisions is that is the call at the end of the day to make things forward. You should take either if you if you fail, you should take owner of it. And if you take success, you should, you know I think you shouldn't take success to your mind and feel like that you have achieved it. But you know, it should it is it should be sustainable for like however long you have you want to run that brand. That is what I feel as an entrepreneur if you get in getting into entrepreneurship. Okay. Yeah. Hmm. Right. Yeah, yeah. Thank you, Rubina. Thanks for your time and you know, ⁓ maybe let's do a part two later in later when, you know, maybe next year or like when when you're making, you know, singlar going global and you know, making big numbers, we'll get again on another pod and we'll you know, we can sit down for another chat and thanks for your time. Thank you and I'll see you. Bye. Yes.