This Women Entrepreneur is running a successful brand of affordable salons – Glam Studios

By Shishir Kumar

Posted on January 16, 2017

Beauty has become the top priority for every women, but everything comes at a cost. To remove this cost out of the equation, Sadiya Naseem along with Darakhshan Husain, Feeroz Akhter and Ajay Bansal launched a brand of affordable salons in 2015. This week we interviewed Sadiya Naseem (CEO) to know about her startup journey till now.

About Sadiya Naseem- Founder & CEO of Glam Studios

Sadiya Naseem is a dynamic entrepreneur with a classic combination of business and technical skills. With over a decade of cross domain online experience across travel, retail, media and education industries, Sadiya’s key expertise lies in increasing profitability and performance for startups. She started her internet journey in 2007 with martjack.com by joining its initial team and was able to build and establish the product as one of the most preferred global E-retailing platform. Post that, she had spent six years at MGH as the leadership member and had managed to list the company as one of the best startups in its domain with its innovative products and excellent customer acquisition rate. Later in December 2014, Sadiya got associated with India’s largest chain of branded stays Oyorooms.com and assisted the company to grow its supply by introducing new processes, cost effective methods and making its presence felt in the B2B market.

1. Did a decade experience in startup ecosystem help you setup your startup?

 It definitely helped right from finding cofounders to company formation and raising capital, I had seen it all during my previous assignments and that really helped. Infact, I always believed that one should surely gain experience by being a part of any startup before jumping into it.

2. How did you find your co-founder? Did you face any challenges?

Well, fortunately all of us have known to each other for more than a decade so convincing my cofounders at personal front was not at all a difficult task however we had to look at the logistic challenges since all of us were based in different cities. But, all of us were excited about Glam Studios hence the process of shifting the base to Delhi/NCR was also not very painful.

3. When you say affordable beauty services, people think of cheap products. How are you able to give best beauty services at affordable cost?

We position ourself as a brand in affordable segment where the brand name gives the credibility to the customers about the genuineness of the products and quality of the services rendered. Apart from that, Indian customers are price sensitive and with predictability in the experience attached, it has only helped so far.

4. You had no experience in beauty industry prior to Glam Studios, why did you venture into this industry?

I believe entrepreneurs identify problems, look for the solutions and create an opportunity around, I did the same. As a customer, I faced problem of getting affordable services with branded experience. And when I digged a little deep into it, I could see the pain of small salons whose business is being eaten out by big brands and we launched Glam Studios. And if you have the passion clubbed with experience, industry knowledge can be gained.

5. With Oyo and Martjack, you could have stayed and got an equity, why did you choose to startup?

 Money or equity never motivated me, I love freedom in what I am doing, I love experimenting and I love creating my own stuff. So when I encountered an opportunity just went ahead and took the plunge without looking at the cost benefit analysis.

6. Advice to entrepreneurs who are venturing into beauty industry?

I believe that like every other industry, the beauty industry also has its challenges and overcoming them is a matter of talent, hardwork and determination. So, entrepreneurs can be successful in any industry they choose if they follow their passion, chase their dreams and keep trying until they succeed. For this industry I would say, learn the basics first; spend atleast six months in research if you don’t come from this background. Read more about Indian Startups.

This Women Entrepreneur is running a successful brand of affordable salons – Glam Studios