At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. As part of this endeavour, we invited Jigyasa Laroiya for an exclusive interview with us. Jigyasa is an Entrepreneur and Founder & Chief Brand Strategist at 30TH FEB. Her journey reflects the power of resilience and clarity in entrepreneurship. From building a bootstrapped branding agency called 30TH FEB to leading brand transformations as an Interim CMO, she continues to shape how businesses approach branding in a fast-evolving market. Let’s learn more about her background, journey and her advice for our community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Jigyasa:
Jigyasa, tell us a little about your journey and what inspired you to start 30TH FEB?
I grew up in Rajasthan in a joint family, which gave me a strong foundation of values, steadiness, and support. My love for branding started during my MBA, where I realised how much I enjoyed connecting consumer insights with creative business logic. Even though I got tempting offers post-MBA, I chose to stay true to my passion for branding and left the corporate world after a short stint of 04 years.
After working in Bangalore, Mumbai and Chandigarh, I felt the urge to build something of my own. In 2009, I left a stable corporate job with a promise to give myself two years to make it work. Within a month, 30TH FEB was born.
What began as a small bean bag start-up and mall events has grown into a full-fledged branding agency. The journey has had its share of challenges, but what has kept us going is our commitment to staying authentic, building lasting client relationships, and living our philosophy of progress over perfection.
Bootstrapping a company for 15 years is no small feat. What were the key challenges and learnings?
The biggest challenge was adapting to ever-changing market dynamics; staying relevant meant constantly learning, unlearning, and reinventing our approach.
During the early years, convincing clients about the long-term value of branding was another hurdle. Many initially saw branding as just design or advertising, so it took patience and consistent results to help them see it as a growth lever. Plus the social media was not-in back then.
Cashflow discipline was crucial. With no external funding, I had to be extremely mindful about budgeting and reinvesting profits wisely.
And finally, learning how to scale without the cushion of big funding taught me how to build sustainable systems, focus on talent, and grow organically. Each of these challenges shaped me as a founder and helped me balance creativity with business sense.
You also often step in as an Interim CMO. Can you share what that role looks like and why businesses need it?
Stepping in as an Interim CMO allows me to help brands when they are at a crossroads. When a business needs to grow but doesn’t have the leadership clarity to steer the business forward through branding and brand marketing, the Interim CMO model works best.
I work closely with founders and leadership teams to uncover what’s holding the brand back, whether it’s unclear positioning or scattered marketing efforts. Together, we align their brand story, sharpen their messaging, and build clear strategies that their teams can actually execute.
For some, it’s about reigniting growth after a plateau. For others, it’s about creating structure during fast scaling. What they gain is direction, focus, and momentum. Instead of trying random marketing tactics, they begin moving forward with clarity and purpose.
That’s the real value of an Interim CMO – providing the outside perspective, strategic clarity, and hands-on guidance that helps brands move from confusion to consistent growth.
What shifts have you observed in how brand owners approach marketing today compared to when you started?
Back then, branding was seen as optional, mostly limited to advertising, print campaigns, and mass media outreach. The focus was on grabbing attention and driving quick sales through the classic Attention–Interest–Desire–Action model. Few questioned the deeper brand story.
But now, branding is seen as strategic and essential. In the internet age, where competition is just a click away, brands must stand out with clear narratives, personalised content, and multi-channel strategies. Founders themselves often become part of the brand through personal branding.
The focus has shifted from just visibility to creating real connection and engagement from broad mass messaging to sharply targeted, story-led campaigns.
You’ve worked with IT leaders, financial advisory firms, D2C brands, and founder-led businesses. What common brand challenges do you see across industries?
The biggest challenge is time. Founders and CXOs are so focused on running the show right that they rarely pause to reassess their brand. With markets, customer expectations, and technology changing constantly, brands can easily drift from their original narrative.
That’s why we recommend starting the association with brand audits to help leaders step back, realign their brand with where they are today, and reshape it for where they want to go. As I often say, what got you here won’t get you there. Connect to Jigyasa on LinkedIn here.
