SUGAR

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Shepreneur Vineeta Singh
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The Inspiration Behind SUGAR Cosmetics
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This case was written by J. Shalom Jenifer and reviewed by K. Bhagyalakshmi, Amity Research
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Shepreneur Vineeta Singh: The Inspiration Behind SUGAR Cosmetics
Author: J. Shalom Jenifer
Shepreneur Vineeta Singh:

The Inspiration Behind SUGAR Cosmetics
Abstract: Vineeta Singh (Vineeta), was an Indian businesswoman who Co-founded SUGAR
cosmetics as a D2C brand. Vineeta’s passion and confidence to take up entrepreneurship
prompted her to reject a `10 million job offer from a leading investment bank after her

Postgraduation. She came to limelight through the popular reality television series ‘Shark Tank

India’. After her failure in two startups, Vineeta started her third business SUGAR Cosmetics
(SUGAR) along with her husband Kaushik Mukherjee. In a short span, SUGAR had grown
significantly to establish more than 35,000 sales outlets across 500 cities and had found
reasonable success by taking risks with sheer determination. The takeaways from Vineeta’s
success, her perseverance and entrepreneurial traits in the beauty and cosmetics industry could
be a goldmine for future entrepreneurs. Would Vineeta’s experiences drive aspiring

entrepreneurs ‘to push past what seemed unbreakable’?
Case Study
“I was very passionate about the idea of being an entrepreneur but I was also very clueless about
what I wanted to do. I am glad I took that plunge right away because entrepreneurship is
something where you have to slog at, fail a few times before you start to see any kind of
success...even if I started later, it would have taken me that long to make those mistakes—and I
don’t think there is any way to bypass that process.”1
“Entrepreneurship… actually teaches you a lot about just showing up every single day and not
having to worry about anything else. Entrepreneurship is like running a marathon. Quit nahi
karna hein bus. (Just don’t quit)”2
– Vineeta Singh, CEO, Co-Founder, SUGAR Cosmetics
i n 2015, Vineeta Singh (Vineeta) and her husband, Kaushik Mukherjee (Kaushik) founded
SUGAR cosmetics. Kaushik and Vineeta pursued their Business Studies from IIM Ahmedabad,
India. Vineeta went through failures in her two start-ups and decided to finally start perfect
shade of cosmetics for women that matched Indian skin tone as Indian consumers always
depended on makeup products from international brands. Kaushik who worked for McKinsey
1 Bagchi Shrabonti, “Vineeta Singh: On a SUGAR high”, https://lifestyle.livemint.com/news/big-story/vineeta-

singh-on-a-sugar-high-111621425962738.html, May 21st 2021
2 Norzom Tenzin, “Vineeta Singh’s Instagram is a goldmine for lessons in entrepreneurship. Here are our
favourites”, https://yourstory.com/herstory/2022/06/vineeta-singh-instagram-goldmine-lessons-
entrepreneurship-, June 16th 2022
“© 2022, Amity Research Centers HQ, Bangalore. All rights reserved.”
Page – 1
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was interested in technology and Vineeta had passion for product development and marketing.
Both came together to start SUGAR Cosmetics.3
Vineeta had dedicated many years of her life to build a strong brand overcoming the struggles
in her journey as a woman entrepreneur including biases and stereotypes. Shepreneur Vineeta’s
journey had not been an easy one from setting up a homegrown cosmetics brand to becoming
one of the favourite investors on ‘Shark Tank India’.4 Vineeta said, “When you are in your 20s,
you are so idealistic that you sometimes don't understand that succeeding in business is very
different from succeeding in college. And I was also very overconfident, but I'm very glad today
that I did take up entrepreneurship. Although the journey was very painful in the beginning, now
that I have been an entrepreneur for almost 15 years, I'm glad I have built something that is
right.”5 What lessons can be learnt from her successful journey?
Vineeta Singh: The Rise of a Shepreneur

Vineeta was born in 1991 in Delhi. She completed her education at Delhi Public School, R.K.

