This Jhansi student skips college to start earning, launches skincare startup to solve skin problems for Indians aged 18-26

With the dream to build a marketplace like Amazon dedicated to skincare and haircare products, Jhansi’s Jalaj Verma started HelloCloud. 

In an exclusive interview with Startup Pedia, Jalaj shared building a community search startup.

“We have started with skin serum,” the founder said. “We asked concerns from people on Instagram and they told us about their skin products. They even shared which are good and which are bad products. With this information in hand, we did market research and came up with a groundbreaking product in which we use only the most researched ingredients.”

Jhansi entrepreneur shares journey

This is how the 22-year-old Jhansi entrepreneur launched the company in September 2025.

"In just 3 days, we did a sale of Rs 50,000 without any ads!” Jalaj shared with Startup Pedia.

The young entrepreneur shared his journey of becoming a startup founder.

“As a school student, I was interested in scientific innovation, and used to experiment with stuff; the monotonous way of just gaining bookish information always bored me!” he said. 

Right after graduating from high school, he decided to quit academic pursuits and instead gain practical experience and start earning.

“My parents were old, and I had to take the financial responsibility,” said Jalaj Verma. “I thought that when I could make money, why would I keep studying and waste time?”

He left his hometown and went to Bangalore to take a road less travelled. When all of his friends were studying in college, Jalaj tried his luck in India’s startup capital. He started as a Content Consultant and created videos and thumbnails for a company.

Being young and inexperienced, his office provided him a meagre salary of Rs. 5,000. It was difficult for him to survive with that money in a metro city.

“I used to sleep on the office floor as I could not afford to rent a place,” Jalaj opened up to Startup Pedia. “I had an electric kettle in my bag with which I cooked Maggi or boiled an egg,” he added, smiling.

Jhansi to Bengaluru and back 

But the Jhansi boy was determined to carve a path for himself. He was not sure about his career path at that point, but he kept grinding. 

“I used to take out the office curtains and spread them on the floor to sleep on that at night,” the young entrepreneur shared. “I worked late till 3 am and then started working again from 7 am as clients started pouring in,

From sleeping on the office floor and surviving on a 5K salary, Jalaj started getting promoted because of his sharp intellect and hard work. He kept switching jobs, and in about four years, he had worked in clubs to Nikhil Kamth’s podcast office.

In his mind, he was eager to start a company of his own because he knew the effort he was putting into other companies would pay off well if he started his own firm.

Jalaj founded a company called “Osme” that he sold right away.

“The money I made writing scripts, making AI personalised videos for creators, and then selling my first company, I used it all to start HelloCloud,” the Jhansi entrepreneur disclosed to Startup Pedia.

He left Bengaluru and started his new skincare startup in his hometown, Jhansi, along with three of his school friends-cum co-founders, Parth Singh Parihar, Akash Patel and Hamza Khan.

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All about HelloCloud

The Dermatologist-tested serums are built for Indian skin types for a simple, powerful, and effective solution. The Jhansi-based skincare brand has started catering on a pan-India basis.

The Instagram-focused brand is reaching out to educate people about skincare and products to use.

“We are also using the professional platform, LinkedIn, to reach out to professionals who can collaborate with us to promote our brand,” said Jalaj Verma.

HelloCloud’s targeted customers are aged between 18 and 26.

“We are mostly focusing on the college and young working professionals who are confused by thousands of skin and hair products,” the founder informed Startup Pedia.

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Product range and price

Priced around Rs. 999/, Hello Cloud is also currently offering an inaugural discount of around 20%. For now, they have mainly two skincare serums, one for oily skin and another for dry skin.

“We have introduced two skin-friendly products for now, more to arrive soon, the HelloCloud founder said.

While most skincare feels complicated, heavy, or made for someone else’s lifestyle, HelloCloud was created for real skin in real conditions — simple, potent, and effective.

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Brand motto

“No clutter. No false claims. Just clarity, balance, and calm”, says the brand’s description on its official website.

Interestingly, the 12-member team of the company are either in high school or college because Jalaj believes eagerness to work is more important than qualifications or experience. The employees have joined from across India, such as Bengaluru, Kerala, Mumbai, and Lucknow.

“You can think of our team as a young Facebook company,” smiled Jalaj. “Every beginner who wants to work with a skincare brand would want to work with HelloCloud in the next five years!” he added.

Investments

Jalaj Verma invested around Rs. 8 Lakhs in HelloCloud till now. The burn rate has gone around Rs. 1,20,000 per month.

Goals ahead

From promoting at Jhansi cafes to marketing on social media, Hello Cloud has just stepped into the skincare industry.

“We want to become a small version of Amazon in skincare products,” said. “We are envisioning AI clinics that will do skin tests on people.”

Started as a skincare company, it intends to be a skin-tech company in the next five years. Founded by a middle-class background young entrepreneur motivated by Steve Jobs, HelloCloud is preparing to raise funds. 

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