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Real stories and small steps toward a more sustainable life.
We talk to people building climate-friendly startups, making better choices in daily life, or just trying something new. Each episode is a chance to learn, get inspired, and maybe try one thing yourself.
Anushka: And we used to distribute
sweets and, give gifts to the
kids and spend time there.
And I always used to think that why we
don't do this more often, we should.
Tech was important for me because I always
think if I build something, it has to
scale and scalability comes with tech.
So if you don't get up every day thinking
about, I'm excited about this then the
whole market will not motivate you enough.
People are attached to their things and
they want to give it to the right people
and they will go extra mile for that.
If we donate something we
extend the life of these goods
by at least nine months to 1.5
years, right?
So people do understand that leads
to reduction of carbon emissions,
water footprint, waste footprint.
Pramod: Hello everyone.
Welcome to Sustainably Curious.
It's a podcast where we speak to
entrepreneurs, builders, and operators
in the sustainability space and
uncover their journeys and learn a
bit about sustainable habits that we
can incorporate in our daily lives.
Today, I have a very special
guest - Anushka Jain.
She's the Founder of Share At Door Step.
And just a personal note, we wanted
to declutter our home for over a
year, but couldn't figure out how and
every time we thought about doing it,
something or the other would come up.
But in February, me and my wife decided
that, let's figure a solution for
this and I spent some time on Google
and discovered Share at Door Step.
I had a really great experience - was
able to book a slot instantly and within
a couple of days we were able to declutter
our home, give away old clothes, which
the startup donates to NGOs on their side.
I was really amazed at how super fast
it was, the experience was seamless
and that piqued my curiosity to reach
out and speak with Anushka Jain.
Great to have you here Anushka!
And kudos on building the startup.
Would be great to just get started
with your introduction, so feel free
to introduce yourself and we can
jump into the questions after that.
Anushka: Thanks Pramod, for using our
service and sharing your feedback.
I think it's always good
from customers directly.
Good or bad it always helps us to grow.
So I'm an Anushka, I'm founder of
Share at Door Step and I think how I
want to introduce myself generally is
what I'm doing besides work as well.
So I love doing yoga.
I love a little bit of golfing
and anything which has to do right
now with climate, tech, ai, carbon
credits that fascinates me right now.
Pramod: Great to hear about those.
And golfing is pretty interesting
and that's something that I
wanna pick up here as well.
We'll dive into your early
journey with Share at Door Step.
What sparked your interest
in the sustainability space?
And maybe go back in time and walk
us through how it all started.
Anushka: Sure.
Yeah.
So when we started this, I
think sustainability as a word,
I might not be aware of it.
It started with a very simple insight.
My mom used to take me to
the NGOs on my birthday.
It used to be like a yearly ritual.
And we used to distribute sweets and, give
gifts to the kids and spend time there.
And I always used to think that why we
don't do this more often, we should.
We have so much stuff, which my
mom used to buy a lot of toys and
all, which we don't use that much.
And I was like, why we are not
decluttering and donating more often.
I realized that it's about
the convenience part of it.
She's generally busy.
Generally that time the NGOs used to be
in the outskirts, so we really have to
drive a lot and go there and spend time.
So it used to be fun, but not that
convenient, and I felt that it,
there has to be an easy way to do it.
And this thought was with
me, but with the no action.
And when I was in college learning,
how to make business plans, in
third year and get some extra money
by doing that in competitions.
I had different ideas and one
of them was Share At Door Step.
And I took part in different business
plan competitions to think about how
this idea can be like a viable business.
So the idea was simple.
We want to make it easy for people like
my mom to donate anything reusable.
We have a lot of disparity.
We know people require these items
and people have a lot of these items,
so how can we balance it with tech?
Tech was important for me because I always
think if I build something, it has to
scale and scalability comes with tech.
So that was the basic premise.
And yeah, so it started like a very simple
website, which I made in Wix at that time.
It was a pink coloured
website and I just put it out.
To my surprise, I was in Bangalore that
time and just joined Accenture sometime
back and the request started pouring in.
So it was not like, no product market
fit, nothing that I've learned that time.