Puram, in Delhi. Vineeta Singh graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras in
2005, with a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. After graduating from IIT Madras,
Vineeta pursued her MBA in IIM Ahmedabad. In 2006, Vineeta joined her first summer job at
Deutsche Bank.6 By the time she had completed her MBA in 2007, she was clear not to take up
an investment banking job.7 Vineeta decided to start her own business and rejected a job offer
of `10 million from a global investment bank.8

Fuelled by an innate desire to start a business in women consumer space, Vineeta thought that
there was a need for an online lingerie store in India and worked on the business plan with three
of her batchmates. But most of the venture capitalists said it would not work.9 Vineeta said
“While that business plan never saw the light of day, in all my interactions with industry experts
and venture capitalists, I realised something... while it is difficult to build a brand, it is even more
challenging when shepreneurs have to create a brand for women.”10 Later they decided to start
a services company. In 2007, Vineeta and her batchmates co-founded Quetzal Online Pvt. Ltd
outsourcing business.11 It included background verification, hiring and training for large
companies such as FedEx, Mahindras and ITC from 2007 till 2012. The services company earned
about `20 million to `30 million in revenue, but it was not mounting towards growth.12
3 “Vineeta Singh – Sugar Cosmetics An E-Commerce for Millennials”, https://www.startupurban.com/vineeta-

singh-sugar-cosmetics-an-e-commerce-for-millennials/, February 10th 2022
4 “Building a start-up or work-life balance? SUGAR Cosmetics CEO says the 'struggle' of being an entrepreneur is
‘real’”, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/building-a-start-up-or-work-life-balance-
sugar-cosmetics-ceo-vineeta-singh-says-the-struggle-is-real/articleshow/91156136.cms, Apr 28th 2022
5 Shanthi S, “Vineeta Singh: The Beauty Geek”, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/421178, March 2 nd 2022
6 Vedanti, “Vineeta Singh Biography, Net Worth, Company, Age, Family”, https://www.mpnrc.org/vineeta-singh-
biography/#:~:text=Vineeta%20Singh%20is%20an%20entrepreneur,than%2035%2C000%20points%20of%20sale,
June 27th 2022
7 “Vineeta Singh”, https://shenomics.com/vineeta-singh/, February 10th 2016
8 “Vineeta Singh Biography, Net Worth, Company, Age, Family”, op.cit.
9 “Vineeta Singh”, op.cit.
10 “Building a start-up or work-life balance? SUGAR Cosmetics CEO says the ‘struggle’ of being an entrepreneur is
‘real’”, op.cit.
11 “Vineeta Singh, Co-founder, Quetzal Online Pvt Ltd”, https://yourstory.com/2009/04/vineeta-singh-co-
founder-quetzal-online-pvt-ltd/amp, September 5th 2019

12 “Vineeta Singh”, op.cit.
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Moving ahead, in 2012, co-founders Vineeta and her husband Kaushik (Exhibit I) started FAB
BAG, a monthly subscription-based makeup and beauty brand for women.13 FAB BAG gave
Vineeta the ‘scope to leverage the voices of influencers, bloggers and their own customers that
brought in new customers. It was done through a very strong referral program, an extensive
affiliate program and a successful blogger partnership program’. Vineeta said, “When the
curated sets of FAB BAGs go out into the market every month, more than a hundred bloggers
write about it, which is shared widely on social media. Almost another thousand new customers
come in through the referral program, leading to the critical realization that customers who are
referred into the portal, stick around longer and typically make repeat purchases.”14 Vineeta
found a huge opportunity in this business segment and targeted the age group of 18-30 years.
Exhibit I
Vineeta Singh and Kaushik Mukherjee – The Founders of SUGAR Cosmetics

