STARTUPS
Ready When She Was: The Story of Nykaa
At 49, when most people are focused on securing what they have built, Falguni Nayar decided to start from scratch.
It would have been easy to stay.
She had spent nearly two decades in investment banking at Kotak Mahindra Capital, helping businesses navigate the world of finance. Her career was successful. Her experience was deep. Her position was comfortable. By any ordinary measure, she had already arrived.
And yet something kept pulling at her.
She wanted to build something of her own.
So in 2012, she left her corporate career behind and started Nykaa.
The idea was simple: make genuine beauty products accessible to Indian consumers.
Not everyone saw what she saw. The questions came, one after another. Why beauty products? Would Indians really buy them online?
They were fair questions. But they were questions, not answers. And Falguni set out to answer them in her own way.
She did not build just another e-commerce website. She built Nykaa on authentic products, on beauty education and on customer trust.
It was slow work. But slowly, Nykaa earned a loyal customer base. Then it stepped beyond the screen, expanding into physical stores and its own beauty brands.
What had started as a simple idea was becoming something much bigger.
In November 2021, Nykaa went public.
There was a quiet irony in the moment. For years, she had been the one helping other companies navigate IPOs. Now the company going to the stock market was her own.
The banker had become the founder.
Today, Nykaa generates over ₹10,000 crore in annual revenue. In FY2026, it reported ₹10,022 crore in revenue and ₹204 crore in net profit.
What Falguni Nayar teaches us
You don’t have to start young to build something big.
Sometimes, your years of experience are your biggest advantage.
Falguni Nayar didn’t start her entrepreneurial journey early.
She started when she was ready.
So here is the question worth pondering over:
What do you think matters more when building a company: age or experience?
Tell us in the Comments below.