The Write Turn

How a personal hobby blog transformed into a million-dollar firm

- Monica Bathija

For three years from 2008, Malini Agarwal juggled a full-time day job, a radio show, a newspaper column and a blog, MissMalini.com, about her experiences in Mumbai. When response to the blog drew in brands, her friend and now partner Mike Melli, who had worked in the space and had seen the business potential of blogging, offered to help.

“At that time I had joined channel V to become their digital content head and I was still doing radio and still writing the column. But I said I’m going to quit all my jobs and I’m just going to blog full time and see what happens,” recalls Agarwal, 40, founder and creative director, MissMalini Entertainment, at her office in Santacruz, Mumbai. Her boyfriend (now husband Nowshad Rizwanullah, CEO) also pitched in before joining full time.