Source: Norzom Tenzin, “Vineeta Singh’s Instagram is a goldmine for lessons in entrepreneurship.
Here are our favourites”, https://yourstory.com/herstory/2022/06/vineeta-singh-instagram-
goldmine-lessons-entrepreneurship-, June 16th 2022
Vineeta’s experience in Fab Bag helped her to get feedback that, there were hardly a few beauty
brands in the `450-`500 price. This led Vineeta to start SUGAR cosmetics brand. Vineeta
launched her third start-up with Kaushik with just two products.15 Later the brand expanded its
range of products to ‘basic and advanced level makeup products for face, eyes and lips, an
exciting skincare range, a range of ultra-luxe lipsticks, in different textures, variants and
finishes’.16 (Exhibit II). The core customers were young millennial women who used cosmetics
and were into social media. Realising the big shift to beauty and cosmetics, the founders focused
on the prospect of ‘creating products for women that would make them unstoppable!’ Women
also started looking up to the beauty of other women and not just celebrities. Vineeta said, “this
generation wants to step out in the limelight and so, they want products that last them all day,
work for every skin tone and especially, please the Indian aesthetics. Thus, SUGAR was born for
the hearts of these women.”17
13 Biswas Debolina, “A pivot and 58-month-long funding wait later, how SUGAR Cosmetics found sweet success as
a D2C startup”, https://yourstory.com/2021/03/d2c-cosmetics-startup-sugar-cosmetics-vineeta-singh-shradha-
sharma/amp, March 29th 2021
14 Parija Shruti, “Entrepreneur Vineeta Singh Shares Her Strategy On Growing A Customer Base With Minimal
Investment”, https://www.womensweb.in/2016/11/vineeta-singh-fab-bag-customer-base-minimum-
investment/, November 9th 2016
15 “Vineeta Singh: The Beauty Geek”, op.cit.
16 Halder Arpita, “SUGAR Cosmetics: Marketing Strategy for FY 2020”,
https://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/fashion-and-beauty/311219/sugar-cosmetics-marketing-strategy-
for-fy-2020.html, January 18th 2020
17 Das Debomitra, “Exclusive: Meet the IIM Alumnus who turned down a Rs. 1 Cr job to start her cosmetic
empire”, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/relationships/work/exclusive-meet-the-iim-alumnus-
who-turned-down-a-rs-1-cr-job-to-start-her-cosmetic-empire/articleshow/82730652.cms, May 19th 2021
Page – 3
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Exhibit II
SUGAR Cosmetics Products

Compiled by the Author from multiple sources
SUGAR Cosmetics was established in 2015 and during that period about 10% of the online
shoppers were women. Vineeta said, “So what I was very clear about is the fact that women
were becoming more confident and independent in their decision making was going to change
many industries that revolve around them. And I really wanted to be a part of that.” Vineeta
explained how she wanted to build a woman-centric cosmetics brand: “As somebody who's not
a very ardent makeup user growing up, fashion was never on the mind. However, I always knew
that I wanted to create something where women are the consumers because I just felt that the
world was changing fast, but for women, it was changing even faster. For instance, women were
beginning to work or study and had access to their own income and access to the internet.”18
She added, “I always felt strongly about building something with women as the core customer,
so when my first startup didn’t scale, I decided to launch a beauty subscription company with
my co-founder, Kaushik, in 2012. The 200,000 women who shared their detailed beauty
preferences with us were at the heart of our pivot to SUGAR Cosmetics, which launched as a
direct-to-consumer makeup brand in 2015.”19
The D2C brand SUGAR focused on offline expansion in 2017.20 “Offline for us has turned out to
be one of the best decisions as 94 per cent of India still shops offline. And when scaling entire
business online, beyond a point what happens is that the dependence on Facebook or Google,
or just you know, paid media campaigns becomes so high that your profitability is impacted. And
as a brand, we have been very clear from day one, that we will never acquire a customer by
losing money. Your online sales actually benefit from offline because there's a trust factor. And,
the discovery for a brand is happening online, but consumption is still happening where she is
used to consuming, which is offline,” said Vineeta. Omnichannel presence was beneficial for the

19 “Vineeta Singh – Sugar Cosmetics An E-Commerce for Millennials”, op.cit.
20 Shanthi S, “Omnichannel Not the Only Reason Behind D2C Brands' Offline Foray”,
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/430097, June 23rd 2022
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brand ever since it had ventured offline.21 SUGAR teamed up with Instagram and YouTube
influencers. The brand created a buzz for its products in the social media among the millennials
and the urban Indian women.22 Vineeta said, “We figured that we had the opportunity to build
ourselves as a content-driven company.” (Watch the video on “The Incredibles: Vineeta Singh,
SUGAR Cosmetics” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K06IdoFQ4Y8)
SUGAR was built targeting the new-age millennial woman. Vineeta explained, “They are very
different from their mothers -- they wear makeup on a regular basis, and not just for special
occasions and weddings; they are inspired by other real women and not starstruck by celebrities;
and they shop online.”23 The beauty industry was not the goal for Vineeta, however she wanted
to do business focusing on women as her targeted audience. Vineeta was raised in a family
where both her parents were scientists.24 Vineeta said, “My biggest inspiration has to be my
mother, she has truly been my rock since day one. Her calming presence, patience, constant love
and undeterred support have guided me through some very tough times.” She added, “Since
childhood, she has been my strength and has pushed me to strive for better and establish my
mark in the world today. Along with instilling the value of giving back to the society we live in,

