Seventeen-year-old Avi Natesan is India’s first independent slime seller. With a popular Chennai-based business and nearly 1.5K followers on Instagram, this teenage entrepreneur has capitalised on the growing popularity of slime among today’s youth.
Slime for all
Although teenagers are responsible for the liquid substance becoming a global trend, Avi wishes to make it clear that slime is for everyone. “The idea that slime is just for kids is a misconception. In my building, there were two kids who bought slime from me. In a couple of months they got bored, but their parents loved it. They were playing with it even in their office! After some time, they even came back to me and bought four more,” she says.
She says a majority of her followers and customers are between the ages of 18 and 35.
Natesan first started experimenting with slime in January this year after discovering it via social media. “It became really popular in the US last year. A girl there started experimenting with different colours, textures, and varieties on Instagram, and it just blew up.”
Avi wanted to bring the craze to India. “I got into it thinking that I wanted to start my own business and be independent. I thought it could work because it was such a trend and no one in India was doing it. It wasn’t available anywhere, so I saw an opportunity to do something that others weren’t doing,” she explains.
Initially, the process wasn’t all smooth sailing. “You can go on the Internet and find out how to make slime, but it wasn’t working for me. In India, it is really hard to get the the right ingredients, and it was too expensive to ship it from the US.”
Make in India
This setback prompted her to create her own recipe with locally sourced ingredients. She explains that it took two to three months to perfect her product, and that it was entirely a process of “trial and error”. The recipe is a secret Avi will not divulge, as that is what makes her slime special. She says she constantly experiments with new colours and textures to create an assorted array of products for customers to choose from.
However, Avi doesn’t call her business an overnight success. She says she worked hard, learning about business and spreading the word on her Instagram account and a website she started. “I was a science student so I didn’t know anything about accounts. I went on YouTube and started to learn about how to manage a business and how to keep customers happy. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but I’m improving.”
Avi has certainly come a long way from where she began. “In the beginning, business was slow because no one knew what slime is in Chennai. The trend hadn’t come to India yet. In the first two months I was only getting orders locally. Now, it’s been five months since I started and it has spread much more. People in places like Punjab, Haryana, and Jammu and Kashmir are ordering from me.”
Now, with business booming, Avi is looking to expand the brand.
“I really want more people learning about the business but I’m also worried how I will be able to supply to all of them. Before I expand, I have to figure out the logistics.”
Avi is currently selling her slime in Arya Stores in Adyar, and is eager to start selling in more stores around Chennai.
If you’re wondering why you should buy slime, nobody explains it better than Avi herself. “It’s awesome because its so different,” she exclaims. “It’s not like play-doh; it’s not clay; it’s not something melty. It’s fluffy, smells amazing, and you can play with it anytime you want.”
You can buy Avi’s slime via Instagram where she posts under @the.slime.space. Slime can be customised according to the customer’s preference.
