An interview with Tengin founder Madhu on turning coconuts into a business built around farmers, villages and communities.
Updated
June 1, 2026 1:46 PM
Workers of Tengin. PHOTO: TENGIN
In Southern India, coconuts are part of daily life. They are used in food, rituals, farming and home remedies. For Tengin, a social startup whose name means “coconut” in Kannada—a South Indian language—the crop also offers a way to build a rural business with deeper local impact.
Founded by Madhu Kargunda in 2017, Tengin works with farmers, artisans and women’s collectives in Karnataka to make products from almost every part of the coconut. Its range includes virgin coconut oil, desiccated coconut powder, shell-based handicrafts, candles, home décor items and other coconut-based goods.
The larger idea is simple. Farmers should play a bigger role in the value created from the crops they grow. Tengin is trying to help rural communities move beyond supplying raw produce and take part in processing, branding, packaging and sales.
Madhu grew up in an agricultural family. Over the years, he saw many young people move away from farming to look for stable jobs in cities. To him, the problem was not farming itself. The bigger issue was that farmers often missed out on the value created after crops left the farm.
A coconut might be grown in a village, but much of the income comes later through processing, branding and retail. That gap stayed with him, eventually leading him to leave his eight-year career in IT and return to agriculture full-time.
Started with just making virgin coconut oil, Tengin has grown into a wider coconut products business. The startup is now working with around 15 to 20 farmers and artisan groups across Karnataka. It is also building production capacity for larger retail and B2B partnerships.
Today, Tengin generates annual revenue of roughly ₹50-60 lakh, or around US$52,000 to US$62,000. It has also started testing international demand, including a recent export of around 200 kilograms of desiccated coconut powder to Texas.
As Tengin expanded, the team began looking more closely at parts of the coconut that were usually treated as waste or low-value byproducts, such as coconut shells and coir. At first, Tengin treated them that way too.
“When we started, we used to burn some of the shells”, Madhu said. “Later, we realized it was an economic opportunity”.
That changed the company’s product strategy. Local artisans working with Tengin now are turning coconut shells into bowls, incense holders, candles, coffee mugs, mobile stands and handcrafted décor items.
This gives Tengin a place in the circular economy, where waste materials are reused instead of thrown away. For Madhu, though, sustainability has to do more than reduce waste. It should also create income in the community.
“We wanted to minimize waste and maximize wealth locally”, he said.
Tengin does not depend only on one central factory. Instead, it works with smaller village-level production groups that connect to a larger business network. This helps farmers stay close to their land while also taking part in processing and manufacturing. It also creates local jobs, which can reduce the pressure to migrate to cities.
Yet, the model is not always easy. In the early days, Tengin had to convince some farmers to move from chemical farming to natural farming. Moreover, the weather has also become harder to predict. Irregular rainfall and changing harvest cycles can affect coconut prices and production consistency.
Still, Madhu sees the village-based model as central to Tengin’s identity. For him, villages are living systems built on shared work, local knowledge and interdependence.
“The definition of a village is inclusiveness”, he said.
That belief also shaped Tengin’s “coco tourism” initiative. Through the program, visitors meet farmers, learn about farming practices and see how coconut products are made.
During one visit by MBA students from Indiana State University, an unexpected spell of rain gave the group a closer look at village life. Farmers gathered and began singing traditional folk songs to express gratitude to nature. For the students, it became a lesson in culture as much as business.
Madhu sees these moments as part of what rural entrepreneurship can protect.
“If villages become empty, we lose language, traditions and local knowledge too”, he said.
Tengin’s model is not difficult to copy on paper. Madhu is open about that.
“Anyone can do it”, he said, “but what matters is how you work with people”.
For him, the harder part is building long-term trust with farming communities. Tengin works through relationships more than rigid contracts. This encourages farmers and local groups to participate in the system in a more collaborative way.
That trust has become one of the startup’s strongest assets. It shapes how Tengin works with producers and how it presents its products to customers.
For Madhu, it is not enough to call a product sustainable. Customers should be able to understand where it came from, who made it and how their purchase supports the people behind it.
That matters even more in a market where terms like “eco-friendly” and “organic” have become buzzwords. Madhu knows that these words can feel empty when brands do not show what they actually mean.
“Anyone can use these words today,” he said. “What matters is whether consumers can actually see what you are doing”.
