How Raina Kumra Made $14k The Month She Launched Her Practical Spices

Raina Kumra is a serial entrepreneur with a formidable monitor document. When she sees an issue, she rolls her sleeves and works on an answer. Most not too long ago, she’s tackling the well being disaster in her personal means.

Nursing her daughter and husband again to well being after they had been sick opened up Raina’s eyes much more to the thought of meals as medication. So she determined to start out her personal firm to deal with the dietary deficiencies many people face. And Spicewell was born.

Her line of useful spices is rising, and the sky’s the restrict. She earned $14k alone throughout her launch month, and progress up to now has been 600% month-on-month.

Preserve studying to search out out:

• About Raina’s spectacular entrepreneurial background
• How she helped her husband and daughter get better after their accidents
• What precise downside she’s trying to clear up
• What her spices do for the physique
• How a lot Spicewell has grown because it was launched
• What the longer term holds for the corporate
• Raina’s views on web optimization
• The instruments and assets she’s used
• Her greatest problem
• Her best accomplishment
• What she needs she knew when she began
• Her recommendation for different entrepreneurs

Meet Raina Kumra

My title is Raina, and I grew up with Ayurveda. I realized from my mom and grandmother that the primary cease when sickness strikes isn’t the drug retailer—it is the spice drawer. 

I had an awesome multi-decade profession spanning tech, media, investing, and authorities. I spent the primary a part of my profession in promoting, crafting digital campaigns for Nike, Levi’s Johnny Walker, and ESPN. I led digital at one of the revered advert companies on this planet, W+Ok, after which I did a 180 as a result of I knew I needed to do greater than promote issues. 

I began a photo voltaic coaching non-profit referred to as Mild Up Malawi, and when that received acquired, I took a job on the State Division engaged on diplomatic innovation. That led to co-leading innovation at a federal bureau for worldwide media and data, the place I used to be handpicked by Walter Isaacson and President Obama. 

After that, I moved again dwelling to California and joined a venture-funded tech startup as a co-founder. I then moved from founder to investor and labored with Omidyar, led a expertise ethics motion, and eventually began The Fund LA. 

All of the whereas, I consulted with Fortune 50 firms and proceed to be an advisor to Google X’s moonshots.  Even throughout that point, useful medication was one thing that referred to as me. And, maybe for the primary time since childhood, I made a decision to hear.

Why She Created Spicewell

Mid-pandemic, my household went by a little bit of a well being disaster. 

My husband had simply had knee surgical procedure and was laid up, and the subsequent morning my daughter broke her collarbone. So then I had two sufferers and one other little one to take care of. And caretaking is the toughest job on this planet. 

I used to be very centered on getting them wholesome as quick as attainable, and I knew I’d do it by meals. I hid greens I took from my backyard in my 5-year-old’s meals by dehydrating and powdering them to mix into her smoothie and sprinkle on her soups. It took my daughter solely 7 days to be again on her ft once more, whereas most individuals with damaged collarbones take at the least two weeks. 

I did the identical for my husband, dosing them with turmeric and different medicinal herbs and spices. They each healed tremendously quick. As soon as they healed and I returned to my kitchen, I had all these vegetable powders mendacity round and placed on my hat of fixing issues at scale. 

I requested myself, how might I influence the nutrient deficiency all of us face with out altering habits? I seemed down on the salt and pepper on my counter, and Spicewell was born. 

The Inspiration Behind Raina’s Mission

I started formally finding out plant medication to deepen my understanding of the science behind the place our medication initially got here from. I understood how the meals we eat has an outsized influence on our capability to fend off continual illness.  

I started researching that our soil has fewer vitamins now than ever and that the meals grown on this soil can also be much less dietary. I got here to know how our complete food and health system was damaged. 

And regardless of how nicely we eat, we’re nonetheless not getting sufficient of what we want. I realized that the majority People are strolling round with a nutrient deficiency and that there’s a direct hyperlink to continual sickness. 

And, being the problem-solver and movement-builder I’m at my core, I used to be decided to repair this at scale. 

