Startup Savvy: Young Entrepreneur Sofia Panwar Of Unndr Shares Their Secrets For Rapid Growth and Success
An Interview With Eden Gold
Business has its ups and downs. Every day is different. Being an entrepreneur teaches you do many things. It creates a sense of resilience. You need to go into each day with the mindset that not every day will be amazing. I wasn’t prepared for this in the beginning and I thought every day being my own boss would be great. In reality, that’s just not the case. As your business grows, you see more successes but equally you also see more problems. This comes with the nature of growing, but you have to adjust and adapt with it too.
The entrepreneurial landscape is more vibrant and challenging than ever, with young entrepreneurs at the forefront, driving innovation and redefining the boundaries of success in the business world. These dynamic individuals are not only creating new products and services but also building sustainable business models that thrive in today’s fast-paced, technology-driven environment. Their journeys are filled with lessons of resilience, strategic innovation, and the relentless pursuit of growth. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Sofia Panwar.
Sofia Panwar, 27 years old, is a British entrepreneur who left her graduate job as a paralegal to launch Unndr, the UK’s first monthly lingerie subscription business. She grew it to a seven-figure empire in just two years from her bedroom at her parent’s house. Founded two years ago, the lingerie subscription club now has 4,000+ monthly subscribers, has accumulated over 300k social media followers in the last six months alone, and made £1.2million revenue last year.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion about cultural sensitivity, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
After getting my Masters in law, I worked as paralegal for a property management company in London. I found the corporate world quite disheartening and cut-throat. A year later, I’d had enough of my job; the workload was intense, I was under a lot of pressure, and I didn’t feel like my efforts were valued. I had always wanted to make a change in people’s lives, hence why I went into law in the first place, but I felt so drained.
I cast my mind back to a time when I had felt really great. It may sound strange but it was around the time of the pandemic. When lockdown hit, I really focused on my wellbeing, from exercising regularly to eating healthy. I also bought new lingerie and the impact on how I felt was huge. When we were allowed to socialise again, and I wore my lingerie under my clothes, it gave me a hidden sense of confidence. It was like my own personal hack to feeling great.
I was thinking about how good I had felt when I was prioritising my wellness and the confidence surge the lingerie gave me and I had a lightbulb moment; I could make a difference in women’s lives and give them a boost of confidence through a lingerie subscription service. A monthly feel-good package, direct to their door!
I created an Instagram page for Unndr pretty much straight away. I wanted to test my idea and see if there was a market for it. I had women start messaging me, interested in trying Unndr. After leaving my job in law, just four months after starting Unndr, I focused solely on the business day in, day out and it’s grown rapidly since then.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
A six-second video changed my life — literally. When we had our first experience of going viral — which was a six-second video that I did where I took a video of the product — everything changed. Within a matter of minutes of putting the video live, it was clocking up views and they increased by the thousands every few minutes. It ended up with 12.2million views. This viral video changed the business trajectory. We went from doing five figures to seven figures in a very short space of time. We’ve had other videos go viral since then, but that was the first time and was very memorable.
You are a successful individual. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Patience — this is needed in so many ways. It depends on what your business goals are but for me it was patience of when our time was going to come in terms of sales figures and patience in building a team and having people come on-board to help me. This is really key; you can’t ever do it on your own and you need an element of other people coming in to help you grow.
Empathy — I’m quite an empathetic person. At the start I was at the forefront of the interactions with our customers. I felt their needs and wants and I would go above and beyond for that person. Plus, because I’m empathetic it means I always want to give our customers so much more than they would expect which has led to loyalty from them.
Honesty — being really honest and transparent online has helped the business grow. Not just sharing the successes, but documenting the different stages of the business. It means people can come on your journey with you. People feel more connected to you and become invested in you. Being honest in everything is at the forefront of my approach.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview about young entrepreneurs secrets to rapid growth and success. To start, how would you define success?
There are so many ways — financially, mentally, spiritually. For me, it’s always been about being able to successfully help women on their self-care journey. There could be a day where sales are slow so it’s ‘unsuccessful’ in terms of the numbers, but we may have had an influx of DMs on social media and emails with amazing feedback on how we made a customer feel great, and those messages are so much more meaningful. Having that positive impact on our customers is what it’s all about for me.
What unconventional strategy did you employ that significantly contributed to your startup’s growth, and why do you think it was so effective?
It was our focus on the whole customer experience with the product that made us stand out and has hugely contributed to our growth.
We needed to find a way to stand out from other lingerie brands, and we did it by coming from a different point of view through marketing. We didn’t just post content on social media about the product, we brought the lifestyle to life. It’s about the overall wellness and self-care that our lingerie boxes bring to women’s lives. So, we’ve done self-care videos with the lingerie in the background, we’ve focused on the packaging and what it’s like to receive one of our boxes. We’ve documented everything around the product, which is quite different, and has worked in our favour.
