While many might think that artificial intelligence (AI) is just another much-bandied term, Good Glamm Group's co-founder Priyanka Gill believes that the generative AI's advent is a watershed moment for the industry at large. The content-to-commerce start-up runs several popular brands, including Sirona, The Moms Co and Organic Harvest. 

She shared her excitement about this technology in an exclusive interaction with Outlook Start-Up on the sidelines of the India Internet Day 2023 conclave organised by TiE Delhi-NCR. Also, she spoke about focusing on profitability, maintaining governance standards and reaching out to new audiences across the country. 

The group's co-founder also shared some advice for entrepreneurs looking to build their brands.  

Edited excerpts:  

There has been a lot of buzz about AI, with nearly every sector looking for innovative ways to leverage the new technology. How is Good Glamm Group seeking to maximise it in the coming years? 

We have a lot of brands at Good Glamm Group and are reaching out to millions of users. We are looking for exciting ways to leverage AI and the other latest technologies to amplify touchpoints that we can use to reach out to our customers. 

On the content side, generative AI has been a watershed moment for the entire industry. The opportunities we are looking at include how we can scale up technology, use new tools, and skill our teams to use the latest innovations.

We are looking at many opportunities now, and these new technologies hold huge potential. Good Glamm Group is excited about AI's potential and is looking for ways to maximise its usage. 

As companies look to scale up by using the new tools available, there have also been talks about taking care of profitability as market sentiments have changed. How would you assess the current situation for start-ups? 

Times have changed. As entrepreneurs, we take our cues from the investor world. At one point, investors wanted growth at all costs and were like, "Show us the big numbers". That's how entrepreneurs geared up to generate value at the growth level. 

While phenomenal growth was happening, little attention was paid to the bottom line. We also had the pandemic, and the funding taps were opened in between. Naturally, the normal course of business returned, which we see now. 

Presently, good business fundamentals are being rewarded. The investors are now talking about looking at the bottom line and paying attention to metrics that matter. Entrepreneurs are, of course, taking these cues from investors. 

For Good Glamm Group, the first year we came together was great. We did 12 acquisitions. The second year became about putting a structure in place for our assets. 

Now, it's all about maximising our assets and using them in the best way possible. We have a very sharp eye on the bottom line right now as we aim to launch an IPO in the next few years.  

Taking care of the top and bottom lines is becoming a significant factor. However, due to recent developments at some start-ups, corporate governance standards have become essential. How is the group taking care of these concerns related to corporate due diligence? 

Governance is something that we take very seriously at the Good Glamm Group. It's not something we do as a fad. 

From the beginning, our CEO has been clear that we need to have all policies in place. Some of the world's best investors, like Amazon and Warburg Pincus, are at our table. 

So, these factors have always put great discipline on us. Otherwise, acquiring 12 companies in a year with those building blocks in place would have been a lot of work.  

There are a lot of talks about diversifying distribution networks to tier 2 and 3 towns and not limiting products to tier 1 cities. Can the Good Glamm Group reach those market areas and access that audience? 

Our media platforms reach around 200 million monthly active users spread across all different parts of our country. So, through our media assets, we have accessed half of the transacting consumer base in the country. 

That becomes our top-of-the-funnel to begin our outreach to the audience we would like to target. We leverage our content and creators to access the audience. The moat at Good Glamm Group is that we don't need to pay someone else to reach our consumers.  

Given the current situation, what would you advise entrepreneurs looking to build their brands?  

If you are a D2C founder building a brand, your job is just to build the brand. Everything else is just noise. 

So, focusing on your brand, who it is for, and how it solves consumer pain points is important. Once you do that, build your communication strategy around it and your team will know what everyone has to do. 

As entrepreneurs, we sometimes tend to lose focus as everything pulls on us. But if you do the job of building your brand, everything else will follow automatically. 

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