The Startup Journey of Karishma Kewalramani: Building FAE Beauty from Personal Experience

What happens when a UC Berkeley graduate leaves her consulting career to solve a problem she lived with her entire life? You get one of India's most authentic startup journeys.

For Karishma Kewalramani, the founder of FAE Beauty, this wasn't just about spotting a market gap—it was about healing a personal wound. Growing up in Mumbai, she struggled with colorism and the absence of beauty products that truly represented Indian skin tones. Her startup journey would eventually turn this pain into purpose.

After graduating from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business with a degree in Business Administration, Karishma worked as a Business Analyst at A.T. Kearney from 2016 to 2017. But the corporate consulting world couldn't satisfy her deeper calling. In August 2018, Kewalramani founded FAE Beauty, a brand name that stands for "Free and Equal."

Here's what makes Karishma's startup journey truly remarkable: she built FAE Beauty around radical authenticity in an industry obsessed with perfection. While other beauty brands airbrush models and promise unrealistic transformations, FAE Beauty showcases real skin, pores, and texture without retouching campaign images.

The startup journey wasn't without challenges. FAE Beauty faced operational hurdles including high Return to Origin rates and checkout process issues, problems that many e-commerce startups encounter. But Karishma's background in analytics and strategy from her A.T. Kearney days proved invaluable in solving these operational challenges.

What sets this startup journey apart is the mission-driven approach. FAE Beauty doesn't just sell cosmetics—it builds community. The brand focuses on creating products that work for diverse Indian skin tones while fostering a movement around self-acceptance and authentic beauty.

For young entrepreneurs watching from the sidelines, Karishma's startup journey offers a powerful lesson: sometimes your biggest personal struggles become your greatest business opportunities. When you build solutions for problems you've personally experienced, you create products that genuinely resonate with others facing similar challenges.

The beauty industry needed someone who understood that representation isn't just about marketing—it's about making people feel seen and valued. Karishma Kewalramani turned that understanding into a thriving business, proving that authentic startup journeys often begin with solving problems close to home.