I got down to clear up this downside by beginning with the primary nutrient-dense and lower-in-sodium salt and pepper. I’ve added historical Ayurvedic formulations identified to assist the physique and thoughts adapt to irritation and stress and 21 nutritional vitamins and minerals to eat along with your meals—the best way they had been at all times meant to be absorbed. 

We had been fortunate to have Dr. Mark Hyman and Ann Veneman as our earliest advisors, each true believers within the energy of meals. 

Spicewell’s Development

We’ve grown a lot in our first yr, we landed in our first retailer (Gelson’s), and we’re headed to a number of extra thrilling ones very quickly. 

Our New Pepper was nominated for a NEXTY award, which may be very vital within the meals trade, and we had been honored with a Trendsetters highlight on the Fancy Meals Present, which was our first time exhibiting. All of this was such a shock, and we couldn’t even imagine it. 

It is fantastic to listen to from our prospects that they’ve fully swapped out their salt and pepper with ours and solely use us now. It is so beautiful to listen to that it’s serving to folks’s mother and father with their arthritis signs, and oldsters ship it to their undernourished school kids on a regular basis, and mothers use it to sneak greens into their youngsters. 

The Way forward for Spicewell

This subsequent yr shall be all about retail progress and partnerships. 

We’ve got a number of collaborations developing, and we’re so excited to be working with Chef Palak Patel on our trio of seasonings: Tandoori, Indian Taco, and Bullion, which shall be launching this spring. She’s a power within the kitchen and so enjoyable to work with. 

And past that, we’ve simply launched a number of new objects in our quest to take over your kitchen, your pantry, and your weight-reduction plan with easy-to-swap-out elements which might be merely, higher, and extra useful.

The imaginative and prescient isn’t simply to have a profitable CPG firm or create a permanent model. The imaginative and prescient, for me, is to place again on my coverage hat and head again to DC as soon as that is commercially profitable and use Spicewell to drive change in meals coverage. 

There are such a lot of elements in our meals that we shouldn’t be consuming. That makes us sick and ages us sooner. That leads us straight into the fingers of Massive Pharma. I need to change that and provides People a greater likelihood at residing wholesome lives. 

How A lot Cash Raina is Making

This info is non-public for the second, however we did make $14K in our launch month, and this previous December, have proven progress above 600% MoM. 

Her Prime Advertising Technique

We publish loads of content, and that has actually helped us.

We make the most of the facility of phrase of mouth and sampling greater than every other technique.

Her View of web optimization

web optimization is mission-critical. I’d slightly make investments extra in web optimization than adverts in the long run. 

Relating to content material, we had been extra buttoned up about this within the first few months, however now we simply wing it and have a great time guessing what folks need to hear about most.

As for link building, we’ve achieved just a few content material experiments and labored with some distributors who do backlinking and had some success with it for our web page rank.

Her Favourite Assets and Instruments

I like newsletters just like the Shopper Packaged Items Listing (CPGD) and Meals Dive, and communities like Foodboro and StartupCPG, and completely Naturally LA!

The three instruments we use probably the most are Klaviyo, Shopify, and Hootsuite.

Raina’s Greatest Problem

What’s been most tough has been discovering a sustainable provide for packaging.

The packaging trade is so flawed! Sourcing elements and transparency are additionally essential to us.

Her Best Accomplishment

Going past the preliminary thought to the primary product—that is at all times the toughest and most thrilling half.

What She Needs She Knew When She Began

I want I had identified a number of issues:

1. Companies take years of care and feeding earlier than they’ll cross over to that in a single day success second. It’s all behind the scenes, whereas the ‘Instagram model’ of founding an organization is extremely damaging and discouraging.
2. How necessary it’s to search out my folks and neighborhood to journey with

3. That taking investor cash was nearly the identical as getting married to them
4. I want somebody had informed me how ridiculous the packaging trade is and the way terrible it’s for the planet. I didn’t notice simply how a lot plastic was being pushed at me till I actually started trying to find plastic-free packaging choices. It took me 12 weeks to search out the fitting packaging that was additionally compostable/recyclable and utilizing post-consumer waste plastic—-by far the most important shock on this enterprise.

Her Recommendation for Different Entrepreneurs

This can be a robust time to construct, however those that persevere on this time are extra seemingly to achieve the long run as a result of that is the recipe for constructing actual wholesome companies!