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Founder & CEO, The Tiny Secret
Introduction
Siddharth hails from a business family. Following in the footsteps of his father, a seasoned entrepreneur, Siddharth started his venture, The Tiny Secret. His goal? To make nutrition a fun and accessible part of everyone’s daily life.
Siddharth is a second-generation entrepreneur who believes that business runs in his blood. Perhaps that’s why he had the drive to leave his corporate job at a boutique investment banking firm and take an active role in his family’s nutrition business, Essenza Nutrition Pvt. Ltd. With a talent for business development and marketing initiatives which he honed through his postgraduate studies in business administration and a course in organizational leadership from Harvard Business School, Siddharth has taken his family business to new heights in the past 7 years.
Siddharth believes his true inspiration is his father, Mr. Manoj Shah, who began his career as a medical representative and went on to lead multiple companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange. His father’s vision to build a global healthcare organization in the nutraceutical and herbal industry, with an unwavering commitment to quality, led him to establish their first research and development facility. This facility was spearheaded by Siddharth’s brother, Dr. Kunal Shah (MD in Ayurveda), a perfectionist and the mastermind behind the technical aspects of the entire research and development and manufacturing processes at Essenza Nutrition Pvt. Ltd. Dr. Kunal helped build a one-of-a-kind space for research and development that truly set global standards by redefining quality.
For years, the duo conducted research to uncover the nutritional benefits of combining specific probiotic strains with traditional Ayurvedic herbs. Their findings concluded that the synergistic effect between these ingredients increases the efficacy of products by up to six times. This led to the innovation of PROYURVEDA™.
Siddharth proudly shares, `We hold patents in the U.S., China, and India for our biotechnology that combines probiotics with herbs.`
This encouraged them to develop formulations across segments and conduct clinical trials of these products. It was only when they started scouting for a manufacturing facility that they made an interesting discovery. They found that despite being the birthplace of Ayurveda which has shared knowledge about life sciences for over 5000 years, India contributed only 1 percent to the global $62 billion herbal industry. Siddharth recalls, ‘This surprising fact motivated me to dig deeper to understand the gap in the market. Our research revealed that India struggled to meet the quality standards set by the West.` Determined to bring India’s traditional Ayurvedic knowledge to the global market through nutraceuticals, Siddharth set up a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility.
Essenza Nutrition Pvt. Ltd.’s first manufacturing facility became the youngest company in India to be awarded the USFDA, WHO-GMP, and ISO 22000 certifications in the nutraceuticals and herbals sector.
During the time the facility was engaging in contract manufacturing for several large D2C brands, Siddharth noticed another gap in the market. While the end consumer and their diets had modernized, the way these brands delivered traditional remedies had not, making it challenging for the audience to connect with their offerings. This inspired the creation of his own D2C brand ‘The Tiny Secret’, a healthcare brand founded with love and care to preserve traditional treasures and present them to the world for its benefit through a scientific approach.
When asked about the name The Tiny Secret, Siddharth beautifully responds, `Isn`t it the tiny things in life that make all the difference?` He adds that in Indian households, it is often the small things that are used to cure illnesses, maintain nutrition, and boost immunity. For example, a hint of ginger in chai is a go-to remedy for a sore throat, and haldi doodh (famously known as `golden milk` in the West) has been used for generations by mothers and grandmothers to boost a child`s immunity.
Through The Tiny Secret, Siddharth aims to bring forth both well known and secret herbal treasures, but with a modern twist. His vision is for the brand to be the preferred nutrition partner for every household. The brand is achieving this by adopting a millennial approach of creating a range of products that can be easily integrated into one’s daily life as their tiny secret. These products serve as conscious substitutes for everyday products like tea, mints, and sodas. For example, they offer a jaljeera gut health effervescent tablet which mimics the traditionally consumed jaljeera in Indian households after meals. What’s interesting about the tablet is that it contains seven different probiotic strains in 10 billion CFU (colony forming unit) and is served in a deep-rooted traditional way with a modern consumption method.
After extensive research of 80,000 diets in India, we found that the average
Vegetarian consumes 550mg of calcium, while the average non-vegetarian consumes 650mg of calcium. This intake barely meets the 50 percent of the recommended 1000mg daily requirement as stated by FSSAI.’, says Siddharth. Each of their products is innovative, well-researched, and consumer-driven created in their in-house facility under the guidance of Dr. Kunal and a team of expert dieticians, nutritionists, and specialists. This explains how they became the pioneers in introducing India’s first cow milk calcium tablet, extracted from 100 percent milk, which gives the consumer a modern source rich in calcium and phosphorus with the same natural ratios as those found in bones. Unlike the synthetic tablets available in the market, this tablet has zero side effects and helps meet one’s daily calcium needs.
This steadfast dedication to research and commitment to producing quality products have empowered over 5 million customers across 23+ countries to lead healthier lives. With a portfolio of 300+ formulations developed through over 1 million hours of R&D, Siddharth`s ventures continue to thrive and transform lives worldwide. Siddharth’s passion for creating a positive impact on society through health and nutrition extends beyond his work with The Tiny Secret. He regularly appears on the brand’s Instagram channel in his own Dadi Maa ke Nuske series, where he shares traditional remedies passed down by our grandmothers for centuries and demonstrates how they are supported by scientific evidence.