In Conversation With Vibha Harish, Founder Of CosMix
1. How did an aeronautical engineer turn into a founder of a nutrition brand? Tell us about your journey.
For as long as I can remember, I wasn’t taking my health seriously at all – my lifestyle was counter-productive to my health. When I was diagnosed with PCOD, it brought me a much-needed shift in my own approach to life and health. My mother, who is a homoeopathy doctor advised me to treat myself with discipline and natural care. And that’s how my journey began.
2. What was the idea behind launching Cosmix?
When I was diagnosed with PCOD, I began researching the market for solutions for the disease, and the weight gain, the acne and everything that came with it. Unfortunately, everywhere I turned, all I saw was toxic messaging and inadequate marketing. Since I was already looking after myself through natural, plant-based, I felt it was only fair to share these with the rest of the world without the toxic language and preying on people’s – especially women’s – insecurities. This is led to the birth of Cosmix.
3. Tell us about the nutrition sector and challenges you encountered while setting up your brand.
In the initial days, finding quality sources was a big challenge. I was unhappy with what the vendors showed me in the name of plant extracts and ingredients. So I decided to go directly to the source itself – the farm. It took me a couple of months to set up a supply chain, but we’re there now. Having a supply chain is crucial to our business, so we’re always in the process of fine-tuning and improving it.
4. What is the total market size for your product today? What is its growth rate?
Cosmix has been growing steadily at a rate of 30% each month.
5. How did you manage to run a nutrition brand during a global pandemic?
The lockdown struck two months after we launched and it was daunting for a bit in the beginning. But we were careful not to resort to fear-mongering as a marketing tool. We focused solely on educating people. The good thing was that during this time, the majority of the people’s focus shifted to self-care, and personal and family health. So, developing an affinity towards Cosmix wasn’t that difficult. Consistent, empowering and educational content along with a focus on self-care helped.
6. Tell us about the ‘Nutrition for all’ programme.
'Nutrition for all' aims to fight malnourishment among kids from impoverished areas. We started in a village called Kolala, distributing Spirulina energy bars to children, to move them from ‘highly and mildly malnourished’ to ‘nourished’. This work has been undertaken in association with Anganwadi workers in the area. The nutrition bars are specially created to provide the kids with 10-40 mg superfoods per day, in accordance with a study conducted by CFTRI. When we started 10 months ago, we had 600 children under our care. Today, we have distributed more than 1,80,000 spirulina bars to children. They will continue to e this until they are no longer in the danger zone. Malnourishment needs to be a thing of the past in this country. Because, when I say everybody grows, I mean everybody.
7. How do you plan to take your business forward? What are your future plans for Cosmix?
We continue to focus on educating more and more people and empowering them to live healthier and better lives via plant-based solutions. We want to make Cosmix the one-stop-shop for holistic health. For this, we’re focusing on what is available to us locally or through our national and international farm partners.
8. Please tell us how did you go about choosing your R&D team?
I learned a lot about alternative medicines through my mother who is trained in Homeopathy. Over time, I started reaching out to different herbalists. Along with this, I have been studying herbalism for the past 2 years.
