YouTuber Mad Gardener
The woman behind the YouTube channel: Madhavi Guttikonda
The idea behind the YouTube channel….
Mad Gardener channel is an educative gardening channel for enthusiastic gardeners that encourages organic methods of gardening, like fertilising, pest control and so on. The joy of growing food and serving my own grown food to my family was so fascinating that I thought of sharing the experience with the rest of the world. I started my channel in 2018 to share the joy and experience of growing my own food. Currently, the channel has 618K subscribers.
Building a garden on limited space….
Space should never be constraint for fulfilling our gardening passion. Let the thought of growing your own food grow in you. We never know when opportunities knock on our door. We can opt for vertical gardening for small spaces. We can grow on small balconies, window sills, kitchen countertops and so on; any space which gets optimum light is suitable for growing plants. Hanging pots, and vertical wall planters are more useful for small spaces.
YouTube helping women to be independent….
After starting my YouTube journey, I became independent in many ways. I could make my own decisions in all aspects. I have become more financially independent and could invest more on my gardening passion.
Challenges of being a YouTuber….
It’s not easy to be a creator with a specific niche like gardening. It is always challenging to catch up with the upcoming trends on YouTube. For me, maintaining a beautiful healthy garden for my content and making interesting content for my followers will always be a never-ending challenge. I make sure that my videos are interesting with new thoughts and techniques and also add value to our society and nature. I ensure that my videos are motivating and inspiring for my audience to pursue gardening. For me, the impact of my videos is more important than the number of views.
Choosing between long- and short-format videos….
The long format video helps me create detailed and lengthy videos of 20-25 minutes which my followers also enjoy since they like my detailed explanation or reasoning videos. Whereas, YouTube Shorts helps me connect with new audiences. They are helpful to introduce my garden snippets and updates. Shorts are attracting new audiences to the channel, also helping in increasing the subscriber count.
YouTuber Cook with Nisha
Nisha Topwal runs the YouTube channel Cook with Nisha
The woman behind the YouTube channel: Nisha Topwal
Getting the channel off the ground….
The idea to start my YouTube channel came when I was on a hiatus from my corporate job. Being home full-time, I experimented a lot with recipes to create my own version and try out new things which were appreciated by my friends and relatives during the potluck lunches or dinner parties (as I love to host these parties).
During that time, as I was orchestrating and assisting my daughter with her content for her channel MyMissAnand, this idea popped up to start my own channel. While contemplating the channel’s name, that’s when my daughter suggested CookWithNisha.
Not just another lunchbox ideas channel….
The lunchbox theme is quite close to my heart. Anantya is a fussy eater and I used to think a lot while preparing her lunch every day. My main priority was that she relishes her lunch and most importantly it is tasty and nutritious too. I used to experiment a lot to make basic lunch look tempting, using some flavours, using alternative food grains and so on.
Since Anantya shares her lunch with her school friends, I used to get direct feedback from children of her age group which helped me improvise and add variations to the lunchbox recipes every day and that is how I have so many videos on lunch ideas. At the end of the day, the mother in me is quite happy to see an empty lunchbox.
I think we are living in a day and age where everyone talks about fast and quick food. I am not against any fancy food, typical food items or even fast food, but nothing beats a cooked meal as it directly connects me with my soul. I am from the school of old thoughts because I believe that food needs to be simple, aromatic, nourishing with the right balance of nutrition and most importantly sustainable to make it every day.
YouTube has changed her life….
YouTube has literally changed my life for the better. It has contributed a lot in all aspects of my life and I am quite thankful for my whole journey so far. As a working professional, it was quite a difficult decision to leave a job. Fortunately, YouTube started then, which turned around my passion to become a professional and creator now. This has been a rollercoaster journey with lots of learning, such as editing, scripting, and even photography skills; all these made me quite resilient to manage trolls and criticism that come my way. I feel blessed to have got an opportunity to collaborate with many leading brands, which has come my way due to my YouTube channel.
Creative freedom: long and short-format videos....
I believe in experimentation whether that is in my recipes or with the content that I create. While the long format is a playground where you have more scope to be creative enough, however, short-form content is additive.
We all live in a fast-paced busy life; people have different perspectives while viewing content — short consumable content that is crisp, succinct and that delivers the right message catches all the attention and, at the same time, long-format allows you show your creativity in terms of storytelling, direction, editing, acting skills with the right message.
Start-up: LXME
Priti Rathi Gupta, founder, LXME
Behind the start-up: Priti Rathi Gupta, founder, LXME. She has over two decades of experience in the financial services industry and has won many awards. Ridhi Kanoria Doongursee is the co-Founder of LXME.
What’s LXME about?
LXME aims to make women financially fearless by enabling them with tools and resources to be money-smart and money-confident. The platform’s vision is to offer a woman-first money management tool.
The starting point….
Financial planning, money management, and investments have traditionally been male-dominated and oriented. Even with women excelling in all fields of life and becoming increasingly independent, their financial planning still takes a backseat and men of the family handle it themselves. I had long been mulling over financial empowerment for women and it was during a presentation for a class on strategy at Harvard Business School that an inkling of an idea was transformed into a business idea.
Having worked in the financial services sector for almost two decades, I understood and experienced that financial services companies considered men to be their primary audience. I was always keen to bring in solutions and make it more accessible for women.
Making it different from others….
What LXME does differently is extend this journey of awareness and education to action through a hassle-free and easy financial platform offering curated financial products. This makes LXME a holistic, one-of-its-kind financial platform for women.
COMMUNITY: At the heart of LXME is a safe and trusted community of women who actively ask, learn, and share about money decisions and manage personal finances that enable collective growth.
RESOURCES: To help women overcome the barrier of financial jargon and risk associated with financial planning and instruments, LXME offers palatable and tailored content across formats from blog posts to videos and interactive workshops that help women make informed investment decisions.
FINANCIAL TOOLS: It is an uncomplicated and easy-to-use financial platform with goal-based investment options in mutual funds and gold as well as insurance, and loans.
Definition of being an independent woman….
Financial independence is an essential life skill every woman should be equipped with in order to be truly independent. It empowers women to be in control of their lives and make decisions that align with their values and goals. Unfortunately, even with women becoming increasingly independent in various aspects of life, many women still rely on male family members or friends when it comes to money management. With the right knowledge and resources, every woman can become financially savvy.
Help from Google…
The Google for Startups Accelerator Programme (GFSA) has been a crucial factor in supporting our journey as a startup. Through this programme, we have been able to gain access to a diverse group of mentors across a range of fields, including marketing, product development and technology.
Further, it has given us the chance to connect and collaborate with other women founders and startups in our cohort. This has been an incredibly valuable experience, allowing us to learn from and share our experiences with other like-minded entrepreneurs. It has also provided us with access to a range of tools and expertise available within the Google ecosystem.
