Emma Ulveland: 00:32

Hello everyone, and welcome back to season 2 of Work It, a UVic career exploration podcast. This is the show where we chat about all your career related questions with our knowledgeable UVic career educators and our amazing UVic alumni. We have a really special episode for you today, and I can't wait to dive in.

Emma Ulveland: 00:50

I'm your host, Emma, and I'm a graduate of UVic in the humanities program. And I'm back for a second degree in restoration of natural systems. So that's a little bit about me, and I'm joined today with my co- host Katie.

Katy DeCoste: 01:02

Hi, everyone. As you know, my name is Katy. I work in communications here at UVic. I kind of moonlight as a poet. A fun fact about me is that I used to play the French horn very badly.

Katy DeCoste: 01:15

Before we jump into today's conversation, I want to acknowledge that, as always, we are recording today at the University of Victoria, which is located on the traditional territory of the Lekwungen peoples. I want to extend my gratitude for being here as an uninvited guest on this land. And I also want to acknowledge with respect the Songhees, Esquimalt, and WSANEC peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.

Emma Ulveland: 01:39

On today's episode, we're so excited to be joined by Jayesh Vekariya, a UVic MBA graduate who is the CEO and one of the founders of Joni, a Victoria based company that produces organic sustainable menstrual products. They launched in 2020. In the past 4 years, Joni has donated over 47,000 pads to non profits and uses 5% of its sales to improve access to communities across the country. Jayesh is also one of UVic's 2024 emerging alumni.

Emma Ulveland: 02:08

Welcome to the show, Jayesh. We're happy to have you here today.

Jayesh Vekariya: 02:11

Thank you so much. Happy to be here.

Emma Ulveland: 02:12

Well, we're super excited to hear more about Joni and about your experience getting to create this company. What an amazing set of products and a powerful mission. I'd really love to hear a little bit more about Joni. Can you talk a bit about the company and how you created it?

Jayesh Vekariya: 02:27

Yeah. Sure. I did MBA in entrepreneurship at UVic. Joni was my MBA thesis project in the final semester. You have to pitch a problem that you are seeing either in the newspaper or from industry exploration.

Jayesh Vekariya: 02:42

Can you turn this problem into an actual viable business? Originally coming from pharmaceutical background, I was looking into, like, a health care industry because that's where my experience is and expertise. I landed on this statistic that said 1 in 3 young Canadian under the age of 25 cannot afford menstrual care products. This creates so many health issues and challenges as well due to mental stress, due to physical stress such as UTI, or vaginal infections. I was like, okay, this is a massive problem.

Jayesh Vekariya: 03:10

And this is the problem that you don't have to actually convince people that problem exists because it was all over the place. People knew the problem is there. And so it's more of why the problem exists and what can you do. And so that's where I decided to expand my entire semester. And somehow it turned into, like, a rabbit hole that I could never escape.

Emma Ulveland: 03:30

That's so cool. Can you tell us a bit about what Joni is and what it makes?

Jayesh Vekariya: 03:36

Yeah. Absolutely. So Joni makes sustainable period care accessible for everyone. And so we focus on 2 aspects, sustainability and accessibility equally. Because most of the time, they don't go hand in hand.

Jayesh Vekariya: 03:48

Like, as soon as you say anything sustainable, it becomes like a premium product. More than a 1,000,000 people in Canada and 10,000,000 people in the US not being able to afford these products every month. And so we wanted to solve this problem in a holistic way because no matter how big of a donation you make, it wouldn't go far. So you wouldn't be able to make a systemic change. And that's when Joni came in the picture.

Jayesh Vekariya: 04:09

We started initially with organic bamboo pads. Our pads are disposable, but they are made of bamboo, cornstarch, and ethically sourced sustainable material. So, for example, on average, our pads are biodegradable within a year up to 92% compared to most of the products that are made of plastic that goes into landfill. Beyond just landfill, plastic is not breathable. And most of the advertisements that you see is usually about women jumping through, fields of flower, in white clothes, playing tennis and like so happy, which is not real.

Jayesh Vekariya: 04:44

So it's a painful experience for many people. And many people don't even get represented in many of these conversations. The whole transgender community or even people who are not living in metro towns, they they are usually never represented or never included in the research and development phase. And so products are not inclusive or even the brands are not inclusive. So we wanted to build something that's inclusive, that's accessible for everyone, and people feel proud and, like, confident.

