Lisa Calhoun
Welcome to the Atlanta Startup Podcast. I’m Lisa Calhoun, your host and General Partner at Valor Ventures. Today I’m really excited to interview one of Atlanta’s top founders. She’s traveling the world building an incredible business. Welcome to the program, Anisa Telwar Kaicker. I’m so glad you can join us.
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
Hi, Lisa, thank you for having me. This is very exciting to get to talk to you about my business.
Lisa Calhoun
Please tell everyone what Anisa International does.
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
Anisa International was started in 1992 and the premise of the business was mainly to distribute, not so much manufacture but really distribute cosmetic brushes. That was my focus and then I grew the business and the ability to distribute other types of accessories for the cosmetic industry. My main customer was going to be Revlon. I was going to be able to sell them brushes or other items from Asia where I was sourcing and then throughout time, which will be 30 years next year, Anisa International has grown into more of this manufacture, designer, most mostly cosmetic brushes. Now, skincare brushes. We own our own facilities in China, we have two facilities that are 18 years old, but I just rebuilt them to be very sustainable. I’ve just launched a brand called Anisa Beauty in 2019. We’ve come a long way.
Lisa Calhoun
Wow, a vertically integrated beauty industry powerhouse. I just want to jump right in and really let people understand some of what you’re doing. How many team members does Anisa have today?
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
Globally, it is close to 500 team members, and most of our operators and the team is in China, 400 plus and in the US there are about 40 of us that mainly handle finance, marketing, administrative, sales, account management and in China, the product design, product development, and the production.
Lisa Calhoun
From your perspective, is beauty truly a global business or are there anchor countries? Help our listeners learn more about the beauty industry from the point of view of your expertise.
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
When you think of beauty, you think of makeup, haircare, now you think of skincare, in a very big way you think of men’s grooming. There are now like the personal care aspects that are also attached to it, all kinds of things are starting to evolve. There’s clean beauty, there’s so much when it comes to beauty that it is really blowing me away. Ever since COVID, what has evolved and how we’re seeing brands out of nowhere come forward. You’re seeing these big conglomerates like Estee Lauder and P&G really starting to acquire these amazing brands that maybe have been around for three or four years. We’re just seeing a brand that I saw today, P&G will be acquiring Ouai, a haircare brand. I don’t even know how old the brand is, maybe five years, they’re going to be buying the brand because of what she’s been able to develop. Beauty has everything to do with what touches us and what’s enhancing us, which is so much now.
Lisa Calhoun
Innovation is definitely everywhere. I feel like you really have your finger on the pulse as a designer. Every time I’ve had the pleasure of being with you, you’ve had a new tool, a new product to show me and it’s like, that’s what I needed. If you could share a few of the innovations you’ve brought out through Anisa Beauty, the latest brand you started in 2019, I think a lot of our listeners will be really interested to hear some of what’s coming to the forefront.
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
I’ve aspired to be the apple of beauty when it comes to makeup brushes. I always wanted to create something that you didn’t know you needed. It really comes from the idea of what I need. I would like simplistic everyday tools to make it easier for me to move quickly and to feel competent. That is what we are consistently or I am consistently thinking about innovating. We have always been about makeup brushes. We transitioned from animal fiber into manmade fibers that emulated animal fiber, gave you better quality, better cost, and really married with innovative makeup that was being launched. Then the next step to me seemed like skincare tools, skincare brushes because what touches our face matters and touching our face with our fingers isn’t always the best right now just because of hygienic and absorption. We created skincare brushes with cool heads and fibers that really work with cleansers, moisturizers, and treatment serums. Skincare is taking off and how the efficacy of it, you don’t have to go to a dermatologist anymore. You don’t have to go out and have a facial. You can do a lot at home and really take care of your skin which makes your makeup look better. Then there’s the self-care type tool, the Gua sha. The movement of the skin, the lymphatic drainage there, really eliminates toxins from our body that are now part of the beauty and personal care that we are also evolving. Cleaning your brushes which people don’t like to do. We have come up with some great ways to do it and do it quickly. It’s about education. We have a brand, we have these great tools but now we need to educate people. Why do they need these items in their life?
