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Goodmylk: A Return to Ahimsa - With ‘Plantrepreneur’ Abhay Rangan (vegan), Part 1 of 3

2021-09-02
Butiran
Baca Lebih Lanjut
Like many mission-focused plantrepreneurs today, Abhay is concerned about our world’s dire climate change situation and sees veganism as the only viable solution. He launched his start-up company Goodmylk specifically to champion veganism in his homeland of India.

Since its launch in 2016, Goodmylk has seen explosive growth. Abhay chose plant-based dairy alternatives as his arena because dairy is the biggest hurdle in India’s rising vegan movement. If anyone is qualified for the task of overcoming this hurdle, however, it would be someone with the drive, intelligence, and business acumen of Abhay. “My family has always been compassionate to animals. They taught me the same values growing up.”

Abhay and his sister Varidhi adopted veganism at a young age and became avid animal activists. In her interview with us, Varidhi related how they were able to turn many hearts and minds. “So first, we bring about that point of view, saying, ‘Everybody is compassionate from birth. They have innate compassion. And you should bring that out and then extend the same to all animals, and not just consider a few as pets and the other animals as food.’”

“Mom used to make our products, and I would come back home from college, take them in my backpack and deliver them on my motorcycle all over Bangalore.” As Abhay and his mother, Veena, improved on the quality and shelf-stability of their “mylk,” however, word spread and orders began to pour in. Soon, it was a struggle to keep up with the demand.

In the years from 2014 to 2018, Abhay was a top student at CMR National PU College in Bangalore, where he studied telecommunications engineering. As Goodmylk began to take off, however, he made the difficult decision to drop out of school and focus on the growing enterprise. In most parts of India, such a move would have courted strong parental opposition. Abhay’s parents, however, threw their full support behind him.