Jayesh Vekariya: 05:13

This is something that I can resonate with. Yeah. At Joni, every time you buy 1 pair, we don't have 1 just like Tom's shoes. But as we launched just day before pandemic, not the best time to start a business. Oh, no.

Jayesh Vekariya: 05:27

Yeah. And the whole supply chain was messed up. And so the container that would cost you usually $2,000 to ship from, like, your manufacturer to Canada suddenly started costing about $20,000. Although we started day 1, we made a donation of about 20,000 bids to United Way. At least people would know us.

Jayesh Vekariya: 05:45

Right? Otherwise, nobody knew us. The whole first one and a half year, we were donating, like, 400 to 500 products for every product sold. So it was not one for 1. Yeah.

Katy DeCoste: 05:59

Yeah. Not quite. Yeah.

Jayesh Vekariya: 06:01

But we survived. The hope was that the community would see the efforts and would realize that, okay, this is the company that we can rely on in the long run. When the times are tough, this is the company that will step up. That was the example we wanted to set. Yeah.

Jayesh Vekariya: 06:15

And so we launched with Organic Bamboo Pads with a Buy 1 Keep 1 Business Model. Somehow we survived the pandemic, and finally we made it on the other side.

Katy DeCoste: 06:24

That is so awesome. And I love hearing the story from how this goes from an idea you have as a UVic student and how it grows into a viable business for the communities that you're serving. You mentioned that you did your MBA in entrepreneurship, and it sounds to me like entrepreneurship is really in your blood, part of your family, because your mother also was an entrepreneur who started a textile business and employed local women who might not otherwise be able to find work. Did you find that you were inspired by her entrepreneurship? Did you find that you were impacted by that in any way?

Jayesh Vekariya: 07:02

Absolutely. I had the privilege of education, and so I couldn't let it go to waste. For example, I see 2 types of entrepreneurship. 1 is the need based, where you have to do something or you won't be able to survive, or the opportunity based, where you find an opportunity and you want to do something in that particular area. In my mom's case, it was both need based and opportunity based.

Jayesh Vekariya: 07:22

Need based because I was too young. I had 2 other siblings and we were living just next to the slum area. And so there were not many opportunities that she could go and find a high paying job or something that would be enough for her to feed 3 kids and send them school and all those things. So we had some shops in the neighborhood that were designing and selling the women's clothes. And so she really picked up the skill of cutting and sewing and everything.

Jayesh Vekariya: 07:48

And so she was like, oh, okay. This is easy. I can do this. She started doing that thing by herself and slowly that thing actually outgrew the amount of work that she could do. So she started training other people in the slum area that was in the neighborhood and hiring those women.

Jayesh Vekariya: 08:04

And in many cases, those women couldn't go to work because it's a patriarchal society. And so most men don't like their wives go out and work unless you can do it from home. They're okay. And so my mom was like, yeah, this is one work that you can do actually from your home. And so she started buying the sewing machines and like, okay, you can keep the sewing machine till you're working for me and you can collect all the clothes and everything and you can sew it at your home, bring it back, and you're done.

Jayesh Vekariya: 08:32

And we pay you at the end of the day. Within a year or something, it just really grew quickly. And so there were like 80 women in that neighborhood that were working, and my mom was building this company from ground up. And my sister, who is the eldest among our siblings, and so she joined my mom immediately. She had to drop her education and they both together built this amazing company.

Jayesh Vekariya: 08:54

And so I was like super impressed what she could achieve. And it was what you can do for the community and what community can do for you. And if she wouldn't have done this, I don't think I would have this education if it weren't for her. There is no way I could have gone to my bachelor degree in pharmacy or even this master's. I have 3 master's now.

Jayesh Vekariya: 09:13

I see that entrepreneurship as a solution for you and the community around you to do good. And I'm super inspired by mom and sister.

Emma Ulveland: 09:22

Wow, Jayesh. Your family is an inspiration. Your mom sounds like an incredible person. You know, I really love what you touched on about how, for you, entrepreneurship and building a business is a mutualistic relationship between the community and the business. A lot of people come at businesses saying, how can I make money?

