We want to mentor women and help them turn entrepreneurs: Ranveer Allahbadia

The digital content creator on turning investor with Los Angeles-based beauty brand Ready Set Jet, empowering women with its academy, and why consistency matters more than perfection

By Kunal Purandare Forbes India Staff

Published: Feb 24, 2021 02:10:51 PM IST

Updated: Feb 25, 2021 02:27:04 PM IST

Full Bio

Ranveer Allahbadia knows a thing or two about the internet. He runs three YouTube channels and a podcast called ‘The Ranveer Show’. Once his career as a digital content creator took off, the Mumbai-born 27-year-old, popularly known as BeerBiceps—the name of one of his channels—started Monk Entertainment, a digital entertainment startup, with friend Viraj Sheth in 2018.

Now, Allahbadia, who has over 7.5 million followers across social media platforms, has turned investor with Los Angeles-based beauty brand Ready Set Jet that aims to amplify its presence in India and empower women. Founded by serial entrepreneur Shalini Vadhera, a recipient of the Mahatma Gandhi Award at the British House Of Lords in 2017, its products are currently available on Amazon in India.

“I have worked with a lot of internet-only brands and have seen their stories. I had always wanted to get into ecommerce and I feel it’s the right time,” Allahbadia tells Forbes India. Edited excerpts from an interview:

Where did the idea of investing in Ready Set Jet come from?

Right from the time I got into the world of startups with Monk Entertainment, I was looking for opportunities [to invest]. Shalini has been a sort of a guide to me and saw my involvement in Ready Set Jet as an organic move… that’s how I decided to back it in India. The way I work with startups is that if I am mentoring someone, I have a lot of inputs in terms of products and culture, especially if they are trying to expand in India. So, the decision wasn’t just as the BeerBiceps influencer who’ll speak in videos, but from a business standpoint as well.

Are you prepared for the new role?

The advantage of running Monk Entertainment for a couple of years has helped me immensely. When you are in marketing, you get a lot of knowledge about what is required by consumer brands in terms of their marketing strategy in India. And, as a YouTuber, you get a bird’s-eye view of the youth. So, over the last year, we switched to doing a lot of unisex and female-oriented content. It gave me an idea about consumer trends too. Besides, I have the best marketing guys… I’m confident about expanding Ready Set Jet here.

Who is your target audience?

The young professional woman, who is starting out and is career-oriented.

What’s the immediate and larger goal?

The immediate goal is crowdfunding. The long-term plan is to create more products… maybe get into the men’s line. Also, there’s the Ready Set Jet Academy—a huge reason why I am involved—that is content-based. I don’t want to call it edtech because it’s an overused term these days. But we are going to start a lot of online courses for professional women. We want to mentor women and help them turn entrepreneurs, growing personal brands online. The whole story with Ready Set Jet is that it’s by the women, for the women. This year is going to be about making even more female-oriented content. And rather than releasing that on YouTube or one of the 100 edtech apps, I’d rather put it out on a platform like this. At its core, it’s women empowerment and helping women entrepreneurship in the country… actually all over the world. I am looking at it from an India standpoint.

How much have you invested in the company?

My contract does not allow me to reveal that, but I plan to stay invested for long.

You started early in life and wear many hats… what have been your learnings along the way?

I hear people say you started early, but I feel I am going too slow. I have learnt that you can literally take any business in the world and run it well as long as you study it properly and are prepared. That has been my biggest learning and it doesn’t apply only to business. As long as you start executing things, you will learn on-the-go. Consistency matters way more than perfection.