Falguni Nayar, CEO and founder of beauty e-commerce chain Nykaa, recently became the richest self-made woman billionaire after the stocks of her company received stellar response at the Dalal Street when it got listed at the markets. According to an AFP report, Nayar is now among one of the world’s wealthiest, which was backed by Nykaa’s recent initial public offer that got listed on the day amid an ongoing IPO boom across the country. With this feat, Falguni Nayar joined only six other Indian women billionaires in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The 58-year-old, who owns almost half of Nykaa’s shares, is now worth $6.5 billion as shares of her company surged to 89 per cent as they started trading on the day, according to a Bloomberg report.
On Wednesday, November 10, FSN E-Commerce, Nykaa’s parent company, became the first woman-led unicorn to debut at the stock market in India. Nykaa shares saw an amazing debut on Dalal Street on the day.
“I started Nykaa at the age of 50 with no experience. I hope the Nykaa journey can inspire each of you to be the Nykaa of your lives,” Nayar said ahead of the listing of Nykaa at the National Stock Exchange. Falguni Nayar has had a noteworthy career, from being the managing director of Kotak Group to starting a business at 50. Before launching Nykaa in 2012, the entrepreneur boasted of a 19-year-long career with Kotak Mahindra Group, retiring as one of the top officials in its investing banking wing. Her roots, which start at graduating from IIM Ahmedabad, are probably why Nayar makes such a good investor — quashing all the myths of age being a deciding point of life’s journey.
Here are four lessons investors can take from Falguni Nayar’s career:
Have a Plan
It is always advisable for an investor to go ahead for a stint with a plan. Falguni Nayar had imposed a deadline upon herself, where she planned to launch something of her own by the time she is 50 — and Nykaa became the fruit of that tree. Throughout her life, she has made calculated choices — from being brought up in a family that was interested in stocks, to going to a business school, spending 19 years at a company where she had a upward career and finally choosing a sector that was unheard of in India. So, investors must do their research before making any investments.
Take Advice from All but Follow your Heart
Following the debut of her company, Nykaa, Falguni Nayar in an interview gave an advice to all those who want to launch their startup. “I hope more women like me dare to dream for themselves,” she said. Nykaa came up in 2012, at a time when everyone would go to their local mom-and-pop stores to buy makeup and choose from the three or four brands that were available there. Nayar dared to break that chain, and years later Nykaa sells more than 30,000 products of over 300 different brands on its platform as well as brick-and-mortar stores.
More Risks, More Rewards? Well, Sometimes
Falguni Nayar took a leap of faith when she left Kotak after spending 19 years at the company at various capacities. Months before turning 50, she took a risk to launch a startup that had never been thought of in India and had no prior setting in the country. Like an online beauty platform was something new in the country 10 years back, cryptocurrency too is in its nascent stages here in terms of the present times. Investing in crypto coins may sound like a risk right now, but it has the capacity to turn you into a billionaire — just like Falguni Nayar — given its global run in the recent months.
Choose Growth and Profitability
In an interview with MoneyControl days back, Nayar said, “Industries like ours- beauty and fashion commerce are in very early stages of development and that leaves a lot of room for growth from here. And, investors assume that, as sales grow, profitability will grow multifold because of economies of scale…They may assume that profitability that is small at the moment can change very dramatically as one moves forward.”
Thus, in her words, it is important to choose growth and profitability both when it comes to investing, and you have to be careful about that.
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