Ruby Raut’s journey to becoming a successful businesswoman with her periodwear company WUKA is a complicated one but how did old saris help her reach her goals?
Transcript
Hi. I'm Dhruti Shah. And this is my podcast Have You Thought About. I'm a writer, journalist and poet, and I love to find out what passions people chase after in life, especially if they're blending together skills in really unusual ways. In each edition, I'm going to chat with someone I find particularly interesting. And who's also managed to fit things together in their life or
Dhruti Shah:Ruby, we met via a forum for entrepreneurs. I've experienced heavy periods all my life, and I'm really interested in the fact that you've taken this step to make periodwear that's sustainable. But first, I'd love to hear more about your journey as you've crossed continents, right?
Ruby Raut:Oh, my gosh, yes. That was a quite a while back now. 13 years ago, moved to London, got on a plane to an international country for the first time. So after 13 years, I feel like in next seven years, I'll be like, half British and half Nepali. You know, like, because I've lived like, half my life on both sides. Yeah, I grew up in Nepal, came here to the UK. I think in the search of
Dhruti Shah:I'm intrigued by how you've moved from was it an environmental science degree to becoming a business woman. So
Ruby Raut:It's like, when I finished my graduation, I was like, I want to be a forest ranger, go like different forests and parks and look after it to be with wild animals. That was my dream. But obviously, like I was living in the city, so I had to find a job, pay for all the bills and whatnot. When I first came to UK, I did pretty much everything from dishwashing, to cleaning toilets to
Ruby Raut:stumbled upon was on menstrual product. Now something very close to me very close to my heart. Grew up in Nepal. Huge taboo around periods. Nepal, India, Bangladesh, you talk about Asian country, you talk about African country, there are huge stigma around periods. I felt like if I was in Nepal, I would have never done it. I think so all of this, you know, like, I was not brave enough. But it's
Dhruti Shah:What I really like about hearing this and I'm hoping the audience takes away is you've taken topics that perhaps are taboo or weren't sort of focused on before and you know, going back to the food waste, even now about the periods and you've not let that stop you just because other people aren't doing it at that point in time. Where do you get that resilience from; all that making sure
Ruby Raut:Over the years, I've learned, like, you become resilient in two ways. Either you hear a lot of negativity around you, and you want to prove that you are, right. Or often, like, resilience is built by when a lot of people around you support you. And that motivation keeps you going up, and then you build up. Mine was the other one. Like, mine was like, I think you can only get so much
Dhruti Shah:So did you have like a full on business plan? Or you talked about that step by step moment? Or was just like, let's just see what happens. really intrigued by this? Because for people, you know, with this podcast, it's have you thought about and have you thought about becoming a business person? And you're saying, well, actually, this is a path that not that you necessarily stumbled
Ruby Raut:Yeah, no, I never thought I'd be doing this. Zero information on around business without like doing that as well. Like, I was like, pretty much going into this unknown, but exciting, like, okay, I found this quite intriguing. I've noticed that not everybody can be an entrepreneur. I think you have to have a certain kind of mindset to be an entrepreneur. Challenges should be fun. If
Ruby Raut:was like, okay, so and it's only not, you have to take that ownership and you don't have to take that decision and you form a team so that people with different skill can come in, work together with you. So I think those bits and pieces along the journey of like being daring, putting yourself out there, you know, like not being scared. Definitely. That is one thing like, things don't scare me.
Dhruti Shah:But do you know you have to be everything? Or have you just sort of encompassed everything as you've gone on that journey. Like how much of this is actually planned?
Ruby Raut:None. Actually none is planned. The wild throws things that you you just accept it, learn it, move on. Hopefully, it'll be easier if I ever start the next business. But it definitely is a hard journey. You know, like it's don't think that oh, you got a great idea and you'll flourish kind of thing. You have to put the number of hours in it. It's all about like, how much you invest.
Dhruti Shah:Did you ever shift it?
Ruby Raut:I did at the end, so we did keep it. I didn't throw it away or not use it to kind of way, we did use it.
Dhruti Shah:So let's focus on WUKA. And that's a periodwear, tell me more about how that idea actually came about and how you've expanded because workers quite well known now that what does it actually mean? Why have you got that name?
