#WhenWomenLead – A couple’s dogged persistence puts Goodganic herbal products on the shelves

Dr. Rangsiya Jiwarangsan worked in a lab for 11 years at a well-known government hospital in Bangkok, where she saw how despite advances in medical and pharmaceutical technology, the number of patients continued to rise along with the side effects from modern medicines. So she thought about the medical benefits of Thai traditional herbs and started turning them into safe-but-effective products along with her husband, Thammasorn Jiwarangsan, who was running a pharmacy.

The couple founded their company, Goodganic, in 2015 in Samut Prakarn neighbouring Bangkok. Their first line of herbal-based skincare products earned first prize from the Department of Thai Traditional Medicine. The next big development was a herbal toothpaste for older people that can be used for both real teeth and dentures.

However, scaling up their small business was a daunting challenge. Inspired by the Thai movie Top Secret: Wai Roon Pan Lan (The Billionaire Teen), in which the protagonist overcomes difficulties to sell seaweed snacks nationwide, Rangsiya and Thammasorn decided to approach a convenience store chain to pitch their herbal toothpaste.

“It was a leap of faith.” says Thammasorn. “We brought our toothpaste in amateur packaging, which I designed myself, to the convenience store head office without an appointment. Naturally, we were turned away.”

On their fourth attempt, the couple returned, with an appointment, confident they had made all the packaging and marketing changes that the store required. They were so confident, in fact, that they even ordered 10,000 product packages so they could meet any rush of demand for the toothpaste. But the store said it was all still subpar, both in design and marketing plan. 

So the couple brought in professionals to get the job done, and their toothpaste finally made its way to store shelves in 2018.

Now Goodganic products under the brand Jiwa Herb are sold in 12,500 convenience stores nationwide. The company has 11 employees, eight of them women.

As for the 10,000 packages, Rangsiya and Thammasorn donated them and kept one package — “as a reminder of our determination”.

Thammasorn, 44, says he once believed men were naturally more decisive leaders. But after meeting women CEOs and entrepreneurs in the WE RISE Together programme, "I realized that women are equally strong leaders.”

And it was not only Thammasorn. Rangsiya, 45, did not believe she could lead either.

"In the beginning, she didn’t believe she could do it, Thammasorn says. “She led herself, and she now has been recognised as leading woman entrepreneur in Thai herbal medicine by Thai Chamber of Commerce — making her a national representative for Thai herbal medicine.”