After spending several years in the high-pressure world of investment banking, Shamanth Pereira knew that something in her life needed to change. Feeling overwhelmed and unable to meet the demands of her young family, Pereira decided to ditch her successful career and focus on the long-held dream of building her own business.
After the birth of her second child, Pereira had the idea to create a garment that could help women control their weight post-pregnancy was born.
According to Pereira's company website, Invisibelly leggings use "targeted high-waisted 360 compression technology" and are inspired by Ayurvedic belly wrapping traditions that help reduce swelling while slimming the belly.
In an interview with Entrepreneur, for its Women Entrepreneur series “My First Moves,” Pereira shared what it took to create this successful endeavor from the ground up, and offers tips to other burgeoning entrepreneurs.
The first piece of advice that Pereira offers to entrepreneurs is to focus on what you know. For Pereira, her idea manifested after the birth of her second son during a time when she wanted to focus on taking better care of herself and maintaining her weight.
She realized that other mothers around her were experiencing the same problem, and thus the “a-ha” moment.
“All the mums around me had the same problem, and we all wanted a solution,” Pereira shared with Entrepreneur.
Secondly, Pereira says that connecting to partners who understand your vision is key. She began with practically zero connections in the manufacturing industry and had to cold call factories to get a foot in the door.
“I didn’t know how to translate my vision, so I took store-bought leggings around with me and simply told manufacturers what I wanted to change,” Pereira said to Entrepreneur.
Eventually, however, she got lucky and was connected to a manufacturer via the company Utelier.
“I was told to look into this company called Utelier that connects startups like me with really good manufacturers and designers,” she said. “That was the turning point — they connected me to an activewear manufacturer that understood my vision.” Pereira revealed to Entrepreneur.
Next up: pick the perfect name. The name Invisibelly was actually sourced from Facebook, Pereira says. She put out a survey on the platform, and many women responded with their suggestions, and Pereira ultimately chose Invisibelly for both the brand and product name for simplicity’s sake.
Securing funding and customers for her business was a breeze through the use of Kickstarter, Pereira states. After spending a year developing the prototype, it was time to raise money to get the product in people’s hands. By using Kickstarter, not only was she able to raise the funds she needed, but she used the opportunity to get feedback from her customers and adapt the sizes to meet their needs.
“I started with just four sizes but throughout my campaign realized that plus-sizes were very popular, so we expanded our range. It helps you avoid spending a bunch of capital building a product that people might not like,” Pereira shared with Entrepreneur.
Last, but certainly not least, Pereira says that every entrepreneur should manage their expectations. When she began fundraising, she envisioned a six-figure goal, but changed her mind when she remembered her ultimate goal was to start the business to be able to spend more time with her children.
She eventually scaled down both her expectations and her fundraising goal, which ended up working to her advantage. She ended up raising more than four times the amount she originally anticipated, and her products began shipping worldwide this past December.
Check out the video below of one woman describing why she loves Invisibelly.
Video: Shamanth Pereira / Invisibelly
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