Just request started coming in because
people were looking for the service and
we got like around a 100, 150 requests,
which I fulfilled myself and figured
that there's something out there.
Pramod: When was this which year?
Anushka: 2011 and 12.
This was the idea.
When I was trying to figure out something
and I joined Accenture just after college.
And I was tinkering over the
idea on how it can be a business.
Pramod: Got it.
Really amazing and inspiring to
learn how the idea took root from
your childhood and you pursued that.
And you mentioned it
was just you executing.
So walk us through how hundred
people get to know this?
The early days are
always really memorable.
So any stories from that time on
how it actually came to fruition?
Anushka: Sure.
So , that time they were
not enough startups.
So yeah, if you put something out
there, it's easy to discover for people.
So we don't have to do a lot
of SEO because people are not
fighting for the same space.
So very easy time, I would say.
And everyone in Bangalore ecosystem from
founders of unicorns, founders, which
you'll see now have become unicorns,
that time they were very approachable.
So you just send them a message on
LinkedIn, they'll be approachable.
I think initially when I did the initial
150 requests, that was very easy because
I put out the website and it has the basic
keywords of donate clothes and all that.
That's how people got it and
started putting in requests.
It was a free pick up that time.
And I was trying to meet these people
and talk to them to understand their
mindset on why they're doing it, what's
the motivation behind it, to learn if
it's the same case as my mom or different.
And many of them were very different
cases on why people donate.
I learned so much, like why people
donate stuff, and it was very fascinating
and learning experience for me.
And I think from there it was the
question on how we can scale and how we
can leverage the Bangalore ecosystem.
Which is actually the best place at
that point of time, I felt now every
place has become a hub for startups,
but that time it was Bangalore.
So I think the energy of Bangalore
just helped in getting further.
On the story front I think the first
pickup, I remember when we did Okay.
And it was that was like a
learning experience as well.
First or second, I'm not sure,
but yeah, so there, I'll tell
you both actually the first one.
So we did together the same car
we were going to, both the ones.
First one I had where I had the
donations with me and my friend
who was helping me out also had
some donations and we picked it up.
My friend said, let's
take a picture of yours.
As a founder and like a video.
Yeah.
Okay.
And he was taking it and then
the dog who was coming towards
me and I left everything.
And I ran away.
So that was my first video.
Picking up items.
And it was very funny.
And donor was laughing.
The second one, which we did the pickup
was we did the pickup and it was very far
away in Marathahalli and we were traveling
from Koramangala - too much traffic.
Yeah.
So by the time we picked up, it
was like, really we were done and
we were using public transport to
go there for the second pickup.
And I didn't anticipate
on how to plan for it.
So we thought we'll just carry and bring
back in a bus, which is not possible.
So we were there and they
were like, okay, we are here.
And the donor felt really bad that
these two people have come with
no planning on how to take it.
And he's like lemme help you out.
Let me book a Meru for you.
And that time Uber was not there.
He booked a Meru for us and
that was our first paid pickup.
Somebody paid for our service.
Yes.
But it was very good experience
because we learned so much on
why this person was donating.
Yeah.
I think those two stories I remember.
Pramod: And yeah, I would love to know
like what have been some of the learnings
over the years on why people donate?
To give you my own example, it was
mostly I think like decluttering
or having an organized home
leads to better life and so on.
So also there is a habit of if
let's say things just pile up
you want to buy newer things.
Because we discovered so many clothes
that are still like, we can wear and
with some small minor alterations.
So doing this entire exercise itself led
us to maybe purchasing less in the future.
So that was my reasoning.
But yeah I'm curious to know what are the
different buckets that you've come across?
Anushka: Sure.
I think, yeah, you are in a minority,
I would say your bucket - where people
are doing it for say having a better,
less cluttered space or like stress-free
space, etc . I think first biggest
category are moms, who actually donate
a lot of toys, kids stuff and all.
They use our service very often
because every two, three months
they have something to donate.
They also teach their
kids on how to give back.
And we have actually interviewed a lot of
moms and learned that since the kids in
this generation have access to lot more as
compared to what their moms had, so they
want to give these values to the kids.
So they involve the kids in the process.
We also have certificates, which we
give to the kids sometimes if they
have their first pickup with us.
