The Birth of a Slime Enterprise
[Applause]
[Music]
hi
my name is avina tayson and here i am
talking to you guys about
innovation and entrepreneurship now i
know this isn’t the most ideal way
i am giving a tedx talk from the living
room of my house
and here i am in the makeshift stage
with a small
or yummy tedx logo which i made to make
it look
realistic yes it’s been a tough year
we’ve been inside for a long time
as a college student myself i have seen
everyone struggle you know i totally
understand
i had to do college online wasn’t fun
but these are hard times and i guess
this is the way
it’s going to be and going forward we
need to be able to keep this in mind
we youngsters are always looking for
opportunities to explore
and to create and now especially more
than ever
we’re all just reduced to black boxes on
our zoom screens
now’s the time when everyone wants to
stand out you know
be known for something be someone who’s
unique
now innovation real innovation comes
from
trying to go the extra step to create
your extraordinary product
innovation is when you have something in
mind and you
want to go the extra step to achieve
that goal
when you bring your ideas to life in
2017
there was something called slime which
was trending all over
instagram and youtube and no
it wasn’t this the gooey substance or
the barrel of slimes you get in
the stores they were proper scented
stretchy
fluffy things which people would like
play with and
poke and stretch and it wasn’t available
in india
and i was looking everywhere i was
scouring the
entire west to find where these slimes
were available
but unfortunately it was only available
abroad and they were pretty expensive
so then i decided i’m gonna make my own
slime
and i’m gonna you know get this texture
right and see what it actually is all
about
well it was not as easy as it sounds
because the whole process
was so so difficult i remember going to
my mom and dad
and saying uh can i please buy some glue
and some lotion i would like to make my
own slime
and they were really confused but they
were like okay go for it something
silly go for it and i bought all the
oils and lotions and i would try them
out and
nothing worked nothing came even close
to the slime
texture consistency it would either
become
really really hard or end up in a giant
watery mess and it would be smelly
and i would waste so much time trying to
get the recipe correct
and i would do this over and over again
with different types of brands and
different types of lotions and nothing
worked
and then one time i bought two three
lotions and i was like this time it’s
going to work
so i went inside the room i put them all
in a bowl i got my stirring
spoon and i put the activator which is
the
activator to make slime and
i mix it up and it was actually forming
i was like oh my god oh my god i’m so
close i’m getting it
and two minutes later nothing worked it
actually kind of
overfilled the container and went
everywhere there was glue
all over the house and i started crying
and crying and crying and there was glue
on my body
on the floor and it was such a mess and
my sister comes running in because i was
crying
and she’s like what happened why are you
crying i didn’t make slime i didn’t make
slime it’s not working what am i gonna
do i wasted so much money and she’s like
why are you
so upset it’s so silly don’t cry about
this
and then i realized something every time
i failed i was actually narrowing the
recipe down you know
from that moment my attitude changed
instead of
being upset about the failure why don’t
i take the idea that this doesn’t work
and not buy those products anymore find
another way to make slime
once i got that outlook everything
became a lot more positive
i bought more products yes it did take
more investment
soon enough after three months i
actually got the perfect slime recipe
using indian products now you may be
wondering
the reason why it took so long to make
this slime
was because it was not easy to make
slime with indian products
i had to source raw materials from local
markets
and to get the perfect consistency and
texture
all the while making it non-toxic was a
challenging task
but thankfully i formulated it and once
i started playing with it i was ecstatic
i showed some of my friends
and they were like whoa obviously this
is amazing
it’s revolutionary i mean i don’t find
this anywhere
why can’t you start selling it and i
thought to myself well yes
that’s a good idea no one is doing it in
india and no one is selling this so why
don’t i
start my own business and
i was so excited i was like oh whole
slime business i could
you know i i was just out of school i
could do the side business before going
to college
then i remember that one time i was
conceiving the brand name and i was
thinking of
really funky names like avi’s slime
factory or
avi’s slime innovative center and my
father walked by and asked me
what are you doing and i was like well
i’m thinking of a company name
and he’s like well think about it you
want to make the slime accessible
to everyone in india so why don’t you
name it something
where it encompasses the whole universe
you know
call it the slime space and i loved it
i was like whoa slime space that’s
amazing
the brand was named the slime space and
soon i started an instagram channel
called the dot slime dot space
where i sell slime all over india and
soon enough i was getting orders from
people in chennai
and while it was just a small homemade
slime business initially
i had to take my sister with me and i
was like can you come help me deliver
slime to doorsteps
of people’s houses and she’s like yeah
come come so
we would go one by one and after i went
on instagram i
blew up you know everyone came to me
saying i must get your hands my hands on
this product
it’s amazing where can i find this and
soon enough i started online orders for
everyone in india
so that if you were in bombay or delhi
or
jamun kashmir you would still be able to
get my slimes
this is what slime is it’s this is what
i’ve been talking about
why it’s great satisfaction to the
customer you can take this line
and open it and
create air bubbles which gives bubble
pops
and it’s so satisfying it’s a great way
to relieve stress
now this slime went from a simple basic
glue slime to something
which had color has scent
and has different textures
now you might be wondering how i did it
well truth be told
i had a great support system my family
helped me in almost
everything and they continue to do so
when i had just left school like i’d
mentioned and i was joining college
i was going to do my bachelor’s in
computer science i am still doing my
bachelor’s in computer science
um all online as i got bigger
i was not able to do this myself i had
to ask my family to help me i didn’t
have employees
so i asked them all to come help me and
yes my mom helped me with the slime
making my sister would help me with the
accounts
and my father would help me with the
