4/22/21 | Entrepreneurship, Mentorship | Written By Naomi Haile

Turn Your Values Into Action
With Nita Tandon

“Women tend to look at the world as one big community.” Nita Tandon

Nita Tandon is changing the world, one household at a time. A seasoned sustainable health expert, Nita brings more than two decades of experience as a pharmaceutical and biotech professional to her work as the founder and CEO of Dalcini Stainless, an award-winning maker of safe, simple and sustainable storage containers and housewares made from recyclable, toxic-free Stainless Steel.

A values-driven trailblazer, today Nita shares how you can connect with your purpose to create meaningful change in your life, at work — and for the world.

This episode is for you if:

  • You refuse to compromise on your values
  • You’re starting out as a woman in business
  • You want to take better care of yourself and the planet
  • You feel like people don’t take you seriously
  • You’ve heard about microplastics, but don’t know why they’re harmful

Looking for something specific?

[4:00] How we’re ingesting microplastics (every single day)

[6:27] The chemicals in our food containers

[8:30] Nita’s very first order

[9:30] The evolution of stainless steel

[11:00] How Nita found a reputable manufacturing company abroad

[14:00] Building a business as a woman of colour

[15:30] People don’t listen until they see success

[19:00] The time Nita held off on growing her business

[21:07] Keeping up with the pandemic through a pirouette of pivots

[21:43] Growing vs. Closing Dalcini Stainless in 2020

[27:24] Infinitely recyclable products

[34:15] What we can learn from immigrants and Indigenous peoples

This episode is brought to you in collaboration with Invest Ottawa. We teamed up to produce this special series in celebration of women leading in Ottawa. Invest Ottawa supports business owners and entrepreneurs through services and programs and recently opened applications for SheBoot, a six-week investment-ready Bootcamp. Visit investottawa.ca/SheBoot to learn more.

Psst — Nita shared some resources to help you turn your values into action. Check them out below, with links you can access right away.

Naomi: Nita, tell us about your origin story. How did you grow up?

Nita: I grew up in Ottawa, and I’ve always had an innate love for health. I got into the pharmaceutical world and loved research. In 2009, Health Canada banned BPA. That made a big impression on me. Products emerged that were BPA-free, but were filled with other chemicals.

As a single person at the time, I could gravitate towards glass products for food containers. But when I had a child in 2010, I noticed that the same options weren’t available for kids — even though they’re the most susceptible to these chemicals. These containers, plastics and chemicals end up in our landfills, which hurts our environment. I tried looking for a two-pronged solution and I couldn’t find it.

In India, where I was born, these products exist, but we don’t call them “sustainable.” They were just stainless steel containers. When I had my daughter, she would go down for a nap and I would go on Google to see why stainless steel wasn’t being used in the same way today. Food containers and packaging are the number one way we ingest chemicals.

Naomi: How do people respond to your mission?

Nita: The most common alternative to plastic containers are glass ones, but they can’t be recycled because they’re heat treated and they have plastic lids. Having a conversation with someone who was unaware of stainless steel as an alternative was futile. So I hunkered down.

No one took me seriously as a suburban mom in Canada. I didn’t have the money to make molds, so I looked at shapes and containers that were common in India and made adjustments to them, making them thicker and shinier. I started with two products, and my first order was for 1000 units.

The thought of creating the company started in 2010, 2011. I left pharma in 2009. The science was in my head for about two years. In 2011, I came home with a bunch of lunch containers. I MacGyvered each piece to see how durable they were. I stood on my front porch and smashed them on the driveway. I wanted a product with a lifetime warranty, and I had to test them.

Naomi: How long did it take to go from testing your product to launching in the market?

Nita: It took me a year to find a manufacturer. India has done stainless steel for years, but as the world has gravitated towards inexpensive products over quality, India has had to adjust. Stainless steel is not the same quality it used to be.

As a woman entrepreneur, we ask different questions. I wanted to make sure there was no child labor. Women tend to look at the world as one big community. My manufacturer said he’d never been asked that before. I wanted to know exactly where he got his raw material from, and I wanted proof.

It took me a year to find a manufacturer that I could trust. I put in my first order at the beginning of 2015, and by the end of the year I had the product in hand. It took about eight months, from product inception to fulfillment.

Naomi: What was it like growing Dalcini Stainless as a woman entrepreneur and as a woman of color?

Nita: I went to a good school, got good jobs, and had good friends from different backgrounds. I have held very senior positions at work, so I went into the business world feeling equipped. But when women start businesses, they are not heard. I came to the table and felt like people only saw me as a mom. You get devalued.

When I first went to an entrepreneurship center, they said my lunch containers were “cute.” I had someone else question why I care about the manufacturer. When I told them I wanted a high-quality product with no child labor, their response was that, to be in business, my goal had to be having low costs and high margins.

People don’t listen until they see success. I’m a woman of color but I sound white, because I grew up in Ottawa. When my camera is off, and I’m doing phone calls, my business moves faster.

