Transcript
So, hello, everyone. I’m really happy to be joined by ARPA today, and I think all of you will find his story, what we’re going to be talking about today, really inspiring. We’ve known each other for quite a few years, kept in touch. But before we get to the, the, the juice, the meatiness of our conversation today, Arpit, why don’t you introduce yourself to everyone? Cool. Well, firstly, thanks, Annami for, uh, having, uh, me on this podcast. By way of introduction. Well, I’m not sure how far I need to go, but OK, let me just summarise it.
So, uh, names are pet. I live in London. Uh, I’ve spent over 25 years in tech strategy and innovation, both in large enterprises such as Pro Infosys uh, Oracle, as well as in startups, uh, both working for a startup, uh, and, uh, co-founding, uh, my own startup, HIFA, which was in the innovation, uh, software space. Uh, and, well, what I’m doing right now is last year after, um, my startup, uh, went in for voluntary liquidation. I was looking at, OK, what to do next, and finally decided to revive a passion project of mine, uh, which is to make non-alcoholic perfumes.
So, yeah, that’s me and that’s what I do. So, before we get to all of that, I think what you’re really leaving out here is, I think the massive amount of creativity that you have. Um, you’ve left out that you have written poetry, you’ve published, etc. So maybe tell us about that before we, we go on further. Yeah. Uh, it’s interesting you mention that because, you know, when I started my career, it was, it was going in a very predictable manner that, OK, start from the bottom rung in this function, then slowly and slowly expand your responsibility.
But even though on paper, I was doing reasonably OK, but there was something on in me which remains which remained unfulfilled. Um, and I’ve done various programmes and, uh, courses, uh, over the years, uh, on innovation, on creativity, but I found it really hard to apply it, uh, in the roles I was in. And that’s where, you know, there was a dissonance. Um, I met in the same conference that I met you, uh, Anay, uh, I also met, uh, Bella Cox. Uh, she’s a poet herself, uh, and a poet in residence for, in a couple of big institutions.
Um, and yeah, I met her and she became my tutor for a while. Uh, I learned poetry from her sessions once a week or once every 2 weeks. Uh, yep, so, uh, I didn’t get anything published at that time. Uh, she said, OK, I’ve taken you as far as I could. Now you need to get formally trained. So I enrolled for a Master of Arts in writing poetry, uh, at Newcastle University and poetry school. Uh, and yeah, 2 years, phenomenal time, expanded my mental horizon, my way of seeing really changed.
And after the Emmy ended, uh, I had the beginner’s luck when there was a Welsh publisher, um, Broken Sleep Books. They were looking for a poet for their, uh, uh, for, for 2020. And yep, I happened to get selected. So that’s, that’s my poetry journey. And remind us what your book is called, in case anybody wants to look at it, other than, obviously, um, well, the non-alcoholic perfume that we’re gonna talk about. What was your book called? Uh, it’s called What We Say Is Home. And, uh, the, well, The backstory behind this is that the concept of home has always been very fluid, uh, for me.
I’ve lived in 10 cities across India and the UK. Uh, so this book is all about trying to answer that question, what is home? And it reflects on my time growing up in India, the people, places, experiences that matter, but refracted through the 20 years I have spent here in the UK. It’s available on Amazon and at the publisher’s website. What we say is home. Yeah, and I’m afraid that it’s really. I think you probably need to read it a few times, is what I would say. It’s, it’s really beautiful.
So, um, yeah, congratulations for that. Thank you for that. Um, OK, so talk to us about your latest venture. Right. OK. There was, yeah. So, uh, I attended a, uh, event, well, festival of sorts called Doha, uh, last year, and the promise of that, uh, festival or event was, well, 33 magical days that will change your life. It’s hard to explain or pinpoint what exactly it does to you. Uh, but yeah, I went, uh, I walked away from that, uh, event all inspired. And I’ve always loved perfumes right from my childhood days.
I’ve done various perfume making courses as well. Uh, after my, I had a major cycling accident, uh, 3 years ago, which left me with, uh, multiple brain injuries. Uh, the neurologist said, Well, no alcohol in your body. Giving up drinking, easiest bit. Giving up perfumes, which is, which are 80 to 90% alcohol. Uh, that was really difficult. And I never thought about that. Now that you’re saying it, I’m thinking about it for the first time that actually spraying it on you is just, oh, OK, goodness. Mm. Well, yeah, but yeah, you know, people argue that, well, the amount is very, very tiny and minuscule in terms of parts per million.
But hey, uh, if you are quite sensitive to that, uh, alcohol is a neurotoxin, so even a small amount can impact. So when I looked at the options available, I couldn’t find anything. There were those sandalwood oil-based ones called others because water can’t mix with the oil. So that’s the way, uh, that’s the usual way of non-alcoholic perfumes, but they all smell the same rose and wood, they’re difficult to apply, and they operate at a very lower end of the market. So I couldn’t find anything in the market.