Lisa Calhoun
That’s why I love your Instagram. I’ll just go ahead and share it with you. Beauty has not been a big part of my life but Anisa’s brand has been truly game-changing. I watch your Instagram posts on @therealatk. She’s just down to earth and real. A founder showing her products, she shows her own space, her family, and I’m like, “Oh, that’s cool. Oh, that’s fun. Oh, that makes sense.” I agree with you, you’re very much the apple of beauty and skincare. It’s not all about looking so glam or putting glitter on your face, although you do that if you want to, but taking good care of yourself. And that really comes through on your Instagram and you do an amazing job.
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
Thank you. I mean, I am 55. I haven’t really wanted to go a corrective route yet. I want to maintain my health and well-being. I want to feel confident. I’m not competing in the world of beauty in some ways that someone might need to because of the work that they do. But however, I still want to be able to represent and clearly share these little tips and tricks that have to do with the depth of self-care also, because to me beauty at its essence, help us manifest something that is how we really want to be in the world and how we want to express ourselves and how we want to make an impact. That’s how I view beauty. The foundation brush I created makes it really easy for you to have a beautiful finish without a lot of makeup. Like you don’t need to wear a ton of makeup for this brush to work for you. Things like that make a difference. I believe in coverage, and I believe in dark circles, and I have spots and I have this and that, and I have wrinkles. I feel good when I walk out the door and not worry about that and don’t even think about it. When I’m out the door, I’ve done the best I can. This is what you got and it’s good enough. But I think making an effort is important knowing that we can make an effort based on our lifestyle is a good solution.
Lisa Calhoun
The tools, the product line, are super innovative. A lot of our listeners are founders and quite a few of investors as well. But no matter what role they’re sitting in, they care about innovation, and they’re on a journey of their own as a visionary. And so in this program, we try to provide a little nourishment to their visionary soul. I think one of the things that do that the best is the true story of what’s happening to real people like yourself who created something of significant scale. I would like to roll back the clock a little bit and go back to young Anisa. When you were first leading your business, how did that come about? How did you find yourself as a founder CEO?
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
I think it’s interesting because I am more of that grassroots entrepreneur. I started out having the vision or the desire to, in a sense, work for myself, or they still check the box of self-employed. As for how long I’ve been doing this, and it wasn’t cool to be an entrepreneur, that word wasn’t really trending. And I worked for myself. That’s how I looked at it every day, which was not an easy thing to do. When that idea to me was that I would be in control. I would be in control of my destiny, I would be able to make a lot of decisions. I get to tell people what to do. What I didn’t understand is when you work for yourself, you’re really working for everybody. You work for who works for you, you are now working for your customers, you’re working for your partners, you’re working for your vendors. It is our job to create those relationships. It is our job to give people direction and it’s our job now to manage everything. I had no idea what I was stepping into. I thought, “Okay, I’m going to create a lot of freedom for myself.” There is this idea of freedom, in the sense that I can create the direction but in creating that direction, it tethers you in a way people don’t understand. When somebody else would say to me, “I want to work for myself.” I like to set them straight, that they’re going to be working for everybody. Because we can’t make anybody do anything. It comes from our ability to guide, to lead, to inspire. That takes a lot of work on ourselves. We have to be an example on so many levels now for people to even want to follow us as a visionary entrepreneur, leader, whatever you want to call me now. I think that’s not what I understood. I don’t know if it was right or wrong. Whatever drive was in me, the ambition was always like, “I’m gonna grow this.” It wasn’t like this was never good enough. You take it home with you 24/7, even when you’re on vacation, or whatever you’re doing, it’s always a part of us. I think people need to understand.
Lisa Calhoun
That’s interesting. And you still have such a passion for growing the business. I mean, it’s clearly in growth mode every time we get a chance to connect. You’ve been pushing that for good say 30 years?
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
It’ll be 30 years next year. We grow and then we can track and we grow and we can track. it has really evolved, and we add this. It’s always this moving opportunity. It’s never been a straight line.
