Aishwarya Iyer, Founder & CEO of Brightland

Shakti Collaborative
Shakti Collaborative is a digital collection of narratives of South Asian women

Published On: February 16, 2022 9 min read

Note: This article was originally published on shakticollaborative.co on February 26, 2020. Some information may be dated given the original publish date.

Meet Aishwarya Iyer, the founder of Brightland , a modern pantry essentials company that champions authenticity in the olive oil industry and celebrates elevated design and California living. Aishwarya started her career in L’Oreal’s luxury products division at Lancôme, which sparked her passion for building memorable consumer brands. Prior to Brightland, Aishwarya spent nearly a decade in communications and advisory roles within the start up and technology industries. Read on to learn more about the moment of discovery that formed the idea for Brightland, how Aishwarya moved past her inner critic, and celebrates authenticity in everything she does.

The Beginning

“I was born in India but moved to the U.S. when I was three months old. We first moved to Amherst, then to Chicago, and then to Houston where most of my formative childhood years were spent.

In our Indian community, there was a pretty binary way of how we grew up. You thrust into Indian-ness on the weekends and evenings, but at school it was totally all American. I felt misunderstood by many growing up. I’d usually just address the misunderstanding and quickly move on, because it would otherwise mean digging deep and pushing through a lot of emotions I wasn’t ready to navigate.

I felt an otherness in school but also within the Indian community. I wasn’t really sure who I was when I was surrounded by Indian culture because I couldn’t associate myself as 100% Indian. It particularly stood out when I would visit India, as my ‘American-ness’ would really show there. Representation wasn’t even a conversation back then, but I’m excited that there’s so much more dialogue about this topic now.

Many of my childhood memories come back to food, with smell and taste evoking nostalgia. So many of my memories are the simplest thing – like the first time I had a happy meal with my mom, or the food my grandparents would make. Food is a conduit to show love and affection and celebrate tradition.”

Navigating College

“I was very confused and lost in college. I wanted someone else to pave the way for me so I asked my parents what I should be doing. But I quickly found that I couldn’t go down a path someone else prescribed for me.

I then discovered NYU’s Gallatin School for Individualized Study. It’s an entrepreneurial curriculum where to graduate, you do a dissertation where you bring together all the areas you’ve studied. I studied Media and Globalization with an emphasis on South Asian Gender Studies. It was a great combination of writing, reading and economics.

I was struck by how it felt like there was a global model minority thrust on South Asians. South Asian women experienced a big brunt of it and still do. I was really enthusiastic and excited about South Asian women who went down uncharted waters, decided to study non-traditional things, and become something that wasn’t the norm. It’s so exciting to see how the notion of our potential has started to shift and we’re seeing more examples of these trailblazers.”

Her Career Start

“I’d always been attracted to consumer products and brands. As I progressed through college, I realized I wanted to be a part of creating something that millions of people would experience. My ultimate goal was to work for a consumer products brand and name the new products (basically product development and marketing).

I joined L’Oreal post college, but actually started on the PR side. This was in the early era of influencer relations, when bloggers were really in. I had always loved telling stories, but I didn’t understand until this experience that I could make a career out of it. PR is essentially creative and analytical storytelling. You’re convincing people to write about your company in a compelling way.

After some time at L’Oreal, I decided I wanted to go into tech. I ended up working at a financial tech company. They had raised money from several venture firms and I was on the public relations and government affairs side. It was a great experience as I got to be part of building a company and championing its messaging.

I later transitioned to working at a venture capital firm where I advised multiple startups on their PR and regulatory affairs strategy. It was an amazing ride, but after some time, I really missed operating.”

What it Takes to Start

“A couple years ago, I started making an active effort to cook more. One thing I noticed was that I kept getting stomach aches. I initially thought it might be the bread, veggies, or cheese and started cutting things out. My partner and I were trying to figure out what it could be, and after many experiments, we realized it was actually olive oil. I did some research and according to a study by the UC Davis Olive Center , nearly 70% of imported olive oil samples failed to meet minimum sensory standards for extra-virgin olive oil, and had defects ranging from rancidity to adulteration with cheaper refined oils. This totally shocked me.

For two years, the broken olive oil industry was in the back of my mind and I kept thinking about what we could do to change it. As I did more research, I learned from my family that my ancestors were actually salt farmers in South India. That feeling of knowing that the deep connection to the land was in my history was one of the factors that inspired me to dive head first into the problem.