she ensured to always embody her teachings... She has always played all her roles so
nonchalantly, balancing motherhood and having a career with a fierce determination. Now that
I’m in the same position, I can assure you that it really is difficult. It is a lot of hard work and
struggle, and it has only gotten me to appreciate her more. I hope that I can live up to her legacy
as a mother, and as a woman, because even though I know those are big shoes to fill, I’ve learned
from the best.”25
Vineeta was also famous for her physical fitness and had competed in several marathons and
won titles. Vineeta was an athlete since her school days. She had run over 14 half and full
marathons, completed the Comrades Ultra Marathon in South Africa, an 89-kilometer ultra-
marathon and won the bronze medal in the race after completing it three times. She was
considered a fitness freak and always stayed fit and in shape. Even though being a mother of
two children, Vineeta had never stepped back and regretted it. She tried to complete her
everyday goals and believed daily targets helped in training the brain and remain more active.26
Vineeta said “A lot of people meditate to relieve stress. For me, running is meditative. It does
have that breath work, you know, and you are sort of one with yourself and you get that clear,
peaceful time. When your entire schedule gets disrupted and there is a lot of stress, running is
the one thing that happens at the same time every day—and it grounds me. Whenever there is
a stressful situation, I like to go for a run. You could say I am a running junkie.”27 (Annexure I).

22 “Success Story of Sugar Cosmetics: A Cult-Favorite Makeup Brand That Has Braved the COVID Storm”,
https://theceostory.in/success-story/success-story-of-sugar-cosmetics/, February 8th 2021
23 “A pivot and 58-month-long funding wait later, how SUGAR Cosmetics found sweet success as a D2C startup”,
op.cit.
24 Rai Mrigya, “Vineeta Singh, Founder-CEO SUGAR Cosmetics Reveals Her Not So Sweet Journey!”,
https://www.womensweb.in/2022/05/vineeta-singh-founder-ceo-sugar-cosmetics-may22wk1pa/, May 3rd 2022

25 “Storyboard18 - To her, with love: Vineeta Singh and Sukhleen Aneja share lessons they learned from their real-
life heroes”, https://www.forbesindia.com/article/storyboard18/storyboard18-to-her-with-love-vineeta-singh-

and-sukhleen-aneja-share-lessons-they-learned-from-their-reallifes-heroes/74163/1, March 3rd 2022
26 “‘Shark Tank’ Judge Vineeta Singh: 8 Times When She Proved To Be A Fitness Freak”,
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tv/news/hindi/shark-tank-judge-vineeta-singh-8-times-when-she-proved-
to-be-a-fitness-freak/photostory/91938817.cms?picid=91939148, June 1st 2022
27 “Vineeta Singh: On a SUGAR high”, op.cit.
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Vineeeta Singh’s Journey to Success
Vineeta started SUGAR with the little funding. One of the challenges faced by Vineeta was
working capital. She opined, “Managing the credit cycle is key to keeping the working capital
cycle to a bare minimum which, in turn, ensures efficient capital use and rotation.”28 Vineeta
explained, “While about 20-25% of businesses in India are run by women, less than 2% of them
actually are able to raise any capital and the participation of women in work forces has been
declining. All these factors are related to the whole conditioning while growing up as well as
support that women are able to get at their homes.…. Firstly, a lot of the decision making is still
controlled by men and that means companies which want to invest are more related to
categories that they can relate to. Also the kind of founders that VCs want to invest in are a
specific type of ambitious characters which sometimes women are not. I do feel that it all boils
down to the bias in the decision making process. Apart from that, there is definitely a structural
lack of access and while there are certain policies and amazing initiatives like the SIDBI Fund of
Funds which is of several thousands of crore, do not have a clear mandate of supporting more

women entrepreneurs. So, as women, we struggle with equity as well as debt fund raising and

