Manasi Gangan is the founder of Nested Bean, a visionary technologist and entrepreneur, addressing infant sleep challenges. With 20+ years in IT and consumer goods, she revolutionised the nascent industry for sleepwear mimicking parental touch. Committed to innovation, Manasi’s expertise extends globally, advocating for evidence-based sleep practices and empowering parents for healthier & happier babies.
Her journey began as a new mother facing the universal challenge of infant sleep deprivation. Fueled by scientific research on the soothing effects of simulated touch, Manasi embarked on a mission to create a solution that would provide restful sleep for both parents and their little ones. In 2011, Nested Bean was born – with a mission to create an impactful line of infant sleepwear designed to simulate the gentle touch of a parent’s embrace. The innovative sleepwear, weighted with gentle pressure, is designed to harness the power of a parent’s reassuring touch to promote relaxation, reduce anxiety, and extend sleep duration in babies.
In 2012, Nested Bean was honoured with the Juvenile Product Manufacturer’s Award (JPMA), recognising its groundbreaking products in the launch year. The Cribsie Awards, determined by public vote, further celebrated Nested Bean’s excellence, naming the Zen Swaddle a 2015 Finalist and the Zen Sack the Winner of ‘Favorite Wearable Blanket’ in both 2019 and 2020. Additionally, Nested Bean secured the 9th Annual Best in Biz Awards, highlighting the company’s continued success and industry recognition.
Manasi’s unwavering commitment to innovation and research underpins Nested Bean’s continued success. The company has earned widespread acclaim from parents, pediatricians, and industry experts, receiving recognition for its effectiveness and positive impact on infant sleep. Beyond her entrepreneurial endeavors, Manasi is a sought-after speaker and opinion leader, sharing her expertise on infant sleep, parenting strategies and her entrepreneurial experiences with audiences worldwide. Actively engaged in the parenting community, she provides valuable insights and support to parents seeking guidance on infant sleep issues.
Manasi’s dedication to improving infant sleep goes beyond Nested Bean’s products. She is a staunch advocate for raising awareness about the importance of sleep for babies and promoting evidence-based sleep practices. Her passion for infant well-being is evident in her tireless efforts to educate and empower parents to make informed decisions about their child’s sleep.
A true visionary, Manasi Gangan is transforming the infant sleep landscape one gentle touch at a time. Her unwavering commitment to empowering parents and fostering an inclusive community is foundational to how Nested Bean supports families with restful nights and happy, healthy babies.
What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?
My days are far from typical. There is always something unplanned coming up. I reserve my mornings to work on my top priorities or plan without mundane, regular meetings. I spend my afternoons collaborating with my team and reviewing anything they need me to. I like to allocate my evenings to wrapping things up and preparing for the next day. Regardless of the day’s challenges, I identify my top three priorities at the start of every week and day—a habit I picked up at my previous job. This approach prevents unexpected things from hijacking my day.
How do you bring ideas to life?
Having new ideas is what keeps us moving. Constantly investing in new ideas while keeping an eye on new trends is essential. If it is bigger than just a trend—a new product or a new direction for the company—I always assess it against market needs. That ensures that nothing sways you, explicitly or implicitly. Explicitly would involve interacting with customers and having focus groups, but it’s important not to ask them what they think about an idea since that is not how an idea is presented.
Sometimes, an idea could be very abstract. Regardless of the nature of validating information, it must originate from the market—either through explicit means like focus groups, or implicitly through the analysis of market surveys or similar sources. Once we determine the idea is worth investing in, I seek backing. The progress and pace is hindered when the team does not understand or is at odds with the vision. Bringing ideas to life necessitates the entire team’s backing, support, and enthusiasm.
We first gain the team consensus, build some excitement around the idea, and discuss the prospects of how it can propel us to the next level, evaluating the benefits for the company and the stakeholders, both. Next, we plan and create an in-depth strategy to minimize unforeseen challenges and move into the execution phase. We also try not to dwell on perfection, as it can impede progress. Even if at a small scale, we conduct tests—that’s another thing that we do while approaching new ideas.
In summary, the process involves vetting, gaining consensus, building excitement, planning, strategizing, taking incremental steps, and embracing the notion that perfection isn’t always necessary—sometimes, good is good enough.
What’s one trend that excites you?
While there are many noteworthy trends worth mentioning, the creator economy is the one at the top of my mind and most current. Thanks to this trend, individuals with a vision now have the opportunity to convey their stories uniquely through various creators. This enables the narrative to resonate with diverse audiences in distinct ways. Today, in ways not possible before, you can advance your message and positively impact others striving to enhance their creative abilities.
What is one habit that helps you be productive?
To avoid letting the week overwhelm me, I dedicate some weekend time to plan my top priorities for the upcoming week. Given the nature of my work, any unforeseen events within the company demand my attention. Thus, knowing my top three priorities helps me approach each day productively, especially as an early riser. I value my mornings and use them for exercise and meditation. Since I’m not a night owl, maintaining productivity in the mornings requires discipline to sleep early.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Learning is eternal—we learn at every phase and stage. These days, a virtue I actively cultivate is avoiding overthinking despite changing circumstances or setbacks. In the face of challenges or uncertainties, there’s a tendency to magnify them through overthinking. Action is the most effective way to overcome these challenges. Hence, the advice I’m currently prioritizing is to resist overthinking and prioritize decisive action. Overthinking is a common tendency at various life stages, and while the scale may vary with age, the advice remains pertinent across different contexts.
Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you.
