Can India's Oldest Medicine Win India's Newest Market? - Sargam Dhawan Bhayana, Planet Herbs

If you're a second-generation founder joining a family business that's already running for 15 to 20 years, the hardest part isn't strategy. It's credibility. You walk in at 21, sit across from people who've been in the company for 30 years, and try to convince them that the way they've worked since before you were born might need to change.

Today's guest has lived this exact story. Sargam Dhawan Bhayana grew up around a 20-year-old Ayurvedic manufacturing business in Dehradun. The company spent years quietly perfecting formulations for some of the biggest names in Indian wellness. No website. No consumer brand. Pure B2B credibility built behind the curtain.

Sargam went to film school in New York, studied filmmaking, and life had its own plans. She came back, joined her grandfather's company Planet Herbs Life Sciences, and decided that the brand needed a face. She's now also building The Botanical Theory, a skincare brand that combines Ayurvedic formulations with modern bioactives, and she's one of the few founders in this category seriously thinking about quick commerce, AI-led discovery, and a fully women-led manufacturing floor.

This conversation is about what it takes to modernize a 20-year-old family business, why she believes visibility equals relevancy, the brutal reality of getting listed on Blinkit and Instamart, why an AI-generated ad campaign backfired badly, and the small but real way she's already optimizing for ChatGPT and Reddit. If you're a second-generation founder, a D2C builder, or someone watching the Ayurveda space from the outside, this one is worth your time.

Key Takeaways: From B2B Manufacturer to Modern Consumer Brand

The Family Business Reality:

• Sargam joined Planet Herbs at 21 with no pharmaceutical background, sitting next to staff with 30 years of experience. Credibility had to be earned through product knowledge, not designation
• The hardest part wasn't ideas. It was getting people who had worked the same way for 15 to 18 years to try a different approach
• Every five to seven years, even the best Ayurvedic formulation has to be redeveloped to keep up with changing lifestyles, climate and consumer needs

The D2C Pivot:

• Within 8 to 9 months of joining, Sargam realised Planet Herbs was making products for almost every big wellness brand in India but the end consumer had no idea they existed
• Her first move was building a basic website, then launching a pain relief oil because pain is universal across age, gender and geography
• Therapeutic products solve a real problem, build a repeat customer and trust. Trends spike then die. A business gets built on efficacy

The Modern D2C Stack:

• Quick commerce is critical for discovery and credibility, but the listing process puts new brands through a five-level performance vetting before they go permanent. Fail any level and you're delisted
• AI-generated ads with synthetic models flopped because Indian consumers immediately recognized them as fake and assumed the product was bad
• AI helps for content structure, claims clarity, and review optimization. The real signal in the AEO era is strong reviews, clear outcomes, and visibility on Reddit and Quora

Q: You went from filmmaking in New York to running an Ayurvedic manufacturing business in Dehradun. How did that pivot happen?

Sargam: Of course my background is not from pharmaceutical or anything like that. I did filmmaking in New York. Life has its own ways and I pivoted and I joined my family, my grandfather's business which is Planet Herbs. Now I'm working to make it into a D2C brand which is modern and consumer facing.

I always wanted to come back and do something of my own, and Planet Herbs was a 20-year platform sitting in front of me. The opportunity was to take the back-end credibility we already had and put a face on it.

ChaiNet's Hot Take: Family business is the most overlooked head start in Indian D2C. A second-generation founder inherits 20 years of formulation, 20 years of supply chain, and 20 years of regulatory experience. The only thing they have to build is a brand. The only thing they have to earn is credibility from the people who built the rest.

Q: You joined at 21. Most people sitting around you had been there for 30 years. How did you actually earn credibility?

Sargam: The hardest part was really proving to people that I was credible, I was capable. Planet Herbs had been running for 15 to 18 years before I came in. People older than you, when you suddenly come and try to change something, it's not taken well. At that time I was just the boss's daughter, and that is something I did not want to be.

I had to earn credibility not just by my designation, but by understanding the product and the process, really learning about it, so that my ideas could turn into real growth stories. When I joined I was 21. There were people who had worked for 30 years. I didn't want to be the person who got this just because I'm family. I wanted everybody to feel I'm here for the work, not to faff around or while away time till I find something else.