I started by visiting a slew of olive farms to understand the landscape better. In February of 2017, we decided to move to LA to be closer to the farms and continue to develop the concept for Brightland. This was a big step, and it certainly wasn’t easy. I had been working with a career and life coach, and it was a huge spiritual and creative journey where I had to do a lot of work on myself to make this decision. I was worried about entering the food industry without any experience in food. I was also really concerned with what people would think of me. Eventually I came around to realizing that life is short, so you should really do what you want. People might think you’re insane for a second, but who cares?! My coach helped me break a lot of this down and go through the exercise of getting comfortable with a career pivot.”

“I also think a lot of people say they want a start company and make a list of 30 business ideas. Some people might think that is a great way to start something, but I’m not really a fan of it. I wanted to be certain that this was my story to tell by starting a business. Your business may become your life story and narrative, and it has to feel really authentic to you.

To learn the foundations, I took a course at the UC Davis Olive Center where we learned what to look for in a farm partner, what is considered good olive oil and how to evaluate dispensaries. It was this and a lot of Googling that helped me get started! I also wouldn’t have been able to start without generous founders giving me advice and support along the way.

In terms of capital, starting a business means something different for everyone based on their financial situation. I had saved up a decent amount and put that into the business. I’m also married and had a long conversation with my partner on what this would mean for us. We ultimately came to a decision that building Brightland felt right for us and that we would self-fund the business.”

The Brightland Ethos

“One of the earliest things I did was to build out a brand strategy deck. I wanted to define who and what Brightland was, our ethos, mission and what we stand for. If Brightland was a human, what kind of media, colors and other design elements would speak well to her?

A lot of companies say they want to be everything to everyone. But it’s just not possible. We really wanted to focus on knowing who our core customer is. I would define Brightland’s brand philosophy as finding elegance and elevating the simple, everyday moments. We’re all about celebrating the analog over the digital.

Product wise, I knew that I wanted to launch with two olive oils. I’d learned that in European households, most people have multiple olive oils that they use for different purposes. I thought about how wonderful it could be to introduce that concept to American consumers in a way that evokes emotion, mood and an intention driven mindset. One of our products is named ‘Awake,’ for cozy days and slow nights. Our other product, ‘Alive,’ is for salads, marinades and baked goods.”

“I would define Brightland’s brand philosophy as finding elegance and elevating the simple, everyday moments. We’re all about celebrating the analog over the digital.”

“From a packaging standpoint, I had a creative vision from the start. I knew I wanted the packaging to be a matte color and was leaning towards white. I worked with an amazing design firm, Stitch Design Co, who was able to take that vision and bring it to life.

The biggest compliment we get is when people tell us Brightland is part of their wellness routine. There’s no better feeling than knowing that something you’ve created and put out into the world is changing people’s lives for the better. The great thing about a food product is that your customers are naturally sharing the product with others, which helps take us closer to our mission.

With any startup, there’s always something going wrong and various fires you have to put out. It could be anything from an inventory issue or something printing wrong. It’s challenging to deal with all these moments – I just want to turn them off or hide in a corner! But those are also the moments I’ve found to be a true test of grit and resilience. Building a company is a long marathon, but I’m excited for what’s to come!”

Celebrating Heritage Through Food

“I’ve always thought it’s important to know where you come from in order to know where you are headed. It’s this very philosophy that has propelled me forward.

It’s been amazing to infuse elements of Indian culture into Brightland. We did a photoshoot recently around Indian food. We created some recipes that proved that olive oil can be used in Indian cooking, as a small ode to my heritage. I’ve never seen an olive oil brand, or cooking oil brand for that matter, that uses Indian food in any sort of exciting way!

I’ll also add that for many years, a lot of South Asian Americans shied away from sharing our food with the rest of the world, because we didn’t want things to smell weird or stain our fingers for example (but look at how popular turmeric is right now!). More recently, it’s been amazing to see South Asian entrepreneurs start businesses around food products that celebrate these products.”

On Family

“Like most kids, I’ve had a ton of clashes with my parents on a variety of things. As I’ve gotten older, I recognize that everyone is doing the best they can. Transparency, kindness and compassion from our side can go a long way. Have discussions with your family about what the definition of happiness or success means to all of you and try to unpack that in a healthy way.

One of these areas was marriage. I definitely felt like there was a pressure to get married, period. Ultimately, my parents told me that one day they want me to have a partner or companion in life so that I wouldn’t be alone. That explanation helped me understand where they were coming from. For a little while in my mid 20s, I was actually convinced marriage wasn’t for me. Now being married for four years, what I can say is that everyone has their own journey with it. The most important thing you can do is that if and when you do meet somebody who could be a partner, think through all the important things: finance, sex, travel, children and some of the unsexy, but ‘life things.’ Those are the things people end up not being on the same page about.”