TANYA SHAH

Tanya Shah is an entrepreneur and a visioner who dreams of a better playing field for children. Tanya's vision is to introduce education into play for children because she believes in the holistic development of a child through toys played with, stories heard, and books read. Along with her husband, she founded "Toycra", one of the largest Specialty Toys & Games aggregators in the Country. They are also one of the largest distributors of educational, award-winning play assets pan India with a presence across 100+ retailers & mom-pop setups and have a portfolio of 15 Global brands that are exclusive to just Toycra. Their motto is - "Play to grow". With over 10,000 toys in their store, they are conscious about picking the right toys that enable entertainment and education for kids.

What is your favourite word?
Community. I'm part of a wonderful kid's community. Many children have returned to us throughout the years. They've grown up in front of my eyes and alongside me. I know their stories, their personal challenges, their likes, and their dislikes. The level of interaction that we were able to develop with the parents that approached me, and we developed ideas for what their children could read and play with - the whole process is thrilling. It makes me glad to know that I have a large community of kids and their parents that appreciate us on a more instinctive level. .

What was the moment in your life that made you Blossom into the person you are today?
There was one moment when Virang (Co-founder & Director of "Toycra") went to Germany immediately after MBA. He met several like-minded people there who were likewise interested in education through play. He discovered several prototype toys over there. And I remember having this urge to just want to leave my job and start working towards Toycra when he sent me the pictures of all those prototypes. We couldn't immediately start though. I worked as a banker for quite some time. After a couple of years, we finally started this. But yeah, that trip was the moment for us. It basically was like finding the fuel for the passion.

What would you want the young boys & girls to learn from your journey?
Don't be scared to switch your passions. I am from a family of bankers. The natural course of my life was being a banker and I liked doing what I was doing. When the opportunity to establish Toycra offered itself to us, I was terrified. How was I meant to carry on my family's financial legacy? Putting so much money at risk and starting from scratch was the next significant risk. If I must give one piece of advice I learned from my journey, I will add - Just go for it. Dive right in. Do what you want to do and don't worry about switching passions. I had to do a lot of research before getting into what I am doing now. You must do all that. There will be a lot of hard work you have to do. But the first step is to dive right into it.