ChaiNet's Hot Take: Title gets you a chair. Knowledge gets you a vote. Family-business founders who skip the technical learning curve always end up reporting to their own employees. The fastest way to earn the room is to know the formulation, the SOP, and the cost of every change you propose.

Q: When did you actually realise that the B2B model needed a consumer-facing brand?

Sargam: Within the first 8 to 9 months of joining work, I started feeling like we were a very invisible brand. We were making very high quality formulations for most of the big names in India, but the end consumer really had no idea that we existed. That bothered me, and that's when I decided I needed a consumer-facing brand.

I needed to own the consumer relationship myself, because if you are not visible, you are replaceable. Visibility equals relevancy. If you are not visible in today's day and age where everything is visible to everybody, you are not doing such a good job that you think you're doing.

So we kept manufacturing for the other big labels in parallel, but we built our own consumer set, our own website, and started moving into the D2C space.

ChaiNet's Hot Take: Invisible brands have no leverage. The moment a B2B contract manufacturer decides to launch its own consumer brand, the ground shifts. Now they own the customer. Now they own the data. Now they're not replaceable. The shift from B2B to D2C isn't just a revenue move. It's a power move.

Q: What was the first product you launched and why?

Sargam: It was a pain relief oil. I felt pain is something every age group, every sector of society, every village, town, city has. Right from a 10 year old falling down to older people with joint stiffness to people of our age dealing with back stiffness. I tried to make it pocket friendly so people would actually try it.

I didn't want to chase trends. Our core strength as a company has always been formulation first. Therapeutic products solve a real problem, and if they work, they naturally build a repeat customer and trust. Trends could give a sudden spike. But trends die down as fast as they go up. A business can only be built on efficacy. It can't be built on trends.

ChaiNet's Hot Take: The fastest way to build trust in wellness is to start with a problem nobody disputes. Pain is universal. Sleep is universal. Energy is universal. Brands that start with a fashionable molecule end up explaining what it is. Brands that start with a familiar problem just have to deliver.

Q: For Ayurveda specifically, what's the biggest bottleneck for D2C brands today?

Sargam: Trust. Discovery is solved if you have the funds. With Instagram and Facebook, you can run ads, you're discoverable. Marketing has come a long way. Education is also possible, because through ads you can tell consumers what's inside, what each ingredient does, what it targets. But trust is something that cannot be bought.

The problem is brands over-promise a lot. Consumers have become aware that brands say a lot of things, but are they actually doing what they claim? Are the ingredients actually what's on the pack? That's why trust is the bottleneck. Efficacy is the only thing that brings a consumer back. You can buy a product that looks very good, but if it's not doing what it's supposed to, no one will spend that money again.

ChaiNet's Hot Take: Discovery is paid. Trust is earned. The Indian D2C wellness space has burned through its discovery budget for the last five years. The next five will be won by brands that quietly stack repeat orders, not the ones still topping influencer leaderboards.

Q: India was late to Ayurveda being cool. The West got there first. Why?

Sargam: Very strangely, Ayurveda became a trend internationally before it became a trend in India. Just like yoga. As Indians, we are very influenced by the Western world. Yoga became a trend in the West and then it came back to India. The same thing happened with Ayurveda. It has been accepted into the Western world way before it was accepted as a cool thing in India. Even if it's our own.

ChaiNet's Hot Take: India keeps importing its own heritage from the West. Yoga had to become Lululemon before it became a Sunday class in Mumbai. Ayurveda had to be sold in apothecaries in New York before it stopped being a grandma remedy in India. The next Indian luxury wave will follow the same loop unless founders break it.

Q: Quick commerce is something most founders avoid. You leaned in. Why?

Sargam: With quick commerce, the advantage is solving the moment of demand. Someone's back is hurting, they need something right now, they see our oil, they get it in 10 minutes. It gives your product a chance to be tried because it's available right when the problem hits. Nobody nowadays wants to wait three to four days for Amazon to deliver.

