Behind every successful entrepreneur lie the sheer willpower and unwavering perseverance to bring about a change in society. This line can be said to hold true for Vineeta Singh, CEO and Co-founder of Sugar Cosmetics and Fab Bag.
Although Vineeta has always been a bright student who realized her dream of becoming a businesswoman in her school days only, the meritorious student who not only graduated from one of the most renowned colleges in India, IIT Madras but also completed her post-graduation from the top institute of management, Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmadabad. She didn’t take the conventional path laid out by the colleges for their students. Singh decided to pave her own way with her own ideas and hard work while challenging the social norms and stereotypes.
Vineeta started her entrepreneurial journey after her graduation, aged 23, she shifted from Delhi to Mumbai in July which she says is the worst possible time to come to Mumbai due to the heavy rainfalls and water seepage. With a basic income of 10,000 Rs only, she was living in a small apartment, what she describes as a ‘matchbox’. The first few months in Mumbai, as per Singh, were hard because of several rejections from rickshaw drivers.
The basic pay of 10,000 Rs then turns into 50,000 which eventually grew into Sugar Cosmetics having a turnover of 104 Crores in 2019.
At a point, after facing some setbacks she started to doubt her decision to reject the job offers from big giants in her IIT and IIM days. But later on, she eventually found her way out of the depressing times through her motivation i.e. running. As she began to run, at every finish line she reached, she was filled with the greatest zeal and zest. She continues to have faith that running gave her the boost she needed to complete the Ironman Triathlon, which is a significant accomplishment.
She started with a beauty subscription firm known as Fab Bag. While she worked there and researched the beauty and makeup field, she realized the importance of quality cosmetics that Indian Women need. There, she founded SUGAR Cosmetics in 2012 with her husband, Kaushik Mukherjee as co-founder.
When they started generating buzz through social media channels, their marketing strategy—to create customized makeup products specifically for Indian skin tones that will be made in India for India—proved to be a huge success. She invested her own money in starting the business along with outside funding. With 1500 employees, 75% of whom are women, Sugar Cosmetics has grown into a successful business.
Today the achievements under Vineeta’s name are far more to prove her caliber and her expert hand in business. She has a total net worth of 8 million dollars. She is a recognized investor in Shark Tank India and was also called an ‘expert’ in a famous TV game show KBC (Kaun Banega Crorepati).
Vineeta has also been included in various rankings such as Top 100 mindful Women in the World, Economic Times’ 40 Under Forty Award in 2020, and One of the most powerful women in India according to Forbes India Magazine 2021.
Vineeta, a proud mother of two and a trendsetter has always been a hard worker who doesn’t believe in shortcuts and hustles through their way to the top. “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.”, she said in an article by Entreprenuer.com
