🚀 Build in Public: What Rage Rooms and Team Reflections Taught Me This May

The month of May was tender, chaotic, and unforgettable. It reminded me that this journey I’m on—of building a brand, a team, a movement—isn’t just about scaling. It’s about feeling. Our May collaborations weren’t just about smashing objects—they were about smashing through emotional clutter, creating unforgettable brand moments, and adding tangible value to our partners’ goals.

Here’s what unfolded:

🌼 1. Rage Room x Lemonn at Garuda Mall to drive app downloads

Lemonn is a new-age investment app targeting a young audience often overwhelmed by financial jargon. In the middle of Garuda Mall’s chaos, we turned their fintech value prop into something felt, not just explained.

We brought the Rage Room to the middle of one of Bangalore’s busiest malls. Amidst the chaos of a crowded atrium, strangers stepped in, smashed plates, and shared stories of heartbreak, burnout, work pressure, and silent rage. People could physically release the stress of “money pressure,” “missed SIPs,” “credit card guilt”—bridging the emotional side of money with Lemonn’s solution-driven approach.

The result? Lemonn wasn’t just seen—they were experienced. The crowd engagement created a magnetic draw, generating awareness that was qualitative, emotional, and far more memorable than traditional booth setups.

People didn’t just scan a QR code—they paused, engaged, talked, and most importantly, remembered the brand in a context that made finance feel approachable and freeing.

🌌 2. 8Club x Hyatt Centric: The Mad Scramble

8Club’s goal was to bring together a highly curated, invite-only community in a meaningful way—and their theme for the event “Rage Room” found the perfect match in our concept.

At 2:00 PM, we had no confirmation. At 7:00 PM, we were supposed to go live with a rage room installation inside an exclusive club at Hyatt Centric. Nothing was ready. Not even the breakables.

The rational part of me said: Cancel. This isn’t worth the chaos. But the leader in me whispered: Trust. Delegate. Improvise.

My team and I activated full jugaad mode. We sourced what we could, created makeshift frames with LED strips, repurposed old inventory, and—by some miracle—transformed an empty club floor into an underground rage den.

It wasn’t “perfect.” But it had soul. It had grit. And it got done.

And the biggest win? I didn’t do it all. My team rose. They saw the chaos and chose creativity. They didn’t wait for instructions—they made decisions.

We curated a bespoke rage room setup inside an upscale club space at Hyatt Centric, transforming it into a high-impact, sensory experience that went beyond conversation and cocktails. Guests bonded over shared release, expressed suppressed tensions, and left feeling lighter, closer, and more connected.

This wasn’t just another social mixer—it was an emotional glue moment. And that kind of connection builds community loyalty in a way few other formats can.

That night taught me: Delegation isn’t abdication. It’s inviting others to become powerful.

✨ 3. Kiehl’s Product Launch – Translating Product Promise into a Visceral, Shareable Emotion

This one felt… cinematic.

Think: glowing soft lights, a lush green carpet in place of a red one, and guests in white smashing colored glass sheets while sipping on elixirs and talking about stress and skincare.

Kiehl’s campaign was about achieving “clear glass skin”—a metaphor for transparency, purity, and glow. We took that metaphor and made it tangible.

We designed an experience where guests could write down what was clouding their minds—stress, self-doubt, emotional baggage—and smash through it, aligning perfectly with the product's emotional benefit: feel light, feel clear, feel fresh.

What unfolded was more than just content—it was conversation. Influencers, creators, and guests organically began sharing their moments of catharsis. Kiehl’s wasn’t just launching a product—they were part of an emotional transformation.

By leveraging our raw, unfiltered brand tone, they were able to amplify their message with depth, feeling, and virality—earning not just impressions, but connection.

It reminded me that emotional wellness doesn’t always have to be serious or heavy—sometimes, healing can wear heels and dance to techno under fairy lights.

🧠 Team Culture: From Tasks to Truths

This month, I also changed something internally. I stopped running biweekly team calls as status updates.

Instead, I turned them into reflection circles. We sat down in a Pan-India Google Meet call and I asked:

“What has made you feel frustrated this week?” “What are our guests possibly going through when they’re late or impatient?”

At first, it was quiet. Awkward. Then one person said, “My brother used to shout when I was late. I think I carry that into how I deal with customers.” Another added, “Maybe they’re not being rude… maybe they just had a horrible day with their bosses.”

That’s when something clicked.

We weren’t just managing customer service anymore. We were practicing empathy—by understanding, not reacting.

(Psychologically, this is called cognitive reappraisal—reframing someone’s behavior by placing it in a larger, more compassionate story. It’s one of the most effective tools for emotional regulation.)

And you know what? The tone on-ground changed. More warmth. More eye contact. More “I understand.” The impact was visible. Felt.

🔍 Strategy Shift: Who Not How

One of the most transformative shifts this month came from a single conversation with Dr. Kanth Miriyala. He introduced me to the “Who Not How” framework.

For the longest time, I felt stuck in “How do I do this?” mode. How to scale. How to launch. How to pivot.

Turns out, the better question is:

“Who already knows how to do this—and how can I bring them in?”

I mapped out every component of my flagship project Jreka—the brand vision, tech backend, audience insights, monetization, go-to-market—and identified a unique who for each step.

Instead of exhausting myself trying to do it all, I have now identified a web of collaborators, guides, and operators who are aligned and (might be) ready to help.

This was a personal ego death and a professional unlock.

(More on this in a few months when we go live 👀)

🐶 And finally, the personal bit.

We got a puppy. 🐶 He’s fluffy, golden, and… completely oblivious to adult boundaries.

This little bundle of joy has been a mirror to my soul—showing me how much control I try to assert when I feel unsafe, how hard it is to regulate when someone doesn’t comply, and how powerful it is to parent with softness, not survival.

Business, like puppies, doesn't obey. It needs presence, play, and patience.

If you're building something wild, weird, or wonderful, I see you.

It’s not linear.

But it’s worth it. Keep smashing forward. 💥