Ayurveda has a reputation problem it doesn’t deserve, according to Manish Kumar Jain, founder of HNCO Group. He has spent over a decade inside India’s herbal and nutraceutical manufacturing world, and his journey from a small trading setup to a manufacturing partner for over a hundred global brands is an entrepreneur success story India can genuinely learn from — not because it is flashy, but because it is built on decisions most founders avoid.
On this episode of The Founder’s Dream, host Abhishek Vyas gets Manish Kumar Jain to unpack how HNCO Group moved from selling one product at a time to becoming a full-stack manufacturing and compliance partner for Ayurvedic, herbal, nutraceutical and organic brands. This Manish Kumar Jain interview — part of the Manish Kumar Jain on The Founder’s Dream series — covers the myths around Ayurveda, why HNCO Group deliberately walked away from building its own consumer brand, and the financial discomfort that comes with scaling a manufacturing business.
How Manish Kumar Jain Built HNCO Group: From Trading to a Global Ayurveda Manufacturing Business
HNCO Group did not start as a factory. Manish Kumar Jain says that when the company began in 2013, it operated the way most product businesses do — buying from one place and selling in another. The turning point came when Amazon was expanding into India and looking for Indian manufacturers and brands to take global.
He recalls that Amazon’s team noticed HNCO Group’s category early and offered to work together, which pushed the company into export-style thinking well before compliance requirements became as heavy as they are today.
Selling on Amazon or launching a brand today is very complicated, with a lot of compliances and parameters. Back then it was much easier, but that journey taught us a great deal — Amazon even covered our growth story in 2015, showing how we had grown multifold over the years.
That early exposure to e-commerce and compliance shaped how HNCO Group thinks about scale today — not as one product doing well, but as an ecosystem that can absorb any founder who wants to enter the category.
Why This Is an Entrepreneur Success Story India Should Know
What makes this an entrepreneur success story India can actually use as a blueprint is that Manish Kumar Jain didn’t chase the obvious path. Instead of building HNCO Group’s own brand into a household name, he pushed the company toward the “boring” work of manufacturing and compliance for other founders.
Right now we are working with a very good number of brands, very good sizes of brands, for whom we work behind the scenes as their manufacturing partner. Rather than focusing mainly on the product, we are focusing on the services — building something this industry actually needs.
This is also why HNCO Group frames itself less as a factory and more as a consulting-plus-manufacturing partner. Manish Kumar Jain wants a new founder entering the wellness space to never feel alone with questions like who will manufacture for them, what licenses they need, or who will hand-hold them through the process — a support system similar to what platforms exist for aspiring podcast guests, as outlined in this guide on becoming a podcast guest, where structured guidance replaces guesswork.
Building an Ayurveda-Focused GCC — HNCO Group’s Business Model
Abhishek Vyas asks directly why HNCO Group decided to brand its offering as a GCC — a global capability centre — a term more common in real estate and IT. Manish Kumar Jain explains it wasn’t a rebrand for its own sake; the company was already doing GCC-style work without naming it that.
We already had a value chain, a GCC kind of format for the business, where we do everything related to the Ayurveda and organic industry — right from taking a brand global, to getting a global company into India to work in this industry.
In practice, that means HNCO Group supports founders end-to-end: incorporating their company, getting licenses, running production, arranging clinical trials, and guiding exports when a brand wants to sell internationally. Understanding the HNCO Group business model means seeing manufacturing, compliance and branding support as one integrated offering rather than separate services. The group also runs its own digital marketing agency, so branding support sits alongside manufacturing under one roof.
Ayurveda vs Modern Science: Complementary, Not Competing
When asked whether Ayurveda can really compete with modern science, Manish Kumar Jain rejects the framing outright.
It shouldn’t even be a question of competing. Modern science has its own beauty and Ayurveda has its own beauty. Both have different results, different ways of delivery, different specialties — some things modern science can do that Ayurveda never can, and vice versa. We should think in complementary, integrative terms about how to bring both together.
He applies the same logic to AI in business — founders who treat it as a competing threat lose out, while those who use it alongside their own judgment move faster. HNCO Group deploys modern testing parameters and quality standards on top of Ayurvedic formulations rather than treating the two systems as rivals.
The Biggest Myth About Ayurveda — and Spotting Fake Products
Asked about the most persistent myth in his industry, Manish Kumar Jain doesn’t hesitate.
