Raise your hands if you’ve heard the statement, “women are so complicated, I don’t understand them at all”, or jokes about the above, at least once. Deep Bajaj, founder of Pee-Buddy, went out of his way to understand these so called complications, and decided to find solutions to some of them.
In doing so, he managed to successfully launch his entrepreneurial career path that helped solve not one, but several problems women face. The company whose co-founders include Mohan Bajaj and Deepak Thareja, has now introduced the Sirona Herbal Patch, which provides relief to women who experience painful period cramps.
Like Pee-Buddy, their first innovation, the Sirona Herbal Patch also stemmed from a personal experience. Deep’s wife would suffer immensely from period cramps, and painkillers were her only salvation.
Deep set out to invent an alternative that didn’t require women to pop a pill, which led him down the Ayurvedic path. He followed up with a senior Ayurvedic doctor, and they looked at the possibility of cold therapy, as hot therapy already existed. They narrowed down on Menthol which seemed like the answer, with its cool, soothing effects.
Once they had a formula in place, all they needed was feedback. They tapped into the community that they built over the success of Pee-Buddy, aptly titled BeingJuliet which sends women care packages, five days before their periods.
Based on their feedback about the products they receive, as well as products they would like to receive, is what inspires their product line. Only after more than 80% of the community approved of the patch, did they go forward with the product.
The stakeholders, and the women they know personally, all gave their inputs too. The herbal patches are usable once only, but are biodegradable. The plastic packaging however, isn’t. “We try to make everything biodegradable, which is also why the Pee-Buddy isn’t made of plastic.
We’re working towards making our packaging more biodegradable,” says Deep, solemnly. From there on, once the Ministry of Ayush gave them their stamp of approval, the Sirona Herbal Patch went on sale on their website and Purrple. Certain stores in Delhi have them in stock, although the product is yet to hit stores across the country.
“We started with the objective to identify issues that hurt women on the go, and solve those problems with our products,” says Deep, the inventor of the operation. Their first product, Pee-Buddy started due to a road trip that Deep and his friends went on.
While the men could drink freely, the women were more hesitant due to their problems with the bathrooms on the way. One woman nearly cried in frustration, which is when another mentioned how Europe provided plastic funnels for women to pee through, while standing up.
This immediately got the entrepreneur in Deep, thinking. Since 2005, he had been in and out of several ventures, including one with his wife. It was only in 2014, with the start of Pee-Buddy that he truly felt he was doing what he wanted to. After Pee-Buddy flourished, they introduced Intimate Wipes, Multi-Purpose Wipes, and Biodegradable Sanitary Disposal Bags. Their main target audience remains urban women who are constantly on the move, and working women.
The rural sector is vast and although they admit women in that sector require help, their focus this year will remain on the urban sector. They are also currently talking to Government agencies, to make Pee-Buddy available for pregnant women and women with arthritis, at Government hospitals.
[P.S. Yes, women are the fairer sex, and they’re considered complicated, but here’s a gentle reminder — over the years they’ve learnt how to get rid of blood stains like no other.]