Our Story
Shakti as you know it began in 2014, when two best friends took a holiday in Thailand.
It was supposed to be nothing more than a pause before one went back to studying law and the other started an internship at a bank in Hong Kong. Then a chance run-in with the modern bed of nails led to a meeting with the man who invented it, and a fortnight away rewrote both of our careers.
Acupressure opened our eyes, and trying Shakti ourselves showed us how much wellbeing it could give back. We tested the water before flying home, and not long after 2,000 mats turned up on our doorstep.
We could see business being used as a force for good — though persuading people that lying on thousands of sharp spikes is relaxing was a hard sell at first. Three months went by and it was time to return to suits and study, but the fuse had already been lit.
A couple of months later we walked away from the corporate ladder for work that meant something. Taking that leap, and using business to do good, was an opportunity too good to let go — and it still is. Ten years in, it feels like we are only getting started.
Along the way we have breathed new life into a practice that had nearly been forgotten, given people a way to reconnect with themselves and with wellbeing worldwide, and done some remarkable work in developing communities.
Improving the lives of the people who use wellbeing tools is a reward all by itself. But making a difference to the people and places those tools come from as well?
That's Shakti.
Why we do it
More than 200 million people practise yoga, acupressure and meditation on a regular basis. These are ancient arts, deeply rooted in the culture of India, yet far too many of the people behind them receive nothing in return.
We have seen that disappointment with our own eyes. So once we had felt what acupressure and the bed of nails can do, we decided to act.
Shakti respects the true purpose of these centuries-old practices by making the finest acupressure tools in the world and putting profits back into India. We believe that growing comfortable with discomfort is a force for good, and that anything made for healing and mindfulness should be built with the same intention.
That is how we arrived here: 2 million people — and still counting — leaning into discomfort to become their best selves, and backing some remarkable causes as they go.
How Shakti is made
Find out how Shakti tools come together, which certifications we ask of the partners who produce them, and the ways those partners look after the people who make it all happen.