Professional Journey, Defining Moments & Milestones
Arohi Jain – CEO & Founder of BreezeBubble
Arohi Jain is a 23-year-old founder who started her company in the US after graduating from the Master of Management program at University of Michigan. She realized her passion for entrepreneurship while working on a business idea during her freshman year of undergrad in Computer Science Engineering at Shiv Nadar University in India. Since then she has worked on a few different startup ideas, including creating a book exchange platform for her university and ‘Piggyback, a crowd shipping platform for faster and cheaper delivery”. As part of Piggyback, Arohi and her team of co-founders were incubated in the Atal Incubation Center and were invited for a startup workshop at the President’s House in India.
A turning point in Arohi’s journey was when she did a semester at Stanford university in technology entrepreneurship. As part of Stanford’s Silicon Valley Innovation program, she attended several industry lunches and panel discussions with venture capitalists attended talks from entrepreneurs like J.B Straubel (co-founder of Tesla), and visited many companies and startups (Google, IDEO, Plug And Play) in the Bay area. “Being surrounded with seasoned entrepreneurs, mentors, and so many opportunities, I learned how to take a paper napkin idea and grow it into a company. I knew this is where I belong and was determined to start my own business and create solutions for global problems” she says.
Arohi was selected as one of the top 20 Women Entrepreneurs across India for the Aspiring Women Entrepreneurs program at University of Texas at Austin. As part of this program, she developed commercialization strategies for her startup in global markets. She worked in Austin Texas, Nexus startups Hubs, India, and Lulea Technical University, Sweden to develop market strategies across US, Europe, and Asia.
She worked on her startup “BreezeBubble” while studying at Ross School of Business. She received a ton of support from my mentors, clubs, and the Ann Arbor community of entrepreneurs. She is now working full time to grow and expand startup BreezeBubble, an innovative smart mask that provides high comfort and high protection for living in polluted air environments. Arohi started developing the mask in October 2019 when she visited her family back home in India. This was at a time when air pollution was at its worst in the country. It directly impacted her family and friends, as they couldn’t go out for a walk or run without wearing a restrictive and uncomfortable mask to protect themselves. She realized that there is a need for a better solution and started developing a breathable and comfortable mask to combat this pollution problem.
Just a few months back we were brainstorming new ideas for this product and prototyping a new and creative solution for a comfortable mask while studying at University of Michigan. We are now able to provide our high protection masks to service the growing demand in this pandemic. We have received great support from Ann Arbor SPARK and featured at the Ann Arbor Tech Trek 360 in their September 2020 showcase event.
With the BreezeBubble mask, we are one step closer to providing quality breathing to everyone across the world for a healthy active and happy life. We will continue to iterate and make this mask lighter, more comfortable, and high-tech and through your support reach millions of people across the globe who will benefit from this solution.
What would you like to share with entrepreneurs?
Although I am just starting out on my journey of entrepreneurship, I have realized that building your own company is an absolute rollercoaster ride with many ups and downs, countless hours of work, new challenges each day, and involves taking a lot of risks. To continue on this path, you need to be super passionate about your idea, resilient enough to take on any challenge, and a pathological optimist with a vision to change the world.
What would you like to share with Investors?
I am currently running my crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter where BreezeBubble blew past its funding goal in under 48 hours and has raised over $40,000 with 500+ backers supporting the campaign. We plan to now raise venture capital to grow the company so that we can make our technology smarter and provide our product globally.
What has been the role of TiE in your life?
I had a chance to engage with the TiE community at the Women Entrepreneurs Pitch competition 2020. It has been great to connect with TiE networks and learn from the mentors of TiE. I hope to continue to pitch, attend workshops, and learn from the people in this organization.
