“As women, we often second-guess our abilities or wait for validation, but your instinct and voice are your greatest assets. Surround yourself with people who uplift you, build systems that give your creativity structure, and remember that growth doesn’t have to be loud to be meaningful. The fruit will always speak.”
In an exclusive chat with Entrepreneurs Today, Shrutika Rana shares several insights from her journey of building three ventures and what it means to be a woman entrepreneur.
An entrepreneur and creative strategist, Shrutika Rana curates luxury experiences with commercial clarity and a storyteller’s eye. With an MSc in marketing from the University of Bath, she has carved a niche across luxury events, hospitality, and digital influence.
As co-founder of Aura Luxury Experiences, Shrutika has spent the last four years curating bespoke décor and gifting experiences for India’s most discerning clients. Well-known in the industry, her work pairs design with operational precision so each event feels personal, purposeful, and elevated.
Additionally, Shrutika serves as chief marketing officer at Ritual de Terra Hotels and Spa in Spain, leading global brand communication and digital strategy. As a luxury lifestyle and travel creator, she partners with leading brands to produce honest, experience-first content that converts attention into trust.
Highlights from an exclusive conversation with Entrepreneurs Today.
Interviewer: How do you ensure that Aura, Ritual de Terra, and your personal creator brand don’t overlap but complement each other?
Shrutika: “Each brand serves a different purpose and is in a different field, but they all live within the same luxury ecosystem I inhabit. Aura is expression-driven; it’s about experiential design, storytelling through décor, and crafting memorable celebrations. Ritual de Terra is hospitality-driven, a slower, more soulful approach to luxury, rooted in wellness, belonging, and curated travel. My personal creator brand is the bridge between the two: it captures my lifestyle, my eye for detail, and my philosophy of living beautifully. What keeps them distinct is clarity of role. What makes them complementary is shared sensibility. The aesthetic language is connected, but the narrative each brand tells is entirely its own. Together, they create a full 360° expression of luxury that feels cohesive, intentional, and authentic to who I am.”
Shrutika has also been spotted in publications like Vogue India, WeddingSutra, with Aura getting featured in Brides Today, while Ritual de Terra Hotels and Spa was featured in Condé Nast Traveler, and National Geographic.
A Sisterly Promise
Shrutika’s venture, Aura Luxury Experiences, began as a promise between two sisters to make celebrations feel intentional, personal, and beautifully crafted. Looking back at the journey, Shrutika speaks of her initial inspiration. She says,
“Growing up, without even realising it, we picked up our love for décor, design, and hosting from our mother. She was the ultimate glamorous hostess, always curating every detail with so much heart and creativity. What began as childhood inspiration eventually evolved into our professional calling.”
What started as intimate home setups eventually grew into a professional calling that led her to curate bespoke luxury events where design, scent, and texture work together to create a memory.
Over the last four years, they have scaled without losing the small touches they are known for. About the shared responsibilities in the company, Shrutika says she moved into strategy and operations while Avantika drives the creative language, and together they lead a team that treats every brief like a family affair. Shrutika further adds,
“Aura Luxury Experiences was built on the belief that décor should tell a story, one that’s deeply personal. Each event is curated like a narrative, from concept to execution, ensuring every detail reflects our client’s personality while maintaining the Aura signature of understated luxury. Our foundation in branding and design allows us to approach décor with a storytelling mindset, while our family-inspired sense of warmth ensures that each experience feels intimate, and I personally feel nobody quite approaches floral décor like us.”
Today, clients come to them for the aesthetics but stay for the experience. That trust is the real driving force behind Aura Luxury Experiences.
Interviewer: How do you translate a client’s emotional brief into a structured, operational plan?
Shrutika: “We at Aura always begin by decoding the emotional cues, like the mood, the intention, the feeling they want to evoke. Once I understand how they want people to feel, we reverse-engineer it into a sensory experience: colours, textures, and moments of surprise. From there, we translate the emotional vocabulary into a tangible roadmap: designs, timelines, production lists, vendor coordination, and quality benchmarks. It becomes a blend of intuition and operational precision, ensuring that what begins as a feeling becomes an experience that is not only beautiful but also executable at scale.”
A Thorny Road
There have been tough days, as starting a creative business as two young women in a logistics-heavy industry meant they had to earn trust before anyone would give them a chance. For them, credibility came from constant, flawless delivery. Shrutika reveals,
“In the early days, we handled everything from design mockups to client pitches to on-ground execution. We still try to show up at all our events to add our personal touch, and we make sure to balance creativity with the operational realities of events, which is a learning curve.”