The second thing is credibility. Being on Blinkit, Instamart and similar platforms gives you credibility just by being available there. Real-time reviews on the platform let people read what others are saying. That solves a bit of trust and a bit of discovery in one move.

ChaiNet's Hot Take: Quick commerce isn't about convenience. It's about catching the customer at the exact moment of need. A pain relief oil delivered in 10 minutes is not the same product as one shipped in three days. The shelf has moved into the user's pocket. Brands that don't show up in that 10-minute window aren't competing.

Q: How hard is it to actually get and stay listed on quick commerce?

Sargam: It's very hard. Once they list you, you have five levels to get through. They check your stats. How much sale is happening, what consumer behavior looks like. You have to cross each level to get permanent. If you don't cross any level, you're immediately delisted. So you have to constantly meet the bar, and during the trial period you cannot run ads on quick commerce. So you have to get discovered organically.

Once you're permanent, you can run ads. But to get permanent you need to cross those five levels, while advertising on other channels saying we're available here. There are so many brands trying to get on it that the bar is very high.

ChaiNet's Hot Take: Quick commerce is the toughest interview process in Indian D2C. Five levels of performance review with no ads to lean on. Founders who survive it earn a real shelf, not a paid placement. The platforms are protecting their basket, and brands that can't perform organically get filtered out fast.

Q: You're also launching The Botanical Theory in skincare. Why pivot into a second brand?

Sargam: I was always interested in skincare, and after working at Planet Herbs for 8 years I realized that with the correct ingredients, products actually work. But with pure Ayurvedic products I was not reaching out to the Gen Z. A lot of people don't recognize Ayurvedic ingredients as easily as they recognize niacinamide or hyaluronic acid. They feel actives will work better.

So The Botanical Theory combines Ayurveda with bioactives. The percentage of actives is very minimal. It's still mild skincare. The decision was purely to reach a larger audience that's already comfortable with the language of modern skincare.

ChaiNet's Hot Take: The next Indian skincare leader won't be pure Ayurvedic or pure clinical. It will be the brand that translates the same formula into both languages. Niacinamide on the front for the 22 year old. Centella and Brahmi on the back for the 42 year old. One product, two readers.

Q: For a brand-new founder entering wellness today, what's your blunt advice?

Sargam: Product first. Then distribution. Product is the most important thing. Formulation first. Everything else is second. Packaging can be changed, marketing can be changed, distribution can be changed. But once a product is made, registered, and not working, nothing can be done. You'll spend another year or two rebuilding it. Anything to do with health, anything you apply on your skin or consume, will seep into the system. Don't fool the consumer.

The consumers are way smarter than you think. Do something where you can sleep peacefully at night. Build the product, build the formulation, and everything else will fall into place. Slow and steady wins the race.

ChaiNet's Hot Take: Wellness is the one D2C category where shortcuts cost you the next 12 months. A poorly formulated supplement or skincare doesn't just lose a customer. It triggers a refund, a review, and a regulatory headache. The slowest founders in this space are the ones still standing five years in.

Q: What does running a women-led manufacturing floor actually feel like?

Sargam: It's a subtle difference. There's a sense of ownership because the women feel independent. They feel responsible for the product. It instills discipline. I have never said, you leave it, let a man come and do it, even for physical labor or lifting boxes. With a women workforce, there's a lot of consistency. Everybody comes on time because everybody has to be back on time. It's a very punctual workplace.

It also impacts how we develop products. We prioritize products that help women, products that solve the problems women in our team actually face. Empowered women can do wonders. It's not loud. It's just consistent.

ChaiNet's Hot Take: A women-led manufacturing floor is not a marketing line. It's an operational decision that quietly tightens punctuality, quality, and product relevance. The brands that will eventually compete for the female consumer have to start by employing her at every layer of the supply chain.

Q: How are you optimizing for AI discovery? Someone Googles "best pain relief oil" and ChatGPT decides what to recommend.

Sargam: AI systems pick up data from various websites, collate it, and recommend the best product at that time. The only way to hit the top is strong reviews, very clear outcomes, and data-backed claims. AI is pulling from many websites and bringing it together.

