For months, Kaanya Pandhi gave brand strategy away for free.
- Is there still a ‘Kaanya the creator’ separate from ‘Kaanya the founder’? What does that split look like for you now?
- Are you still going to show up as a creator, or are you stepping back from that role?
- At what point did Beyond The Brief stop being content for you as a creator, and start being a service brands would pay for?
- Will you keep running Beyond The Brief on Instagram as a creator, or do you have other plans for your audience there?
- How is Beyond The Brief priced — retainer-based or project-based?
- What kind of clients are you working with — any particular niche, like D2C or e-commerce?
Beyond The Brief, her Instagram series, took real companies and rebuilt their positioning from scratch, unpaid, and all purely for content. It blew up, and now brands are paying for exactly what she used to post for nothing.
The company, co-founded with Samarth Suneja, calls itself a fractional CMO firm wherein brands get senior marketing direction without hiring a full-time executive.
One of the earliest ideas to come out of Beyond The Brief’s virality where a brand wanted her positioning concept built into an actual product. Pandhi says that’s the moment it clicked: the thing she’d been ideating as a marketer for years didn’t have to stay content. It could be the business.
She spoke to TCI about what still belongs to her as a creator versus what now belongs to the company, why she isn’t stepping back from Instagram even as a founder, and how Beyond The Brief is pricing its first mandates.
Is there still a ‘Kaanya the creator’ separate from ‘Kaanya the founder’? What does that split look like for you now?
Kaanya Pandhi : Honestly, right now I’m all over the place — I’m a creator, a founder, and a marketer, all at once. It’s overwhelming, but it’s also exciting, and it’s something I always wanted to do. I’m grateful for how things have turned out. When I started creating content, I had no idea it would lead here. I even said this in my own content once — I never wanted to be an entrepreneur, I didn’t think I had the temperament for it. In every job I’ve had, I’ve taken full ownership and been completely invested, and I worried that same intensity would tip me over the edge once I was doing something of my own. That’s happening now. I just hope I’m able to regulate it.
Are you still going to show up as a creator, or are you stepping back from that role?
Creator is something I’ll always be. I’ll keep sharing my thoughts on campaigns and putting out creative ideas — that’s not going anywhere. Being a founder actually gives me an edge, because all the Beyond The Brief ideas I used to just put out as content, I can now go and execute for real. We have two brands on board with Beyond The Brief right now, and I’m hoping to keep sharing what we build with them. That’s what Beyond The Brief has become.
At what point did Beyond The Brief stop being content for you as a creator, and start being a service brands would pay for?
Kaanya Pandhi : Once I started this IP, I realised not many people were doing this kind of content, and people really seemed to like it. I knew it could become my signature IP. As the reels started blowing up, brands actually wanted to bring the idea to life — my positioning concepts, for them. We had a lot of conversations about it, but one deal fell through because of a supply chain issue. That’s when it hit me — everything I’d been ideating as a marketer for years could actually become an outlet of its own. Around then, people started reaching out to me directly for consulting, to figure out if they could work with me — as brands, or even as personal brands. I realised there was an interesting space here, and that’s really how the company began.
Will you keep running Beyond The Brief on Instagram as a creator, or do you have other plans for your audience there?
I’ve actually launched a new IP called On Brand. The response has been crazy — I’ve posted three episodes so far, and two of them have crossed 2 million views each; the third is at 400K and still climbing. Beyond The Brief will still be a place where I share ideas, but going forward, I think of it more as a proof of concept — whatever I’m able to execute as a founder and a marketer with real brands, I’ll share more of that through Beyond The Brief.
How is Beyond The Brief priced — retainer-based or project-based?
Both, actually. We have two brands right now. One is on a retainer for a long-term content strategy — that’s the ongoing game. The other is campaign-based, a one-time engagement, mainly built around a launch.
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What kind of clients are you working with — any particular niche, like D2C or e-commerce?
A bit of everything, honestly. I can’t share too much about the brands we’re currently working with, but one is a footwear and bags brand with over 100 stores across India — very well known. The other is a natural-light brand that’s disrupting the lighting category — a premium product, priced in the five-to-six-lakh range. Those are the two brands we have right now. Hoping to expand from here.
