Suspire Success Story - Building a Sustainable Future

With increasing global warming and other environmental issues, people are becoming more conscious of their choices of products and services. This consciousness, in turn, is making people shift their choices toward sustainability.

Keeping this in mind, the demand for sustainable brands is increasing rapidly, leading to many new players entering this marketplace. One such company that is set about making sustainability affordable is Suspire. Founded in 2021, Suspire is a marketplace for sustainable apparel and cosmetic brands, headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

In this article, let's explore more about Suspire, the idea behind it, its vision, the challenges faced, and more.

Suspire - Company Highlights

Suspire - Vision and mission
Suspire - Founders
Suspire - Startup Story
Suspire - Products/Services
Suspire - Name and Logo
Suspire - Launching Company
Suspire - Challenges Faced
Suspire - Competitors

Suspire - Vision and mission

Suspire's short-term vision is to promote sustainability and veganism in India by collaborating with brands that share a similar ideology. The company is committed to making sustainable living through fashion and self-expression accessible to everyone. Suspire is dedicated to demonstrating that there are many sustainable and vegan alternatives available at both the individual and global levels.

The company's aim is to provide well-considered choices and showcase the true effects of one's decisions. Suspire strives to foster an all-encompassing community that encourages each other to create a long-lasting impact.

Suspire's long-term vision is to leave the planet and its people in better shape than they found them. This is an ambitious goal that affects everything that we all do; fulfilling it requires everyone’s effort. Suspire wants to create a community of sustainability where ethical and vegan lifestyles are accessible and affordable. The company knows that everyone's choices matter and wants to make it easier for everyone to make the right choice.

Suspire - Founders

Deepak Ramakrishna and Swayam Doshi founded Suspire in 2021.

Both Deepak and Swayam deeply care for the environment, animal welfare, and people and aim to make a real difference with Suspire.

Suspire - Startup Story

In 2020, the founders of Suspire wanted to bring about a positive change in the way the country looks at climate change. Having studied environmental sciences and witnessed ocean degradation while scuba diving convinced them that working for the environment was their calling. They aspired to sustainability and wanted to give the planet a chance to breathe, so they launched their sustainability startup and chose to name it Suspire, signaling their commitment to the cause.

Suspire was originally envisioned as a vegan and sustainable apparel brand. The fashion industry was the 2nd-largest emitter of CO2, contributing to plastic pollution, water shortages, soil damage, poor labor practices, and more! Making a sustainable dent here could go a long way.

When they got down to business, though, they found it filled with inspiring brands already creating eco-friendly and ethical fashion. They were far from dispirited, though. Instead of competing with these brands, they saw an even better opportunity to partner with them and amplify their impact!

Their initial conversations on the topic and initial research in ascertaining the requirement for such a marketplace were mostly through friends and family and quite intensive primary research on growing trends in the Indian market, of which sustainability formed a major chunk.

With this in mind, they launched the Suspire website in October 2021 as a hub for India’s best sustainable and vegan apparel brands. The demand from consumers was clear to see, and six months in, they could tell the customers wanted more than just ethical fashion in pursuit of a sustainable lifestyle. They responded by growing their catalog to include cosmetics, food, housewares, and more.

Suspire - Products/Services

Suspire offers products that are designed to last for years, providing customers with a cost-effective solution. For example, their thousand-rupee t-shirt may seem more expensive than a 400-rupee alternative, but their t-shirt will last 3–4 years, whereas the cheaper alternative will need to be replaced every year. Over time, their product will actually save customers money and be better for the environment and workers. It's a win-win situation!

Suspire is confident in the quality of its products and wants to help customers overcome any hesitance they may have towards higher-priced sustainable and vegan options. They believe that by prioritizing quality over quantity, they can create a more sustainable future for both customers and the planet.

Suspire addresses the challenge that consumers face in finding sustainable and vegan products that align with their values. As consumers become increasingly aware of the negative impact of their purchases on the environment and animal welfare, Suspire offers a solution by providing a platform that makes it easy to purchase these products in one place.