Lisa Calhoun
You’ve certainly seen many up and down cycles. I want to get back to that thought about how you’ve learned to find joy. I’m not saying that anyone dances through their life in a state of joy, but how you’ve learned to find joy when things are in difficult times. COVID has been really hard, and for a lot of people, COVID isn’t the only struggle that we have. A lot of people have a great deal more on their plate. But before we go there if you don’t mind, I’d like to go back to 30 years ago and how you became an entrepreneur. I know that you’re like me, you worked in your family’s business, you work in your mother’s business. But ultimately, you made something that is your business and carries your name. What was that like? What had to happen? What did happen? What did you make happen?
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
I never planned for this to happen. I never wanted to be the number one in charge. I liked being the number two. I really liked working for my family business. As tough as my mother was, I like working for her. Even though it was really hard, I learned so much. But I like it. She had some real adversity happen. It was very unplanned and it totally devastated what we had built for five years. I did not know what else to do. I had not finished my degree in college. I only had on my resume that I worked for a family business. I didn’t know another option and met with some people that kind of gave me some guidance and advice, said I should start my own business. They directed me toward a product category that I had already had some experience with through my family business. I met with this gentleman and asked him if I could please sell his products for him. That’s how it began. It’s not a sexy story. I was 24. I was pretty desperate. I didn’t know what else my options were. I knew that I wasn’t going to work well with anybody else because I’d had so much autonomy. I started, that’s how it began. It was tough for a really really long time.
Lisa Calhoun
Wow. And yet you persevered. What kept you going in the beginning when it was not at all clear that you would be successful? And in fact, the business that you were reestablishing had just gone through a catastrophe?
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
I think what kept me going was that I didn’t have anybody else’s money. It was always only what I had. It kept me going because I knew it was up to me to create success or not and to financially provide for myself. I did not have any type of safety net. That’s why I call myself a grassroots entrepreneur like I am not someone who had the luxury of investment and was able to share the risk. It was all a risk and reward with 100% on me. Once I had some wins, I think that feeling was very compelling. It motivated me and showed me I had learned a lot from my family business. I had something of what it took to really create a category that didn’t exist before in a new way and I had some passion for it, which I didn’t understand. I didn’t wear a lot of makeup. I wasn’t trained as a makeup artist. I loved the idea of creating a category with a new conversation. People were willing to listen to me, that I had a bit of gift to gab, and I could then follow through. That gave me a lot of self-confidence, which I needed. Because working with my mother was tough, the confidence was never really, you know, she was as a tough mom, right? I never could do anything right. When I got to see I could do some things right and I could compliment myself. It was definitely a motivator. Even today, I don’t expect anybody to say, “Hey, you’re doing a great job.” I don’t get that from anybody. I really look to myself and engage myself. I think that’s helped me a lot.
Lisa Calhoun
In building two factories in China, having 500 team members, and multiple office locations, I wonder about your journey. “I didn’t have anyone else’s money.” Have you found investors who have been part of your journey and are helpful on your journey? What is your relationship with the investor community? How would you advise our listeners around that?
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
Well, the one time I did take a little bit of investment is just for a line of credit. It was exorbitant what I had to pay, and what I gave up, and I did that for a couple of years. But I could have gone to a bank, I just didn’t know I could have done that for a lot less money. That’s why when people say they want to look for investment, I feel like I have to ask them, “Are you going to be giving up too much too soon?” That’s the thing when I realized what I had done, I didn’t want to do it again. The partner just cared about his paycheck. He didn’t care about my daily struggles, my strategy, my wins, my challenges, he could care less. He wanted to be paid. That’s all he cared about. I found that distasteful. I wanted to build a business and I wanted to build a brand. I wanted to build a lifestyle, and I wanted to build a culture. I wanted to do these things. He really wasn’t that inspired by anything other than, “Show me the numbers.” I didn’t want to work with someone like that. That’s what I think. Very early on, it turned me off. I was able and have been blessed, or whatever it is, you want to call it, that I have been able to sustain my own business financially without taking in anybody else’s investment and giving away any equity. But again, I questioned myself, “Is it the right thing to do?”
