What I learned from looking at 100 Indian D2C brands

Six months ago I started a spreadsheet. One row per Indian D2C brand I came across. The ones in my feed. The ones friends mentioned. The ones I bought from, and the ones I almost did.

By the time it hit 100 rows, I had stopped adding to it and started thinking.

India has some remarkable brands right now. People who left comfortable careers to make better olive oil, cleaner sunscreen, smarter earphones, more honest clothing. Founders who actually use what they sell. That level of conviction shows in the product. It shows in the copy. It shows in the way they talk about what they’re building.

Most shoppers will never find them.

Not because the brands aren’t trying. The current way we discover brands (scroll, stumble, sponsored post, a friend’s recommendation if you’re lucky) doesn’t do justice to what’s being built. Good brands get lost in the noise. Mediocre ones with bigger ad budgets don’t.

That felt like a problem worth working on.

D2C Bazaar is our attempt at it. A curated directory of Indian D2C brands, where every listing has been reviewed by a human, where we write an honest take on every brand we feature, and where the criteria for being here are published openly for anyone to read.

It’s early. The list will grow. But the bar won’t change.

I’ve spent a long time on the internet. The projects I’m proudest of came from noticing something good that not enough people knew about, and trying to fix that quietly. This is the same instinct, pointed at something I think matters.

If you’re a shopper, come look around. If you’re a founder, read the criteria and apply. If you disagree with something we’ve written, tell me directly.

There are hundreds of Indian D2C brands worth knowing about. We’re just getting started.

Nirav Sanghavi