How a Father Built India's Most Fashion-Forward Period Brand

Most period care brands whisper. They use soft colors, black poly bags, and apologetic positioning. They treat periods like something to hide.

Mahipal Singh did the opposite. After 23 years building loyalty programs and customer experiences in hospitality, he watched his daughter get her first period during COVID lockdown. And instead of looking away like most fathers would, he leaned in.

Today, Revaa serves over 30,000 women with fashion-forward, reusable period wear that refuses to hide. Bold colors. Unapologetic branding. Products designed to be seen, not concealed. And yes, it's built by a father who makes other men uncomfortable talking about periods - intentionally.

This is the story of scratching your own itch when the itch isn't even supposed to be yours.

Key Takeaways: Breaking Every Rule in Femcare

The "Wrong Founder" Advantage:

• Mahipal had zero femcare experience but 23 years of customer obsession in hospitality
• Spent 1.5-2 years doing on-ground research, speaking to thousands of women before building anything
• His "outsider" perspective helped him question category norms everyone else accepted
• The empathy came from watching his sporty daughter struggle with products that limited her movement

Fashion Over Function (Actually, Both):

• Most period products use dark colors and apologetic design - Revaa went bold and visible
• Positioned as India's first period activewear brand - seamless shorts and leggings with leak-proof protection
• One product solves multiple life stages: training panties for 8-year-olds, commute protection for professionals, incontinence support for women 40+
• 8-10 hours of protection means freedom, not constant bathroom planning

The Reusable Bet:

• Chose the harder path: reusable products instead of disposables
• Each Revaa product lasts 2 years, replaces 300-400 pads, saves customers 2-2.5x in costs
• 97% of surveyed women open to products with 8-10 hour protection
• Environmental impact: pads take 500-800 years to decompose vs 90% of reusables decompose in 6 months

Q: You spent 23 years in hospitality. Why walk away from all that to build a period brand?

Mahipal Singh: It wasn't courage or insanity. It was empathy with conviction. During the pandemic, my daughter Myra got her first period. She's very sporty, constantly on the move. I realized the products available weren't evolving at the pace her life was evolving. She didn't want invasive products like cups or tampons, and pads were limiting and uncomfortable.

That took me down a rabbit hole. My wife Nikki and I spoke to over 200 of Myra's friends and parents. The consensus was clear - women needed something that blends into their lives, not something they constantly need to manage. I realized this wasn't just my daughter's problem. This was a category waiting to be reimagined.

🔥 ChaiNet's Hot Take: Everyone complains about broken categories. One person rebuilds. That's the founder gene in action.

Q: As a man building in femcare, you're literally the "wrong founder" on paper. How do you deal with that?

Mahipal Singh: It's happened more often than anyone can imagine. I can't experience periods - that's a fact. But I can understand the problem. Nikki and Myra helped me understand what women feel during their periods. With empathy, I've been able to make a change first for them, then for every girl who experiences periods.

I'm very clear - my job is not to pretend I understand periods better than women. My job is to listen obsessively and build. We've personally spoken to thousands of women across age groups. I don't experience periods myself, but I understand the product deeply because women love it. Over 30,000 women have adapted to Revaa. That validation matters more than whether a man should or shouldn't be building this.

The real question isn't whether the right person is building it, but whether the real problem is being solved well.

🔥 ChaiNet's Hot Take: Credentials open doors. Obsession builds products. Mahipal had zero femcare credentials but infinite customer obsession.

Q: Most fathers don't even know what brand of period products their daughters use. You're building an entire company. What changed?

Mahipal Singh: I've had friends call Nikki and say, "What's wrong with him? Is he fine?" They thought I needed mental health support because I'd just exited my previous venture. These instances actually gave me more confidence that I need to do this - I need to break that stigma.

I've had conversations with men who told me, "My daughter is getting her periods, but my wife is going to handle it." I very blatantly told them, "Why is your wife going to handle that? Why aren't you?" I love making men awkward about it because nobody else will ask them these questions.

