Parul Gulati's Nish Hair is worth over Rs 50 crore 'but I made only Rs 40,000 in the first year'

Parul Gulati said that since her appearance on the business reality show Shark Tank India season 2, the company's sales have tripled. (Image credit: @gulati06/Instagram)

Actor and entrepreneur Parul Gulati has shared that although her six-year-old hair extension company, Nish Hair, is worth more than Rs 50 crore now -- after a successful stint with Shark Tank India -- it was difficult for her to sell her products during the first couple of years. In fact, during the first year, she made Rs 40,000 by selling around four hair extensions.

Speaking at 1% Club podcast, the 32-year-old said that she even visited people's homes to market and sell her products. "I would go to people's houses in South Bombay who were interested in the product but didn't want to come and check out the hair extensions so I offered to visit them to give them a trial. I didn't care much about it except that I had to sell the product. There was this one woman, I remember, I went to her house thrice and every time she would buy new pieces."

Gulati added that such sales made sure that she had a big profit margin because there was no marketing charge involved. She further revealed that the company used to spend about Rs 1 lakh a month on Google ads and it was only since January this year that they decided on keeping a marketing budget as most of their sales were driven by the reels Gulati regularly shares on Instagram.

Nish Hair also claims to be India's first online company of hair extensions that employs only women. Currently, it has 36 women employees, Gulati said.

"I have people who I know will give their left kidney to make Nish Hair work. That's very important for me. So if these 36 people are doing the work of 90 people without cribbing, it's only because they genuinely love what they do," she said.

The actor and founder added that since her appearance on the business reality show Shark Tank India season 2, the company's sales have tripled.

During the last episode of the show, Gulati pitched Nish Hair and requested Rs 1 crore for a two percent stock stake. Sharks Aman Gupta and Vineeta Singh offered her the same amount for 3 percent equity, but Amit Jain accepted her request and consequently, Gulati decided to go ahead with Jain as her investor.