neOwn, India's first tech-enabled, app-based book rental service for children, founded by Kranti Gada in 2023, is on a mission to make reading a movement in India.

Recently featured on the entrepreneurial reality show Ideabaaz, the brand saw an immediate surge in visibility and subscriptions. Built on Gada’s insight as a mother and media professional, neOwn aims to bridge the gap between modern parents’ aspirations and the limited access to quality, curated books.

With initiatives like Million Readers Movement and school-based reading challenges, the company is turning reading into a collective habit across homes and classrooms.

We caught up with Gada to learn how the platform is making reading a nationwide movement, its growth journey, and the impact of its recent appearance on Ideabaaz.

Edited excerpts:

When you started neOwn, what was the core vision or target you set out to achieve — and how close do you feel you are to realising that today?

My thought of creating neOwn came from my personal journey and being a mom. While raising my kids, I realised a couple of things about the market: as a mom and during discussions with other moms, I realised that our aspirations for our kids have increased multifold compared to the previous generation, and with every passing generation, these aspirations are multiplying further. Today, all the mothers are well-educated - beneficiaries of mostly English medium education. Many of them are working. Mothers, today, are thinking of their kids at a global level. For that, the approach to parenting has become very well-researched and scientific.

The other thing I realised is that the ecosystem of the supply side has not evolved so much to keep up with it. The amount of good quality products and tutors available are only 10%. That’s where I thought to bridge this gap and came up with neOwn - a platform that provides moms with whatever they want for the development of their child in a convenient, affordable, and digitally-enabled manner.

The first category we targeted was books because they are a constant in a child's life. No matter the age - six months or six years, books are a constant throughout their journey. They are also a very big push from the Indian parent ecosystem as well as the school ecosystem. By reading a book, a kid’s general knowledge, confidence, fluency, and vocabulary automatically develop.

In my previous experience at Shemaroo (former COO, Shemaroo Entertainment), it was always about how we can take something where demand exists but supply is unorganised. So, we knew the opportunity existed and there's a gap in the market, but supply is unorganised, and we should organise and productise it and make it scalable. That is exactly what we have done with neOwn. Our product is very simple, and we have not left anything to confuse the moms. From a collection aspect, every book in neOwn collection is approved and curated by our book curator. We have more than 9,000 unique titles across age groups. The total stock stands around 50,000 books.

We are also helping with book discovery for the parents because the books that they read are no longer relevant to today’s child. Different kinds of books are needed to keep the child engaged today. We are doing an all-around work to make reading a permanent part of the child's life. This is exactly what parents want because it's a very important part of child development.

We have also created a reading challenge wherein a child has to read for 20 minutes per day for 20 days. They have to come on the app every day and vote, saying that they have read today. It’s an additional factor we have added to make sure that the dream of a parent to make their child a reader is fulfilled.  

Tell us about the Million Readers Movement. What are the other initiatives and campaigns neOwn is doing for brand awareness?

Our social mission at neOwn is to inspire children to read. That’s our cause. People from all walks of life -  young and old, from every class and profession - believe in this cause, see its importance, and want to contribute in their own way. The Million Readers Movement is a common platform where anyone - right from a child to a parent, grandparent, a housewife, a teacher, or any other professional - can come and take the pledge. As per the pledge, once a week, they have to do something to inspire a child to read. Even if they are able to influence the parent of that child, their job is done. Imagine the momentum one can create for reading as a hobby when 10,000 people do such small actions on a weekly basis.

We were looking at what things have become a habit or a big thing in our society today which didn't exist 20 years back, that’s when the idea for this came. Running is one such thing. 20 years back, there was no Bombay Marathon, and nobody was running, but today everybody wants to run. It has become a big joint, collective activity, so much so that it has become such a talking point. If you can motivate someone to get up from their bed in the morning and go for a run, it's definitely easier to get a child to read. We are trying to take learning from that, how that became a movement, and trying to see how reading can become a movement for children.

As of now, we are focusing on school engagement, the reading challenge, and the Million Reader Movement. We want to make these really big. I think a small brand like ours should not be focusing on too many things. All of this is contributing to creating a complete ecosystem. We offer almost 4x to 5x price benefit. If one is paying 350 a month to neOwn, to buy those books, one will definitely have to spend 1,500 to 2000. Workbooks and workshops are the other things that people come seeking and spend their money on. While they come for books, they stay for a lot of other things.

