Dailywell is a company that produces and sells a variety of health drinks made from natural ingredients. It uses modern technology and manufactures their products hygienically. Its mission is to bring the best of nature to support people in having a healthy lifestyle. It was founded by the Christianti sisters, Karen and Pauline. She received her Bachelor of Commerce from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, and Pauline is a Psychology undergraduate from Universitas Pelita Harapan, Indonesia. Karen gained her marketing experience working in an FMCG company and Pauline was a headhunter. In Dailywell, they work as a team and divide the tasks, Karen handles marketing while Pauline does the production. Below is our interview with the founders; Karen and Pauline.
For more information about Dailywell, please click here.
Hi Karen and Pauline, where did the business idea come from and how did you start the business?
We’re the Christianti sisters, Karen and Pauline. Our family is health conscious and we regularly consume healthy products, including herbal drinks. One of our favorite recipes is lemon mixed with ginger and cinnamon. Karen herself lost about 16 pounds and reached her ideal weight within 3 months with the help of the drink. We saw the opportunity and began producing in a small amount. Little did we know that the demand was there and over 2000 bottles were sold within the first 3 months.
Seeing the demand, we decided to turn it into a proper business. We divided the tasks, Karen handles marketing while Pauline does the production. Our parents guided us with life principles and advice that move us towards growth and benevolence.
Why did you decide to commit to this business? What are you trying to build?
Our vision is to help individuals to be better people, including all stakeholders in this business. We help our staff and producers to gain more income by processing their products and selling them. At the same time, we help our customers to improve their wellness through our products. We hope as this business grows, so do the people in it, and we are committed because we want to take part in enriching people’s lives.
We have a set of values that we try to deliver through our brand. We believe that the time given to us is precious and we should use it very wisely, therefore we chose the tagline “I Live Dailywell”. Through high-quality products and brand, we are trying to send a message that people should be aware of the impact that they make through their every action. Living Dailywell means having a balance, which is portrayed through our logo that’s consisted of 2 leaves in yin & yang arrangement. The quality of our products made them repurchase it, but the brand is intact to their lifestyle and became a habit.
Are there any interesting stories or challenges you faced during the journey?
The challenges are there to make it fun, one of them is having to learn so much. We constantly observe the market, converse with experts, learn from the internet, and all the things that might tire us. We kept in mind our vision and know that it will all be worth it.
As the first pure lemon, ginger, and cinnamon blend in Indonesia, we have no direct competitor, therefore we need to educate the market about our products. There was this one time when a customer purchased our product in a restaurant and drank it straight away from the bottle. The cashier was shocked and immediately told the customer that it should be drank in shots. It was funny and eye-opening at the same time. From that moment we realized how important it is to educate the market about our product. Not only about the benefits, but also about serving suggestions and other relevant facts.
What is your plan to develop Dailywell’s business two years from now?
At the moment we are still focusing on getting more exposure and brand awareness. It’s because we’re a new player in the market, and still have a lot to do to educate the customers. But we’re looking to expand our product variety and are considering other healthy food options. In 2 years we hope that we’d have created a great amount of demand for herbal goods as well as other healthy food.
Who or what do you think has been helpful for you in navigating through your journey? Is there any message to fellow entrepreneurs in navigating the current entrepreneurial ecosystem?
Karen loves to read books, and she gets most of her marketing strategies from there. One of her favorite authors is Dan Ariely who wrote a book about decision making and helped her in breaking down the process to convince customers to buy our products. But we join a lot of UKM (SME) events and networked with a lot of people and exchanged information. Our family and friends have always been very supportive as well in promoting and giving us feedback.
We hope that SMEs can compete more on the quality side, instead of quantity, in a healthy environment where we can all learn from each other. We also envision SMEs that help educates Indonesian human capital to be a business entity that considers social impact.
At this stage, what kind of support do you need to develop your business from the government and the ecosystem?
Support for exposure and channel in marketing, the opportunity to participate in an exhibition and channel for exporting so we could sell our products abroad and more people would get in touch with our products or business. We’re still running the business by bootstrapping, and we need the support for channel and exposure rather than fundraising.
ANGIN x KUKM Spotlight is a part of “ANGIN x KUKM Training in Pitching and Access to Funding for SMEs”, a collaboration between ANGIN and the Ministry of Cooperation and SMEs. In this spotlight, we aim to share stories about the selected local Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to public and ecosystem players within ANGIN’s network (organizations, key players, investors, development agencies, government, etc). We are hoping that this spotlight can lead to potential collaboration in growing the entrepreneurship ecosystem, including SME development.