Lisa Calhoun
Would you be happier? These are all those questions right about the past, but the fact is, you’re fabulously successful. I don’t think we can really question your decision-making at all. It is an interesting point about an investor who cares, and I will say, I do pride myself on the culture of investing we have at Valor. It is incredibly personal and founder-centric. We do very much look into the founders’ entire journey. One of the questions we ask ourselves, we talk about a process called due diligence. We’re certainly diligent in the founders’ business. But the founders of the business where we invest at the seed stage are very young. We also ask ourselves the question, “Are we the right firm to take them where they’re trying to go over this next year or 18 months?” Sometimes that answer is when we take a hard look at ourselves in the mirror, “Nope, we don’t have the expertise or the network to connect them and feel them, empower them where they need to go.” Sometimes, fortunately, we do. But it’s a qualitative side of the investing equation that you brought out. It’s so important, and I think it is often overlooked. I was glad you brought that up.
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
I think like even when you and I speak about my business and your intuitive nature, you say things to me that are very wise about leadership. I think that there is the opportunity one day for me to find someone who would care and help mentor or coach even to a higher level, whether they’re invested or not, but I think if they’re invested financially, maybe there’s even more opportunity for impact. I’m open to that now. But I love what you said because I’ve seen you do it with me and you have not invested in my company. I think you just have something and I think this is what may be the world is becoming, I’m hoping, with investment and that we get more of this. I have seen it in the beauty industry, some great investments have happened that have really been able to evolve businesses because they brought in the right kinds of money.
Lisa Calhoun
I hope that happens in the beauty industry, too. Because it touches so many people in so many profound ways. Beauty is close to one’s identity, when you’re a woman, and I’m sure for some of the gentleman listening, too, but it’s very close to the identity that we’re acculturated toward as women. And that makes it a place of unique power but it’s also very powerful to have leaders like you who are reimagining the identity side of beauty, more comfortable, more effective, more beautiful. I mean, seriously, if you use a makeup brush, please check out and use the beauty just for fun. I’m not trying to do a product placement, I’m just trying to say look at those brushes. They’re so different and that’s fun. About how you’ve learned to self-motivate, and I know that this is a frontier, I’m not trying to put you in a place where you’re a guru, and you’ve arrived, and it’s all done. Because you’re a learner, you’re a grower, you’re a leader. But one of the things that I pick up, especially even in your Anisa’s beauty feed, is you have a lot of wisdom around self-care and maintaining your own energy. You’ve advised me well on things like that, if you would mind, I’d love to hear a few lessons learned from your own journey on how to refresh and renew yourself. I’m sure it’s going to be applicable to many founders but I’m going to go ahead and be selfish and say, please focus on those female founders in our audience, because a lot of times our listeners, and they look like all of America here in Atlanta, but a lot of times our listeners, in particular, were very successful and very passionate, they don’t look like this standard founder icon who is a guy who went to Harvard, or Stanford, or MIT and comes from a family that’s been going to Harvard, or Stanford, or MIT for four generations. That’s generally not our Atlanta founder and that’s generally not our Atlanta Startup podcast listener. I think some of your wisdom and approach are going to be very resonant and come from a different place that may actually prove fruitful.
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
I’ve made so many mistakes, and I guess, the greatest learnings have come from very deep trial and error. And at the beginning of my business, there was no self-care, there was the ability to self-reflect or not was there, but there wasn’t a real understanding of burnout. There wasn’t a real understanding that taking time away would actually make me more impactful, just like an athlete needs to rest and regenerate. I didn’t understand. I was a little bit manic with wanting to grow the business. When I turned 40, it’s when I started to understand that my personal preservation of my sanity and having some kind of balance with eating and sleeping and friendships and a love interest that I will be a better leader and person. My happiness would impact the business in the greatest way possible. It didn’t hit me till much later, therefore, there was a lot of damage. I feel like I kind of made it because I was unhealthy on my own. I didn’t understand that. If I could just get healthier, I would be better in so many ways. Now, meditation has been a big part of my life for the last five years. It has made a huge difference. When I’m becoming frustrated or agitated, I know there’s something going on with me. I am really more apt now to take some time away. It is difficult to sit back and say, “Look what I’ve done. This is so great. Take a break.” It’s just not how I’m built. However, I need to allow myself regeneration and that’s how I look at it. Now, it’s rejuvenation so that I can go back in and be better because there are too many lives. There are so many people that depend on what I do. I’m taking my self-care much more seriously now.