This is why Tengin focuses on transparency and storytelling. The startup wants customers to see the full journey of each coconut product, from the farm to the finished item. It also wants them to understand whose livelihood is connected to that journey.
Madhu also believes small brands cannot depend on products alone. Products can be copied, but a clear story, a trusted community and a visible impact are harder to replicate.
“Don’t try to sell only the product,” he said. “When you try to sell the product, you are being sold once”.
Each Tengin product includes details about the people behind it and how profits are shared. In that way, the company connects its coconut products to the farmers, artisans and village systems that make them possible.
For Madhu, entrepreneurship starts with the problem. Founders, he believes, should understand the problem deeply before thinking about scale and revenue.
“An entrepreneur is someone trying to solve an existing problem”, he said. “Sometimes it may be a small problem, sometimes a niche one. It could be in technology, energy, farming or any other sector—but first understand what problem you are trying to solve”.
Farming has also taught him patience. He gives the example of coffee.
“When you plant coffee, you know it may take five years before you see results”, he said, “but you still [have to] water it every day”.
He sees entrepreneurship the same way. Building systems, communities and trust takes time. Growth may be slow at first, but daily work matters.
Adaptability is another lesson he returns to often. Farming conditions change constantly, and so do markets. In both cases, people have to keep learning, unlearning and adjusting.
“Entrepreneurship is about constantly learning new things because the world is changing all the time”, he said. “You need to stay relevant, understand what connects with [your customers] and adapt accordingly”.
Looking ahead, Tengin plans to grow its farmer network, strengthen production capacity and expand its export business. Madhu is also looking to collaborate with more platforms, storytellers and communities that can help amplify the voices behind the products.
The startup is also involved in rural community initiatives, including support for government schools and menstrual health awareness programs.
For Madhu, giving back is part of how he defines success. With more resources, he would invest further in farmer education, village-level production systems and community development.
By building a business around coconuts, Tengin is also making a larger case for rural entrepreneurship. Its work shows that a modern consumer brand can grow without losing its connection to the farmers, traditions and village ecosystems that make that growth possible. For Madhu, that is the real measure of progress: creating value that stays rooted in the community.
Keep Reading
Skip the slogans—real Women’s Day campaigns create impact that lasts
Updated
April 1, 2026 8:56 AM
Mother Armenia monument in Victory Park, Gyumri city, Armenia. PHOTO: ADOBE STOCK
Women’s Day offers brands an opportunity to show what they stand for through meaningful action. But the strongest International Women’s Day campaigns do more than say “thank you”. They speak to women’s everyday lives.
Instead of big, vague empowerment slogans, some brands focus on small moments that shape confidence and wellbeing. Think about how we compliment young girls, how safe public spaces feel, what comfort really looks like and how friendship plays help women grow. When a campaign is built on a real insight and backed by something practical, it lands harder and lasts longer.
If you’re a startup planning a Women’s Day initiative, there’s value in studying what actually works. The examples below show how clarity, credibility and usefulness can turn International Women’s Day into something that feels meaningful and on-brand.
To celebrate the International Day of the Girl on October 11, 2025, Dove launched #ChangeTheCompliment—a campaign that asked parents and caregivers to rethink how they praise girls. Instead of defaulting to looks-based comments, Dove encouraged adults to acknowledge qualities like resilience, intelligence and determination alongside beauty.
The idea was grounded in data from Dove’s 2024 Real State of Beauty report, which found that more than 60% of girls feel pressure to be beautiful. Dove brought the message to life through a digital film showing parents broadening their praise in everyday moments.
In Canada, the campaign expanded through a partnership with psychologist Dr. Vanessa Lapointe, who helped anchor #ChangeTheCompliment in expert insight. She linked the campaign’s core message to Dove’s long-running Self-Esteem Project, launched in 2004 to provide free, evidence-based tools developed with psychologists and body image experts. Some of these tools included “Confident Me”, a classroom workshop on body confidence and “Amazing Me”, age-appropriate lessons designed to support self-esteem at school.
What worked here is that it didn’t stay inside a brand video. Parents, teachers and creators joined in by sharing their own examples online, posting revised compliments, building quick classroom activities or filming short clips where they swapped appearance-based praise for character-based words. From social posts to simple at-home conversations, the idea travelled beyond the original film and made participation easy.
