“As an entrepreneur, you need to be comfortable with discomfort”: Strawcture founder Shriti Pandey

Stubble burning is a problem in India and other parts of Asia, including Vietnam, Indonesia and China. (PC: PTI)

After earning a master’s degree in construction management from New York University, Gorakhpur’s Shriti Pandey returned to India. She travelled across the country, chiefly to the rural heartlands, understanding the needs of low-income families from a sustainable construction standpoint. Her research contributed to founding Strawcture Eco Pvt. Ltd in 2018. Strawcture is India’s first company to use bio-composite panels for construction purposes.

In 2020, Shriti was named a ‘Climate Fellow’ by the New York-based non-profit organisation Echoing Green, and received $90, 000 seed funding, too. This year, Forbes named her in its 30 Under 30, Asia, ‘Industry, Manufacturing & Energy’ category.

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In an interview, Shriti explains how she constructed cheap and sustainable hospitals during the peak of the second wave of coronavirus in India, and more. Edited excerpts:

What does it mean to you to be included in the Forbes 30 Under 30, Asia list?

It definitely was a humbling experience to be included in the list. It surely gives credibility and validation to the work that I do. It has motivated me and the entire team to move forward, providing much-needed momentum. Once in a while, I also feel anxious and overwhelmed. I am not very good at it, but to pause, reflect, and take stock of what all you have accomplished helps you to keep going. It’s important to share responsibilities, failure, and stress with your team; to not feel alone, because as a solo founder, it can get lonely.

You completed a master’s in construction management from New York, then returned to India. Why?

I returned to India because I felt I wasn’t learning new things very early in my career in the consulting firm that I was working with, so I decided to take a sabbatical and do a rural fellowship for 13 months.

Traditionally, engineering has been a male-dominated space; mechanical and civil, in particular. What motivated you to be an engineer?

Yes, engineering, especially civil and mechanical, has been male-dominated, but I was raised by parents who told us all professions are gender-neutral, and that I can pursue whatever I want. I always had an interest in cars. Growing up, in machines, architecture, and subjects that had physical labour involved. Thus, civil engineering was my first choice when I thought to pursue engineering.

In what ways do gender disparity and other biases still exist in your industry?

In our industry there are very few women as most jobs require you, at least for a few days in a week, to be on construction sites. Second, since it involves tools, and working in difficult and harsh geographies, people assume women might not be able to cope with them. That’s a mindset issue. Apart from that, construction sites often lack basic necessities like a toilet, which is not a concern for men, but for women, it becomes a basic requirement if they’ve to be at the site for more than five to six hours. Thus, from workplace conditions to attitudes, it’s fairly biased.

What can be done to ensure more women enter the industry?

The construction industry has to make changes at a basic level, by making sure there are more toilets, safety measures at the site for women to feel comfortable to join this industry. In schools and colleges, early on, women should be given counselling. They should be told that most work gets done using smart machines, eliminating the need for them to be physically stronger. Also, there are plenty of blue-collar jobs in the industry.

Shriti Pandey, founder, Strawcture Eco.

Why and how you did start Strawcture?

During my fellowship, I came across the problem of stubble burning in a tribal village in Madhya Pradesh. After completion of my research, I realised that it’s not just a local problem but a global issue. It’s prevalent in countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, China, and was even there in the US, in parts of California, until the 1990s.

Post fellowship, I couldn’t let go of this thought and decided to pursue studying it for another few months. My research led me to biomaterials, which take inspiration from nature, converting waste into a sustainable, durable building material. That’s how Strawcture Eco got started in June 2018.

As a woman entrepreneur, was securing seed funding and setting up your business difficult?

I believe it’s the business model that attracts funding. After running Strawcture Eco bootstrapped for three years with a strong balance sheet, it was actually not that hard. And we are almost on the cusp of closing our first round of investment. There will always be hurdles stacked against you as an entrepreneur, whether a man or a woman. Irrespective of your gender, as an entrepreneur, you need to be comfortable with discomfort and constantly keep hustling.

During the peak of the second wave of COVID-19, you constructed hospitals using stubble. Why, and how did it help?

We used ‘AgriBioPanels’, which is our trademark product, to build Covid hospitals. The panels can be used to construct drywall, ceiling, doors, and furniture, and can also provide flooring solutions. It is a modular, green, and thermally more comfortable solution to be built with, and most importantly faster, which was the need of the hour. Currently, we’re proposing to build a few more hospitals in different states of India.

What other innovations can we expect from Strawcture?  

Our focus is to upcycle waste into raw material for green building products. In the future, we will be working with other wastes like coconut fibre, paddy straw, and mycelium to build more bio-based products. We are also doing R&D on using natural wool, the portion which is considered a waste, to build alternative insulation-lining products.

What advice would you give to fellow women on kickstarting a business? 

Start early. Do internships in start-ups, to learn the culture and attitude required to start your own business. Learn leadership skills when in school and college, and be curious. You will never know all the answers when you are starting, but once you take the first step, things start becoming clearer on their own. So, just start!