Radhika Goenka. Pic/Milind Saukar

Radhika Goenka wears her lineage lightly. The 24-year-old heiress to the US$3.5 billion Welspun empire, was certain that she wanted to do something of her own. Two years of harbouring an idea, followed by three years of putting plan to action has finally made it possible for her to realise a dream. Barely days away from the launch of her first bespoke brand of lingerie, Goenka's days are packed with business meetings and ironing out last-minute-details.

Daughter to BK Goenka and Dipali, she seems to know a thing or two about making noise. The young entrepreneur is poised to introduce India to the lingerie vending machine, the first batch of which will be installed in Mumbai over the coming weeks. Goenka is keeping her cards close to her chest currently. "I don't want my competition to know too much about my plans," she tells us with a disarming smile, as we meet her at Welspun house in Kamala Mills. It's a Friday, but she barely has time to cool off. "It has taken me a long time to make it here. It's not easy to venture out of the family business. In fact, initially, my parents just laughed it off. And then things got serious. But after the heat cooled off, they mentored me. I studied the market and went back to them with a business plan. I took advice from senior management of the firm too. It took me over a year to get a go-ahead from my father," she says.

Her interest in lingerie dates back to college. "After a degree in liberal arts from Wellesley College, Boston — that's where Hillary Clinton went — I moved to London for a year-long course in LCF. There, for a project, we had to develop a core fashion product. I and two other Russian students picked lingerie. That's where the seed was sown. We called it Veremente, Italian for 'love always'. That's where my company Veremente Simple Living Pvt. Ltd. gets its name. Under that, I am launching Lingerie Shop, an e-commerce platform, under which we plan to introduce six bespoke brands. For the offline platform, we'll have the vending machines."