Emma Ulveland: 09:39

How can I get ahead? How can I take advantage? And it definitely seems like for you, what matters most is how you can benefit each other. So my next question and thought then after hearing all of this is how did you choose menstrual products? Like, what brought you I know you you said you had a background in pharmacy.

Emma Ulveland: 09:59

So what made you think period products in the first place?

Jayesh Vekariya: 10:03

It's still a taboo topic in India. My mom still calls my business a typer business in community. She doesn't want to discuss it with her friends. And she was like, why are you doing this? You have studied pharmacy, have all this 10 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.

Jayesh Vekariya: 10:19

Why not just continue doing something there? When you are building something from the ground up, you don't have enough money for the first few years. And she just, she was like, You were making way more, working for someone else. Why are you doing this to yourself? Anyways, particularly period products because the problem was massive.

Jayesh Vekariya: 10:38

Coming from pharmaceutical background, I understood the health concerns and what goes into the material and everything, what kind of regulations and everything that you need to add thereby, and what you are looking for in the products. So that came easy to me. The one thing that didn't come easy to me was branding. I think I understood the physical and the social need, but I didn't understand what people actually are attracted to. Why would they buy this?

Jayesh Vekariya: 11:03

And some of our investors were very open in giving feedback about like, okay, Jayesh, we love the mission, vision, and the idea and everything, but think of it this way. Why would white women in Canada buy their pads from a brown guy from India? There is something that's missing. That's when I met my co founder, Linda, as well. And then we just rebranded the whole thing and launched Joni.

Jayesh Vekariya: 11:28

But yes, menstrual pads, because I was so resonated with the community issue and the taboo and social stigma and everything associated with it and the physical need before anything else. I wanted to build something that everybody can appreciate, whether you can afford it or not, whether you are living in a metro town or not, whether you identify as a woman or not. The idea was you get what you need. No judgments. No questions.

Katy DeCoste: 11:55

That really resonates with me, and I think you're so right about taboos still existing. Often when we think about poverty or living in low income, there's lots of areas we think about, clothing, food, housing, and this is one that can often get overlooked. You mentioned linking up with your cofounder and your partner at Joni, Linda Biggs, And I'm wondering if we could talk a little bit about that partnership. Where did it come from? What do you each bring to the team?

Katy DeCoste: 12:22

How do you work together? I'd love to hear about that.

Jayesh Vekariya: 12:24

When I started Joni, the feedback that I was receiving from most of the angel investors in town was the audience wouldn't resonate with me. They would resonate with the vision and the idea and everything, but I wouldn't be the best person to actually build that company. Mhmm. My ex boss from the previous startup, I reached out to him and I was like, hey, I'm raising money for this idea.

Jayesh Vekariya: 12:46

Would you be interested in writing a check? Yeah. Such a nice sentiment. He works with so many startups and says, like, the problem is I don't understand the problem. I don't resonate with the problem.

Jayesh Vekariya: 12:57

But I would love you to connect with my friend and my sister, 2 people, and see what they say. And one of them, if they decide to invest, I will join them. And so he made an introduction with his sister and then his friend who happens to be Linda Biggs, she agreed to meet. And so we were like, okay, let's connect at Whole Foods Market in Uptown. I go there and she was shocked to see a man.

Jayesh Vekariya: 13:21

I meet with Linda and we are talking about the whole thing about like, okay, this is the idea. This is the research I've done. This is how we are trying to solve this problem. I show her the packaging and she's like, Jayesh, this is shit.

Katy DeCoste: 13:35

That's the best partners are the ones who can tell you this is shit. You need to do something about it.

Jayesh Vekariya: 13:40

And her thought process was I have menstruated for more than 30 years, and I resonate more with a shoe brand than any period care brand. And so if I want to work with her on any project like this, I want to build something that I can resonate with. And I'm like, Linda, that's amazing. Why don't you just join as a cofounder and build this company together? And so she decided to join.

Jayesh Vekariya: 14:03

She immediately took over the branding.

Katy DeCoste: 14:06

I will say the Joni branding is so beautiful, and I feel like I sound like an influencer doing, like, a TikTok right now. But I have used these products, and I just feel happy and excited about opening them, which is not an emotion I usually associate with menstruation. Yeah. As a white menstruating person myself, I think she nailed it.