Ruby Raut:So WUKA stands for Wake Up Kick Ass. Genuinely I went to Pinterest and I was like, what are the inspiration quotes and then just typed it in and there were like loads of picture frames that said, like, Wake Up, Kick Ass, Repeat and I said, 'oh, that's pretty cool'. Then we started talking about periods quite a lot often. And then every time when you when you say periods, right, or
Dhruti Shah:I like that, I was gonna say Have You Thought About is HYTA. That four letters - so I love the fact that you brought that as well. And WUKA - yes, so wake up, kick ass. I'm, I'm loving that not actually heard about that before. So this is awesome. You've got the intention - and how do we go to getting the period pants etc sorted out? And it's not just pants, though is it? Like you
Ruby Raut:We do. Yes, we do swimwear, we have sports section where you can get leggings period, leggings, running shorts. Yeah, so we went more into like, sports kind of areas when I found out that one, like 50% of the girls give up on sports once they started the period. So why are they doing this? Right? So the confidence around like, the period product working is like one of them.
Dhruti Shah:You've gone beyond the taboo. A lot of companies now are investing in that area. But you have been there since quite early on. So I'm intrigued in spotting that gap in the market and deciding to push with it even though as you say it is, it was taboo. In some cases, it still remains a little bit taboo, to be perfectly frank with you, to talk about menstruation.
Ruby Raut:So the whole idea of the period pants came after I went to one of the schools and talked about reusable menstrual products. So growing up, I wore my mum's sari rag. And what she did was like her old sari - cotton ones especially - cut it into small pieces. And then you fold it and you put it in between the underwear. And that was my menstrual product. Super sustainable, but
Ruby Raut:and see how it works and got a secondhand sewing machine. That was my first £60 investment that I ever did. I brought it home and put on YouTube. Instead of sewing like I didn't even know how to thread a sewing machine let alone like how to sew, but put the YouTube on, learned how to do everything and cut my two old pants on the side. So that almost becomes like a pattern where you can then I
Ruby Raut:over 70% people were just moaning about the current menstrual product, because the choices have never been presented to them. You know, decades and decades, you've been just selling pads and tampons, and in the name of innovation, all they did was what - strings and rings and pretty much that's it. Right? So I thought okay, this is quite shocking, but also like really good fact like gives me like
Ruby Raut:Because when you're doing undersea cabling, you wrap it up with a fabric that absorbs any kind of leak, so if there is any short circui - it becomes almost like a barrier. So I said like oh can you send me like a metre of that fabric and then they were like oh no, you need to buy five kilometres, but you must have like any cuts or something - I literally just need like a tiny piece like to see
Ruby Raut:And I was like it's for period - you're supposed to like feel comfortable aboutit. Okay, I mean the whole they had a huge laugh around it like the way that I took my underwear but at the end of the two days they made me 20 underwears; I went to Facebook and said like I got a prototype now, who would like to give it a try? And literally next day I had like 15 women lined up,so everybody got a
Dhruti Shah:Tell me more about what makes you stand out.
Ruby Raut:So they are sustainable, they're reusable. And they have got, on average five times less carbon footprint than tampons and pads. And what happens like it is this the uses of the cycle it so so once you buy four or five pair of pants, pretty much now will last for over two years of your period. So ease of use, convenient cost saving. And once the underwear gets like falls apart, just put
Dhruti Shah:That is a big difference actually, in terms of numbers. So we've got someone who clearly has a lot of drive, a lot of passion, will break the barriers - doesn't matter if things are taboo or people aren't talking about them. It feels like you're like, well, if I see there's a gap and I see there's a need I'm going for it. Where else do you see a zeitgeist you've seen? You've gone
Ruby Raut:This is just the beginning and we are literally scratching the surface of this all, then have the reusability in like nappies I mean the nappy industry is huge and then incontinence you know like that's another huge like - to sustain in a world and to leave the world for our next generation, we have to act upon now
Dhruti Shah:And do you have any downtime?
Ruby Raut:I do have downtime. I cry that's a good way to take it out. I have many doubts, like I was like I can't do this anymore kind of moment. I've got dogs I wal them. I vent, I vent with everyone that I know. My husband and me we work together so we literally have moments like okay, this is your week to vent, that next week is mine.
Dhruti Shah:The wonderful Ruby Raut of WUKA who brings together menstruation, sustainability and more. Do you have an interdisciplinary life? I'd love to hear from you. And perhaps we can chat on this podcast that goes with my newsletter which is called Have You Thought About. It can be found via www.dhrutishah.com. Please join me next time for a fun conversation with another guest who likes