Lisa Calhoun
What I’m hearing you say is that you look at taking time to yourself, taking time to meditate, taking breaks from work, taking vacations, even periods of rest and recovery, that is not selfish, that that is something that you actually believe, puts life into your business, and you’re a much larger team.
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
100%. I’ve seen it happen where, I am patient, and more energized, and more grounded, I have the ability to focus better to give people what they need, to understand that now my role is to empower. I’m not the one who has to do all of it anymore. But how do I give support? And if I don’t have anything in me, how am I going to support those around me to succeed? We have so much energy in a day. I can’t do it all anymore. I need to be smart about resources, and I am a good resource to the company, so, therefore, I want to take care of that resource. It’s a constant conversation with myself to not feel guilty, there is some of that that still happens? It’s crazy that I would feel guilty to take time away, and I’m constantly evolving and growing, and it kind of hit me these last few weeks that even my own people need that. All of us need time off and it’s really important.
Lisa Calhoun
I think it’s very true. I think it creates a lot of clarity for me when I’m able to get that perspective. I often feel like there’s never a good time to get it. That’s also true. But then it comes to our creativity as leaders to make that time. We make other things happen. And I tell myself this, I have encouraged myself around downtime and rest and recovery time, which is how I look at it. It’s recovery time, if you want to be an athlete in business and perform at the highest levels, then you have to adopt the whole metaphor, athletes work extremely hard to come across the finish line half-dead, but then they take some time off, and they recover before they try for that level of performance again. I think that with business athletes and founders like ourselves, it’s good to take a note from that. We can’t always use the power side of the curve. We have to look at the light side and the dark side, the rest and recovery, day and night. Are you sleeping, founders? Things like that? I was at our holiday party just last week and one of the amazing portfolio founders in Valor, I’m not going to mention names when I tell the whole story. She grew 200% last year, and we’re talking about an incredible SaaS software business. I said, “What’s going on?” and she’s like, “I’m not sleeping.” There’s a lot of things a VC could work with a founder on but I said, “We’re going to work on that. That’s going to be our KPI this next 30 days.” Seriously, because sleeping is a skill and you can learn how to do it well. I’ve had to learn how to sleep well. I sleep really well now, most of the time, but I didn’t for quite a bit of my life. It’s these types of things that are often not talked about by founders, but they catch up with you.
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
It was very different then, we didn’t have everything that’s coming out now. It was very different, there wasn’t an email volume at that time. There wasn’t half of the social impact that we have right now. The growth of the IG consumer goods section like all this that’s happening that keeps us 24/7 right now wasn’t happening then. Just my suggestion for her, if she’s not sleeping, if it’s the stuff that’s going on in her head, she just needs to wake up and write it down and then probably should go back to sleep. I was having a similar issue. I was literally working in my sleep and creating all kinds of solutions and downloading. I just made myself get up, write it all down, and then I would be able to go back to bed. She might be just very, very active when she sleeps.
Lisa Calhoun
Sometimes that happens to me actually. I keep an iPad by my bed with an app on it called Nebo because it’s a digital note keeper and I write down those thoughts in Valor ideas and brainstorm notebook that I have with me everywhere because it’s digital. I used to have a notepad by my bed but then I would be stressed out because my notepad by my bed with that great plan was at home and I was in New York, what was I gonna do with that? I mean, I hear you, I would love to hear any concrete, these are things you actually do that that keep you sane and to the extent that you’re able to just really deeply share, I know our listeners will find value in that one person’s reality and one person’s truth.