Jayesh Vekariya: 14:25

Right? Yeah. I I loved it too. Yeah. She came up with, like, 5 names, and Joni was one of those.

Jayesh Vekariya: 14:31

And we really liked the name, picking the color palettes and all these beautiful things, and she made it look so beautiful.

Emma Ulveland: 14:37

Your website is gorgeous.

Katy DeCoste: 14:40

It looks so good.

Jayesh Vekariya: 14:42

She nailed it. She has the way with the words. And so anyways, so yeah, so she decided to join the team and immediately, we raised about $160,000 from local angel investors, and there we were working on a period care company.

Emma Ulveland: 14:58

Wow. That's an amazing story. Okay. I'm gonna switch gears a little bit. When you look back, you did co op during your time at UVic, and now you're hiring co op students.

Emma Ulveland: 15:10

That's pretty amazing. Can you tell us a little bit about what your co op experiences helped bring to your work now?

Jayesh Vekariya: 15:18

Yeah. Absolutely. I was so lucky to find 2 co ops that were both in entrepreneurship, actually. So the first co op I did was the laundromat in downtown Victoria.

Katy DeCoste: 15:28

Slay.

Jayesh Vekariya: 15:29

That construction was about to be demolished, and she had to move to our next place. And so she was looking for somebody who is entrepreneurial, who can help her do the market research and find a new location for her new laundromat and streamline operations. And so I got that first call for 2 reasons. Nobody was applying probably. And second, I saw an opportunity to work on a very small business and make a significant impact.

Jayesh Vekariya: 15:54

I learned a lot about doing market research efficiently and connecting with the audience that you're targeting. It doesn't matter what industry they are in. And that 3 months just quickly went by. And the second co op I did was at Planar Global, which was a start up. I did a co op there as a research analyst.

Jayesh Vekariya: 16:12

So I was responsible for doing the industry research and identifying the market opportunities. But within a month, that role turned into a product manager kind of a position. I got an opportunity to work with amazing team of founders, investors, lawyers who came together to build this company from ground up. That's where I learned what you are actually pitching to investors to get them excited. It's not about what you are doing, why you are doing, how you are doing it, all those areas as well.

Jayesh Vekariya: 16:42

And so you ask a lot more questions about your business. So both the experiences came really, really handy when I was building my company. It made me prepared that what you have is not enough and you're gonna need more. So for example, I had $15,000 right, at the end of that company's dump, and that's not enough money to launch anything. I knew that I would need at least half a $1,000,000 to get this company off the ground within the next one and a half year just to keep the inventory, hire people, and all those things.

Jayesh Vekariya: 17:12

But at least you are prepared that, okay, with this $15,000, these are the milestones that you have to hit in order to get another half a $1,000,000 that you need to build this company. So I genuinely appreciate that experience and more of the network as well that I've built through these co ops. And if I hadn't done the 2nd co op, I wouldn't have met Linda because it was my ex boss who made that introduction. Right? And my boss, his wife, they are both first investors.

Jayesh Vekariya: 17:40

They both wrote, like, $5,000 check because you need that friends and family round in order for people to trust you as a founder. Yeah. These experiences actually prepared me to build something larger than I could think of.

Katy DeCoste: 17:54

I really love hearing about those co op experiences because I think especially when some students are looking for their first co op, there can be this idea of, like, what a co op should look like, or maybe I'm gonna be at, like, this big organization, or I'm gonna be working in a specific sector or industry. And in the stories you're sharing, even experience that you had working for this laundromat, which is not very closely aligned to what Joni is doing now, you learned so much and were able to get a lot out of it that set you up for what you're doing now. So I just, like, really love those stories of these unique co op opportunities that can do something more than what we might imagine a co op to be. On sort of a similar line, but from the flip side, like Emma said, now you are an employer and you hire students. I would love to hear about your experiences as an employer and a bit about why you chose to hire co op students for your business.

Jayesh Vekariya: 18:49

We started hiring co ops, I think, one and a half years ago for a few reasons. One, students actually bring unique perspective. They do not come from a fixed box from a previous company where they have worked at. They are still open. They're exploring.

Jayesh Vekariya: 19:03

And so that open box allows us to put them into different areas and learn from what kind of analysis they do, what they think of the business world, how they perceive their ideology and like the company's ideas and everything. That's one reason for hiring coop students. And we learned early early on that it's tough to hire co op students because more than what they contribute to your company, you are contributing to their career actually because they are still learning. They don't have that prerequisite experience. And so you have to have someone who can train them, mold them.