The team at Suspire knows the size of the challenge the planet faces and wants to maximize the impact of each positive choice their customers make. So they try to go above and beyond in whatever way they can. For every purchase a customer makes, they’ve partnered with SayTrees, who will plant a tree in Chikkaballapur, near Bangalore, and Coastal Impact, who will plant a coral tile along the coast of Goa. In less than a year, Suspire's customers and NGO partners have come together to plant 100 trees and 24 coral tiles!

Suspire - Name and Logo

The Name

The word "Suspire" means "To breathe." The founders of the company wanted to provide the world and environment the chance to breathe in a new generation of conscious consumers that are born with the intention of doing good for the environment and taking responsible steps that shape the way resources are utilized.

The Logo

Two Humans. Partners. Collaborators. Creators

Shows two sides of the coin. Created by a human for humans. Against fast fashion, mass-manufactured clothes, and irresponsible sourcing.

It also allows Suspire to highlight its partners and business in a more humane way, validating their stake in sustainability.

Suspire - Launching Company

When the founders started with zero users, it was important for them to focus on getting their service in front of people who would be interested in it. Here are some channels, tools, and strategies that they used and that worked well for them:

• Leveraged Network: They started by telling their friends, family, and colleagues about their service. This created a ripple effect, as they were quite happy to share it with their social circles as well, which helped the company tremendously.
• Social media: Social media has been a major contributor to Suspire's growth over the years. The company has maintained its vision and mission through its brand voice, due to which a lot of potential consumers who resonate with it have either bought from Suspire or sent a message to commend their efforts.
• Content Marketing: They also spend a considerable amount of time researching and disseminating the latest trends and information in the world of sustainability in bite-sized information packets to make it easy for anyone to understand. These are normally in the form of articles, videos, or infographics. Early on, they spent a lot of time growth hacking on Instagram in order to engage with pages that followed the company's ideology in order for a similar target audience to stumble upon Suspire's page.
• Influencer Marketing: The founders made it quite important early on to identify influencers in their industry who have a following that matches their target audience. They have been quite successful in spreading the word about Suspire with the help of these influencers, who they believe are more like ambassadors for the brand.
• Referral Marketing: They offered incentives to existing users to refer their friends and family to the service if they liked the company's offering.
• Participation in Communities: They joined a number of online communities and forums that were relevant to their service to engage with other members, share their knowledge and expertise, and in turn learn more about the industry and the people that form an integral part of it.

Suspire - Challenges Faced

A major issue that the founders have faced ever since Suspire's inception is addressing the fact that sustainable products are priced a lot higher than the fast fashion alternatives that exist in the market. Their main idea to solve this was to educate the consumer as to why their products were priced higher. With ethical products, they are not only taking care of the planet positive aspect of the products, but it also comes with ensuring a transparent supply side, wherein the producers are provided fair wages and good working conditions, which is not the case with fast fashion brands, which prioritize cost competitiveness as compared to fair pay and working conditions.

Additionally, at Suspire, the team is passionate about the mission to promote sustainable and vegan products. They understand that some customers may be hesitant to invest in their higher-priced products, but they believe that prioritizing quality over quantity will benefit them in the long run.

Suspire - Competitors

Some of the top competitors of Suspire are:

• Brown Living
• Amala Earth
• OneGreen
• SustainKart

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FAQs

What is the vision of Suspire?

Suspire's short-term vision is to promote sustainability and veganism in India by collaborating with brands that share a similar ideology. Its long-term vision is to leave the planet and its people in better shape than they found them.

When was Suspire founded?

Suspire was founded in 2021.

Who is the founder of Suspire?

Deepak Ramakrishna and Swayam Doshi are the founders of Suspire.

Who are the top competitors of Suspire?

Some of Suspire's top competitors are:

• Brown Living
• Amala Earth
• OneGreen
• SustainKart