the number of women founders should go to about a 30% to 40% over the next decade.
Hopefully we will have a similar ratio in terms of the number of women getting funded as well
because without access to capital, it is hard to scale and build large enterprises.”29
In the offline world, the startup brand was competing with traditional brands that existed for
decades. Other than finding a niche in the world of legendary brands, the company had faced
challenges since the COVID-19 pandemic started. While other brands withdrew their plans of
opening new stores and some even exiting the existing stores, SUGAR Cosmetics had launched
60+ stores by March 2020.30 Besides, the company’s workforce consisted of 70% of women, and
women employees held a majority of the top management roles in the company. The company
ensured to create a positive environment with work-life balance as a priority.31
Global brands like Lakmé, L’Oréal, and MAC Cosmetics dominated India’s cosmetics market. 32
SUGAR was launched in competition with national and international brands and became India’s
fastest-growing cosmetics brand with more than 1.7 million Instagram followers.33 SUGAR scaled
its presence with more than 2500 branded outlets in over 130 cities and a revenue of more than
`1 billion. Sales revenue of SUGAR cosmetics, had grown from `570 million in FY 2019 to `1040
million in FY 2020 with a 15% increase in sales globally.34 The company generated `1300 million
in sales in 2020-21 and raised $21 million in venture capital.35 The brand grew from 2500+ retail
28 “Hire women for their qualities, not their gender: Vineeta Singh”,
https://www.deccanherald.com/business/business-news/hire-women-for-their-qualities-not-their-gender-
vineeta-singh-1089412.html, March 9th 2022
29 “20-25% of businesses in India are run by women but less than 2% are able to raise capital: Vineeta Singh,
Sugar Cosmetics”, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/expert-view/20-25-of-businesses-in-india-

are-run-by-women-but-less-than-2-are-able-to-raise-capital-vineeta-singh-sugar-
cosmetics/articleshow/92428321.cms, June 24th 2022
30 “Omnichannel Not the Only Reason Behind D2C Brands' Offline Foray”, op.cit.
31 “Hire women for their qualities, not their gender: Vineeta Singh”, op.cit.
33 S. Vidhya, “Vineeta Singh: Sweet Success”, https://www.businesstoday.in/specials/most-powerful-women-in-
business/story/vineeta-singh-sweet-success-315162-2021-12-10, December 26th 2021

35 “Women’s Day Special – The Success Story Of Vineeta Singh”,
https://www.thinkwithniche.com/blogs/details/womens-day-special-success-story-of-vineeta-singh, March 10th

2022
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outlets (in 2020) to 35,000+ retail touch points in over 500+ cities in 2022. It also opened its
100th brand-owned store in Chennai.36
COVID-19 pandemic had been a challenge for SUGAR Cosmetics. However, the company utilised
the pandemic to strengthen the team. The social media and online presence of SUGAR
increased, and the followers increased from 350,000 to 750,000. Vineeta introduced innovative
ways to strengthen the trust between the brand and the customers. ‘Starting from resolving
issues, cutting costs and rearranging the team to social media marketing and eCommerce push’,
SUGAR had marked a niche for itself in the fast-growing beauty market. Vineeta said, “Content,
which has been our big spinner from day one, was our core focus. We wanted to ensure that at
least by the end of May we would have some revenues to ensure working capital.”
The warehouses and retail outlets were closed and the team worked with the landlords and
governments to ensure securing rent waivers. Vineeta added, “The first two months was a
bloodbath. There wasn’t much we could do but put everyone on hold as well, in terms of
warehousing and logistics staff.” SUGAR app was launched in 2020 which allowed them to