We have tied up with a Shemaroo Book Library as well. A large part of their collection is available on our app. We do a lot of joint promotion and marketing along with them.

How do you plan to reach your target audience and create awareness about neOwn? What kinds of content formats — videos, stories, influencer collaborations, or educational campaigns — work best for your audience?

For us, the biggest influencers are schools. We do a lot of on-ground work with schools where we put up a pop-up the day parents are visiting the school. We also have schools that take part in our reading challenge and the Million Readers movement. Don Bosco International and Bombay Scottish, Powai, have been doing the reading challenge for close to a year, where they have encouraged children in their school to take up the challenge on a regular basis. When a parent is entering the school, their mindset is around child development, child habits, and improvement. So, it's the best mindset to catch them or to influence this important action.

Secondly, we use social media, primarily Meta and Google. Meta, in fact, is the largest place where our audience lies. Our audience is primarily women, mothers aged 28 to 42 coming from households with an annual income of 10-12 lakhs and above. Most of them are on Instagram also, so we do a lot of activity there. We do a lot of influencer tie-ups. A lot of influencers love the product, and sometimes they are users first and then they come with a collaboration request. They see the difference it makes to their own life. We do a lot of posts around what kind of books to read and what is popular. We have a book curator- she explains what kind of a child should read what type of book, basis age group and interest. We also create a lot of posts on the importance of reading, why it's a good activity.

You recently appeared on Ideabaaz; what impact has that exposure had on neOwn’s brand and growth? Is it a part of the brand's PR outreach?

It’s too soon to say, as it’s not even been a week so far. But immediately, that evening, we saw a massive spike in website visits, app downloads, and subscriptions. Ideabaaz is a new show; we intend to ride on the journey of the show as the show grows more and more popular. We will keep promoting our journey on Ideabaaz, so that we keep getting the benefit of the growth of the show. It's not only the PR outreach. We genuinely went there to pitch to the titans and get funded. We did not get funded, but titans have offered to help us. We are regularly in touch with two of them - Arjun Vaidya and Shaili Chopra. Both of them are consistently helping us. Vaidya even took part in the Million Readers Movement and  put out a video asking many other leaders to take the pledge. So, this gives us scale and recognition as a brand.

What are some key marketing challenges unique to building a trust-based, family-focused brand like neOwn?

We are still very young and not enough people have heard about us. Secondly, our model is a little different- rent, use, and return. Getting people to understand the model has been where it takes the most amount of time. It's not like a D2C product that people are familiar with. We are not selling a shampoo or a soap or a skincare product, or even a toy where people understand or know what to expect from the product. It is a different experience.

Right now, the brand and the model lack a certain exposure. But Ideabaaz helped us with that. Now, everyone who will watch that pitch will 100% know, and they can just come and buy. That was also one reason why we felt it was important - rather than an ad on TV or social media, why not a 10 minute pitch where we explain what the product is.

But the great thing about the model is that while people take time to understand it, they're committing. Most of the time, they come for a six month or a 12-month pack. It’s a long term relationship and not just trying a new product.

What are your learnings over the last two years of running the start-up?

Everything I know as a professional, I have learned at Shemaroo - how to structure a business and how to lay the foundation of a scalable business. That's what we're trying to do with neOwn also. Organise everything, use fewer resources to make more, and be diligent. Shemaroo is also a company that wants to make the dollar work as hard as possible. That’s a learning I have imbibed at neOwn - whatever resources we have, we have to work the hardest to make the company successful. These are definitely some great lessons that I've had. One great refreshing part for me now is to work with a small team. I work with a small bunch of people and move fast, and make quick decisions.

In the last 12 months, our number of subscribers and our revenue have grown almost seven times. But the team has not even increased by 1%. The only team that keeps increasing is the number of people who actually pack the books, because when one is servicing 20 orders a day, to now servicing 200 a day, they need more people to pack the books. The other unique thing about our team is that almost 60-70% of the team is women. We have a good number of back-to-work moms.