In 2016, I was nominated for a startup award. Having people read my business plan, and then choosing me as a winner, brought me to tears. I thought, “oh my gosh, this dream is actually attainable.” In 2017, we introduced a whole slew of new products — we have 22 now. We grew quickly. I was working out of my basement and filling all these online orders by myself.

In 2019 I knew I was moving into retail, so I signed with a warehouse, to move in by early 2020. I was also awarded a financial investment from SheEO. All of this was in January, February and March. Then the pandemic hit. I had new expenses and my revenue dropped by 90%. My kids weren’t in school. As every retail store across Canada closed I guessed that retail was no longer on my path.

To pivot and go online requires an investment; you need to look at SEO, Google Ads, and more. I tried that, but I didn’t have the money, because there was no revenue, and my rent was due, among other expenses. So I pivoted again, essentially doing a pirouette back to retail where I had already done my planning.

I reached out to a retail buyer who got us into 100 stores, plus their online store. Now how do I get enough product when the supply chain has broken? It was amazing just to get to the end of the year. I just wanted to break even. I actually finished with more than the year before. That was my success story.

Naomi: Where were your online orders coming from?

Nita: I started with Shopify. I loved how simple it was. I don’t know how, but I got noticed by California early on. I didn’t do any ads. People were sharing my website on social media because I posted reliable content on BPA, simplifying the science into everyday language.

I didn’t want to say, “you’re doing it wrong.” My message is, if you’re given an alternative, or if you can change just a couple of things, where would you begin? What will improve your health the fastest? So those online orders came from Canada, and a few from the US.

Naomi: How do you develop new products?

Nita: Across Asia, stainless steel is as common as plastic is here. Initially, I wanted to replace anything that will touch food, anything that you will ingest. But a few customers said they’d love their travel accessories to be made of stainless steel, too. Our products are infinitely recyclable.

Because there’s no paint, resin or adhesive materials on our products, once they reach their end of life, they get melted down into sheets to make new products. And this can be done an infinite number of times. A lot of stainless steel on the market goes to the landfill because recycling plants will say it takes too much effort to take off paint and other mixed materials.

Naomi: You lead your business with strong beliefs. How do you respond when they’re challenged?

Nita: With the pandemic, the border between Canada and the US is closed, but it’s still open for business people. I had a satellite office across the border and needed to touch base. I called the US border ahead of time and asked what papers I needed to bring with me.

I brought everything, but before I could open my mouth I could tell this wasn’t going to go well. They were condescending. They asked if this was my full-time job. I don’t know if it was because I was driving in a minivan, because I’m a woman, or a woman of color, but I was not a business owner in this person’s eyes.

I was escorted back to the Canadian side. It was humiliating. But I came back. I deserve to be able to do business like my counterparts. I stewed over it for two weeks. I needed to do this for every woman of color, every younger person, everyone who doesn’t look like a stereotypical business owner.

So I got back in my car, and on my way there, I kept rehearsing what I would say. This time at the border was a completely different experience. The person who looked at me believed me. He could tell I was telling the truth.

Naomi: Thank you for your perseverance. We cannot afford to stay quiet and allow this kind of behavior to continue. What are you keeping your eyes on?

Nita: The younger generation doesn’t see the world in buckets. Everything is interwoven, and everyone is stronger because of it. We’re heading in the right direction.

I would like to see more voices from immigrants. They carry histories that have been around for far longer than our civilizations. Maybe they didn’t call it sustainable living, but we need to look at what got them this far and learn from them. Let’s talk to First Nations, who used everything in their environment to move forward. We need more discussions with people who aren’t already in the limelight.

This episode is brought to you in collaboration with Invest Ottawa. We teamed up to produce this special series in celebration of women leading in Ottawa. Invest Ottawa supports business owners and entrepreneurs through services and programs, and recently opened applications for SheBoot, a six-week investment-ready Bootcamp. Visit investottawa.ca/SheBoot to learn more.

People and resources mentioned in this episode

Connect with Nita

Connect with Naomi

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We Are Here for All Women

When we use the term ‘women’, we are referring to all individuals who identify as women. This includes women of colour, transgender women and women who are gender non-conforming who have historically and systemically been excluded from mainstream women’s programming and opportunities. We are making a concerted effort to create a culture of belonging and to prioritize equity.

Naomi

About the Host

Naomi Haile

An intrapreneur, consultant, and interviewer.

Naomi Haile is curious about people, their paths and what drives them. In 2017, she launched the Power of Why Podcast. Her guests have taken the non-linear path in business, venture capital and other creative professions to share their story. Each episode explores people’s philosophy on life and work.

As we all navigate our lives and careers, Naomi hopes that everyone she connects with – guests and listeners – can shape products, companies, and communities of impact.

Naomi is a consultant at QuakeLab. She is starting graduate school at Columbia University.