India, July 23 -- Most Indian consumer-facing startups follow a familiar playbook: build a brand at home, find product-market fit, scale across India and then look overseas for growth. Global wellness brand VAHDAM took the opposite route.

Instead of first winning Indian consumers, it spent nearly a decade building its business across the globe. Only after proving that an Indian brand could sell premium teas and wellness products globally has it turned its attention to what could become its biggest market yet, India.

The strategy was unconventional, especially in 2015, when hardly anyone believed they could build consumer brands for global markets before winning at home. Bala Sarda, the founder of Vahdam Teas, was one of the rare ones. ...