Startup takeaway: Don’t build a Women’s Day campaign around a fuzzy theme. Focus on specific, everyday behaviors your audience relates to and design your campaign to shift them. Specificity makes your message practical and memorable.
In March 2024, Tetley Green Tea Immune launched the “I Am More Than My Nickname” campaign in India to challenge a common social habit: labeling someone’s fitness based on how their body looks. In many communities, body-type nicknames are used casually. Some of them might sound harmless, but they can chip away at confidence and self-worth over time. Tetley’s point was simple: fitness isn’t a body size. It’s strength, health and well-being.
The campaign centered on a digital film featuring a young girl nicknamed “Golu”, a Hindi term often used to describe someone as chubby. Throughout the film, she’s judged before she even tries, with people deciding what she can and cannot do based on her appearance. As the story unfolds, she pushes back. The film closes with women of different body types holding placards displaying various nicknames, ending with a clear line: “My Body Can, Your Body Can, Every Body Can”. It’s a strong example of a brand taking a familiar social habit and giving people a new way to see it.
Startup takeaway: Look for one small, common behaviour your audience sees every day. Then give people a simple way to engage with it, whether that’s sharing a story, rethinking a phrase or calling out a habit. When participation is baked into the idea, the campaign spreads naturally.
For International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2025, L'Oréal Paris launched its “Never Your Fault” campaign as part of its Stand Up Against Street Harassment program. The campaign drew on L’Oréal Paris research with Ipsos showing the scale of the problem: 75% of women reported experiencing harassment, and 60% said they adjust their clothing or appearance in public.
The message was clear: harassment is never the victim’s fault, and public spaces should feel safer for women. That matters because a lot of women still end up internalizing blame and changing how they dress just to lower the risk.
The campaign also came with a clear next step. It builds on L’Oréal’s partnership with Right To Be, an international NGO focused on stopping harassment, which began in 2020. Through Right To Be’s 5D framework—Distract, Delegate, Document, Delay and Direct—the program teaches bystanders simple, practical ways to intervene safely in the moment.
Startup takeaway: If you’re addressing a sensitive issue in a Women’s Day campaign, don’t go about it alone. Work with experts who bring trust, depth and real tools. It makes your message stronger fast.
.jpg)
In 2025, Van Heusen Innerwear marked Women’s Day with a single visual that many women immediately recognized. The poster showed a crumpled shirt with a bra placed over it, capturing that end-of-day moment of relief.
The slogan on the poster—“Happy Women’s Day has nothing to do with us”—makes the point that real comfort is personal, not performative. The message wasn’t really about taking off a bra, but about the pressure women carry all day, including the expectation to look a certain way, feel a certain way and still keep going. By leaning into a real, everyday experience, Van Heusen positioned itself as a brand that listens rather than lectures.
Startup takeaway: Skip the predictable in Women’s Day slogans. Find an honest, lived moment and build around it. When your campaign reflects real life, it feels relevant instead of seasonal.
In 2025, Mattel celebrated International Women’s Day by honoring real-life female friendship duos with one-of-a-kind Barbie Role Model dolls made in their likeness. The campaign focused on the idea that strong friendships help women grow, succeed and support each other. Instead of spotlighting individual achievement, it highlighted collective strength—women empowering women.
By featuring duos such as Alicia Keys and Ann Mincieli, Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey and other global pairs across sports, entertainment and advocacy, the campaign framed friendship as a source of confidence and ambition from girlhood onward. To make it practical, Mattel partnered with psychologist and best-selling author Dr. Marisa G. Franco, who shared simple advice for girls: take initiative in making friends, assume people will like you, express appreciation openly, try new activities together and prioritize quality over quantity in relationships.
Startup takeaway: If your Women’s Day campaign is built on a social insight, make it actionable. Storytelling helps, but tools, education and frameworks are what make it useful.
Across these International Women’s Day campaigns, the playbook is consistent: choose one real, everyday behaviour and shift it. Whether it’s the way we compliment girls, the labels we use, how bystanders intervene, what comfort feels like or how we nurture friendships, each brand anchored its message in something tangible and built action around it.
For startups, the lesson is straightforward: be precise in what you’re addressing, be credible in how you show up and make your message usable. Attention is easy to grab, but relevance is harder to earn and far more valuable.