It's about being normal and having that conversation with your daughter, with women in your life. What matters is your empathy and understanding. You're holding guard saying I am there, you don't need to worry. During periods, there's havoc going on in a woman's body that no man can ever fathom. It's just that emotional touch that's required.

I can very proudly say Myra has the worst periods. We have that dialogue where she knows I'm there. I give her space, and she knows she can ping me and say, "Dad, I want dark chocolate." And it's there for her. That's the kind of empathy that needs to be there. Men need to start understanding and breaking that shackle in their mind.

🔥 ChaiNet's Hot Take: The conversation changes everything. Mahipal's relationship with his daughter shifted when he showed up, not when he said the right words.

Q: Why did you choose bold, fashion-forward positioning when the entire category uses soft colors and whispers?

Mahipal Singh: My core thought when we started was - it needs to be bold. When there's a product lying on a shelf, the customer should be able to point and say, "What is that? Show me that product." It needs to shout out its presence.

We wanted to build something that wasn't there in existing leak-proof products. They were functional, yes, but they looked like a compromise. Dark colors, same old designs. Meanwhile, other categories had become fashion - lingerie is a full-blown fashion category. So we asked a simple question: Why should women have to choose between a functional garment and a beautiful one just because they're on their period?

Most women's period wardrobe is old, soil-stained underwear. Why should that compromise be there? A healthy and regular period is like a doctor's monthly checkup. Why are we treating it like something shameful?

🔥 ChaiNet's Hot Take: Black poly bags don't destigmatize periods. Bold positioning does. Revaa treats periods like family care, not a medical emergency to hide.

Q: You chose reusable products over disposables. That's the harder path. Why?

Mahipal Singh: Two reasons. First, the Indian consumer is value-conscious, not price-conscious. A Revaa product lasts up to two years. It replaces almost a few hundred pads and saves the customer 2 to 2.5x what she'd spend on disposables. Plus, she gets freedom and comfort.

Second, our survey of 150+ women across age groups - 97% were open to trying a product with 8-10 hours of protection. Reusable doesn't mean more work. It means less mental load, less stress. We're not asking women to stop using pads on day one. Add a reusable into your menstrual routine. With the confidence we have in our product, it'll become the default.

The generations coming up - Gen Z, millennials - they're picking up. They're willing to experiment. They're not just going by age-old norms of how periods have been thought about.

🔥 ChaiNet's Hot Take: Disposables optimize for convenience. Reusables optimize for dignity. That's not a small difference.

Q: You mentioned one product works across multiple life stages. How does that happen?

Mahipal Singh: When we spoke to women across age groups, something amazing emerged. Younger girls were using our panties as training panties in schools because mothers worried about how an 8 or 10-year-old would handle underwear and pads together.

We tested with millennials who wanted products for long commutes or late meetings. Finally, we tested with older women in their 40s and 50s in early stages of urinary incontinence.

All age groups tested positively. One product category solves for multiple life stages. That's customer obsession - constantly speaking to women across various demographics and understanding that one solution can solve multiple problems. That's what Revaa is all about.

🔥 ChaiNet's Hot Take: Most brands segment. Revaa found the universal truth - women across ages want dignity and freedom, not management and compromise.

Q: You talk about a philosophy called OAR-E. What is it?

Mahipal Singh: OAR-E stands for Ownership, Accountability, Responsibility, Empowerment. It's like a paddle for a boat.

The biggest complaint from HR is that employees aren't connected with the organization. I say it's a mixed effort. If the team member feels ownership of their role, feels accountable for their function, and feels responsibility toward delivery - automatically empowerment will come. The quality of output will enhance. They'll start thinking like an owner, executing like an owner.

I'm proud that in my 23 years, I've successfully implemented this. People who were freshers with me now manage teams nationally. It's about me giving a chair to an employee, but it's the employee's responsibility to make that chair their own - to command respect. That's what OAR-E is all about.

🔥 ChaiNet's Hot Take: You can't demand ownership. You create conditions where ownership is the only logical response.

Q: How do you use AI in building Revaa?

Mahipal Singh: At the core of the brand and category, there's a lot of human conversations and empathy that cannot be replaced by AI. AI can give us faster turnaround on content iterations, various variants. But when a 15-year-old girl or 40-year-old woman needs emotional support about what works best during her period, a human conversation matters. That's at the core.