shipping i have my sister
making labels and designing all the cute
cute things of the company
well as you can see a label here
the our logo which is called the slime
space logo
and looking at what’s available in the
market we’ve also had various product
extensions
these slimes are not just one texture
there are
five different textures and every month
we come up with new eye
colors new scents new charms new
products
they’re all different so it’s never the
same
i am not selling the same thing
constantly i’m always trying to create
new things
in fact very recently we’re also going
into merchandising
now how all this is possible well
i do many things you know i am someone
who wants to do
everything out there anything i see i
just want to get my hands in it and just
start doing it i
am part of my college’s theatre club and
i have performed in many place
i am doing my slime business i manage my
computer science degree on the side
as well as my origami which i will be
getting too soon
now all these things is hard to balance
out
i also waste a lot of time i
procrastinate
i binge watch netflix shows but
it really comes down to your ability to
prioritize
you know it gives you joy if something
is giving you happiness
and you know that you’re good at it then
it’s not going to stop you it shouldn’t
hold you back
you should be able to do it without any
restraints
now the key ingredient in keeping a
business alive
is all about sustainability more than
success
it’s about the way you can sustain your
business
my business now is three years old and
we still get so many orders a month we
still have people coming over to our
page
people are still so new to the concept
of slime
so just the fact that i can educate
people and help them and once they
understand
and they purchase it they’re so happy
social media is a great way
to get yourself to a higher platform
in fact the other day we had posted a
video
of how slime is not just for kids
because it has a
great therapeutic value it helps
students and adults
when they’re going through stressful
tasks we can hold our slimes
and just get all that stress out with
this
and the great part is that all scented
amazing therapeutic scents
help you relax and in that sense
when i posted that video it hit 1
million views
now when i was in school i had a very
tough time
i was not very popular and well
a lot of people bullied me for being
different
and not really fitting in with the
convention at that time
and that kind of ostracized me from a
lot
of things in school since i was someone
who’s so talkative
full of energy always trying to be
expressive
it didn’t bode well with too many people
and i found myself lonely most of the
times
now i have two older sisters and they’ve
always been with me they’re my stepping
stones
and they would inspire me so much
when i was a nine standard around the
same time this was happening in school
my sister was in nifty and she was doing
her first year college there
she would bring home all her assignments
you know whether it was
tie and die or knitting or
making plaster of paris models i would
be so intrigued as to what she was doing
i would run over and see
all the assignments she was making and i
wanted to do the same thing with her
and she would let me sit down and watch
her and
i was quite good at some of them but one
time she brought home oriami
and i would watch her full paper
and i was you know surprised i was like
how are you doing that
how are you folding paper into models on
animals
because normally all i had seen was four
cups i only didn’t think of origami as a
complex art
and then i decided to go on youtube and
started to learn myself
and that stuck i was sitting
and with youtube on one side i was
folding paper
non-stop i was lonely but i channeled
all that frustration into learning a new
craft i prepared myself into more
complex models like the origami hedgehog
and
insects from youtube tutorials by 11
standard
i had folded something called the
origami cube ring which is a 12 unit
interlocking cube ring with no glue or
cuts
i posted this on instagram and i won
an art compilation on it and i got
widespread
recognition for my origami work and
because of this i was actually invited
by my principal to teach the social work
for origami to my juniors in school
i took this interest to mine and i got a
lot better
and i would just keep folding my models
somewhat 300 steps long
like the origami black kistan owl by
katsu kohei
this took around 500 steps to make so
these things i had folded with lots of
patience
and a lot of happiness i took this
interest and developed this further
into more of an entrepreneurship and
innovative style
where now i give origami workshops to
architectural students and businesses
when i was 16 i was invited by fellow
institute of technology
engineering school in velour to teach
the architectural first-year students
origami
and i conducted a whole workshop for
them and they called me back the next
year
and the next to next year to teach
another origami workshop
but this time i used the computer
science skills i had learned in my own
college
and made my talk a lot more technical
because origami can
is not just a simple child’s play it
goes
much beyond that you can use origami in
maths
technology science and anything possible
the following techniques every single
thing is important
i teach workshops to businesses and
non-profit organizations teaching them
how to fold small and cute models
and get paid for the same so in the 2020
lockdown
i had a lot of time to myself and i
finally fulfilled
one of my long term desires to make a
small miniature kitchen from only paper
and i did here i have something which i
made completely by myself
it is paper and it has been built to
scale
as you can see here we have a cute house
here
um i made the cabinets there’s a small
paper cups
a tissue box which is actually
functional
and here you have the basin over here i
mill
small tap water which makes it look like
it’s running water
we have a stove the oven a fridge
a table a little water cooler
and this is the cutting bench and this
is the wash basin
with a little lamp here and the windows
open as well to the outside
something which i kept myself busy with
and i really really enjoyed making this
now anyone can be an entrepreneur really
anyone but a true entrepreneur comes
down
to your product and your base if you’re
passionate about your product
if you can bring something unique to
your product
then you’re good to go being an
entrepreneur teaches you so many things
how to satisfy your customers
and also a learning experience
you can always learn understand
what your customer wants their needs
being an entrepreneur
is not easy you need to understand that
sometimes
you might be facing a loss how do you
recuperate from that
how do you bring your products into
environment
where people will enjoy it so in that
sense
keep your options open keep your areas
open
and find new ways to create
[Music]
you