In India’s rapidly evolving food and wellness market, consumers today are no longer just looking for indulgence, they are looking for balance. That shift in consumer behavior became the starting point for Jimmy Shah, who co-founded Get A Way alongside Jash Shah and Pashmi Shah.

During the conversation , Jimmy Shah shared how the idea for the brand emerged from observing increasingly health-conscious lifestyles within younger consumers and recognizing a major gap in the Indian dessert space. While consumers were becoming more aware about sugar intake, nutrition, and healthier eating habits, the market still lacked desserts that genuinely combined taste, texture, and better nutritional value.

What started as a simple observation soon evolved into a larger mission: creating desserts that people could enjoy more regularly without associating them with guilt.

Building a Brand Around “Mindful Indulgence”

Jimmy Shah explained that Get-A-Way was never intended to be positioned as a restrictive “diet food” brand. Instead, the focus from the beginning was to build products that felt indulgent while still being healthier alternatives.

The company initially launched high-protein, No-added-sugar ice creams featuring flavors such as chocolate brownie fudge,Belgian Chocolate  products designed to challenge the perception that healthier desserts also can taste good.

“The idea was to make healthy desserts enjoyable and repeatable,” Shah shared during the interview. “We wanted consumers to feel that indulgence and wellness could coexist.”

That philosophy eventually became central to the brand identity itself. According to Shah, even the name “Get-A-Way” represents getting away from the guilt commonly attached to desserts and indulgent foods.

Over time, the company expanded beyond ice creams into a broader healthy dessert portfolio while continuing to maintain its high-protein and no-added-sugar positioning.

From Early Experiments to a Structured Consumer Brand

Like many emerging consumer startups, Get-A-Way started lean.

Jimmy Shah recalled that the company initially relied heavily on direct consumer feedback, constant experimentation, and product refinement. The team spent significant time understanding what consumers actually wanted not just from a nutritional standpoint, but also from taste, texture, and overall experience.

However, scaling healthier products came with operational complexities.

Unlike conventional desserts, healthier formulations require far more precision in ingredients, manufacturing, and consistency. Shah explained that maintaining uniform quality while scaling production became one of the company’s biggest operational learning curves, especially during the early days of working with co-manufacturers.

To overcome this, the company gradually invested more deeply into research and development, manufacturing discipline, process control, and stronger operational systems.

Today, Get-A-Way operates with a far more structured approach focused on good manufacturing practices, consistency, and long-term scalability.

The Challenge of Balancing Innovation With Scalability

One of the more insightful moments from the interview came when Jimmy Shah discussed the realities of product innovation.

While experimentation remains important for the brand, Shah admitted that not every innovative product becomes operationally sustainable. She shared the example of a creamsicle-style ice cream the company experimented with — a product that generated excitement but proved difficult to scale efficiently because of operational complexity.

Eventually, the company decided to discontinue it.

For Shah, the experience became a defining business lesson.

“It taught us that innovation alone is not enough,” she explained. “You also need operational discipline, scalability, and execution efficiency.”

Today, the company evaluates products not only based on creativity or novelty, but also through metrics such as consumer repeatability, production feasibility, operational efficiency, and long-term brand alignment.

Scaling With Consumer Trust at the Center

As the company evolved, fundraising and expansion became another important part of the journey.

Jimmy Shah mentioned that founder Jash Shah played a major role in driving fundraising conversations and helping scale the business strategically. The company was initially bootstrapped  until gaining wider visibility after appearing on Shark Tank, which led to inbound investor and acquisition interest.

A major turning point came when Heritage Foods Limited partnered with the brand, helping strengthen backend operations and scalability.

Despite the company’s growth trajectory, Shah emphasized that consumer trust remains the most important long-term focus for the brand.

For her, success today is not defined only by growth numbers or expansion milestones, but by building a sustainable consumer brand that consistently delivers quality, authenticity, and reliability.

That belief also shapes how the company approaches execution internally through process standardization, strong supplier relationships, quality checks, and operational consistency.

Building Teams With Ownership and Long-Term Thinking

Beyond products and operations, Jimmy Shah also spoke about the importance of team culture while building a growing consumer business.

According to her, the company prioritizes hiring people who bring ownership, passion, and entrepreneurial thinking rather than simply filling conventional roles. She described the internal culture as highly collaborative, where team members are encouraged to think like builders contributing toward the long-term success of the brand.

“If we were to start over again,” Shah reflected, “we would probably focus even earlier on building stronger systems and speeding up execution.”

The COVID-19 period further reinforced the importance of resilience and conviction for the company. While uncertainty affected the larger consumer market, strong repeat purchase behavior from customers helped validate the team’s belief that they were building for a long-term shift in consumer behavior rather than a temporary trend.

Advice for Young Entrepreneurs

Toward the end of the conversation, Jimmy Shah shared advice for young founders entering the startup ecosystem.

Her message centered around discipline, adaptability, and consistency.

According to Shah, building a sustainable business requires far more than just a strong idea. It demands continuous learning, resilience during uncertain periods, operational focus, and the willingness to evolve constantly.

She also emphasized the importance of acting on ideas with conviction while remaining flexible enough to improve and adapt over time.

In many ways, Get-A-Way’s journey reflects a larger transformation happening within India’s food and consumer ecosystem, one where consumers increasingly expect products that combine wellness, authenticity, convenience, and experience without compromising on enjoyment.

And through that shift, Jimmy Shah believes the future of indulgence is not about restriction  but about creating smarter, more mindful choices that consumers can genuinely sustain.

Lastly ,the biggest win for Get-A-Way is to build the company by Mother-Son-Daughter who have a distinct skill set to run the business.

Interview By : Kashish Srivastava