Fixderma co-founder Shaily Mehrotra’s message to young women: ‘You don’t have to be perfect’ | Shark Tank India Season 5

Shaily Mehrotra, Co-founder – Fixderma and FCL, has joined Shark Tank India Season 5. She is one of the new sharks on the show. LiveMint spoke with the entrepreneur leading a ₹1,500-crore company.

Q: You grew up and studied in Varanasi before going to Southeast Asia at 24. How did that shift in environment change your thinking about ambition and scale?

A: Varanasi gave me my foundation. It’s a city where life moves at its own pace, and you learn patience very early. I grew up seeing people value sincerity over showmanship, and that shaped how I look at work even today.

But, moving to Southeast Asia at 24 felt like someone suddenly widened my field of vision. Until then, I had ambition, but it was quiet, almost private. Stanford taught me that it’s okay to dream loudly. I saw people my age building things for the world with so much confidence. That changed something in me.

It made me realise that if you approach a problem with clarity and honesty, scale is not a far-fetched dream. It’s simply the result of consistent work.

Q: Fixderma was bootstrapped for 15 years in a space crowded with shortcuts. What were the hardest moments when staying honest with sourcing and R&D felt risky?

A: Just to also rectify, we remain bootstrapped only till 2020; in 2021, we did have funding from Lotus Herbals. But, nevertheless, when you are bootstrapped, there were many moments when choosing the harder path felt almost irrational.

I still remember times when we couldn’t compromise on raw material quality even though it would have made our margins look “healthier” on paper. Competitors were launching cheaper, faster versions, and here we were obsessing over every active ingredient.

The truth is, I had sleepless nights. But I also had a very clear line in my head: dermatologists trust efficacy, and consumers trust integrity. If we lost that, we’d lose everything. That belief kept me steady through the toughest phases.

Q: As a founder without a legacy business background, how did you earn trust from dermatologists in the early years?

A: Honestly, I had no playbook and no industry surname to lean on. I started by simply showing up at the clinic, city to city, with humility and curiosity.

In those early years, I didn’t talk as a salesperson; I spoke as someone genuinely trying to understand real skin concerns. If a dermatologist was unhappy with a formulation, I took that feedback straight to the lab. If something wasn’t ready, I said so openly.

Over time, doctors realised that Fixderma wasn’t here to just sell; we were here to solve. Trust, I’ve learned, grows slowly and silently one honest conversation at a time.

Q: As a founder without a legacy business background, how did you earn trust from dermatologists in the early years?

A: Honestly, I had no playbook and no industry surname to lean on. I started by simply showing up at the clinic, city to city, with humility and curiosity.

In those early years, I didn’t talk as a salesperson; I spoke as someone genuinely trying to understand real skin concerns. If a dermatologist was unhappy with a formulation, I took that feedback straight to the lab. If something wasn’t ready, I said so openly.

Over time, doctors realised that Fixderma wasn’t here to just sell; we were here to solve. Trust, I’ve learned, grows slowly and silently one honest conversation at a time.

Q: Fixderma is now valued at around ₹1,500 crore. At what point did you personally start believing this could become a large brand?

A: There was no dramatic “Aha!” moment. It grew on me gradually.

The first time a dermatologist told me, “Your product is my first choice,” it felt like a milestone. The first time a consumer wrote to us saying we had helped them with a concern they’d struggled with for years, that's when I realised this was bigger than numbers.

But, even today, I don’t wake up thinking about valuations. I wake up thinking about the next problem to solve. Maybe it’s because Fixderma grew brick by brick over 15 years, without noise. So even when people talk about scale now, I still see the journey more than the number.

Shark Tank India Season 5

Q: On Shark Tank India, what kind of founders do you feel most drawn to backing and why?

A: I’m drawn to founders who come with clarity, authenticity and passion. You can immediately sense when someone has lived the problem they’re solving. It shows in their eyes, not in their pitch deck.

I also connect very deeply with founders who have built quietly, sometimes painfully, without recognition. Maybe because I relate to that journey.

Profitability and numbers matter, of course, but intention matters more. Is the founder building to last? Are they willing to put in the boring, unglamorous work?

Those are the people I find myself rooting for. In fact, in one of my reels with Aman Gupta, I spoke about red flags & green flags in a founder.

Q: Many young women see you as “self-made”. What uncomfortable truths about entrepreneurship do you think social media often hides?

A: Social media shows the highlight reel, never the waiting period. The truth is: being self-made is lonely. There were stretches when I felt I didn’t belong anywhere, too ambitious for comfort, but too under-resourced for the world to take seriously.

As women, we also carry silent expectations. You’re constantly balancing emotions, family, work, and guilt, often all in a single day. None of that shows up on Instagram.

Entrepreneurship isn’t courage every morning; it’s doubted many nights. It’s missing moments with your family, getting back up after failures, and doing 100 unglamorous things no one celebrates.

If there’s something I want young women to remember, it’s this: you don’t have to be perfect or fearless. You just have to be consistent and kind to yourself while doing it.