Suraj Shamnani is the founder of Dang!, a beverage startup building what he describes as a healthier alternative to traditional diet sodas by introducing prebiotic fibre based soft drinks tailored for Indian consumers. His journey into beverages began after working with fermentation in Michelin star restaurants like Gaggan and GAA, where he developed an interest in gut friendly drinks.
He funded early R&D partly by liquidating personal investments, tested product stickiness for nearly two years before scaling efforts, and chose to prioritize formulation and packaging over performance marketing. Before arriving at prebiotic sodas, he spent nearly a year attempting to build a kombucha brand. He pivoted only after realizing the category’s limited demand in India and the need for something more accessible and scalable across the country.
Since then, Suraj has focused on building Dang as a long term beverage brand rooted in product experimentation, distribution first thinking, and consumer feedback. Along the way, he learned difficult lessons about trusting people too quickly, chasing grants that rarely materialize for consumer brands, and the realities of building in India’s high-GST beverage category, but continues to approach the company with a long horizon ambition: to build an Indian beverage brand that can eventually compete globally while staying accessible domestically.