Jayesh Vekariya: 19:36

These are the future leaders, right, I think. And so the experience that you provide them early on can go a long way. They're gonna work somewhere, why not a journey? And so at least like I think we are transferring that culture, sharing the values and showing them what's possible. And when they come in, they also show us, here is the area that you can improve.

Jayesh Vekariya: 19:57

Here are the things that you can do. They take over so many easy to do or repeatable tasks as well. And Joni is a remote company. Right? Like, we have one tiny office where nobody goes, and it's a team of 6 people.

Jayesh Vekariya: 20:11

So having someone who can bring some freshness to the table and bring some unique, new ideas is highly appreciated. And, this is the team that I think can welcome new ideas. Yeah. That's the reason we hire co ops, I guess.

Katy DeCoste: 20:26

You started your career in pharmacy before you decided to come to UVic to do an MBA. You also mentioned that you have 3 master's degrees, which I would love to hear about. I'm curious about what you were looking for in a graduate program, why you decided to come to UVic, and your journey through that program. Yeah.

Jayesh Vekariya: 20:41

I finished my high school in 2007 and went for bachelor's in pharmacy in south of India, and I spent 4 years studying that. And in 2011, after graduating, I went into the pharmaceutical industry, worked there for a couple of years. And while I was still working, I went for the first grad program that was MSc in Pharmacology 2013 actually. And so I finished that in 2015. Immediately after finishing that program, decided to go to France.

Jayesh Vekariya: 21:09

I did MSc in International Project Development at Neoma Business School, which is one of our partner institutions as well at UVic. I studied there for 8 months and then there was a coop term. I ended up working for a private equity firm in Belgium, moved to Dubai, doing some investment for them. Didn't enjoy what I was doing with my life and decided to give it another go. And so I started studying for GMAT exam, which is pre requirement for MBA.

Jayesh Vekariya: 21:35

And in 2017, I came to Canada at UVic to do my MBA in entrepreneurship. Graduated in 2019.

Katy DeCoste: 21:42

So this year, you were named one of UVic's 20 24 distinguished alumni. Congratulations. That's very exciting. And I loved reading about your story and about Joni through that. As a UVic alumni, I'm curious, what advice do you have for students or recent grads who are curious about entrepreneurship and thinking about launching their own business?

Jayesh Vekariya: 22:04

It's easier when you're young. And especially if you are in school, this is the best time. You are learning new principles, new theories and everything. Why don't put them in practice? One skill that is key for entrepreneurship is the ability to learn.

Jayesh Vekariya: 22:19

And the fact that you are at school, you are surrounded by people who are actually learning new things. It's a good opportunity to find people who are motivated. I would say it's easy to bet at least $5,000 early on on idea that you think you can work on. It doesn't have to be anything concrete. While you are graduating, whatever you are learning, put those learnings into practice with people that you love.

Jayesh Vekariya: 22:44

You don't have to spend money on office space. You don't have to spend money on employees. You don't have to spend money on learning new things. So you have all these access points. You have libraries.

Jayesh Vekariya: 22:54

You have professors. You have incubator. You have innovation sale. You have some grant money as well. Yubik has this entrepreneurship co program if you don't know about that.

Jayesh Vekariya: 23:03

Right? You can work on your own idea, and Yubik can hire you as a co op. It can't get better than this. When you are a student, I would say this is the best time to actually try something. The worst case, the idea might not work, but you'll figure out the people that you like to work with, the kind of ideas that you like to work on, the kind of industry that you want to go into in future as soon as you graduate or something.

Jayesh Vekariya: 23:25

So I would say, like, take a chance, put 5,000. That's the best advice I think I can give. That's the best investment that you would make during your studies. If you have graduated, have a side hustle. Yeah.

Jayesh Vekariya: 23:38

You don't have to go all in. For example, my co founder and I, we were working full time on-site while we were building Joni for 1st 4 years. We both had full time jobs. Mhmm. This is the 3rd month that we are paying ourselves.

Katy DeCoste: 23:53

Congratulations. That's a very big milestone. Yeah.

