1/ It was 2008 when @AnuradhaParekh and I started blogging - writing about the small acts of change being done by people around us. The idea @thebetterindia was to bring a new perspective to media - to celebrate progressive movements, which was never done at a large scale.

2/ In 2008 - we wrote once a week
2009 - twice a week
2010 to 2013 - thrice a week
2014 - every single day, team size 3
2015 - 2 stories a day, team size 4
2016 - 4 stories a day, team size 8
2017 & 2018 - 20 stories a day, team size grew to 30 (and a fabulous team at that!)

3/ Revenue in 2008 - ₹0
Revenue in 2009 - ₹0
Revenue in 2010 - ₹0
Revenue in 2011,2012,2013 - ₹0
Revenue in 2014 - 7-digit figures
Revenue in 2015 - 3x of prev year
Revenue in 2016 - 4x of prev year & *turned profitable*
in 2017 - 3x of prev year
in 2018 - 2x of prev year

4/ No key metrics were favourable from 2008 to 2013.
No major growth in traffic/revenue from 2008 to 2013.
Most mainstream media folks’ advice to us: ‘no one wants to read this’.
Today 50mn+ read us every month. Changed millions of lives, empowered people to become changemakers.

5/ Key learning: Have a long-term view on what you are building. It may take a decade to get there, so better build something that you are truly passionate about. Lack of early indicators (in our case 2008-13) can force wrong decisions, unless you step back and take the long view

6/ What I love the most about our journey so far? The impact we have created! A small glimpse here: https://www.thebetterindia.com/impact/  and here: (and all this has taken 25% of my life so far, every moment of which I am glad went in creating this movement).

7/ We are now taking that long-term view in building this: https://shop.thebetterindia.com  - giving large-scale market access to MSMEs, rural artisans, self-help groups and more. The journey has just begun. To join us, [email protected]

Since this thread is getting a lot of attention, important to mention explicitly: Long-term view does not equate to slow pace of execution. It’s all about rapid iterations and experimentation, building towards a larger vision.

More exciting updates in our journey that deserves to be a part of this thread - We took our positive impact on people & the planet up a notch in 2020 by launching The Better Home - our subscription kit of eco-friendly home cleaners. Check us out here http://shop.thebetterindia.com