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Shashank Mehta is the founder of the health snacks brand “The Whole Truth”. He started the company in 2019 and it is one of the leading healthy snacks brands in the country.
Shashank Mehta had immense experience in the FMCG industry for the past 10 to 12 years. He worked in Hindustan Unilever for almost a decade. So, he found that there is a gap for Indian consumers in healthy snacking.
Then he started researching the products and found out that protein bars are leading in healthy snacking. But the available bars were not made of fully organic and it is a mix of some preservatives and artificial sweeteners.
So, Shashank Mehta started trying a variety of protein bars in his home. Then he used to give to his colleagues and collect their valuable feedback. It became an iterative process and then finally everyone started loving his protein bars.
This is the moment that Shashank Mehta thought to step into entrepreneurship. However, he had lots of experience and also had a lot of connections in HUL. Even his previous work showed him that he was a hustler.
So, many of the HUL top executives invested in his startup ” The Whole Truth”. In this way, Shashank Mehta stepped into the world of entrepreneurship.
In 2022, it posted a revenue of 5 crores. Recently, The Whole Truth took the funding of 90 crores at a valuation of 580 crores. As it is promising figures and in future this company will make a huge impact in healthy snacking space.
Even Shashank Mehta founder of The Whole Truth revealed that every product will undergo in-depth trials and reasearch before launching in the market. He disclosed that their product take 18 months before launching and their competitors will launch new product in just 3 to 6 months.
The Whole Truth products take lots of steps and trials. Even it needs to be tasty and also without any kind of sweeteners and preservatives. So, many of the “The Whole Truth” products’ shelf lives are just 6 to 8 months.
So, the founder of The Whole Truth Brand, Shashank Mehta is working hard to provide healthy snacks for Indians.
Then Shashank Mehta also Revealed some qualities that entrepreneurs or CEOs need to hold to become great leaders in the company.
Generalist as a CEO
CEO will always show the direction for future growth. He needs to understand the present metrics analyze them and come out with great ideas. Then only any company can move forward.
So, the CEO should act as a generalist. Generalist means that a CEO should have an understanding of all the areas like marketing, sales, product development, people management, and finance.
The Whole Truth founder Shashank Mehta believes that the CEO should have a grip in all areas. So, that the CEO can make the right decision based on the metrics. Therefore the CEO should be like “Jack of all trades”.
Every department in a startup looks for the CEO’s advice. They will feel confident and work towards the vision of the entrepreneur.
If the CEO does not show any interest in any of the departments then that department will have some setbacks. Eventually, it will affect the progress of the company.
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Context Switching: The Whole Truth Founder Shashank Mehta
It is more like the above-mentioned quality like ” Generalist”. As a CEO one should be transparent with all the departments in the company.
So, there should be constant communication between the CEO and the rest of the department. This is the reason why all the CEOs will have frequent meetings.
Shashank Mehta, The Whole Truth founder expressed that he should communicate with the marketing, sales, product, HR, and other teams frequently.
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So, he says that as CEO “Context Switching” is one of the important traits. Because as a CEO, he has to coordinate with all the teams. He cannot just do any kind of practicality.
CEO will have the meeting with different teams in a day. He will have the following meetings with the sales and product team. If the meeting with the sales team did not go well and had a bad scenario with the sales team guys. Then the CEO should not carry the frustration with the following meeting with the product team.
He should just switch to a different mood and conduct the following meeting. This is called ” Context Switching”.
The Whole Truth founder told me that he should just switch his mindset in meeting with the different teams. He should be analytical while being with the sales team and then switch his mindset to creating with the marketing team.
So, he should direct his thoughts and decisions analytically and creatively with the Sales and Marketing team respectively.
As a CEO, he should switch his context and direct his thoughts to the different teams with the same level of passion and energy. So, “Context Switching” is one of the important qualities for a CEO of a company.