u/DesignSignificant900

Hi everyone,

I’m a solo female founder building a premium drinking chocolate brand in India.

Started as a very introverted person who was genuinely scared of sales calls, outreach, and putting myself out there. Now things are improving.

Been building the brand for the last few years across D2C, sampling, partnerships, operations, and everything in between.

Happy to answer anything honestly about building a business, being a woman founder, self-doubt, Reddit marketing, or figuring things out as you go. Excited to connect!

AMA 😄

Getting bitten by the spider was the easiest part of becoming Spider-Man.

Same with startups.

After building a drinking chocolate brand for 3 years, I genuinely think 0-1 is easier than 1-100.

Starting is accessible now. But surviving after launch? That’s the real challenge.

Anyone can start today. Very few survive long enough to succeed.

Curious to know what do other founders think?

I am currently running my brand of drinking chocolate in india. I am very active as a founder on linkedin and reddit but not on instagram.

I post sometimes on the brand page but I am not comfortable in making reels and thats not my forte. Also I feel thats saturated now.

I am good with conversations and writing about the industry and the product but not with the reels.

Will founder account where I am planning to post similar stuff as on linkedin and static pictures help in growing the brand?

For me, the hardest part of building a business wasn’t operations, marketing, or even sales.

It was becoming someone who could pick up the phone and call potential customers.

I’ve always been naturally introverted, and in the beginning I would overthink every call, delay outreach, and avoid follow-ups because I was scared of sounding pushy or getting rejected.

But while building my brand of drinking chocolate, I have learnt to get out of my comfort zone.

Curious if other founders had one personal barrier they had to completely break through while building their business?

Been thinking about creating a dedicated B2B page on the website for partnerships, bulk enquiries, also to showcase the presence and build trust.

I’m running a drinking chocolate brand in India and we currently serve both individual customers and some B2B clients like corporates, hotels, gifting hampers, wedding/event planners etc.

Curious if this genuinely helps with credibility and conversions, or if most people don’t really care unless the product itself looks strong. What would you suggest?

We’re currently looking to collaborate with agencies handling:

• corporate gifting
• festive hampers
• wedding/event gifting
• luxury gifting

Would love to connect with people/agencies in this space for potential collaborations and product placements in curated hampers.

Open to suggestions, referrals, or connections.

We’re currently looking to collaborate with agencies handling:

• corporate gifting
• festive hampers
• wedding/event gifting
• luxury gifting

Would love to connect with people/agencies in this space for potential collaborations and product placements in curated hampers.

Open to suggestions, referrals, or connections.

Paradox of choice feels very real honestly.

Over the last few weeks, multiple people suggested adding more options to my existing brand portfolio to further increase sales.

But don't we only need one hero product to excel?

Look at these: Maggi.
Lay’s Magic Masala.
Bikaji Bhujia.

Feels like sometimes people don’t want more choices.
They just want one thing they know won’t disappoint.

What do you think?
Does more choice actually help sales or just reduce clarity?

We are currently looking to collaborate with agencies handling:

• corporate gifting
• festive hampers
• employee gifting
• luxury gifting

We are not looking for buying gifts rather for placing our products in curated hampers.

Open to suggestions, referrals, or connections.

We’re currently looking to collaborate with agencies handling:

• corporate gifting
• festive hampers
• employee gifting
• luxury gifting

Would love to connect with people/agencies in this space for potential collaborations and product placements in curated hampers.

Open to suggestions, referrals, or connections.

Getting customers to leave reviews is sometimes harder than getting the actual order.

Curious how people here feel about this from both sides.

Would you leave a review if a brand offered a small discount on your next order in return, or does that make the review feel less genuine?

Trying to understand customer psychology as a founder of clean drinking chocolate brand in India.

Curious if other women building businesses or working independently have felt this.

Minute things like:

people assuming it’s “just a hobby”
not being taken seriously
male counterparts being asked for opinions more often
or people seeming more surprised when a woman knows her business well

As someone building a drinking chocolate brand in India, I’ve noticed these subtle things more than I expected. What do you think?

Feels like a lot of products today try to optimise for:

• shelf life
• sweetness
• texture
• flavour

But sometimes the end result just tastes more processed than enjoyable.

As a founder of drinking chocolate brand, curious to know what ingredient, additive, or formulation choice instantly makes you avoid a product.

From a hotel perspective, curious what actually drives these decisions?
Is it about the brand fit, packaging, consistency, pricing?

And how do new brands get a shot? Curious to find out as a founder of clean drinking chocolate brand in india.

At exhibitions and even online, I tried two things:

small discount

or a free sachet

More often than not, people picked the free sample with their purchase and not the discount.

As a founder of drinking chocolate brand that lies in the mid premium segment, curious to know what do you actually prefer and why?

For people who enjoy both

When do you actually reach for a chocolate drink instead of coffee?

• late night?
• dessert replacement?
• comfort drink?
• something else?

As a founder of a clean drinking chocolate brand and curious to know the role chocolate plays vs coffee in daily routines. thanks!

I run a drinking chocolate brand in India on Shopify. I can track traffic sources from Meta, but Reddit traffic doesn’t show up clearly. Is there any way to identify if visitors are coming from Reddit?

P.S. I’m not referring to Reddit Ads.

I could customise tea.
I could customise coffee.

But when I looked for a clean chocolate premix, everything was either over sweet or filled with artificial additives.

I just wanted something straightforward, hot, iced, or however I feel like it

This frustration pushed me to launch my own brand.

Curious to know: What do you dislike most about chocolate drink premixes today?

We customise tea. We customise coffee. Why is chocolate still one-size-fits-all?

Most chocolate drinks are either too sweet or just not worth it.

So I built 'Taste Junction', now you control the sweetness and thickness and have it hot or iced.

Make your chocolate your way.

(Adding a special surprise with every order, comment if you want the link)

Have a fully functional website where I see a good number of organic visitors but then they are not getting converted into customers.
I see so many brands reaching out on Whatsapp to the dropped out customers and getting good revenue, making conversion quick and easy.

Can you suggest some third party tools for the same or any other way in which this can be done without asking customers to log in on the website and saving their time.