They were able to manage the initial struggles by building a small team that shared their same taste and standards and by partnering with vendors who could actually deliver at scale.
Interviewer: How do you mentor team members to find their own creative voice while staying aligned with the brand’s aesthetic?
Shrutika: I believe creativity thrives when people feel trusted. So I give my team clear guardrails, the non-negotiables of the brand, and then encourage them to explore freely within that space. We review moodboards, iterate openly, and have conversations about why certain choices work and others don’t. Instead of correcting them, I help them articulate the intention behind their choices. This way, their personal creative voice becomes sharper, but it still harmonizes with the brand’s overall aesthetic. My goal is to guide, not dictate, and to help them grow into confident creators who elevate the brand from within.”
The bigger shift that worked for them was organisational, and they learned to step back from every setup and focus on strategy, client relationships, and systems.
Reflecting on the challenges, Shrutika believes that their most important decision was to say yes only to projects that fit the brand, ‘choosing quality and authenticity over volume,’ as she says. That single move is at the core of Aura Luxury Experiences.
Celebrating Wins
“For me, success has never been defined purely by scale or numbers. It’s about the emotional value of what we create and the relationships that we’ve built along the way.”
Shrutika has built a reputation where craft meets conviction. Her achievements read like a quiet roll call of credible bespoke installations for high-profile clients, a major large-scale project at Mumbai International Airport, and a string of repeat partnerships across restaurants, brand stores, and jewelry houses.
Parallel to Aura’s growth, she serves as Chief Marketing Officer for Ritual de Terra Hotels & Spa in Spain, shaping brand storytelling and guest journeys for two boutique properties, while her work as a lifestyle creator feeds both visibility and creative insight.
The Next Frontier
As for the plans ahead, Shrutika shares that Aura will move into destination celebrations and pilot projects in the Middle East and then Europe, taking its signature craft beyond India’s shores. Shrutika reveals,
“My 5-year vision is to build a global ecosystem of experiences that merge design, storytelling, and emotion, where every brand I’m part of reflects beauty with purpose.”
At Ritual de Terra, she plans to deepen the India–Spain collaboration by curating intimate, experiential stays that marry slow luxury with local authenticity.
Interviewer: When expanding abroad, what elements of the brand must stay constant, and which can adapt culturally?
Shrutika: “When expanding into a new market, the brand’s core essence must remain non-negotiable, like our values, our design philosophy, and the emotional promise we deliver to our audience. These are the anchors that create recognition, no matter where the brand goes What can and should be adapted are the cultural nuances: visual language, communication styles, and sometimes even the way we package an experience. Luxury today is deeply personal, so respecting local sensibilities while staying rooted in our signature aesthetic allows the brand to feel both global and intimate. It’s about maintaining the soul of the brand, but letting the expression of that soul evolve with each market.”
Shrutika will also set up an efficient team that handles both operations and creative work, streamline systems for personalised installations, and partner with luxury hotels and PR platforms to open new markets.
Alongside expansion, she remains committed to mentorship and creator-led storytelling, helping other women build businesses that are both intentional and profitable. She asserts,
“The plan is rooted in people and process, nurturing strong teams, collaborating with like-minded creators, and staying consistent with our brand ethos of timeless, thoughtful luxury.”
Words of Wisdom
Shrutika’s biggest lesson is that consistency and clarity beat speed. Passion lights the fire, she says, but structure, systems, and self-discipline keep it burning. Show up every day, do the work, and build processes that make creativity repeatable, and that’s how a beautiful idea becomes a sustainable business.
She also believes that for young women, it’s crucial to start before you feel ready, as momentum comes from action, not perfect plans. As she says,
“Don’t lose your softness in pursuit of success, as empathy, intuition, and emotional intelligence are your superpowers as a leader.”
Her guiding principle has always been ‘consistency with intention.’ Shrutika ends with the note,
“Your journey won’t look like anyone else’s, and that’s your biggest advantage. My father taught me that what’s most important is to put your head down, do the work and show up every single day. The rest will follow suit. Whether it’s building a business, managing teams across countries, or creating content, I believe in showing up every day with purpose, even on the quieter days. Success for me isn’t about speed, since it’s more about alignment and ensuring that every decision reflects my values, my aesthetic, and the story I want to tell. The combination of discipline and authenticity is what keeps me grounded and motivated, no matter how many roles I juggle.”