It’s a bit of a pet peeve for me. People often think they should focus on strategy as they progress in their careers. Strategy comes with experience—an assimilation of your experience that allows you to have the foresight. But many people think that once they get into the strategy phase, they should not be bothered with execution, believing execution is for the lowly. Contrary to this, I have witnessed the greatest of individuals be exceptional operators.
Understanding how to strategize and plan at a high level and simultaneously mastering the art of execution is crucial. Solely dwelling on strategy without the ability to execute hinders effective team management and consequently hampers the achievement of exceptional outcomes. Without the capability to operate, strategic ideas remain confined to presentations. While this belief might not align with common thinking, I believe that strategy is informed by experience, and being an exceptional operator is a requisite skill at any stage of one’s career. Both elements are indispensable.
What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?
Decision-making. It is a challenging task, often requiring the evaluation of many factors. I’ve found that creating a decision-making tree—mapping out scenarios and solutions for various contingencies—is a valuable approach. Whenever possible, I advocate for templatizing and automating decision-making processes. If a decision or task is likely to recur in a slightly different context, you can leverage the initial investment in crafting a thoughtful decision-making process for efficiency.
My consistent recommendation to others is to templatize their thinking. This involves creating processes or procedures based on previous decisions or work, ensuring a streamlined approach next time a similar task arises. I’ve observed that some individuals invest a lot of effort in solving problems or making decisions but fail to institutionalize the process. This oversight leads to a waste of time when confronted with similar challenges in the future.
Templatization not only enhances efficiency but also contributes to scalability and consistent output. It prevents the reinvention of the wheel and ensures that others facing similar challenges can benefit from established processes. I firmly believe in going beyond just solving a problem; it’s crucial to follow up with the creation of a process or procedure to facilitate consistent and scalable solutions. Moreover, the next crucial step is teaching these processes to others, enabling delegation and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
Even though we can handle a few thoughts or tasks simultaneously, activities demanding intense focus require undivided attention. Given the multiple responsibilities of my job, I find short breaks essential. While transitioning between tasks, I’ve observed that maintaining the same level of energy and focus is challenging without breaks. I’ve come to appreciate the significant impact even a two-minute break can have on my ability to refocus and enhance productivity. My preferred method of taking breaks involves immersing myself in music or something unrelated to work. I opt for activities that don’t actively engage my mind—whether it’s taking deep breaths, enjoying music, watching something entertaining, or even taking a short walk. These rituals serve as my go-to rejuvenation between intense tasks.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?
I’m a huge believer in continuous learning. In a world that is changing rapidly, adopting a student mentality is imperative for growth. This involves consistently acquiring new techniques for reaching customers, aligning with business goals, and leveraging opportunities to enhance thinking and skills. Equally important is finding new ways of adding value to your end customer—these are the two core principles that I highly recommend.
What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?
Whenever I haven’t focused sufficiently on de-risking, we have had missteps or failures. Whether it is building redundancy in the supply chain, or prioritizing an internal review of marketing or operations, whenever we have not taken adequate steps, it has come back to bite us. I have learned to allocate time and resources to assess vulnerabilities periodically and make proactive attempts to cover blind spots.
What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Decades ago, brand storytelling relied on specific channels for information dissemination. However, a valuable approach today involves attempting to understand your customers’ needs, creating value tailored to them, and offering it for free. This helps you to create a unique brand story that resonates with your customers by addressing their needs in a very selfless way. The key lies in going beyond the mere promotion of your product and its monetization.
What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
Google Tasks is my go-to. Remembering smaller tasks can be challenging, and they tend to slip my mind. While it may appear straightforward, Google Tasks does a good job of keeping a quick log, and its accessibility is invaluable. ChatGPT has also been an asset in my productivity toolkit.
What is the best $100 you recently spent?
Securing a last-minute deal on a plane ticket to bring my son home from college.
Do you have a favorite book or podcast from which you’ve received much value?
I’m an avid reader, particularly when I’m traveling. The book currently sitting on my desk is Working Backwards. It is from Amazon’s perspective, talking about working backward from an idea—it asserts that the only way an idea makes sense is by working backward from it. Rather than starting with the idea and contemplating the complexities of its execution, the approach encourages to envision how the idea aligns with business goals, benefits customers, or creates an impact. Subsequently, the process involves working backward to establish the necessary elements for realizing that impact. This backward-thinking approach is applicable even in strategy formulation. The book is replete with examples, insights, and stories, and I like how it reads so far.
What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?
I tend to avoid TV series due to their addictive nature, but I enjoy movies because they have a finite start and end. Recently, I rewatched the movie Inside Out by Pixar. Pixar is known for making movies for children with a deep message for grownups. They did a fantastic job of personifying the human mind, portraying how we create joyous and sad connections that form our core memories. Another interesting take was on how facing challenges becomes feasible as long as our core pillars—family and friends—are intact. This theme resonates with me, and the film’s humor adds an extra layer of enjoyment. I had my mother-in-law watch it, and she loved it too.
In terms of web series, I enjoyed the documentary 14 Peaks. It follows Nepali mountain climber Nirmal Purja, who achieved the extraordinary feat of climbing 14 peaks in just a few months—an unprecedented accomplishment in such a short time. The documentary highlights the power of human perseverance and will, showcasing Nirmal Purja as an exceptional individual.
Key learnings:
• Embrace proactive planning and flexible execution: Prioritise top tasks, learn from failures, and adapt to the constantly changing landscape.
• Value both strategy and execution: Understand the big picture but don’t neglect the details. Exceptional leadership combines vision with operational excellence.
• Focus on deliberate decision-making: Develop processes and templatise thinking for increased efficiency and consistency.