Leaders

We live in a complex world where a good number of people confuse happiness with success. Success is a deceptively snappy word. With little connect with the present, people either keep preparing for the next hour or the future or get caught up in the past events and thoughts that surround the same. While the future is yet to be written and the past cannot be redone, the casualty in all this is the present moment, the one which we tend to lose touch with. Life is unpredictable, full of events beyond our control. Mindfulness and conscious self-care are the ways to be out of the vicious traps that keep us unhappy in this very unpredictable world.

Belonging from a small-town Bhagalpur, Bihar, Anumeha is a NIFT (Bangalore) graduate and has led product and business strategy & operations for online retail as well offline startups like BabyOye and Miniklub.Today, through AUMHUM, a mental wellness app, she is providing access to guidance, tools and resources. This is not just helping those struggling with mental and emotional challenges but even those who want to become a better version of themselves.

In an in-depth conversation with the Women Entrepreneur Team, Anumeha shares the bits of her entrepreneurial stint and her endeavour to promoting the positive discussion on mental wellbeing and self-care. Kindly find the excerpts from the conversation.

Give us a brief overview of AUMHUM. What motivated you to venture into establishing an organisation that specializes in mental health well-being?

AUMHUM is a vernacular self-care platform helping users reset, heal and grow through seamless mental wellness and health tools. Working towards democratising access to mental wellbeing, we have made our app available in 30+ languages to users. AUMHUM provides its users both scientific rigour and intuitive healing aspects of meditation and yoga. It is an offering from India to the world, and is extremely popular with spiritual and mental wellness enthusiasts in Russia, Turkey, Poland, India and the US. We have more than 2,50,000 users associated with us. AUMHUM is available both on Apple app store and Google Play store as a free app with various forms of focused self-care that is fun, fulfilling and puts the focus on you.

My tryst with mental wellbeing started when I was not able to find any reliable and sustainable source, I needed it the most. Roughly four years back, I was going through a personal loss in the family which shook the foundation of a lot I used to believe in. I started off my mental wellbeing trajectory with Youtube, however, swamped in with too much of information and very little real guidance, I moved to various western meditation apps, such as Calm and Headspace, and others. But, finding them to be too repetitive and easy to graduate out of, I realized none of the existing solutions evolving as my needs evolved. Later, I was fortunate to find yoga, but keeping up with the practice required immense motivation. Luckily, I was indulged into meditation by a revered master, something that continues till date along with my yoga practice. Conclusively, it didn't take me a lifetime to accept that mental wellbeing is broken, and it needed to be fixed. Myself and Aviral Pandey (Co-Founder, AUMHUM) felt that while the acceptance around the mental health issues have grown, there's still a limitation around access points. We perceived that the need is real, and needs a solution where one can really connect. It must talk the user's language and be ready to evolve as the user evolves. That exactly is what we brought out through AUMHUM.

Tell us about the expertise you brought together for your platform? What are some of the unique features of your app that sets you apart from your contemporaries in the market?

Personally, I have been an active meditation and yoga practitioner for many years now. Excellence matters the most to us. At AUMHUM, we've built a destination for well-being that is driven by experts. We have a mental health board, which is a group of elite doctors, meditation masters and gurus who peer-review different types of content that go out on AUMHUM. We have more than 100 experts in various languages including therapists, meditation masters, musicians, storytellers, and yoga schools who not only help users deal with anxiety and stress, but also help them form healthy habits through guidance, feedback and availability.

Unlike the first generation therapy or meditation apps, such as Calm, Headspace or the likes, AUMHUM doesn't try to sell one form of content to the users. It works with its users to create a personalized plan with a more seamless approach where users' make a start with whatever form of wellness they are ready for and comfortable with. Also, unlike western apps on meditation or counselling, it is an open platform. Any accredited expert after following a due process can offer their services through AUMHUM. It's not just an enabler of mental wellness & self-care, but is also empowering the service provider eco-system in the wellbeing space.

As the founder and additionally, chief reality officer, my most important role is to solve the problems for the end users, hence, being a good listener, applying user empathy, and staying resilient, I give in my best to associate with some of the most popular meditation institutes and mental health experts as partners to make the impossible possible.

“Aumhum puts self-care in people's hands right when they need it, in the way it works for them”

Mention some of the most significant milestones that you have achieved over the years? What is your guiding leadership philosophy?

We have users in more than 90 countries today using AUMHUM in more languages than our team speaks. A significant milestone as an entrepreneur has been the acceptance and the usage of the app in different parts of the world. This includes subscription renewals by users of different age groups as well as cultures. It meant a lot, as it validated the value we are able to add to our users' lives. In terms of guiding philosophy, I don't ascribe to anything in particular. Still, I believe in giving as many people a purpose they can go after. Once there is a purpose, action to achieve that purpose is a given. For example, while recruiting, I always try to find out if the candidate is able to filter out a purpose. Same is what I try to inculcate in our business partners and this is what drives our customer's success.

As a successful business leader, what advice would you present to young women and girls who aspire to become business leaders or entrepreneurs in the future?

I would advise them to not delay their dreams. Be sure to ask. Never hesitate. Only thing that can prep you for entrepreneurship is being an entrepreneur. It is important to see what others don't see. It is even more important to build what the world is yet to see. Any minute lost on that is a loss not just to you as a future business leader but to the world.

Anumeha Pandey, Co-Founder, Aumhum

Adding bits of mental-wellness to people's daily activities through AUMHUM, Anumeha aims to make people more resilient and self-reliant in navigating life.