Nice.
Wow.
Like a young Changemaker certificate.
So yeah, I think that's the main
category, 60 to 65 percent, I would say.
And then the second category is people
who are moving out or moving in and
they want to get rid of the items very
quickly, but in a responsible manner.
So they donate almost the
whole house 2BHKs, 3BHKs and
donate everything together.
And the third category even, which
you are categorized in which people
who are sustainable, who want to
change their lifestyle towards giving,
having more sustainable choices,
stress free, home clutter free home.
And the fourth one are the people who are
changing something, interiors, having a
life event - just got married, just had
a baby, the grandparents have moved in
with them, so they want to donate the
stuff of the grandparents house, etc.
So anyone who has changed in their
life they generally take part in this.
Pramod: Yeah, very interesting insight.
I wouldn't have thought those
five categories would exist.
Coming to like back on
the early days, right?
Did you face any skepticism starting out
a company in the sustainability space?
Like you said, sustainability was
probably not even a buzzword so you
were on a path less taken by people.
How did you handle, or like what did
you feel like at that point and at
times when you were feeling like,
are you even doing the right thing?
So how did you go about that phase?
Anushka: I think self-questioning was
not a problem for me because my parents
have put so much confidence in me
since child that it was just very easy
to think that what I'm onto is good
in a way that it gives me happiness
because I feel very strongly for it.
So what I learned from my parents, or like
from my dad who used to give me business
advice is like market is one part of it.
But what motivates you is the other part.
So if you don't get up every day thinking
about, I'm excited about this then the
whole market will not motivate you enough.
I knew that even though there was
no reference market or something to
compare, I knew this is something
which is something I want to explore.
So I never questioned that part of it.
But I think, I forgot the second question.
Pramod: Did you face
skepticism around that time?
Anushka: So I think sustainability
is an afterthought for people.
The first thought was I wanna do something
good with the items which I have.
We've expanded to Singapore
and London as well.
I think the mindset on why
people donate is very different.
In India, it's very emotional driven.
People are attached to their things and
they want to give it to the right people
and they will go extra mile for that.
To have the items go to the right
hand because of the emotional reasons.
So I think it was the
wish to do something good.
I think everyone wants to do good.
They just sometimes
can't find convenience.
So if they want to do good
and you put convenience to it.
They'll do good.
I never felt that people are
questioning why you're doing it.
it was easy product market
fit when we started.
On the charging why you
pay for the service.
I felt it'll be difficult but to my
surprise, it was something which was
very obvious step for people to accept.
Pramod: So there's obviously
two sides to the startup right?
There is the NGO partners side of
things and also the users who would
book so it's a chicken and egg problem.
So what part of it did you solve first?
Did you tie up with NGO partners first?
And how did you go about that?
Anushka: Yeah.
I think that took a little bit of time
because I was at Accenture that time,
so I was involved in their CSR events.
So we used to visit the NGOs
and that's how I came to
know about the NGO ecosystem.
Okay.
The business plan competitions
and all these awards which are
happening, the good thing about
that is not just the recognitions,
but the network you get from there.
So they assigned you mentors - so
one of the mentors assigned
to me was an Ashoka fellow.
So he helped me with an
initial connection of NGOs.
If you deliver to the NGO every
Sunday or Saturday, and they see
you coming before work, I think they
know that you are onto something.
So the NGO ecosystem is
very helpful that way.
I think we got the initial
three four partners that way.
I told them I'll deliver donations
to you, tell me your requirements.
It was an Excel sheet matching and
we used to get people to donate.
So initially I was doing the
pickups myself, but with time I
got involved volunteers from IIM
Bangalore, Christ University and all
these students who were helping me.
So we picked up around 10,000
pickups through volunteers only and
the NGOs were receiving donations.
NGOs came first and then the people came.
Pramod: Got it.
And over the years, what did you discover
in terms of the best way to reach people?
So I think NGOs you've tied up and
then there's word of mouth obviously,
or I discovered through Google search.
What has worked as a channel for
you to reach more and more people?
Anushka: Yeah, I think Google search
is more if you have a service which
people are searching for and you are
lucky enough that you have a good SEO,
then I think it works really well.
