Ivanna Salehudin
CEO & Co-Founder, Mavanna Pty Ltd
Text by Farrah Darma
How a CEO, entrepreneur, and mother of three is creating solutions in a niche market.
Ivanna Salehudin’s entrepreneurial confidence is deeply rooted in upbringing by her entrepreneur- minded father. She’s grateful to have been raised by a father who, she says, was a “chauvinist turned feminist” the minute she was born. Never raised with the notion that girls can’t do everything, gender was never a hindrance of any kind. “I could do anything I set my mind to, it was never an issue that ‘I can’t do this because I was a girl’ or ‘this is for boys’,” says the Founder & CEO, Mavanna Pty Ltd, a nutraceutical company that focuses on providing natural medicine solutions to women.
Growing up in Kuala Lumpur, she recalls a time in high school when girls and boys had to be separated: the girls to attend home ed classes while the boys would go off to the electrical and woodwork classes. She knew she didn’t want to stich and sew. “My dad told me to join the woodwork class if I wanted to, and I told him I couldn’t as it was only for boys. He made it clear that this was rubbish and I ended up being the only girl in the woodwork class.”
Having lived in Australia for 12 years, she initially always saw herself as a worker, with the ambition to climb the corporate ladder and make it big working for a company. “I never really wanted to start my own business – I guess it was my mindset back then that it’s not a real job unless I’m attached to a company. Plus, I didn’t want the headache of running a business.”
After graduating with a Bachelor of International
Business, Ivanna went on to complete several master’s degrees before beginning her career in finance. After moving back to Malaysia in 2011, there was a day when a friend sought out her father for advice on a business idea. While her father was sharing some pointers, he encouraged Ivanna to consider the business initiative as well. Pregnant at that time, Ivanna was initially hesitant. “I was about to have a baby, so nope!”
Her father promised her guidance and assured that if she doesn’t enjoy it, she could move on. That gave her confidence to start a business, although, unfortunately, her father died not long after. Still, Ivanna continued running the business, discovering an interest in learning new things. “It was different from corporate work where I knew what to do, day in, day out.” She enjoyed the disruption in routine and dealing with business issues – partnerships, finetuning the business structure, setting up strategy and, of course, the process of executing things. This would fuel her entrepreneurial journey.
Ivanna says that having her first born around the same time as her father’s passing contributed to several years of emotional turmoil, experiencing postpartum depression without even realising it. At that time, she was busy building her business, travelling constantly to countries like Singapore and the United Kingdom. The concept of ‘balance’ was not an issue as she didn’t feel the need to do so. “I chose the business and focused on that. I don’t recommend it, but I was suffering from postpartum. I didn’t do my job as a mother very well as I had a nanny and my ex-husband was also extremely supportive,” Ivanna says. “I don’t regret anything; it’s a journey and I learn from it. My son and I have a wonderful relationship today, and I figured out why I behaved the way I did.”
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At the end of the day, Ivanna believes that people need to be okay with the decisions they make. “At the time I could look at myself in the mirror. I was in a different mind space, a different age with different goals in life. If I missed my son’s concert, his father and nanny were there, and that was enough. Today, I’m a much different person; I will not miss a single thing of my children for anything, not even work. If a deal is going to be affected because I’m not there for those two hours, it’s okay. I’ll find another deal. Turning 41, I’m more relaxed about life. I will not miss a moment of my children growing up when I know there’s something else coming around the corner.”
The genesis of her company, Mavanna Pty Ltd came after having her third child. For the first time, she went through a traditional confinement process postpartum. She appreciated the process involved with traditional healing and discovered elements of the practices that stopped her from experiencing the same cycle of postpartum depression she had with her first two children.
Leveraging on her network within the nutraceutical business, she spoke to everyone, from people within the industry, to scientists and researchers, diving into the background and research of botanicals and their therapeutic benefits. She found a neglected segment within women’s health particularly in the post-partum section. “Women go through so much, and so much actually happens to us. We go through the most traumatic experience, and yet no one looks after the mothers. We can be physically, mentally and hormonally unwell.” There appeared to be minimal conversation around this area, where no one really talks about the changes women go through at each stage after postpartum recovery. If a woman doesn’t take care of herself after having her baby, health and hormonal imbalances will drag into her next cycle – an area Ivanna is trying to raise awareness on.
“I was a bit arrogant when it came to traditional practices; I used to think they were all garbage and therefore didn’t go through confinement for my first two children. I thought I could bounce back and just hit the gym or whatever.” Measuring her words, she continues: “When I found out what traditional practices could do, the inspiration for Mavanna came about.”
She references the common joke when a woman is angry or throws a fit, she’s assumed to be either on her period or pre-menopausing. “We wanted to formulate and make products to help women go through each life stage, which started with postpartum because I relate to that personally.”
Being in the entrepreneurial side of the health industry, Ivanna is no stranger to rejection and failure. “I’ve had more failed businesses than I’ve had successful ones,” she says. For one of her businesses, she remembers speaking to at least 150 people about fundraising and was rejected 149 times. What was harder to accept was was worse was that not only did she receive a NO, but she also had people telling her how the business was not good or won’t work, how she had no experience, and her team was better off doing something else. “It’s fine if they say no, I can handle that. But when they take a step further to kill your spirit and break down your hope, that’s when you really need to be strong and understand one thing only: Really successful people do not break someone down or discourage. That’s all you need to know. If they do that, you already know they’re not really successful.” Ivanna believes that real successful people motivate, encourage, and give you pointers you can use.
Additionally, the tandem need to deal with sexism, whether conscious or unconscious, exists. Speaking about being a woman when she was first venturing out, Ivanna shared some personal stories that she can laugh about today.
She remembers an incident in which although she entered a meeting as a founder and potential investor, she was casually handed a notepad and pen to take notes. “When he gave me the notepad, I happily took it, I thought ‘ah, that’s great I get a free notepad!’ And I actually put in my purse. He proceeded to signal ‘that’s for taking notes.’ The minute we gave out business cards, I saw his tone completely change. I thought it was funny, here I was funding this business and I was being told to take notes.” Ivanna highlighted how it was actually a quite confusing incident because she was raised by a father, who never
made her aware that gender was an issue. “It was new to me that that’s not how everyone might think. I was never told or exposed to the concept that being a woman was a second-class citizen.”
Speaking about leaving a legacy, Ivanna says “I would like to be remembered as someone who gave it her all, did her absolute best with whatever she was given, loved life and enjoyed every moment of it. I only learned this when I turned 40 and my daughter was diagnosed. You miss moments. I missed the first five years of my eldest son growing up, and the first two of my second daughter’s, I got smarter with each case.”
With how the world is transitioning after Covid-19, Ivanna believes that natural remedies have a place in today’s world. “We’re moving away from chemicals, everyone is looking for natural sources and nutraceuticals, functional, botanicals, and we should. It’s better for us.”
She shares some upcoming projects she’s excited for in 2022, specifically the launch of her women’s health products in May across Perth, Singapore, Malaysia and Southeast Asia. She talks about starting conversations without defensiveness, “I want to start the conversation with both big and small companies, so they will be encouraged to look into this neglected segment of women’s health. I want people and competitors to talk about it, I welcome everyone. The point is to help. If bigger competitors come in, it’s fine. If they have better products that help, hey, maybe I’ll buy their stuff.”
“All I know is that what I needed as a woman now, and when I had a baby, I couldn’t find it in the market. Especially the science backed and certain unique points of restoring inner health. That’s why we decided to make it and hopefully, we can help.”