The biggest myth people talk about is that Ayurveda is very slow. I personally feel Ayurveda is not slow at all — maybe you haven’t had a prescription from the right doctor. If you go to a proper Ayurvedic practitioner, follow the right medicine and diet, you will get results similar to what modern medicine gives for many indications.
He points out that many people self-medicate based on what they read online or hear from a neighbour, then blame Ayurveda when results are slow — rather than blaming an incomplete or wrong protocol. He also shares that since building a team of Ayurvedic doctors around 2020, he hasn’t needed a modern medicine tablet, including managing an appendix issue without surgery.
On duplicate products carrying fake organic or herbal certifications, his advice is practical: check the certifying body’s own website, or call its government toll-free number to confirm a logo is genuine.
Verifying the logo is fairly easy. But it is not only about the logo — it is also about the quality of the product, and whether the facility it is made in is actually complying properly or not.
Financial Challenges Every Founder Faces While Scaling
Manish Kumar Jain is candid that financial pressure never fully disappears, even years into building HNCO Group.
Financial crunches should happen — your cash flow should be tight, you shouldn’t have too much easy, stable money sitting idle, because when money keeps moving, that’s when rotation happens, and that’s when the business grows.
He names three recurring struggles: affording the kind of team a growing business needs, stability issues, and never having quite as much funding as expansion demands. His approach to that gap is a mindset shift rather than a funding hack — build the capacity first, and trust that the customer follows.
If your product isn’t selling, it doesn’t mean there’s no demand — it might mean you’re not prepared with the resources. The market always has a big customer somewhere. If you have the capacity, the customer will come.
This belief is also why HNCO Group chose to become what Manish Kumar Jain calls a “kingmaker rather than a king” in the industry — walking away from its own consumer brand around 2019–2020 once it realised that running a factory well and running a brand well needed different skill sets and different scales of funding.
The Legacy Question: What This Founder Is Really Building For
Toward the end of the conversation, Manish Kumar Jain turns philosophical about why he’s building this way — and why the HNCO Group founder story isn’t designed to end with a quick exit. He says HNCO Group’s family members are still involved, but roles shift based on who can do a job better — not on birth order.
Our goal is not to end this business in this generation, or sell it off for funding and exit. We want to pass this business on through generations — whether or not I’m there, the company should still be running.
He connects this directly to founder psychology: people who only want to earn money and enjoy it eventually hit a ceiling, but those responsible for feeding hundreds or thousands of employees stay hungry for growth — and that hunger only compounds if the people driving it are given real freedom to make decisions.
- Ayurveda’s biggest myth is slowness — Manish Kumar Jain says correct diagnosis and diet change outcomes, not the system itself.
- Verify herbal or organic certifications directly through the issuing body’s website or toll-free number, not just the logo on the pack.
- Choosing between building a brand or a factory is a real strategic fork — HNCO Group deliberately chose manufacturing.
- Capacity-building before chasing big customers is a repeatable growth pattern, not a one-off decision.
- A founder’s long-term vision — sustainable legacy versus a quick brand-and-exit — should shape investment and hiring decisions from day one.
Watch the full conversation with host Abhishek Vyas on The Founder’s Dream YouTube channel and subscribe for new founder interviews every week.
Frequently asked questions
What does HNCO Group manufacture?
HNCO Group manufactures herbal products, nutraceuticals, organic supplements, cosmetics and herbal teas, working as a backend manufacturing partner for brands rather than only selling its own labels.
What is the biggest myth about Ayurveda according to Manish Kumar Jain?
He says the biggest myth is that Ayurveda is slow, and argues that with the right doctor, the right prescription and the right diet, Ayurveda can deliver results similar to modern medicine for many conditions.
Why did HNCO Group choose manufacturing over building its own consumer brand?
Manish Kumar Jain explains that running a factory and running a brand demand different skills and funding, so around 2019-2020 the company chose to become a manufacturing partner, or ‘kingmaker,’ instead of competing as a brand.
How can a consumer verify if an Ayurvedic or herbal product is genuine?
He recommends checking the certifying body’s official website or calling its toll-free number to verify a certification logo, since logos alone can be faked and low-cost certifications do exist.
What is the GCC concept HNCO Group has built for Ayurveda founders?
HNCO Group offers end-to-end support for wellness founders, including company incorporation, licensing, manufacturing, clinical trials and export guidance, functioning like a global capability centre for the Ayurveda industry.
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