continue their engagement with customers. The brand recorded 2.5 million sales on the app in
one day before pandemic and had over 100,000 app downloads. Vineeta said, “Content will
continue to be a big push for us. We saw how it helped us during the pandemic. We aim to build
a brand with great influencer and social media marketing. We are on track in terms of online
sales and should get revenues of Rs 150 crore in annualized sales.” However, SUGAR app
launched in 2020 helped the team during the hard times of the pandemic.37
The pandemic led consumers to lead a digital life. In the initial stage, SUGAR had only raised
around `50 million or `60 million in funding and there was uncertainty in the company’s future.
“The interesting thing about the COVID-19 pandemic is that it gave us a level playing field when
it came to the beauty industry. When we distributed our products via e-commerce, it gave us
access to 1000s of pin codes across the country,” Vineeta said. She had also mentioned that
during the pandemic, ‘the company ramped up focus on creating content ideated, scripted, and
executed in-house’. The brand’s content garnered approximately ‘billions’ of views in 2021.38
However, 95% of the Indian beauty and cosmetics market was offline. While COVID-19 pandemic
had led to disruptions, Vineeta believed that in the next five years in 2026, only 15% of the total
beauty and cosmetics market would change to online. “To give a good fight to the Unilevers and
the L'Oreals, we had to build omnichannel distribution. And thus, we embarked on our retail
journey,” Vineeta said. 39
Vineeta believed that the ‘deep understanding of customer preferences and connect with the
millennial audience’ that enabled SUGAR to enter into the crowded beauty industry dominated
by huge global companies, from Lakmé to L’Oréal. Vineeta commented, “In the last five years,
this whole thing of young brands emerging and trying to create a niche for themselves has
become more acceptable, and there’s more news around it in the media, there is more VC
funding. But when we launched SUGAR back in 2015, it did seem like quite a crazy idea to say
that you could even think about going up in a market where all the major FMCG players, from
36 “Omnichannel Not the Only Reason Behind D2C Brands' Offline Foray”, op.cit.
37 “Success Story of Sugar Cosmetics: A Cult-Favorite Makeup Brand That Has Braved the COVID Storm”,
https://theceostory.in/success-story/success-story-of-sugar-cosmetics/, February 8th 2021
38 “SUGAR Cosmetics' Vineeta Singh on the makeup industry, trends, and social media marketing”,
https://www.afaqs.com/news/advertising/sugar-cosmetics-vineeta-singh-on-the-makeup-industry-trends-and-
social-media-marketing, May 5th 2022
39 “A pivot and 58-month-long funding wait later, how SUGAR Cosmetics found sweet success as a D2C startup,
op.cit.
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L’Oréal to Unilever to P&G, exist. What gave them confidence was the observation that these
companies sold make-up as a commodity; it was all about marketing, how much louder you
could speak.”40
SUGAR reached a revenue of `1 billion (in FY20) when the D2C wave was started in 2015.
“Everybody said… It is silly to operate in a space that is so commoditised'. But we had started
seeing what other big brands had not, which is how a product can become a hero instead of a
commodity, and how social media and e-commerce were changing the way women and
millennials discover beauty,” said Vineeta.41 According to RedSeer, India’s beauty and personal
care industry was expected to grow at 12% per annum to reach $28 billion by 2025, from an
estimated $16 billion (in 2020).42
In Josh talks43 Vineeta said, “I don’t want to try new things. I fear to try new because I always
avoid failure. From childhood I do only thing which are easy and give success to me. My dreams
are always according to my success. But at 23 I throw away my safe zone and tried new.” Her
advice for young entreprenurs: “To make a successful business or brand 3 thing are important

that are patience, consistency in work and many more hardwork. When you are starting business
start from your problem and your consumer/ costumer problem. As an entrepreneur think big
and always have a big goal/ aim. And the last thing I want to tell you that don’t fear to failure.
Learn from your failure and start again with new energy and confidence.”44 The entrepreneur
and investor Vineeta received her LinkedIn Influencer badge in 2022 and decided to share her
life experience with her 132K followers on LinkedIn to motivate them. 45 (Annexure II). Vineeta
was a judge of the reality show ‘Shark Tank India’ for aspiring entrepreneurs and had also
invested in a number of new ventures.46
The D2C brand SUGAR Cosmetics had planned to file for an IPO by 2024 or 2025. Vineeta
explained that the company had 100% Y-O-Y revenue growth in 2022 and had planned to expand
to more than 60,000 retail outlets and double its team size to 4,000 employees. Vineeta said,
“The idea is one more year of massive growth and then pushing for profitability... For our
category, offline is still about 85 per cent of the market in India. Once you get a significant market
share online, then the next avenue for growth is offline.” The company had planned to invest
more in content, as 90% of the consumers discovered the brand digitally and 60% shopped
online. Vineeta commented, “So this behaviour of discovery happening online, but purchase
happening in stores is very common, especially in tier three and four cities. And as we've seen
40 “Vineeta Singh: On a SUGAR high”, op.cit.