In your experience, what makes or breaks a brand transformation?
Honestly, it varies from brand to brand and customer to customer.
For an e-commerce brand, transformation often hinges on how well the product story, brand narrative, and presentation come together to drive customer engagement.
For a financial services firm or an IT company, it’s less about the product and more about the brand story, customer experience, positioning, perception, and process alignment. These elements shape how the brand is perceived, trusted and creates a legacy.
Ultimately, what makes or breaks a transformation is how well the brand narrative aligns with the gap customers want to fill. When the brand’s promise and the customer’s expectations converge seamlessly, transformation truly takes hold.
You wear many hats – brand strategist, Interim CMO, entrepreneur and an author. Your book Brand Like a Pro breaks down branding into simple, actionable steps for founders. What was the journey or thought process that led you to put these insights into a book?
Brand Like a Pro began as a self-challenge. I wanted to simplify and structure not just my own service offering but the entire concept of branding and brand design for business owners.
For years, founders would often ask what branding really meant and how a branding agency differs from an advertising agency or a graphic designer. The book became my way of demystifying branding – explaining the elements that make a brand, how brand activations differ from design exercises, and how branding connects deeply to business strategy, revenue, and a logical narrative.
Writing has always been a natural extension of how I work. Whether it was documenting my learnings during my corporate stint on Tata Tea’s packaging or writing for marketing magazines, writing helps me reflect, structure my thoughts, and sharpen my ideas.
My upcoming book, 100 Day Brand Growth Plan, builds on this. It’s a practical framework designed as a clear action plan for founders, business owners, and CMOs to drive brand-led growth.
What advice would you give to founders or brand owners who feel stuck with flat growth?
Start by finding someone who can be your sounding board. For instance, a co-founder, mentor, growth advisor, or even an interim CMO. Someone who challenges your thinking, listens to your concerns, and helps you make tough decisions. Having an external perspective creates the space to pause and reflect, which is often missing when you’re deep in the day-to-day.
Once you have that support in place, audit where your brand stands today. Revisit your messaging, customer touchpoints, and positioning. Flat growth is often a sign that your narrative has fallen out of sync with your funnel or market reality. Use those insights to realign your strategy, bring your core team into this process so they become active thinkers, not just executors.
When your brand story, positioning, and growth plans are aligned again, you create the momentum needed to move forward.
How do you see the future of branding for Indian businesses going global?
What keeps me motivated is knowing this is what I know best and where I can add the most value. I simply love my work. I love exploring brand ideas, aligning consumer insights with logic, and seeing them come alive.
It is pure contentment to watch how they spark engagement, shape stories, and even drive revenue. That blend of creativity and impact gives me purpose.
As for the future of branding for Indian businesses, it’s going global. The world today is a single marketplace, and Indian brands are increasingly seen as mainstream players. We’re trusted in domains where we’ve proven our expertise. The next phase is about becoming more detailed, more personalised, and more meaningful – building brands from India that can resonate anywhere.
As a woman entrepreneur running a bootstrapped business, what would you like to share with aspiring women founders?
A friend once told me something that has stayed with me. Whenever I was about to take a leap or face a challenge, I would say, “I’m scared, mujhe dar lag raha hai.” And he would always reply, “It’s okay. Darte darte yahan tak aa gayi, yahan se aage bhi sab achcha hi hoga.” (translation: You have reached here with fear, you will go further as well.)
It was such a simple line, but it felt like an acknowledgement of my journey, and it gave me courage every single time.
If I have to give one message to women entrepreneurs, it would be this: don’t be harsh on yourself, and trust the process. We often push ourselves too hard and forget that entrepreneurship is as much about nurturing the self as it is about building the business.
Keep doing the work, but at your own pace. I’ve always followed a one-day-at-a-time mindset. It has helped me grow without burning out (mostly) and I believe it can do the same for others.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