Whenever a conversation is required, a human is always there to build that comfort and reassurance. Anything else where customers want speed, AI is there. The human touch cannot go, but AI helps with speed.

We've tried both AI-generated content and real human faces. If you check our Instagram (@reva4u), it's real human faces, real human experiences that got people hooked and engaged. Women relate to the experience of another woman. That's what we're building as a brand.

🔥 ChaiNet's Hot Take: AI scales efficiency. Humans build trust. In femcare, trust isn't scalable through automation.

Q: How do you balance destigmatization with building a sustainable business?

Mahipal Singh: Destigmatization is important, but our primary goal is simple - we want to enhance women's lives with this upgrade. Sustainability is a great outcome. Our period panties replace 300-400 pads. Think of the cost savings and waste reduction. Pads take 500-800 years to decompose. A reusable menstrual product? 90% decomposes in 6 months.

But that's secondary. Our agenda is clear - we want to blend fashion into what women want. Women should never have to choose between the two, never have to manage their periods. We want women to experience their periods.

It's not about enjoying the pain - that's not easy. It's about moving with your life without the worry that you might have to check for stains or plan bathroom breaks. It's about that freedom - 8 hours, I'm done, I don't need to plan bathroom stops. That's where destigmatization happens - when women start talking and feeling different about it.

🔥 ChaiNet's Hot Take: Purpose-driven doesn't mean profit-later. Revaa proves solving for dignity and solving for economics aren't opposites.

Q: Is period talk still taboo, especially in conservative India?

Mahipal Singh: I think it's actually a preconceived notion. Between Nikki and me, we speak to over 100 customers every month. Women across tier 1, tier 2, tier 3 cities are comfortable sharing their period journey. It's about how they relate, what kind of difference we're creating.

We've had customers say, "I don't believe this will work." We've said, "Let me send this to you. If it doesn't work, I'll take it back. But if it works, you replace your period wardrobe." These conversations happen, and customers come back saying it made a difference. We've had women including elders in their house, talking about it.

We recently did an experiment with regional content - a woman sharing her first tragic period story. We were struck by the response. Women were sharing their stories - good, bad, and ugly. But they were open to sharing. That's the change.

🔥 ChaiNet's Hot Take: The taboo isn't the topic. It's the lack of products worth talking about. Give women something that works, they'll talk.

Final Thoughts: Showing Up Changes Everything

Mahipal's message to fathers: Simple - have the conversation. Your daughter will remember that you showed up, not that you said the right words. She'll remember you were there for the most vulnerable moment. It doesn't matter if you're uncomfortable. Just be there for her. That one conversation will change everything for your relationship. It surely changed everything for me.

The bottom line: Mahipal isn't trying to be an expert in something he hasn't experienced. He's not claiming to understand periods better than people who have them. What he's doing is bringing an outsider's lens to a category that's been built the same way for decades.

Fashion-forward positioning. Unapologetic aesthetics. Refusal to make periods invisible. That's not category research you learn in an MBA. That comes from talking to people, understanding their problems, and solving for dignity, not just functionality.

If Mahipal can break into femcare with what experts would call a terrible founder-product fit, you can break into your category too. The thing that matters: talk to your customers, understand their problems, solve for what they actually need - not what the category has always done.

Q: How can people connect with you and learn more about Revaa?

Mahipal Singh: You can find Revaa at reva4u.com. We're also on Instagram @reva4u. We're building a community of women who believe periods should be normal, not whispered about. Whether you're a customer, a father with daughters, or someone who wants to be part of the change - we'd love to have you join us on this journey.

Final words: The biggest barriers aren't in the market - they're in our minds. Mahipal broke the barrier that fathers don't build femcare brands. He broke the barrier that period products must whisper. He broke the barrier that sustainable has to mean compromise. What barrier are you accepting that's waiting to be broken? Because on the other side of that barrier isn't just a business opportunity. It's the chance to change how an entire category thinks about itself. That's not just entrepreneurship. That's impact that outlives you.