41 “Vineeta Singh: Sweet Success”, op.cit.
42 Agarwal Palak, “Meet these new-age Made in India cosmetic brands making a splash among legacy names”,
https://yourstory.com/smbstory/new-age-d2c-cosmetic-brands-made-in-india-sugar-renee-makeup-
companies/amp, February 16th 2022
43 Josh Talks was an Indian media platform headquartered in Gurugram, Haryana, India which hosts content in 9
languages.
44 “The story of successful businesswoman: Vineeta Singh”, https://eduindex.org/2022/03/10/the-story-of-
successful-businesswoman-vineeta-singh/, March 10th 2022

45 Goel Pallavi, “SUGAR Cosmetics plans to file for an IPO by year 2024 or 2025, shares CEO, Vineeta Singh”,
https://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/health-and-beauty/cosmetics-and-fragrances/sugar-
cosmetics-plans-to-file-for-an-ipo-by-year-2024-or-2025-shares-ceo-vineeta-
singh/91699475#:~:text=Vineeta%20Singh%2C%20CEO%2C%20SUGAR%20Cosmetics,ETRetailTech%20Summit%2
02022%20in%20Mumbai., May 21st 2022
46 Srivastava Arushi, “Shark Tank India: From an athlete to business leader under 40, lesser-known facts about
Vineeta Singh”, https://www.pinkvilla.com/tv/news-gossip/shark-tank-india-athlete-business-leader-under-40-

lesser-known-facts-about-vineeta-singh-1068792, April 18th 2022
Page – 8
822-0093-1
that 60 per cent of our business is happening outside metros and tier one cities, we're seeing
more of this omnichannel behaviour.”47
“Mentoring budding entrepreneurs is something I’ve realised I do with great passion and
enthusiasm. Across my years in the industry, I have tackled and solved a lot of challenges, and it
feels great to share and mentor someone, who is now facing a similar challenge.”48 She added,
“We have a long way to go and great goals to achieve! Success to me is having the flexibility and
capacity to achieve whatever I want without fear of failure. To be honest, I had my reservations
when I turned down the job offer when I was 23 years old. But, in keeping with my concept of
having no regrets, I pursued my ambitions. I was quite enthusiastic about being an entrepreneur
and starting a business. I simply knew that if I didn’t do it now, I’d regret it for the rest of my life,
so I went ahead and did it,” said Vineeta Singh.49 Would Vineeta’s experiences drive aspiring
entrepreneurs ‘to push past what seems unbreakable’?50
Annexure I
Vineeta Singh’s Achievements and Awards

• Between 1993 and 2001, Vineeta Singh was a gold medallist in academics and a great
athlete.
• IIT Madras Badminton Tournament bestowed her two silver medals and two gold
medals.
• In 2007, Vineeta Singh won the Dulari Mattu Award for being the top female all-
rounder at IIM Ahmedabad.

• The Comrades Marathon Association offered her back-to-back medals for completing
both the Comrades Back-to-Back (89 km) and Ups and Downs (89 km), the highest
Ultra-Marathon in South Africa in 2012 and 2013.
• In 2020, The Economic Times ‘40 Under 40’ Award recognised Vineeta Singh as one of
India’s young female business leaders.
• In 2021, Forbes India magazine predicted that she would be one of the most powerful
women in India.
Source: Patra Josie, “All You Need to Know about Co-Founder of Sugar Cosmetics, Vineeta Singh”,
https://www.businessupside.in/all-you-need-to-know-about-co-founder-of-sugar-cosmetics-vineeta-
singh/, May 24th 2022
47 “SUGAR Cosmetics plans to file for an IPO by year 2024 or 2025, shares CEO, Vineeta Singh”, op.cit.
48 “Hire women for their qualities, not their gender: Vineeta Singh”, op.cit.
49 “Vineeta Singh – Sugar Cosmetics An E-Commerce for Millennials”, op.cit.
50 “Building a start-up or work-life balance? SUGAR Cosmetics CEO says the 'struggle' of being an entrepreneur is
'real'”, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/building-a-start-up-or-work-life-balance-
sugar-cosmetics-ceo-vineeta-singh-says-the-struggle-is-
real/articleshow/91156136.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst, April
28th 2022
Page – 9
822-0093-1
Annexure II
Vineeta Singh on LinkedIn
Fifteen years back when I first thought of starting up, I