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
I do think writing things down even things that we want to happen, we intend to happen, I find it really interesting. If we can just write it all down the solutions that we know are needed on a weekly basis, we would be surprised if we look back a month later at how much that came to fruition. Because I do feel that if once we just put it on paper, or notepad or whatever it is, the things that we need to create for a solution and really focus on those solutions in our manifestation, because I do believe we can manifest and especially as entrepreneurs, as visionary, we’re creators, that’s what we do. We’re constantly creating. Make sure what we’re creating is really, really clear on a piece of paper, and if it isn’t created, you probably didn’t need it. The other thing that I’ve been really working on is one, I need to work on the feeling. If I create these things that I want, I did not work on but I wanted to create this amazing global empire, I didn’t know how I was going to feel. I only thought that I wanted to global empire. Well, I didn’t want to feel as stressed out as I do. I should have been thinking also that I want to global empire and I want to feel peaceful. None of that was part of it, right? Now in my meditation, instead of thinking about, “Okay, I’m going to go into meditation and be really productive and solution-oriented.” I started working with this gentleman, he said, “Just go into meditation and think of peace and tranquility. That’s all you need to think about. That will manifest everything that I really need to manifest in my life.” And that made a lot more sense to how we are going to feel when we get what we want. I think it’s something we need to all be thinking about.
Lisa Calhoun
Wow, I love that. Not only what you want, but how it feels when you have it. That’s the way to program yourself for some success. I love that, Anisa. I mean, this is really good. What else did you learn to do? It’s probably hard because you’re like, “Well, I know how to do it now.”
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
We do have a lot of female followers. I think there’s something about there’s truth to age, and when we are 20,30, 40, 50, how we’re going to feel, how much energy we have, and that menopause is very real. Nobody really talks about the impact that was going to have on me. And it has had a great impact. I’ve seen it has an impact on women who work for me. I’ve seen these things really make a difference in their ability to deal with anxiety, to manage stress. I think that was another motivator for me to take support and meditation, health. I didn’t want to have to take any kind of hormone. I wanted to really look at how I could do this, to exercise the reality of gluten intolerances that really happened to people during this time of our life, like really accepting and not resisting what it’s going to take for us to be happy and perform. I’ve always been a fan of listening to our body, it will tell us, really trying to hear what our mind is also telling us that’s why meditation is important. Writing down whatever is going on. Being our own best friend right now, I know it sounds silly, but I never was a good friend to myself. I was really tough on myself for a very, very long time. People will treat us how we treat ourselves and the mirrors that we have around us will speak a lot to what we think of ourselves. Those are things I’m dealing with right now, how do people treat me? It’s just going to be something I need to work on that has to do with me. It has very little to do with them. They could love me or they could hate me, that has everything to do with them and really nothing to do with me. I’m starting to look at that because if I grow my business or grow my brand, there will be people who love us, and then there’ll be people who don’t like us and how am I going to deal with all that? That’s what I’m working on right now.
Lisa Calhoun
Wow, that is some truly deep work. It reminds me of one of those Buddhist phrases. “The only thing you can change is yourself.” That’s the only thing that we actually can change is ourselves and our own perception. That continues to become more real for me as well because you can’t control, as you point out, what other people think. They are going to think their own thoughts and act in their own ways, but yourself and how you’re perceiving that engagement, how you use that as fuel for your own journey is something that is under our own power. If we want to reach it, and take hold of our power, and move in it. I just loved that share, Anisa. On the point about menopause, I recently read a book. I’m a huge reader. I read a lot. I was really engaged by the idea. It’s a book called The Menopause Manifesto by Dr. Jen Gunter. She says, “Hey, menopause is real and all the things that you hear about it are all real. Are they going to be real for you? You’ll find out with your own journey.” Be a friend to yourself. But also on the other side, she really paints this wonderful image of women leadership in the power of that post-menopause of life. Now, I’m not quite there yet. But I think that that is a really interesting image. it’s something that I definitely want to bring up to everyone who’s listening in our listener family. There are lots of ideas around female leadership in mid to late life that was taught as negative. But actually, there are a few archetypes that have been brought forward, especially by authors like Dr. Jen Gunter, that are so powerful, that they’re really engaging to me, and I’m like, wow. For example, one of the things she shares is that, well, why do women go through menopause? Why don’t we just end our reproductive life with our natural life, and die? Guys can reproduce very, very late in life? Why not women? And she said, you know, evolutionarily, one of the reasons is because women were the knowledge keepers of how to gather and prepare things that matter like food and children and the next generation. It was important to take a pause from reproduction, and actually teach. I love that. I thought it’s an interesting insight.
