A women-community led micro venture in rural Maharashtra
This is the story of a proud community of homemakers and their micro-venture that was envisioned, conceptualized, designed and built around both - hyper-locality & community good. Venture design here demonstrates the capacity to create hyper-local brands, micro-businesses and grow market linkages.
This fragrant venture around home-made Sajuk Tup Ghee (a type of clarified butter made from cow milk and with its cultural roots in India) has its moorings in a shy village in rural Maharashtra.
Ghee has been an ancient ingredient in home-cooking and also the traditional wellness science of Ayurveda. In a sense it is Vedic in its origins and is part of the Panchamruta offering used in yagnas and homams, and thereby becomes almost a divine food.
NYUCT Design Labs used the frameworks of venture design, product development and strategic branding to help a fourth-generation creator and a community of homemakers bring this nano venture to life.
This has been a prototype micro-venture that illustrates how honest brands, entrepreneurial capabilities and market linkages can be created across villages and districts of India with venture design.
Dongaon is a (small, charming village like many in India) tucked by the bank of Godavari river that borders two different cultures and two districts. With a population of roughly 900, Dongaon houses small farm owners whose families have been residing there since the last 6 generations.
People here believe in seasonality and follow a slow pace of life. They worship the river that blesses them with abundance and they take care of the cattle like their own children, even naming them.
The ghee that reaches you is made with love from the milk of Chandrika, Radha, Ekadashi and Tambdi, cows on the farm, only after they are done feeding their calves.
What have been the outcomes? After all, the proof of venture design is in the eating.
Some outcomes have been pleasantly surprising and some learnings have been gleaned. But almost all of them have been as flavorful as this home-made Ghee.
Dongaon Local as on 26th June 2024 has shipped more than 120 kilograms of Ghee orders placed through their direct to order channel, the Xplorium platform (a discovery platform for all things conscious) and a maker's partnership forged with Locavore (a producer collective in India).
Such D2C channels and lean models helped tap into the niche segments of customers needed.
Result?
While we had initially prepped for a conservative 10 kg offtake, this meant that Dongaon Local created a 10X pipeline of demand from across the country. Happy Customers have also ordered re-runs.
There is roughly a 40% repeat ratio of customers which for a fledgling brand is appreciable. More than anything it is the personal notes from customers that have been rewarding. For the community to see a venture come to life and help monetize their kitchen skills, it has been a revelation.
Orders have come in from all corners of India beating the geographical assumptions of likely markets and for use cases which are varied - home cooking, nostalgia, ayurvedic prescriptions and independent restaurant and more.
This venture has also led to a strong sense of community and enterprise. There is a purposeful ambition amongst the families at Dongaon to slowly scale this and introduce their village to the world at large.
In a sense Dongaon Local and the way the venture was designed and developed has led to the unlocking of an entrepreneurial spirit amongst homemakers.
What has made customers fall in love with Dongaon Local?
The community's production ethics, slow life sensibilities, and ensuring that it uses milk only after the calves are fed demonstrates its goodness. And this is exponentially magnified with mothers in the kitchen preparing your Ghee using recipes handed down through generations. Mom's love is after all the most nourishing.
This micro-level traceability and honesty offer a flavor that the conscious audiences are increasingly seeking across metro markets. Customers are getting tired of products that are being busted for their opaque practices, dubious ingredients, processes that are exploitative. And there is a rapidly growing community of conscious consumers who value traceable brands and are willing to pay a premium for it.
To help scale and accelerate this nano-venture we would love to invite interest from micro-investors and impact brands. This is most certainly not a unicorn nor has the slightest intentions to be. But yes it intends to be an exemplary and honest micro-venture that helps compound social & community capital for empowered home-makers in rural India.
Our venture designers and impact team would be happy to connect should there be a similar initiative that you or your organization would like to kickstart or fund.