wanted to start a lingerie business. While that business
plan never saw the light of day, in all my interactions
with industry experts and venture capitalists, I realized
something:
Yes, it’s tough to build something. It is just a little bit

tougher if you’re building for women, with women as a
woman. There are fewer role models and
representation truly matters in shaping our ambitions!
Over the last 7 years, SUGAR Cosmetics has survived all

kinds of challenges including biases and stereotypes,

just as I have. After all that has flown by and all that is
yet to manifest, I have learnt that the best way to give
back is to pay it forward - and to share real stories of
what it’s been like starting to build SUGAR - way before
D2C was cool - with the hope that some of these stories
will resonate with the audience of this platform and
give a few of them the drive to push past what seems

unbreakable.
It doesn’t matter whether that’s what you face while

pushing for excellence in your career, building a startup
or surviving work-life balance - the struggle is real.
And we’ll embrace it. And we’ll tame it.
Lastly, thank you LinkedIn for the platform and the

Influencer badge. I look forward to beginning to share
with and learn from millions of women (and men) who
are leaders of the future we’re all creating and the
legacy we’re leaving. Together.
#CreateOnLinkedIn #LinkedInCreators
Source: “Building a start-up or work-life balance? SUGAR Cosmetics CEO says the 'struggle' of being an
entrepreneur is ‘real’”, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/building-a-start-
up-or-work-life-balance-sugar-cosmetics-ceo-vineeta-singh-says-the-struggle-is-
real/articleshow/91156136.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=
cppst, April 28th 2022
Page – 10

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Shepreneur Vineeta Singh

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Taught by Priyank Narayan, from 1-Mar-2023 to 31-Aug-2023. Order ref F471978.

© 2022, Amity Research Centers Headquarter, Bangalore.

Distributed by The Case Centre North America Rest of the world

Author: J. Shalom Jenifer

Shepreneur Vineeta Singh:

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be a goldmine for future entrepreneurs. Would Vineeta’s experiences drive aspiring

entrepreneurs ‘to push past what seemed unbreakable’?

1 Bagchi Shrabonti, “Vineeta Singh: On a SUGAR high”, https://lifestyle.livemint.com/news/big-story/vineeta-

Vineeta Singh: The Rise of a Shepreneur

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Taught by Priyank Narayan, from 1-Mar-2023 to 31-Aug-2023. Order ref F471978.

of `10 million from a global investment bank.8

3 “Vineeta Singh – Sugar Cosmetics An E-Commerce for Millennials”, https://www.startupurban.com/vineeta-

founder-quetzal-online-pvt-ltd/amp, September 5th 2019

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Usage permitted only within these parameters otherwise contact info@thecasecentre.org

18 “Vineeta Singh: The Beauty Geek”, op.cit.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/430097, June 23rd 2022

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21 “Vineeta Singh: The Beauty Geek”, op.cit.

https://www.womensweb.in/2022/05/vineeta-singh-founder-ceo-sugar-cosmetics-may22wk1pa/, May 3rd 2022

life heroes”, https://www.forbesindia.com/article/storyboard18/storyboard18-to-her-with-love-vineeta-singh-

Vineeeta Singh’s Journey to Success

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Taught by Priyank Narayan, from 1-Mar-2023 to 31-Aug-2023. Order ref F471978.

Sugar Cosmetics”, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/expert-view/20-25-of-businesses-in-india-

business/story/vineeta-singh-sweet-success-315162-2021-12-10, December 26th 2021

https://www.thinkwithniche.com/blogs/details/womens-day-special-success-story-of-vineeta-singh, March 10th

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40 “Vineeta Singh: On a SUGAR high”, op.cit.

successful-businesswoman-vineeta-singh/, March 10th 2022

Vineeta Singh”, https://www.pinkvilla.com/tv/news-gossip/shark-tank-india-athlete-business-leader-under-40-

Usage permitted only within these parameters otherwise contact info@thecasecentre.org

rounder at IIM Ahmedabad.

Fifteen years back when I first thought of starting up, I

Yes, it’s tough to build something. It is just a little bit

Usage permitted only within these parameters otherwise contact info@thecasecentre.org

Taught by Priyank Narayan, from 1-Mar-2023 to 31-Aug-2023. Order ref F471978.

give a few of them the drive to push past what seems

It doesn’t matter whether that’s what you face while

Lastly, thank you LinkedIn for the platform and the

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