The Indian e-commerce startup That’s Personal touts financial metrics venture capitalists typically salivate over: a consistent doubling of annual sales, gross margins exceeding 50 percent, low customer acquisition costs and strong repeat traffic. Yet not a single big-name investor has bitten.
That’s Personal sells adult productsâ€"edible body paints, slinky lingerie, erotic board gamesâ€"to Indians who, like many people the world over, prefer to keep such purchases private. Founder Samir Saraiya is betting that gradually liberalizing attitudes toward sex will spark a boom in so-called sexual wellness products.
But more than two millennia after the publication of the Kamasutra sex manual, much of Indian society remains prudish. As a result, Saraiya is struggling to persuade skittish venture firms to plow $5 million into his three-year-old company. Investors say the regulatory environment is uncertain and fear Indian officials will shut down That's Personal if it runs afoul of conservatives. This is a nation, after all, where even dating apps have been forced to tread carefully.
Rajiv Sahney, who runs the India offices of New Vernon Capital, participated in an angel round 18 months ago that raised $1 million but says getting others to pony up will be a challenge. "There are people in India with a view on what India is and what India should be," he says. Even potential backers who deem the online adult segment a winner have been deaf to Saraiya's entreaties. “Will this category do well?" asks Nikhil Khattau, managing director at the India unit of Silicon Valley venture firm Mayfield. "Sure! Is it investible? Difficult to say."Â
Saraiya remains undaunted, schlepping to venture firm offices with a bag full of his merchandise. "Investors need to be educated on what this category is all about, what is a cream, what is a lubricant and what is the product range we stock," he says.
When Saraiya quit running Microsoft's Southeast Asia business development office in 2011 to join India's e-commerce revolution, he never contemplated selling Fifty Shades of Grey merchandise. But Saraiya quickly discovered that every big e-commerce segment already featured a dozen or more players. Inspiration struck unexpectedly: Too mortified to buy condoms in the store opposite his apartment building, Saraiya trudged to a distant neighborhood where no one knew him. He was certain at least a few hundred million of his compatriots faced the same predicament.
 “That was it,†he recalls. "I decided to solve my own problem."
Saraiya roped in two of his Microsoft buddies as angel investors and jumped into what he calls "discreet e-commerce." Let others tout convenience, price and choice. Saraiya would sell privacy: “Buy from me and nobody will know.â€
His first stop was a lawyer’s office to get clarity on the rules. “While it is illegal to import and sell ‘quote unquote obscene’ products in India, the rules dealing with obscenity make no reference to adult products, the lawyer told me.†To keep officials off their backs, all the merchandise would all have to conform to a statute forbidding any form of nudity on the packaging. The lawyer liked the concept so much that he jumped in as co-founder. Thatspersonal.com launched in January 2013.
Saraiya’s biggest dilemma was still to come: how to break the news to friends and relatives? At a family gathering, his wife’s kinâ€"conservative Jains who abhor alcohol, espouse extreme vegetarianism and practice ahima (non violence)â€"teased him about sourcing "Jain" adult products for them. He solved the problem partially by calling the company Digital E-life and printed only that name on his business card. “My children are 4 and 9 and when someone asks them what does your father do, they innocently say he runs Digital E-life.â€
The startup’s 15-person team works out of a tiny office in Chembur, an industrial and retailing hub in eastern Mumbai. Saraiya initially wondered how his staff would explain their line of work to their families. “But they seemed to have no problem whatsoever," he says. By contrast, Saraiya had to break the news to his family "very gently," despite the fact that his sister and mother are both gynecologists.
The country’s changing demographics have worked to his advantage. Nearly three-quarters of India's 1.3 billion citizens are under the age of 45â€"many of them digitally savvy and willing to try new things. Shoppers from India’s biggest metropolises as well as smaller towns began snapping up the wares. Today, more than 40 percent of the buyers are women. One of the most popular products is women’s intimate shaving cream. "In India people glare at a woman if she smokes," Saraiya says. "Can you imagine a woman walking into a store and asking for this cream?"
Advertising has been a challenge because strict rules govern what you can show online. Google users must turn off their "safe search" option to view the ads. Facebook bans words like "massager" and "vibrator." India's customs officials pose another hurdle. When a consignment of edible paint arrives, officers are perplexed: Is it paint? Is it chocolate? “We have to explain each product to officials levying the import duties,†Saraiya says.
Inevitably, a handful of thriving copycats have entered the market. That's Personal says it has stayed ahead with a broad range of merchandise and exclusive deals with big manufacturers. The company also has made an art of discretion. To thwart prying relatives or domestic helpers, packages are unmarked and the invoices cagily euphemistic: racy lingerie is "one-piece apparel;" massage cream a "one-piece novelty item." Customers who live with their parents or extended families have asked That's Personal to relabel the actual products. Saraiya is considering such a service for an extra fee.
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The prudence appeals to buyers like Nayha Mehta, a Mumbai businesswoman, who used to trek to a distant drugstore to buy even tampons. When a friend mentioned That’s Personal, Mehta found the shopping liberating. On her 40th birthday earlier this year, she gifted herself massage oils, mood candles and naughty games. She won't share her complete shopping list because "people will judge me." But she intends to get more adventurous.
Saraiya is counting on customers like Mehta to spread the word and boost his business which is just hitting $1 million in gross sales."One day soonâ€"who knows it could be next yearâ€"it will be the right place and the right time for this kind of e-commerce in India."Â