When I search on ChatGPT and it gives me a source, the source is almost always Reddit or Quora. So we've started telling our consumers, if you liked our product, can you go to a Reddit thread on Indian Ayurveda and review us there? Can you give us a review on Google? AI is very important. If you don't hit the top when someone asks for a suggestion, you're lost.

ChaiNet's Hot Take: SEO is dead. AEO is the new SEO. The next decade of brand discovery is being decided in Reddit threads, Quora answers, and YouTube comment sections. The brands quietly seeding honest reviews on the open web today are training the next generation of LLM recommendations.

Q: You also tried AI ads and they backfired. What happened?

Sargam: We tried AI ads where everything looked very real. We thought the world is so into AI right now that this is the best way to go. We created ads where an AI girl was applying our pain relief oil. It was a disaster. We just wasted money creating and running them. We got a spam of bad comments. People said this is AI, this is not working.

People desire emotional storytelling and human interaction. The customers immediately understood we were running an AI ad, and that became a signal that the product is not good, that's why they're running an AI ad. AI can backfire if it's not well thought out and well executed.

ChaiNet's Hot Take: Indian consumers have already developed an AI-detector reflex. The moment they spot synthetic content, they decide the brand is hiding something. The cheapest content tool of 2026 is also the fastest way to lose a sale. Authenticity isn't a vibe anymore. It's a conversion lever.

Q: Online versus offline for a new D2C brand. Which one first?

Sargam: Start online. Online doesn't need so much infrastructure or investment. When you're trying products, online is the safer choice to test if there's even demand. Offline requires a full infrastructure. Sales team, store margins, salespeople, in-store branding. If you're producing in small batches and testing online, you avoid carrying liability without knowing what's going to happen.

Once you see the product is being accepted and there's real demand, why not go offline? Pop-ups in malls, exhibitions. The biggest con of offline is no one can try your product unless they walk in. The biggest pro is that someone can actually try it. But they'll only try it if there's a demand. Test online first. Validate. Then expand.

ChaiNet's Hot Take: The cheapest customer is online. The stickiest customer is offline. Most founders flip this order, burn through capex, and then run out of cash before they ever validate the product. The honest sequence is online first to learn, offline second to anchor.

Final Thoughts: Old Medicine, New Market

Sargam's reframe: "If you are not visible, you are replaceable. Visibility equals relevancy. We were making formulations for almost every big brand in India and the end consumer had no idea we existed. That had to change."

The bottom line: Sargam's playbook is what every second-generation founder of an Indian manufacturing business should be reading. Don't romanticize the family business. Don't burn it down either. Inherit the credibility, then build the brand. Earn the room before you change the room. Build a website. Launch a product that solves a real problem. Show up on quick commerce. Get reviews on Reddit. Optimize for ChatGPT. Don't fake the marketing.

For the broader Ayurveda category, Planet Herbs is one of the brands that proves the next decade is going to look very different from the last. Brands that started B2B and moved D2C will have an unfair advantage. They already know how to formulate. They already have regulatory clearance. They already have manufacturing capacity. The only thing they have to build is the part the West has been doing for 20 years. A face.

For founders, the takeaway is simpler. Slow and steady, product first, no shortcuts, no AI ads, no fake reviews. The brands still standing five years from now will be the ones that respected the consumer enough to let them be the judge.

Q: How can people connect with you and learn more about Planet Herbs and The Botanical Theory?

Sargam: You can find Planet Herbs on our website, and on Blinkit and Instamart in select cities. The Botanical Theory is launching across our online channels and selected stores. Reach out on LinkedIn or Instagram if you want to talk about the family business pivot, manufacturing, or what it takes to take an old Ayurvedic brand into the D2C era.

Final words: India's oldest medicine has always been good. India's newest market just hadn't met it properly yet. Sargam is one of the few founders bridging that gap with a clean head, a steady hand, and zero shortcuts. Visibility equals relevancy. Trust beats trends. Slow and steady wins the race. Whether you inherit a 20-year business or start from scratch in 2026, the rules don't change. Build the product. Earn the room. Stay honest. The compounding shows up later.

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