'Treat As Data, Not Verdict': Mamaearth's Ghazal Alagh Shares Three Key Lessons On Rejection

Mamaearth co-founder Ghazal Alagh shared her encounters with rejection while building the parent company Honasa Consumer Ltd.

"Rejection isn’t a one-time event, it’s a daily reality you have to make friends with," she said in a LinkedIn post.

Alagh also said that founders have to get rejected a lot of times, looking back at her and her co-founder Varun Alagh's nine-year-long journey of building their house of brands.

She talked about how the first layer of rejection came from people who were close to her. "I was told to not risk what I already had, that building a business, especially in the competitive consumer goods space, was too risky for a new mother with no experience", she said.

Alagh highlighted that to build an empire, one needs courage not safety.

She also spoke about scepticism from potential investors who would tell them that since their venture was niche, it would not get volumes, "As we started fundraising, the rejections multiplied. Potential investors would listen to our vision, then dismiss us because they didn't believe we could scale a brand based on transparency and toxin-free ingredients."

The co-founder also underlined the two main grounds they faced rejections on from the market and investors, and said that they did not believe in the size of the problem that the founders were trying to address and also that also direct to customer or D2C brand could not disrupt big players.

According to Alagh, the toughest rejections, which crumbled her confidence as a leader came from her employees, who did not want to "to work with a woman leader with no experience", and doubted her capabilities. She added that in the beginning few of the employees chose to leave because they did not perceive Alagh as fitting the mould of who a founder "should be".

Towards the end of her post, the "chief mama" encouraged new entrepreneurs to face rejection head on and shared ways to mend one's relationship with it.

• Treat It as Data, Not a Verdict: Alagh believes that rejection from a potential consumer, investor, or employee is a data point and should be treated as such instead of a final judgement from them.

• Focus on the One "Yes": She advised young entrepreneurs to focus on the one success that fuels the next step instead of the hundred 'Nos'. "Hold onto your vision and let the noise of rejection fade", she said.

• Use rejection as a Filter: According to the co-founder, rejection thickens your skin, gives you clarity and, "Helps you filter out the people who don't truly align with your mission."