Can you share a critical pivot point in your startup’s journey and how you navigated the decision-making process?
For us, this was when we were finding a manufacturer. After we went viral, and we were gaining traction quickly, I knew it was time for us to start designing the lingerie ourselves and to do that we needed to find a manufacturer. I had to act fast as we were growing rapidly. I flew out to Turkey and met with four manufacturers, and one really stood out to me in terms of understanding our brand and concept. This was really key as the concept of a monthly subscription lingerie box is something that hasn’t been done before, and I almost had to sell the business to the manufacturers and explain the vision. They really understood what we were about and it meant so much to me to have them on-board.
How do you balance the need for rapid growth with maintaining a sustainable and healthy company culture?
One thing I always tell the girls on our team is work smart, not hard. The hours in the day go so quickly and I don’t want us to be working all day, around the clock.
We leverage data and analyse what has worked and what hasn’t and then use that to inform our next move. We look at the back-end of the website lots, our Facebook pixel, how many people added to cart, how many purchased, the drop off rates etc. This means we focus on what is important, and we can avoid mulling over everything and anything. Going off hardcore data means we know we are going in the right direction.
In what ways has your personal definition of success evolved since the inception of your startup?
It hasn’t evolved — if anything, it has grown stronger. My definition of personal success has always been to be able to help other women and this has only become reinforced over time. Hearing how I help them becomes almost addictive.
Based on your experience and research, can you please share “5 Things You Need to Succeed as a Young Person in Business?” If you can, please share a story or an example for each.
1 . Be clear on your mission and product. It’s so important to have a great product and story around it. The brand messaging and product all needs to align. You need to be crystal clear on who your target customer is. For us, at the start, when we weren’t designing our own products, it was difficult as they weren’t exactly how we would have done them. Now we design our own lingerie, there is a real difference in quality. We get a lot less returns now than we used to.
2 . Business has its ups and downs. Every day is different. Being an entrepreneur teaches you do many things. It creates a sense of resilience. You need to go into each day with the mindset that not every day will be amazing. I wasn’t prepared for this in the beginning and I thought every day being my own boss would be great. In reality, that’s just not the case. As your business grows, you see more successes but equally you also see more problems. This comes with the nature of growing, but you have to adjust and adapt with it too.
3 . Just know that you will have the job of about 10 people at the beginning. Everything from social media, product buying, finance, everything. You need to be able to flex and turn your hand to pretty much anything. This sets you up well, as when you do hire people you genuinely understand what it takes for that person to be good at the job because you’ve lived it yourself.
4 . Know your numbers! I know numbers are scary for lots of people. They were for me at the start; I found understanding the numbers really daunting. But it’s so necessary. You can understand a lot about your business from your numbers. It also means you can make informed decisions about investing in new things too. For example, if you want to do a high end shoot you need to know your numbers and if you can afford it.
5 . Don’t quit when the going gets tough. It’s really easy, especially in the early days, to feel dissatisfied when things aren’t going your way — if the sales aren’t there or likes on social media have dwindled. I actually think this can be when your best ideas come around because you’re forced to think and revaluate about how you can do better.
What is one piece of advice you would give to an aspiring entrepreneur that you wish someone had given you at the start of your journey?
I heard recently that it takes 10 years to become an overnight success. I think this is a brilliant way to think. It also keeps you from comparing yourself to other businesses; you simply can’t compare your year two to their year 10. It brings me a sense of calm; I don’t need to rush, I’m a contender in the game for the long run, I’m building for the future of my business and I can take a more holistic approach.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I already have started a movement — my business, Unndr! My objective from day one has always been to offer women a way of looking after themselves and give themselves some self-care each month, which I do with Unndr.
How can our readers further follow you online?
You can find me on Instagram here and TikTok here and Unndr is on Instagram here and TikTok here
Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
About The Interviewer: Eden Gold, is a youth speaker, keynote speaker, founder of the online program Life After High School, and host of the Real Life Adulting Podcast. Being America’s rising force for positive change, Eden is a catalyst for change in shaping the future of education. With a lifelong mission of impacting the lives of 1 billion young adults, Eden serves as a practical guide, aiding young adults in honing their self-confidence, challenging societal conventions, and crafting a strategic roadmap towards the fulfilling lives they envision.
Do you need a dynamic speaker, or want to learn more about Eden’s programs? Click here: https://bit.ly/EdenGold
Startup Savvy: Young Entrepreneur Sofia Panwar Of Unndr Shares Their Secrets For Rapid Growth and… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.