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
I love what you just said, because I’ve been looking at great leaders, and they don’t really come into their own until their 60s. I think that that is what we as women, knowing that this is our plan, make so much sense. It’s getting through that transitional process to prepare us for what is to come, I think is something if we could have more focus on like, this is this pain of menopause has a purpose. Let’s get through it. How do we get through it well, and how do we share with each other, how to get through it? What are the things that work for us? Because it’s trial and error sometimes with it. I love that. I think that’s pretty fantastic.
Lisa Calhoun
I only got a few more minutes and you have a crazy schedule so thank you for making time to talk to our listeners. But I’m curious about your 2022. Tell us what’s coming attractions, what’s going on with Anisa Beauty? What should we be following and looking out for? Perhaps anything you’re really excited about or really challenged by that you’d like to share?
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
I think you know, with COVID, everybody speaks to silver linings. There are silver linings. It made us reassess. 2022 is about a re-alignment. It’s about this redefining beauty, what it means to us, and how we want to share that information. Talking about real beauty and not just talking about it, but now living it in a way that we show what beauty looks like in all types of ways. Realigning what really matters within a business that we can’t do everything. It’s impossible. What do we really want to do that has the greatest impact and who really wants to do it? We’ve gone through a mass resignation, we’ve lost a lot of people. Now we’re bringing in new people and what does that mean to us? They may not have the institutional knowledge, but they have the ability to help us evolve. I think that’s what I’m looking at my company at 30 years old, maybe 30 years young. We are evolving to something we can’t even imagine yet and just allowing that to happen. We know we make brushes, that is not going to change. We know how to make brushes, that may change a little bit. We know what companies we want to work with. But there’ll be new companies coming into the beauty space that we’re not even aware of yet. There’ll be new people coming into our life that will really make a difference for us. For myself, stepping into the next phase of what it means to be a leader in this organization is also happening and for myself to allow that to happen and bring people up with me that has been part of my business for some time, they’re ready to rise up to. It’s going to be a lot of realignment, making sure we are redefining what is the value of our business, and making sure that everybody in the organization is aligned with that and feels empowered to make an impact on all levels. That will be my hope for 2022. It will take a full year. By the end of 2022, then we can do maybe a three or five-year plan. Right now, we just have a plan to get through 2022 and what that’s going to look like for us.
Lisa Calhoun
What an incredible vision though, I can just feel you pulling the leaders you need to you by being so clear. Speaking of clarity, listen to how clear she is, everyone, it’s so amazing. Because I think a lot of a lot of people are blowing a little bit of smoking dust and saying they have a five-year plan right now. And seriously, does anyone have a five-year plan? Because if you do, go look in the mirror and ask yourself how realistic that is.
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
There’s a lot still pending. We’re in a big transition. I think it’s fair for all of us just to be as productive as we can this next year.
Lisa Calhoun
I love that. I wanted to touch base on some of your philanthropic interests for next year. I was at the grand opening. I think it’s called LifeLine Animal Project. I would love for you to clarify some of the philanthropic work you and your husband do with animals because that’s also so powerful. You do so much. I want to bring that out, too. Because a lot of people got a new pet this last year, people are looking at Christmas as we’re recording this and thinking about new pets. I think you’re just so engaged in making sure that pets have a safe home and good life.
