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 I am super excited to launch a new series of blogs where I interview successful e-commerce founders. This week we have the lovely Anushi Desai, co-founder of Plant Pops Snacks. Where did the idea for your business come from? Tell us how and why you get started. I’ve always been a foodie but I came up with the idea for Plant Pops after making popped lotus seeds at home (just like my grandmother and mother did) with some interesting flavour combinations and taking them into work for my colleagues. We used to work long hours and snack all the time, getting really bored of crisps and popcorn which is all that seemed to be on offer. Everyone loved the popped lotus seeds and that’s when we knew we were onto a winner! My friend Ash was the first to get hooked and he’s co-founder of our brand. We must have tested around 15 different flavours across hundreds of people to get to our starting line up of Himalayan Salt, Smoked Chilli and Peanut Butter Popped Lotus Seeds. Our mission is always to create snacks that are good for you, good for the environment and good for the communities that create them. Every pack sold helps us support Action Village India, a charity that supports farmers and their families in Northern India, from where we source our popped lotus seeds. What's a typical day like? Fortunately there’s no typical day! Although I’m working from home a lot more now, as are a lot of people, my day is super varied. I tend to focus on operations and products earlier in the day so I can liaise with our manufacturers. There’s lots of moving parts to look after so there really isn’t any typical day!  What is the best part of having your own business? I love being able to create something from scratch and see people enjoy it! I also love how flexible we can be and think of an idea, and put it into action within a couple of hours. One of my favourite things is sampling with our customers - I love hearing what they think, seeing them try a popped lotus seed for the first time and getting their thoughts on what they'd like us to bring out next. What's the hardest part? Sometimes running your own business can be a bit overwhelming - you've got so many different hats on that you have to upskill pretty quickly to make sure you're doing the right thing for the business at the right time. It can at times also be a bit lonely - running a start up in particular has some incredibly high highs and some really low lows. Every sale feels so great, but there are some challenges along the way too.  What’s your best selling product?
It really varies by platform – but our Peanut Butter is very unusual and our customers absolutely love it! If you had one piece of advice for someone just starting out, what would it be? I wish I’d been braver at the beginning - I second guessed myself a lot, and toyed with the idea of going forward with the business for at least 6 months. I wish I'd had the confidence in my idea and gone for it earlier. If you have an idea, you've tested the product-market fit, I would say just go for it! You'll never know until you try! Let's talk tech. Which softwares do you use in your business? ( Online store, email marketing, scheduling tools, video apps, accounting & banking apps etc). If you're on Shopify, I'd also love to learn your favourite apps. I use Notion pretty much ALL the time – I use it to make lists, track our stockists, sales, website updates and pretty much everything else through it. Later is great for scheduling content across our social media channels. I use FreeAgent for accounting and invoicing and all the boring bits! Which social media platform works best for you? Instagram is great to share visuals and really communicate with our audience. What business book/podcast/courses would you recommend? I love podcasts – some of my favourite business podcasts are PitchDeck and How I Built This. Where can people find you? You can find our Plant Pops through our website www.plantpopssnacks.com, Amazon and lots of great independent stores!
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