Jayesh Vekariya: 23:56

And so we were hiring people. We were, we were able to pay them and retain them and build this company and reach the milestone. It takes time. And it's not that you are stealing time from your current employer or anything. Don't feel bad.

Jayesh Vekariya: 24:11

So if you are learning from your side hustle, those learnings would apply to your current job as well. And whatever you are learning from your current job, those learnings would apply to your side hustle. And so if you're not doing anything new or different, maybe you're not learning something different that you can apply to your coop or job or whatever you're doing. So I would say screw it, do it. I love that.

Katy DeCoste: 24:30

Yeah. And it rhymes. I know. That's so slick. I think fear can be the thing that holds us back in a lot of ways. And so that kind of like, screw it, do it, jump in, and it doesn't have to be perfect.

Katy DeCoste: 24:40

Then you don't have to know exactly how it's gonna go is extremely valuable.

Jayesh Vekariya: 24:44

Yeah. And first $5,000 you are putting in, just know that you're not gonna get anything out of it. And so you are 100% prepared that that money is gone. So there is no expectations. All your expectation is, like, you are growing yourselves, learning about your interest, and what you can do with that little money next time you have.

Emma Ulveland: 25:09

Okay. We're jumping into our rapid fire questions. So this portion, Jayesh, is where I'm gonna ask you some questions about your time at UVic, and you're just gonna answer with the first thing that comes to your mind. Are you ready?

Jayesh Vekariya: 25:22

Sounds good. Let's do it.

Emma Ulveland: 25:23

Okay. Do you remember what your favorite food to eat on campus was?

Jayesh Vekariya: 25:28

Oh, burger and chips from Felicitas Pub.

Emma Ulveland: 25:31

Yes. Love that. Good choice. And did you ride the bus?

Jayesh Vekariya: 25:36

Yes. I did at 26 number and 16 number.

Emma Ulveland: 25:39

Yep. I remember using those myself.

Katy DeCoste: 25:40

26 is really the goat, yeah.

Emma Ulveland: 25:43

Yeah. It really is. What was your top study spot?

Jayesh Vekariya: 25:46

So doing MBA has its own perks, and so we had our own lodge.

Katy DeCoste: 25:51

Oh, nice. Yeah.

Emma Ulveland: 25:53

Did you have a favorite season of the year?

Jayesh Vekariya: 25:56

Spring.

Katy DeCoste: 25:57

Yeah. Yeah.

Jayesh Vekariya: 25:58

It's so beautiful.

Emma Ulveland: 25:59

The blossoms. We're recording right now during spring, actually. So it's funny you would say that. It's so gorgeous right now.

Katy DeCoste: 26:05

The magnolias, the cherries, the plums, all of it. So gorgeous.

Emma Ulveland: 26:11

What building did you end up spending the most of your time in?

Jayesh Vekariya: 26:15

David Strong because that's where I was studying, I guess.

Emma Ulveland: 26:18

And if you could do it all again, what would you do more of?

Jayesh Vekariya: 26:23

Oh, I would do at least 2 more projects Mhmm. In entrepreneurship from 1st semester itself. I wouldn't wait for last semester.

Emma Ulveland: 26:33

Do you know what project it would have been or what your interest area would have

Jayesh Vekariya: 26:37

I usually don't care about ideas because, frankly, the idea evolves so much by the time you are done. Yeah. It turns into something very different than what you initially are coming in with.

Emma Ulveland: 26:48

Oh, that was awesome. Jayesh, thank you so very much for coming on the show today. Thank you for sharing your experiences, your wisdom. There's so much that our listeners can learn from you. So thank you for being here today, and we wish you the best of luck with all the next steps coming for you and for Joanie.

Emma Ulveland: 27:05

Thanks again. Thanks.

Jayesh Vekariya: 27:07

Really appreciate it.

Katy DeCoste: 27:09

Work It is developed and distributed by Co op and Career Services at the University of Victoria and hosted by Emma Ulveland and Katy DeCoste. Today's guest was UVic MBA grad and CEO / founder of Joni, Jayesh Vekariya. Our theme music and art were created by Emma Ulveland with audio editing by Emma Ulvelandlund. To learn more about career possibilities and resources from UVic, visit uvic.ca/career/services. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to subscribe to Work It anywhere you get your podcasts and you'll never miss an update.