“Science gave me depth. Curiosity gave me direction. Branding gave me both.”
From Science to Creativity
This thought beautifully captures the journey of Shalaka Davuluri and the philosophy behind her work at Paperclips, a brand consultancy founded by the Rao sisters in 2017. Based in Hyderabad and working largely with clients from Surat, while also serving brands from Canada and the US, Shalaka has built her professional journey around an unusual combination of scientific thinking, creativity, technology, and an instinctive understanding of people.
Her journey did not begin with branding. It began with science and creativity. With an educational background in Biotechnology Engineering, Shalaka always carried an artist within her. Her creative side found expression through art and drawing competitions, where she won prizes during her academic years. While science gave her an analytical foundation, her natural inclination towards words and creativity gradually pushed her towards a different professional path.
When Words Became Her Creative Language
Shalaka developed a deep fascination with the power of words. She started nurturing a personal blog, using writing as a way to express her thoughts and explore ideas. Her curiosity soon went beyond writing itself. She began spending her free time thinking about everyday grocery brands and asking questions that many consumers might overlook: How did a brand come into existence? What was the core idea behind it? How did it create its identity?
These questions slowly developed into a genuine interest in understanding branding from its core. Instead of looking at branding simply as logos, colours, advertisements, or attractive designs, Shalaka became interested in the deeper story behind a brand-its purpose, personality, positioning, and the emotions it creates in the minds of consumers.
Her first professional experience at a content marketing firm became an important turning point. It gave her exposure to the world of content, communication, and marketing and helped connect her creative instincts with a professional direction.
From Inspiration to Entrepreneurship
The decision to start something of her own was strongly influenced by her younger sister Shreya’s mindset. Shalaka was inspired by her sister’s belief in building something independently. That inspiration eventually became the foundation for what would become Paperclips.
Starting Paperclips was one of the boldest decisions of Shalaka’s career. In her own words, she realised that passion gives a person courage. Taking that courage forward, the sisters founded Paperclips in 2017 with a vision to create brands that have more than just a visual identity-they wanted brands to have a story, a soul, and a meaningful connection with people.
Building a Brand from the Inside Out
Paperclips was envisioned as a space where every brand could have a story waiting to be explored. The consultancy approaches branding through four interconnected principles: research, strategy, art, and logic.
The team works to understand the core values of a business and then builds the character of the brand around them. By studying consumer psychology and bringing together different aspects of a business, Paperclips works towards creating a brand image that communicates who the business is, what it wants to be known for, and what customers should feel when they interact with it.
The Four Layers of Paperclips
Paperclips structures its branding approach around four important layers:
Brand Mind
Brand Mind focuses on research and strategy, including brand audits, stakeholder interviews, consumer behaviour surveys, brand discovery, competitor analysis, STP analysis, brand strategy workshops, and consumer personas.
Brand Heart
Brand Heart explores the emotional side of a brand through brand archetypes and communication strategy.
Brand Soul
Brand Soul defines the deeper purpose through elements such as brand purpose, brand manifesto, and brand story.
Brand Body
Brand Body brings everything to life through brand naming, visual identity systems, creative direction, collateral designing, and website design and development.
Working Across Diverse Industries
This approach has allowed Paperclips to work across a wide range of sectors, including infotech, training and consultancy, healthcare, construction, real estate, fashion, and diamond manufacturing. The objective is not merely to make a brand look attractive, but to create an identity that consumers can understand, relate to, and remember.
The Challenge of Finding Her Voice as a Leader
Entrepreneurship brought Shalaka an important personal challenge. As an introvert, one of the most difficult parts of her journey was contributing confidently as a leader and co-founder during meetings.
Leadership required her to step beyond her natural comfort zone. Being responsible for decisions, communicating ideas, participating in discussions, and representing the organisation meant that she had to continuously develop herself alongside the business.
Her journey also continues to involve the challenge of generating leads and creating need-based marketing initiatives. Rather than seeing these challenges as limitations, Shalaka continues to learn and evolve, including learning how to contribute more effectively as a leader in communities and forums.
A Techie with a Creative Mind
While branding is strongly associated with creativity, Shalaka brings another dimension to Paperclips. She describes herself as a techie and takes responsibility for the technical and analytical aspects of the business.
This combination of technology, analytical thinking, science, writing, and creativity has become an important part of her professional identity. She believes she would rather be good at a lot of things than restrict herself to becoming an expert in only one area. Her approach reflects a multidisciplinary mindset-one where different skills can come together to create stronger ideas.
Building a Business Without Losing Balance
Paperclips has adopted a remote-working business model, which allows Shalaka to maintain flexibility while managing professional and personal responsibilities. Outside work, she enjoys going to the gym and watching movies.
For Shalaka, entrepreneurship is not about being consumed by work every moment of the day. It is also about creating a sustainable way of working and continuing to grow as an individual.
Inspired by Her Mother
Her personal inspiration comes from her mother, whom she considers her biggest motivator. She describes her mother as a powerhouse of energy and intelligence, an influence that continues to inspire her own outlook towards life and work.
That influence can be seen in Shalaka’s own qualities: she considers herself both hardworking and smart, depending on the opportunity, while continuing to learn how to contribute as a leader in communities and forums.
A Vision to Take Paperclips to the World
The larger goal is ambitious: to make Paperclips a world-renowned brand.
But Shalaka’s vision goes beyond simply becoming known for creative work. Over the next 10 to 25 years, she wants Paperclips to become a brand consultancy recognised for understanding people and businesses with empathy. She wants to build meaningful, long-term relationships with brands across industries and create work that is thoughtful, relevant, and lasting.
Personally, she sees herself continuing to evolve as a leader, mentor, and creative professional, contributing towards a healthier and more human approach to branding.
Success Means Knowing How Far You Have Come
Shalaka considers herself successful to an extent, but her definition of success is not limited to awards, recognition, or financial achievements. For her, success can be measured by how far a person has travelled from where they started.
Her success mantra is equally strong: always stay ethical and never compromise your values in work. This philosophy gives her entrepreneurial journey a clear foundation. Growth matters, but not at the cost of integrity.
A Message for the Next Generation
For young entrepreneurs and startups, Shalaka offers a simple but meaningful reminder: always remember why you started your business whenever you feel stuck in life.
It is advice rooted in her own journey. Entrepreneurship brings uncertainty, difficult meetings, lead-generation challenges, self-doubt, and countless moments where the original purpose can become blurred by everyday pressures. Remembering the reason behind the journey can help entrepreneurs regain their direction.
From a Biotechnology Engineering background to content marketing, from a personal blog to a passion for understanding brands, and eventually from that curiosity to co-founding Paperclips, Shalaka’s journey demonstrates the power of combining seemingly different worlds.
Science gave her depth. Curiosity gave her direction. Creativity gave her expression. And branding gave all of it a purpose.
Today, through Paperclips, she continues to weave stories for brands-helping businesses discover their character, communicate their purpose, and build relationships that go beyond simply being seen. Her journey is a reminder that entrepreneurship does not always require choosing between science and creativity, technology and art, or logic and emotion. Sometimes, the strongest businesses are built when all of them come together.
