Female Founder in Focus: Anjali Harjani – Founder of Malabar Baby

Welcome to the Female Founder In Focus series!

I started this series to celebrate women blazing trails in different areas of business, tech, art, entrepreneurship, fashion, beauty etc.

I hope by sharing the stories and journeys of other women you are inspired to chase your dreams, work hard and never give up.

Today’s Female Founder In Focus is Anjali Harjani, the founder of Malabar Baby, a homegrown artisan brand disrupting the competitive space of baby products with pure natural cotton baby bedding and lifestyle products and a unique design philosophy.

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Anjali’s background

Anjali was born and raised in Miami before moving to India as a teenager. Prior to founding Malabar Baby, Anjali had an impressive career in corporate finance spanning New York, London and Hong Kong. When she was pregnant with her son in Hong Kong, Anjali began researching baby products that she would eventually need and realised there was a huge gap in the Asian baby market for high quality and organic fabric basics such as bedding, blankets and towels.

Consumed by the idea of finding a way to bring high quality baby linens to Asia, Anjali visited factories in China and India while pregnant but then felt overwhelmed at the idea of launching a business and also simultaneously becoming a new mom so shelved the idea. But as more time passed and Anjali eventually gave birth to her baby, she felt more and more strongly about wanting to find high quality and soft fabrics that suited her baby’s sensitive skin.

The core idea 

Anjali’s search for premium synthetic-free fabrics led her to look at how western designers for high end fashion use pure Indian cottons and silks due to the materials’ ability to retain lustre and softness while also being resilient against repeated washes — the tender quality of the fabric remains the same in the long-term. It’s exactly what Anjali envisioned for her line of baby products.

Building Malabar Baby
To fund Malabar Baby, Anjali used her own savings; there were no huge budgets or outside investors. Anjali proudly says that Malabar Baby is truly “a home-grown artisan brand”.

Anjali spent many nights as a new mom Googling about anything and everything related to her business. She did endless research on understanding fabrics and textiles and how to retain their quality and how to keep products organic. Anjali says she learned a lot “on the ground” visiting different factories and observing how raw materials and fabrics are sourced, treated and manufactured into finished products. She also reached out to her professional and personal network, which included best friends that are lawyers who helped her to understand the global standards and benchmarks of testing of baby products. Anjali asked for advice and guidance and was very open to receiving feedback from her professional network as well as friends and family.

Anjali notes that she wasn’t completely new to the world of sourcing and manufacturing — her parents own factories in India and her in-laws have a long history in textiles and manufacturing. With that strong foundation she felt more confident to launch a business in the area of textiles and fabrics.

Launching the brand 

Anjali wanted to bring a new aesthetic to baby products, moving away from the typical splashes of pretty pinks, pastel yellows and baby blues, which have saturated the baby market globally for years.

The brand name ‘Malabar Baby’ is inspired by Anjali’s childhood memories of growing up in the notable area of Malabar Hills in Mumbai, India. And a further nod to her Indian heritage, Anjali settled on the fine craft of Indian block printing by artisans in India as the unique design philosophy for the brand. It’s an art form that can be applied across different products and categories. Each blanket, swaddle, towel, quilt is individually block-printed by hand, layering each colour one at a time, meaning each and every product is truly unique and made with a lot of love.

When Malabar Baby launched Anjali implemented a simple strategy for its initial year: free shipping all around the world. Whoever wanted a Malabar Baby product didn’t have to worry about how they were going to get it. Anjali firmly believes that when a new product is introduced to the world, it has to be accessible. And working in tandem with this distribution strategy Anjali implemented a focused social media marketing strategy: no paid advertising, only organic user-generated content from product users showing Malabar Baby products in use.

Growing the business

This is my baby I’ve created. This team helped me live out my dream. No task is too small for me.

Anjali has her fingers and toes dipped in every aspect of the business from sourcing to design to marketing to helping pack orders to attending international trade shows and events. She says “Malabar Baby is a 24/7 business. We have orders and deliveries to fulfil every single day across the globe. There is no turning off.”

Malabar Baby has expanded its product lines and categories to include: quilts, blankets, crib sheets, crib bedding sets, towels, playmate, swaddles, sleep suits, and loungewear for kids and adults and gifts sets. It has also introduced new fabrics including organic muslin and bamboo, which are both hypoallergenic and breathable and extremely soft for babies.

Photo source: www.malabarbaby.com

Since launching three years ago, Malabar Baby has grown globally with a huge international customer base as well as presence in boutiques and retailers across the world in the UK, USA, Japan, Dubai and more.

And not to forget that the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, was recently spotted holding her baby in the Erawan Dohar Cotton receiving blanket for Master Archie’s first public appearance.

Anjali envisions the future of Malabar Baby as a global lifestyle brand with the focus always being baby.

 

Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs from Anjali 

• Keep your business plan straightforward and focused with measurable goals. Don’t get ahead of yourself or lose faith if parts of the plan don’t seem attainable at first glance.

• Be very mindful of the difference between launching a business and staying in business. Launching a business is exciting and maybe even appear easy at the outset but staying in business requires a whole different set of skills, strategy and takes a whole lot more than you might expect.

• Keep up with the people who have been a part of your personal and professional journey. Don’t write anyone off — even those that might have said you won’t succeed — everything comes full circle and anyone can be a part of your journey at some point in time.

• Don’t shy away from asking for feedback — positive or negative — because it can help to improve your business in ways you may never even consider

• If you have an idea you feel passionate about — just go for it. Don’t let anything stop you. There is no correlation between being a genius and having a million dollar business. Work ethic, common sense, and cultivating a supportive tribe are the key ingredients to success.

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Anjali often spends her time connecting with women and fellow moms who have questions about starting a business or are looking for some guidance. Feel free to reach Anjali via email at snuggle@malabarbaby.com

Learn more with Malabar Baby

Instagram: @malabarbabyofficial

Website: www.malabarbaby.com