Okay.
And I think if you are doing the right
things, people just talk about you.
So word of mouth was really big for us.
We have people who have used the
service and all their relatives have
used our services at different cities.
So that's very common.
Then we were like a talk of the
town in kitty parties because
yeah, people talk about how I
use this service and it helped.
Got it.
So I think it was more of word
of mouth and Google search.
Pramod: Yeah.
And I read somewhere that,
you also partner with brands.
So how does that work?
And maybe before that, you can
share like three or four lines
about the startup, what it does
today, like in the current form.
Anushka: Yeah, so it's a tech platform.
People can donate anything reusable
from clothes, shoes, toys, books,
furniture, electronics anything
that you feel someone can use.
And how it works typically, you
make a booking on the website.
The items are picked up at the appointed
slot and goes directly to the NGO.
A matching algorithm.
matches donations with the
requirements of the NGO in real time.
And they go there and the person has
notified which NGO it has gone to.
So it's end-to-end
transparent in that way.
And people are aware.
On the brand side, there are two
programs that we done, one is for
corporates for employee engagement.
So companies like LinkedIn and Amazon,
they do drive collection drives
either at the office or they have
the home pickup for the employees.
So you can either the home pickup
if your company is sponsoring it and
you'll get a free pickup in that case.
Yeah.
And then we work with take back programs.
Like we are working with
Duroflex, Sleep Company.
We work with Mini Club and other brands.
All the consumer brands, basically,
they want that each time you buy
something, you might have something
which you're not using anymore.
Why not donate it?.
Yeah.
Okay.
So they sponsor the pickup.
So each time you buy a new
mattress you can donate or discard
or recycle the old mattress.
So that's how the model
works for Takeback programs.
Pramod: You mentioned that corporate,
a sponsor, so are they sponsoring a
particular campaign or drive or it's
like a year long sponsorship with them?
How is it structured with the companies?
Anushka: So most of the companies do
have as a core value that each time you
buy something, you can donate something.
Some of them do it on regular
basis, some of them do it only
once a year or twice a year.
Others do it like, as a
core value of the company.
With corporates also, a lot
of them do it quarterly.
So every quarter they'll have a drive
either at office or a home pickup,
which people can avail from home.
Pramod: Got it.
Cool.
And what's the scale today like when we
covered the early journey but where are
you today in terms of how many households
and how many NGOs have you partnered with?
Anushka: So we have close to 2.5
million user base households across the
two countries (India and Singapore).
London, we have just expanded,
so we don't have much there.
Yeah.
And in terms of NGOs, we have around
35 NGO partners here in India.
But in total including all of
them around 220 to be precise.
Pramod: Wow.
Okay.
And was it easy or difficult replicating
the model across cities and countries?
Or what are some insights on what's same
and what's different when you expand?
Anushka: I think easy, obviously
it's like a very relative term.
I think I will call it easy but there
were a lot of roadblocks, but not
as much as someone will anticipate.
Singapore was an easy geography, I would
say because of less time difference and
also you are aware much about the same
Asian culture, so you know how the market
works, what kind of platforms work there.
People still use WhatsApp there.
And what kind of age
group should we target.
For London, I think there were
a lot of stuff like this for us.
What kind of age group actually makes
a booking or searches for donation
stuff is very different from what
we have seen in India and Singapore.
Okay.
And in terms of what channels they
use, people don't use WhatsApp there.
They use Messenger, Facebook Messenger.
Facebook Messenger, which is not
very common in India and Singapore.
And they use iMessage.
So I think a lot of changes
which we have to do.
But I would say it was comparatively
easy for us to scale because it is
service, which is very plug and play.
We don't require warehouses.
We are basically dependent
on organic search.
Be there and exist and do good
work and people just start using.
Pramod: Got it.
And was it a conscious call
to not have warehouses?
Or did you even explore like a
warehouse option at some point?
Anushka: So there are all these
NGOs where we can go and drop off.
We have partnered with them,
so we deliver to those NGOs.
Okay, got it.
And so we figured that NGOs already having
warehouses so we don't have to do it.