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
Yes, when I started to feel some success in my business about 8/10 years ago, it became apparent to me that in Atlanta, there were a lot of animals being euthanized unnecessarily, about 90,000. It seemed incomprehensible that this was happening. I was able to meet someone, a very powerful woman, who had a solution. In this timeframe, we’ve been able to grow this beautiful Lifeline Animal Project. We manage the cap shelter, Fulton shelter, we now have a community Animal Center, there’s a low-cost spay and neuter clinic. We are very much invested in having Atlanta be a no-kill state, which means under 10% of animals will be euthanized, and that means that they just really have a chance to be adopted. That is what has happened. That is what I’m committed to. I’m a big advocate of checking out a rescue or shelter first before you buy a dog. There are beautiful animals that are in the shelters that are ready to be adopted now and they’ve been spayed. They’ve been neutered and they’ve had all their shots. There’s a lot of education that goes behind why a city is better If we take care of our homeless animals, the humaneness of an organelle of a community speaks a lot to how we take care of our homeless pets. I’m very committed to Lifeline. I will be on their board, again, be chairing their board for the next two years. We’re really going to be building out an amazing board that can really take our mission and vision to the next level too. That is on my radar. Would love any support there.
Lisa Calhoun
Speaking of the board leaders you’re trying to attract to Lifeline, what are some of the boxes you’re trying to check on, in case any of the innovators are listening?
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
Fantastic skill sets, we could really use some strong financial intellect right now. The governance or governance committee will be very engaged in the recruitment. People who have a strong network in the community that would be able to share our mission and vision that could then attract new board members, how we recruit new board members, and onboard new board members are going to evolve. People who are passionate about making a difference in Atlanta and understand that the impoverished community in Atlanta wants to keep their pets, and it makes a difference in their life to keep their animals sometimes they just cannot afford it. It’s just not animals, it’s animals, its people, its quality of life, and our city. Someone who has been working with other organizations like the Woodruff may understand that if we are able to really grow Lifeline’s mission, it impacts our whole community. People who are aware of how the grants that are available could coincide with the mission that Lifeline has would be great. Anybody very passionate, and involved and wants to get more involved in the community, we would love to speak to.
Lisa Calhoun
Wow, well, thank you for recruiting for that incredible local, nonprofit board right here on our program. I want to make sure people know how to get in touch with you and how to follow you on your different platforms. If you wouldn’t mind, tell us how to best keep up with Anisa Beauty and you. How are ways that you want people to engage with you digitally in this year ahead?
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
I think LinkedIn is great. I will be definitely sharing about the different types of philanthropic endeavors that we’re doing, the different types of business endeavors that we’re engaged in. Then my Instagram, which has what is called this linktree link that you can go to and it shows you different ways that if you want to be engaged with also the nonprofits, or just the things that we’re doing, and I do talk about mentorship, and I do talk about leadership, and you just speak to that on my Instagram. And then there’s Anisa beauty, also Instagram and anisabeauty.com. We’re launching a new website which I’m going to be very proud of. That looks really great and that also will share what we’re doing corporately and globally. There’s a lot of ways. I think if you just look up Anisa, we come up. That’s what I would recommend.
Lisa Calhoun
She just says as I mentioned my first name, I’ll come up. I love it. Thank you. You are amazing. Have a wonderful holiday and year ahead, Anisa. Can’t wait to follow your journey.
Anisa Telwar Kaicker
Thank you, Lisa. You’re wonderful. Appreciate you.
Lisa
Thank you for listening to the Atlanta Startup Podcast. You know, we’re not just a podcast, we’re a community, and we’d love to see you at one of our digital or physical events, go to valor.VC and sign up for an event that makes sense for you. We have events for founders and the investors who back them. Another event you might enjoy is Startup Runway. The Startup Runway Foundation is a Valor organization that provides $10,000 grants to founders who are women or people of color building next-generation software products. Applications are free and we’d love to hear from you at startuprunway.org. And as always, thank you so much to the organizations that make this podcast possible. Not only Valor Ventures, but also Write2Market, a tech marketing and PR agency in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Startup Runway Foundation and Atlanta Tech Park Valley’s headquarters, and also headquarters for over 100 local entrepreneurs, building global businesses. See you next week. Please bookmark the podcast and join us.