I said, Well, let’s make it, uh, ourselves. So I walked away from Do Wales with this idea, OK, let’s finally do something about it. Uh, and then when my startup was, well, we took voluntary liquidation after, after a reasonably, uh, OK 4-year run, um. Yeah, what to do next? I said, OK, you know, this is the first time, uh, actually in my life that I haven’t analysed or overthought a decision. Uh, I just went with my gut, and I just said, now is the time to do it.
And the spirit with which I went was that, hey, uh, I might succeed, I might fail, but at least I won’t go down in my deathbed wishing I had tried it. So that’s the spirit, uh, I took this on. Um, and yeah, uh, how about it? Where are you at? And I think we’ve spoken before about that horrible accident you had. You know, maybe if a a little bit of that actually could potentially lead to something really or has led to something positive, right? Yeah, you know, uh, uh, if I, by the way, get emotional.
Uh, it’s completely understandable, right? I mean, I, I’m, I’m, I’m absolutely amazed at the level of resilience that you’ve shown, you know, obviously knowing what you have been through. So that’s why I was so inspired to talk to you today and to just hear more and share your story. Well, yeah. Uh, so, yeah, memories of the accident, they, they make me a bit teary, right? But, uh, you know, uh, when I first went after the accident, uh, but it changed my life forever. So, you know, I have a life, but I had a life pre-accident, and now I have a life post-acident.
Both are totally different. And you talked about, you know, something positive coming out of a, well, uh, traumatic experience. Uh, in the first meeting I went of the Brain Injury Association headway. Um, uh, the leader of that, uh, North London group, she said, My brain injury is the biggest gift to me. And I was like, Well, it’s, it destroys lives. How can this, this be such a big gift? And then as, as and when I attended the meetings, I realised that the injury forced them to address issues in their life or go down a different path, which they would have never done otherwise.
And, uh, my therapist also, we’ve been working on something called post-traumatic growth that, uh, well, hey, you become, there’s some functions that you have lost, but there’s a whole new perspective that you have gained. And frankly, I wouldn’t have gone this route, uh, without, well, if I didn’t have the accident. And, uh, yeah, there’s some things which I’ve become. Better at understanding people and giving people slack because you don’t know what’s happening in their lives. So, uh, so yeah, giving them some slack, and I’ve become very good at numbers.
So, and systems and processes because that is that something neurological or how, how do you mean, how has that happened? Well, uh, it’s, it’s, uh, yeah. See, I, I was not too bad at numbers, but that’s not something I wanted to focus on. Systems and processes, I absolutely detested them and, you know, I would always try and run as far away as I could from, uh, from them. And yeah, maybe neurologically, you know, there’s a part, you know, that numerical ability part, um, Uh, of my brain or the neural connections which, uh, which are responsible for that, they got reactivated much more strongly.
So that’s why I, you know, discomfort for numbers and absolute love with systems and processes, things that I would run away from. But my whole life, uh, runs in systems. So I find them interesting problems to solve. Interesting, super interesting. So tell us what’s your, what’s your perfume called? Yeah. Uh, OK. So, uh, just to give a, a quick background, so when I started off with perfume, well, the only thing I knew was that, OK, it has to be non-alcoholic. Uh, but I didn’t want it to be in a, you know, in a, in a traditional other-based, uh, sandywood oil-based.
So I researched and found this, uh, patented technology in France called Water plant emulsion. Which allows water and oil to be dispersed together. So, OK, so I knew, OK, I found the base for my, uh, for the non-alcoholic perfume. And then, uh, you know, those who love their perfumes, they know that expecting one perfume to do the job all day long is a tough ask. So they always layer their perfumes, so one over another. Uh, so, uh, when I was writing the brief for what kind of perfume we want, what’s the olfactory and emotional landscape you want to make, it was pretty clear.
It has to be layerable. And, uh, there are two flowers which I absolutely love rose and then tuber rose. And because East and West fusion, that’s the other theme of the perfume. So, well, so in the brief, OK, one perfume is gonna be, uh, same perfume, but one bottle is going to be rose dominant and the other one tuberrose dominant. I have a tuba rose. Obviously I know what a rose is, is a tuber rose a type of rose? Uh, no, tuber rose is, uh, a different family of flowers, probably closer to Jasmine.
Um, so they have those white flowers and it usually Uh, I’m looking at it now. Yeah, yeah. Ah, OK, OK. Mhm. So it’s called Rajnianha in, uh, in Hindi. So flowers. Yeah, they’re beautiful. Oh yeah, I know exactly what they are. Mhm. Perfect. So yeah, that was lay was the other thing. And then, uh, you know, perfume industry is notorious for single use and waste. So, uh, we wanted to make it the most eco-friendly perfume possible. So looked at the whole supply chain right from the translucency of glass to the, uh, spray, uh, mechanism and what’s it what its material is.