Yeah, we did start like a small, I would
say, a place where we were building and
having our own logistics team, everything.
And one of my mentors was
at E-Kart's initial journey.
So he was helping me out on how to work
on logistics, reduce the cost and all
that, and he was like, okay, now you
have learned, now automate everything.
This is not required.
And I'm like, what?
He was like, yeah, you can't
build your own E-Kart, right?
So yeah, you have to make a company, which
is very different from E-Kart . Yeah.
So I realized that this is the time
to scale, but the mentors actually
helped me a lot in this journey because
you don't know when to switch, right?
Yeah, because I have been doing the
same thing and would've not scaled.
We were just in Bangalore and
once we have learned everything in
Bangalore, he was like, now it's time
to go to eight more cities together.
Pramod: So you, when you started, you
were in Bangalore and how many years did
you spend operating in Bangalore before
deciding, okay let's add one more city.
Anushka: So 2014 we
registered the company.
Yeah.
Okay.
And 14 to 16, I think it was just like
Bangalore and trying to explore the cities
like Delhi and all that, but not much.
I think once all these
companies like Dunzo, Porter.
All these came in, and Dunzo was the
the initial one who was our partner.
Around the time when they were
expanding, we expanded with them.
So when Dunzo, moved to different cities,
we expanded to all the cities, Oh, okay.
Before pandemic.
Pramod: And do you have like teams on
the ground or is it like a central team
that sort of coordinates across India?
Initially it was just you and then you
grew how did you grow the team as well?
Anushka: So I was in CureJoy in
2014, which was my, previous company,
so I was working with them and
learning how to build a company.
It was Accel funded company.
I was their fifth employee.
So learning everything on the
ground on how companies are built.
I learned from their
marketing, sales, everything.
So 14 to 18 I was with them
and learning on how to do it.
2018 we got like some major clients.
And we had enough revenue in
the bank to take it full time.
I had a few other people that
time who were working with me.
One of the person who was a third
employee in CureJoy also is working
with me and he handles tech.
We were like the core team members in
the starting and then slowly we hired
people from our network or through our
references and we grew to 12 people team.
Pramod: Yeah, I'm curious to know
any interesting anecdotes on the
customer side in terms of donations
that you remember from over the years.
Anything that you'd like to share.
Anushka: There are so many actually, but
I'll tell you a recent one from Singapore.
Actually two.
I can do give two actually.
One, I'll get some India
because it's a good context.
We have seen multiple instances when
women will actually make a booking and
assign the task to their husbands to
take care of it while they're away.
Okay.
Yeah.
And I think so many times they'll end up
giving her Amazon parcel to us as donation
without checking what they're doing.
And then we have heard like the
husband getting scolded on a call.
How can you not ask people
from where they are coming?
Because she might have assigned like
Amazon Parcel return along with donation.
We had like really heard, like really get
a lot of men getting scolded over call.
So we have fun recordings of that.
That's really funny.
But yeah, also show the
responsibility of how well responsible
Indian men are in these tasks.
Singapore one was like one of the girls.
She donated her new Jimmy Choos to us
by mistake with all the other clothes.
And after three months she
realizes when she has to like wear
it for a wedding or something.
And she was like, oh, I donated my
Jimmy Choos, which are like new thousand
dollars or maybe more Jimmy Choos.
And because the segregation had already
happened at, yeah at the charity
site, so we couldn't return that.
And she was okay as well somehow.
She was like, it's okay.
It was not meant to be.
But it was very funny on how, just a
small organizing problem can do that.
And she was like, now I'm going to have
more motivation to be more organized
because now it has costed me money.
Nice.
Yeah.
Wow.
That's a good takeaway
Pramod: from that experience.
Anushka: Yeah.
Pramod: And yeah, like any
heartwarming feedback that you've
received from donors or NGOs?
Anushka: Yeah, I think whenever we
receive pictures from NGOs, which
is not that often but sometimes
they do it on monthly basis or
quarterly basis, share some pictures.
I think there's always good to
share with our team members at least
because it feels like really good
on what we are working towards.
Most of the NGOs do have privacy
policy, so we generally don't put
it out there on our social media.
But yeah, it's good for us for
motivation that this is what
we are making an impact at.
