Fixderma co-founder Shaily Mehrotra’s message to young women: ‘You don’t have to be perfect’ | Shark Tank India Season 5
Fixderma and FCL Co-Founder Shaily Mehrotra attended Shark Tank India Season 5. One of the new sharks in the series. LiveMint spoke to a leading entrepreneur ₹1,500 crore company.
Q: You grew up and studied in Varanasi before going to Stanford at the age of 24. How has this change in environment changed your thinking about ambition and scale?
A: Varanasi gave me my foundation. It’s a city where life flows at its own pace, and you learn patience very early. I grew up seeing people value sincerity over showmanship, and that shapes the way I look at work even today.
But moving to Stanford at age 24 felt like someone had suddenly broadened my field of vision. By then I had ambitions, but they were quiet, almost private. Stanford taught me that dreaming out loud is normal. I saw people my age building things for the world with great self-confidence. This changed something in me.
It made me realize that when you approach a problem with openness and honesty, scale is not a distant dream. This is just the result of consistent work.
Q: Fixderma has been established for 15 years in a field full of shortcuts. What were the most difficult moments when you felt it was risky to be honest about sourcing and R&D?
A: Also for correction, we will only remain bootstrapped until 2020; We received funding from Lotus Herbals in 2021. But still, there were many moments when it felt almost counterintuitive to take the harder path when you booted up.
I still remember the times when we couldn’t compromise on the quality of raw materials even though our margins looked “healthier” on paper. Competitors were launching cheaper, faster versions, and here we were obsessing over every active ingredient.
The truth is that I had sleepless nights. But I also had a very clear line in my mind: Dermatologists trust effectiveness, consumers trust honesty. If we lose this, we lose everything. This belief kept me steady through the toughest phases.
Q: As a founder without a previous business background, how did you gain the trust of dermatologists in the early years?
A: Honestly, I didn’t have a playbook or industry name to fall back on. I started with humility and curiosity by going from city to clinic.
In those early years, I wasn’t speaking as a salesperson; I speak as someone who is truly trying to understand real skin issues. If a dermatologist was unhappy with the formulation, I would take that feedback directly to the lab. If something wasn’t ready, I made it clear.
Over time, doctors realized that Fixderma wasn’t just here to make sales; We were here to solve it. I’ve learned that trust grows slowly and quietly, one honest conversation at a time.
Q: As a founder without a previous business background, how did you gain the trust of dermatologists in the early years?
A: Honestly, I didn’t have a playbook or industry name to fall back on. I started with humility and curiosity by going from city to clinic.
In those early years, I wasn’t speaking as a salesperson; I speak as someone who is truly trying to understand real skin issues. If a dermatologist was unhappy with the formulation, I would take that feedback directly to the lab. If something wasn’t ready, I made it clear.
Over time, doctors realized that Fixderma wasn’t just here to make sales; We were here to solve it. I’ve learned that trust grows slowly and quietly, one honest conversation at a time.
Q: Fixderma is now worth approx. ₹1,500 crore. When did you personally start to believe that this could be a big brand?
A: A dramatic “Aha!” There wasn’t. moment. It slowly grew on me.
The first time a dermatologist told me, “Your product is my first choice,” felt like a turning point. The first time a consumer told us we helped them with a concern they had been dealing with for years, that’s when I realized it was more important than the numbers.
But even today I don’t wake up thinking about valuations. I wake up thinking about the next problem I’m going to solve. Maybe it’s because Fixderma has grown brick by brick without making a sound for 15 years. So even though people talk about scale now, I still see the journey over the number.
Shark Tank India Season 5
Q: On Shark Tank India, what kind of founders are you most interested in supporting and why?
A: I’m attracted to founders who come with openness, originality, and passion. You can immediately sense that someone is experiencing the problem they are solving. This is evident in their eyes, not their presentation.
I also connect deeply with founders who build silently, sometimes painfully, unrecognized. Maybe because I relate to that journey.
Profitability and numbers are important, of course, but intention is more important. Is the founder’s building durable? Are they willing to do boring, unglamorous work?
These are the people I support myself with. I actually talked about red flags and green flags in a founder in one of my reels with Aman Gupta.
Q: Many young women see you as a “self-made” person. What uncomfortable truths do you think social media often hides about entrepreneurship?
A: Social media shows highlights, not waiting time. The truth is: being self-made is lonely. There were times when I felt like I didn’t belong anywhere, that I was too ambitious for comfort but too under-resourced for the world to take seriously.
As women, we too carry silent expectations. You’re constantly juggling emotions, family, work, and guilt, often in a single day. None of these appear on Instagram.
Entrepreneurship is not about daring every morning; many nights are in doubt. It’s missing moments with your family, getting back up after failures, and doing 100 unimportant things that no one celebrates.
If there’s one thing I want young women to remember, it’s this: You don’t have to be perfect or fearless. You just need to be consistent and kind to yourself when doing this.