Uh, so yeah, those are the things I then started about, uh, finding, uh, well, finding the different pieces of the puzzle and then putting them all together. The first one was designing the formula. I tried doing it myself. I realised commercially grade perfumes, well, hobby perfumes, fine, but commercial grade, I just can’t do it. Uh, I, I, I spoke to some, uh, other manufacturers. I realised they are good at essential oils. They don’t know, uh, how to mix and create, uh, a perfume. Uh, and then, and then I realised that if you want to be in the perfume business, you have to be in France.
And, uh, one part of my inspiration also was a trip to grass, which is the perfume capital of the world 3 years ago. So then I looked around and found a master perfumer. I just hearts and minds just resonated, so she totally got what we’re trying to do. Uh, and yeah, that’s where the journey began. Then I do Wales I found, I’d met someone who was a marketing expert, another one who was a branding expert. So yeah, one of them did a brand identity, the other one did a marketing strategy and, uh, um, and a launch plan and website.
And then, yeah, all the other puzzles, pieces of the puzzle from the bottle to the label to the spray pumps, um, to the whole manufacturing supply chain. They started to fit together and uh here we are now. Amazing, and tell me, I’m just looking at the website again, which we’ll obviously share. Um, is it in production already? Can people buy? Yes, so people can pre-order it. Uh, so, uh, it’s going to be a very limited edition, uh, only 729 bottles. That specific, so that specific number was because we knew it had to be a number between 700 and 800.
Uh, 729 is 9 cube, so lucky number. So we said let’s go with that. Uh, so yeah, you can pre-order it right where it is right now is that formula finalised. We passed the 3 month, uh, stabilisation testing, uh, phase, production orders have been given, uh, for the concentrate, uh, so, uh, the bulk, uh, will be ready by end of July or so in 3 or 4 weeks from now. It’s a very tight supply chain. And then the packaging and bottling and packaging that will all be done here in the UK in August.
So our, our aim has always been to start deliveries in September. So that’s, that’s where we are with rame Rouge. So it’s got, yeah. Um, right, one thing I didn’t mention was the name. So it’s called Brame Rouge. Uh, so again, I. Oh yeah. So is the name of the company. Uh, like poetry was home and now you have a house. Yeah. And Dilly, it’s the, it’s a local name for Delhi. Uh, that’s where I was born. So that’s why it’s Dilly House. And, uh, Prame Rouge is the name of the perfume.
Prame means love, and, uh, and my grandfather’s first name was also Prem. And then Rouge is, uh, the French rouge, all about red, fire, passion. So unconventional love is the theme of this poem, so hence the name Prame Rouge. I love it. And tell me, um, because our time’s nearly up, so you definitely need to let me know once it’s out there and everything. We’ll put links and so on, obviously in the, in the post. Um, what, what, what are the similarities or differences from having done a startup, which now to me sounds like really heavy lifting.
If I, if I look at this and how you’re talking about it, I know you were inspired by what you did before, but this feels much lighter and much closer to your creative side. Absolutely. I have never enjoyed working as much. As the past few months, uh, on this project. It’s really brought out the best in me. And I’d always been wondering all through these years that, hey, what am I really meant to do? Where will I find meaning and purpose? I think I’ve got there now.
So. So happy for you. I’m really, really happy. And so what advice? I mean, you’ve given you some snippets of advice already. But what, what last thought would you want to leave our listeners to? Because I think at some level, we’re all looking for that meaning and why we’re here and why we’re doing this work, and how do we find meaning in our work, and so on. What, what, what advice would you give? Uh, but it might sound quite generic, uh, and maybe even a bit cliched, but, uh, what I found, if you try and force things to happen, uh, then it doesn’t happen or whatever happens is not the right thing to happen.
So, uh, the thing is to, uh, keep at it. And keep the senses, uh, open, be open to opportunities, and then at the right time when you’re also ready for it, uh. Uh, so it’s OK not to know your meaning and purpose for a few years, etc. But yeah, someday you hope everyone finds it. Yeah, it’s too late, right? If we’re we’re. And you know what, I think someone said to me, cliches are cliches because they’re kind of true, right? So I don’t have a problem and it doesn’t sound like a cliche to me.
I think what I’m left with is a lot of people know what you’re saying there, but they don’t do it. And what’s really great is that you’ve taken that step and you’ve done it. And so, I really wish you all of the very, very best. Thank you so much, Anne. No worries. And please keep us posted um when it’s actually in the market. I’ll share for people to pre-order, but it was lovely to talk to you again. Well, thank you, Anne. Amazing conversation at all levels, and yeah, thank you for having me here.