I think one use case, which I learned
was, there was this manual treadmills.
Now we don't have them much, but I
think there was a time like 10 years
back when people used to have manual
treadmills a lot and there's a very good
use case of it at the NGOs where they
help them with therapy for walking.
When people are suffering from
cerebral palsy or, something
similar where they want training.
And I think those manual
treadmills were used for that.
And, we were not aware that we
can even accept them and we found
a really good use case of it.
And the NGOs were really happy that
they were able to get this and save
some budgets for the thing because
they were getting it for free.
Pramod: What's your vision from here?
Whether it's product wise or geography
or even impact wise, what's next?
Anushka: So I think so far we have
been working on so how I how I say
it like you have a tab which is open,
which is giving away all this water.
So right now what we are
doing is taking care of this
water is used properly, right?
Whatever is out there,
can we use it properly?
Yeah.
But someone has to close the tap,
otherwise it'll just keep on coming.
So we are working on closing a tap now.
So we have few working with
brands and giving feedback to
people to how to do this better.
How can we nudge brands
towards doing better?
But now with ai, I think
it has become easier.
We are doing a pilot in which we will
have AI agents, which will check so
how currently we sort is, all items are
sorted in terms of if they're good or
bad and go in different projects, right?
What we are trying to do is trying
to have data on what people are
donating and how they're donating
what's the quality of items.
So imagine if every t-shirt, which we get,
we can give the feedback to the brand.
Tell them that you are this
portfolio 2023 portfolio, this
t-shirt is in this condition.
And we can give this data back to them.
They can make better decisions on what to
manufacture and how to manufacture and
what is not to be manufactured at all.
Correct.
So we are trying to
make it all data-driven.
What people are trashing,
what people are donating.
And give that data back to the
industries, different industries,
fashion, toys, manufacturing, et cetera.
And tell them how to do, what to do, what
people are purchasing in the geographies.
Pramod: That's a great
feedback loop to close.
On that point I have a question
what are people donating?
Is it like broadly is it clothes,
electronics or do you have a split
of what people usually donate?
Anushka: Sure.
I think main is clothes obviously
have around 45 to 50% of clothes.
Okay.
And then I would say 15 to
20% of toys and stationary.
Which generally comes from
when kids are involved.
Then we have a huge amount of furniture
and electronics which people donate
when they are moving out, moving in.
So that's, even though the quantity
of that will be lower, but I think
in terms of carbon emissions, in
terms of volume, that's much bigger.
Yeah.
And, then the miscellaneous
items like sports equipment and
kitchenware and all that is the
miscellaneous items which we get.
Pramod: Got it.
Okay.
And yeah, curious to understand like
how the consumer behavior is changing.
Like from the time you started to
what you see now, what are some
behaviors that you are happy about
or are you seeing as a positive
change that's coming about right now?
Anushka: Yeah, I think
so much has changed.
We have seen the whole cycle of
people moving towards sustainability.
So now people, as I mentioned, it
was an afterthought for people.
But now it's like a first
thought, why people are donating.
So they do know the effect of us donating.
If we donate something we
extend the life of these goods
by at least nine months to 1.5
years, right?
So people do understand that leads
to reduction of carbon emissions,
water footprint, waste footprint.
But also it means that you're utilizing
these items which are manufactured
with so much effort, time and
resources for the right duration.
People do understand this now,
which was not the case earlier.
Earlier, it was like a nudging
journey for them, I would say.
Once they donate something, we used
to tell them that how much impact
this have made, and with that they
were nudged towards, okay, I can
take some more actions in my life.
So I feel it is like a first or easiest
action which you can do is give away
the items that you have lying around
and give them in a responsible manner.
So this is a starting of
a sustainability journey.
But I think now people are more
aware, they're taking more actions.
We were nudged to start
something on recycling.
We started recycling
option as well for e-waste.
So that was coming from people.
The third one was, having pets
donation, like something for pets.
So most of the families who have pets now,
they wanna donate something for the pets,
which are in the NGOs and support that.
So we try something like that.
We are in Mumbai and Delhi for Paw
It forward so where people can donate
something for dogs and cats and it'll
go to the NGO with support adopted dogs.
