We plan to bring eChai across 100 cities in India. It starts with eChai Startup Demo Day on 26 September, all in person. 11 cities confirmed, 151 founders registered. Any city that reaches 20 interested founders is on too. See your city
Everything from

Storyboard18

3 resources from Storyboard18 we point founders to, and the questions each answers.

📄 Article
India Free Beginner

The founder herself describing the grassroots mom-blogger gifting strategy that predated Mamaearth's Instagram-era scale - one of the clearest first-person accounts of what seeding looked like in India before the word "seeding" was even common vocabulary.

Mamaearth's Ghazal Alagh on Word-of-Mouth and Influencer Marketing

From Storyboard18

  • Gifted product to mom bloggers with no obligation, before Instagram was even a factor
  • Built genuine relationships first, scale (500+ bloggers, then celebrities) came after
  • Core philosophy: parents trust other parents more than they trust a brand directly
Open stgwww.storyboard18.com
📄 Article
✓ Link checked India Free Intermediate

The counter-view small founders need, sellers describe listing fees, forced weekly POs and bundled ad packages delivering weak ROAS. A sobering read before you assume q-comm is a growth cheat code.

Quick-Commerce's Ad-Fee Toll: Are Platforms Squeezing Out Small D2C Brands?

From Storyboard18 by Storyboard18

  • Blinkit's per-SKU listing fee is credited to an ad wallet with a 12-month expiry
  • Instamart weekly POs and quarterly ad fees add fixed cost pressure
  • Bootstrapped brands often see ROAS of only ~1.2-1.5x
Open storyboard18.com
📄 Article
✓ Link checked India Free Intermediate

Storyboard18 is a leading Indian ad-industry publication, and this covers a homegrown tool feeding verified Indian checkout data into Meta's automation, a concrete local example of 'better signal beats better targeting.'

GoKwik Launches Kwik Ads to Boost D2C Performance Marketing

From Storyboard18

  • GoKwik's Kwik Ads converts verified Indian purchase intelligence (real transactions, not just clicks) into stronger signals for Meta's automated campaigns.
  • The company reports a 25% improvement in ROAS and a 15% reduction in CAC versus manual targeting setups, per its own figures.
  • Illustrates the broader shift: Indian D2C tooling is now built around feeding better data to Meta's AI rather than manually building audiences.
Open storyboard18.com
eChai Partner Brands