Jab We Met Meesho Resellers at Mission Rise Pune and Coimbatore
By: Amrita Bose
Tags: Culture, Startup, Impact, Social Commerce, Women Entrepreneurs

Mission Rise Women Entrepreneur Summit, Coimbatore

At Meesho, making our resellers successful is at the heart of what we do. Not only is it a very important Meesho value that we live by everyday, but our true north is that every action we take is to make them reach their goals — whether financial or personal.

But who exactly is our reseller?

Well nearly 70 per cent of Meesho resellers are women and most are homemakers from different parts of the country. From Gujarat to West Bengal and Maharashtra, our resellers represent the true heart of India, many of them already possessing the innovative streak of jugaad or the Indian mentality of a never-say-die entrepreneurial spirit.

But starting small businesses in India minus investment is often hard, and this is where Meesho comes in, helping just about anyone start their own venture with zero investment and no risk.

But sometimes, working away from our end customers can be an alienating experience. In order to understand the true impact Meesho is making in a reseller’s life, every employee is encouraged to attend its weekly Mission Rise Women Entrepreneurship Summit held across several cities in India — where we get a chance to interact and often learn from our resellers. These conferences have happened in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, and recently in Pune and Coimbatore.

At Meesho, I am a collector of stories. As a Senior Content Manager, I love to weave in stories about the unique and interesting journeys of our employees. Have you checked our Medium blog yet where our inspiring employee stories are documented?

So when a colleague (Johncy Sanoop — Head Of Compensation and Benefits) and I got an opportunity to travel to Pune and Coimbatore in August, to attend the Mission Rise conference, we were excited — because finally we would be meeting some of our resellers and getting a chance to hear and collect their stories.

The Pune hustlers

Mission Rise events constitutes a whole day of mentorship panel discussions, talks about new features and smart selling by our expert resellers, awards and recognition ceremonies, and games and lots of food awaited our guests at the venue. But we were all waiting eagerly to meet our resellers (customers). Finally, the ladies (our women resellers outnumber men easily) swished in, full of confidence, ready to take on the day and share their entrepreneurial learnings with each other. Over coffee, a quick session with Meesho’s category managers happened, where our smart entrepreneurs (resellers) shared valuable feedback on what they would like to see more on the app and suggestions such as the introduction of new categories.

Listening to what our customers say is something we value and demonstrate a lot at Meesho.

As part of the event, a section of resellers were awarded for their excellent business acumen, and some of them like Sujitha (teacher by profession) became emotional and said that this is perhaps the first time that she has ever been called on stage to receive an award.

While a fun game called Bollywood Tadka, was played where the participants had to describe their journey with Meesho through a popular movie title, some of the stories that emerged during the session of struggle, and being saved from the brink of hopelessness, made me realise the true impact a social commerce company like Meesho has made in their lives. Here were instances of women bedridden after a major accident, coming across an advertisement for Meesho, and getting onto the platform and soon selling successfully from bed to those grappling with depression and low self esteem and finding their self worth eventually by becoming a Meesho entrepreneur.

One of our mentors Gauri from Pune, narrated a heart warming anecdote of how with her Meesho earnings, she was able to fund a trip for her daughter (school going) to a Taeikwondo Championship in Hyderabad. The fact that Gauri was able to sponsor a trip for her daughter was as important and fulfilling for her and her daughter came back with a gold medal.

A recurring theme among all resellers was that financial independence helped them achieve personal freedom and helped them gain self respect among their immediate family — something which was a matter of pride for them.

And how did I feel when I heard these stories?

That as a privileged and educated woman, having never being questioned about my life and professional choices, I felt like I have immense freedom to take my privilege for granted, compared to these warriors who often did not get second chances or to make a mistake and move on.

I was not only taking away important lessons from these entrepreneurs on how to hustle and get things done, but also came away with some useful tips on how to grow your audience (in resellers’ cases their customers) thanks to our ace reseller panel discussions.

Over to Johncy now!

The Coimbatore champs

Meesho CEO Vidit Aatrey with top reseller Nargis Sultana

The Coimbatore session was attended by CEO Vidit Aatrey, and the resellers were super excited to meet and share their experiences with him. In fact, one of our top resellers (see image above) and mentors (she trains new users on the platform), and a supplier (she sells home made products) Nargis Sultana travelled all the way from Trichy to Coimbatore to attend Mission Rise. What’s really interesting about Nargis’s story is that she gifted her son a Royal Enfield recently with her Meesho earnings.

Helping small entrepreneurs get a shot at independence — financial and personal and propelling them towards success is a mission we believe in.

As an HR person, I hardly get to meet Meesho’s customers (resellers). For me this was a good opportunity to actually meet them, get to know them better and to hear their inspiring stories first hand. I also got to understand first hand the impact Meesho is making and, this gave me a very different perspective of the company, the stakeholders and the business.

Some of the Coimbatore stories that emerged during sessions, were very emotional for me. For instance, Siva Durga, a reseller, mentioned that Meesho helped her in relieving her stress from daily pressures of living in a joint family with a traditional mindset. Initially her family was reluctant to let her work, but gradually as she started earning from home and enjoyed being an entrepreneur, her family’s perspective towards her changed and she got respect and support from them. This new phase of her life also led to her conceiving!

Another success story (among the many that I heard) was the story of how M Priya, managed to leverage her existing customer base through her tailoring business and grew her business on the Meesho platform. Not only was I getting inspired but also learning some smart ways of doing business from these ladies. For instance, one of our Meesho panelists from Palakkad gave all the resellers tips on how to make the most of selling through social platforms like TikTok.

I was hugely inspired by the risk taking abilities demonstrated by these entrepreneurs because according to me women in India and from small towns are not allowed to make mistakes. So even starting a venture of their own is a big risk, and often comes with no support from family and society. These were strong women who have made use of every available opportunity, in the face of adversity and have successfully grown their businesses.

Hats off to them!

Some of these entrepreneurs were meeting each other for the first time in their lives, but the energy and sense of community in the room was infectious. They seamlessly shared tips on how to sell better on the platform, adding each other to their WhatsApp groups to continue communication and also help each other grow.

My take away from this session:

The never say never attitude of these ladies and the practice of knowledge sharing with each other.

To know more about Meesho resellers, have a watch of our Pune Mission Rise event here and also check out the inspiring stories of our entrepreneurs here and here.

Want to make our resellers successful and help them start their own businesses, then join Meesho in its mission to create 20 million entrepreneurs by 2020! Apply here now, we are hiring!