Is it
Pramod: there in Bangalore as well?
Anushka: We'll start soon.
We exploring the NGOs.
It's a little more difficult to
have for cats and dogs right now
because there's much more mapping.
But Bangalore's the next geography.
Pramod: Okay, cool.
Looking forward to that.
One other question that came to mind was
during Covid, obviously a lot changed.
So what did you see at that time?
How did you adapt to the situation?
What was your journey during that phase?
Every business had to transform
significantly to serve the
consumers at that point.
Anushka: I think, yeah, that
time it was more, the focus
was more on how we can help.
In the situation than like how
we can go to the same level.
We launched with our heavy pickups that
time in other cities and this happened
and I was like, we were obviously
one month we were like, in trauma.
What happened?
And then we were like, okay, we are
at the place where we can help people.
So we started with this
virtual classroom campaign.
We partnered with Cashify.
We collected all these dead phones,
which are lying around at people's
houses, sent them to Cashify centers.
Cashify then refurbished them, and
it went to the NGOs because NGOs
wanted the same kind of phones.
It cannot be like, one
iPhone and one Android.
They want same kind of phone s for
all the kids so that the app can work.
So that was one of the
initiatives The other one was
the home pickup for employees.
So employees can donate something from
home because they were working remotely.
Employee engagement initiatives where
people can donate from their home no
matter where they are across the country.
So we started those kind of initiatives.
Pramod: Great!
This has been amazing.
Thanks so much.
I have a few rapid fire
questions - curious to know some
sustainability habits that you have
inculcated in your day-to-day life.
If there was one that you had
to call, what would that be?
Anushka: Oh, I think there a lot of them.
I think I was in a very zero level when I
started and I think with time I've become
more mindful, but still work in progress.
I think one thing I try to
do is use my clothes as often
as I can, whatever I have.
And I have a lot of clothes already,
so I try to use them more often.
So repeat your clothes more,
I think that's something
which we all can do easily.
Yeah.
And other things is like try to, try to
be more mindful on what all you're doing.
I think in day-to-day life, just be
more mindful on what habits do you have
and just question when you do them.
I think that just puts you in a
place where you are at least mindful
of every action you're taking.
But it's always work in progress
and yeah, it's a journey.
Pramod: Yeah, no, totally resonate
with using clothes longer or
reusing items that are there.
So easy to just discard but, with
some effort you can just, alter it
or get it fixed and you can use it.
Any book or quote or a
person that inspired you?
Anything that that you
would want to recommend?
Anushka: Recently, I read
this book it's on climate.
It's called Case of Climate Capitalism.
I think that gives a good perspective
on what's going in the world.
I would say generally, I don't have
a single book, which I recommend.
I like a lot of books like Tools of Titans
and, there are a lot of known books,
which are like atomic habits and all.
But I think what I feel that
every time you read a book on
climate, you learn or get a little
bit closer to what's happening.
And yeah, just reading about it, learning
about it, and learning from the experts
and what's going on just helps you
understand how big is the problem and
can you do some part of it to help.
Pramod: Got it.
Awesome.
Last question for you what
would you tell your younger
self if you had to give advice?
Anushka: I think my younger self
gives me more advice as an adult.
I always say that I have my 8-year-old
version with me each time I have a
boardroom meeting because I think the
younger version of me is more intuitive
and wiser in a sense that has not been
jaded by the external market, how's the
market, how's this, so I would say I
always take advice from the younger self.
So if the younger I have to give
advice for younger self is like, yeah,
just keep doing what you're doing.
I think you know much better.
Pramod: Lastly, like, where can
people learn more about you and
your startup and start donating?
Anushka: Yeah.
And they can just go to our website,
just google Share At Door Step and
you will find everything about us.
Follow us on Instagram.
It's SADSIndia, which
was the earlier name.
And @ShareAtDoorStep handle on Instagram.
Pramod: Thanks so much, Anushka!
This was an amazing conversation and
wishing you all the best and, looking
forward to using the more and hopefully
more people discover the startup.
Thank you so much for your time.
Anushka: Thank you.
Thanks, Pramod.
It was nice talking to you.