Sumithra SV

About Beyond Cubicles

📢 #BeyondCubicles is a weekly LinkedIn series created by Carolina D’Souza, born out of her own experience transitioning from a corporate career to independent consulting. Since its launch in June 2024, the series has evolved into a platform that showcases the inspiring journeys of several founders who have redefined the traditional 9-to-5.

Through authentic narratives, #BeyondCubicles highlights themes of courage, resilience, and purpose. The stories feature individuals from diverse industries—ranging from tech and education to wellness and adventure—who share their experiences of stepping away from conventional roles to pursue passion-driven careers. 

✨ Note: All features in this series are unpaid and shared as a way to honor and amplify real stories of transformation.

“Everyone raises an eyebrow when I say our products are made from orange peels and dates,” says Sumithra SV.

 

She trained as an architect in India, working with vernacular methods, bamboo and mud. In the UAE, those materials were harder to find, and the market ran on synthetic ones.

 

As she tried to work around it using conscious materials she realized what was missing: a connection to life in sync with nature.

 

“I saw that as a big part of living a healthy, holistic life,” she says.

 

Architecture is considered white collar work. “We design. Instruct. Get it done,” she says. “But the journey with The B.E. Story (thebestory.com) has always been dirty, literally, from the beginning.”

 

The B.E. Story, founded in March 2025, is “a brand of home and personal care, promising 100% natural ingredients, biodegradability and safety for the maker, the end user and our planet,” she says.

 

It makes products from bioenzymes, a living, microbe-rich solution fermented from orange peels and dates, one a waste product, the other abundant locally. She chose cleaning products because they sit in homes unnoticed and breathed in daily.

 

Money was the first struggle. “The panic after a few months was, how am I going to fund this business without a steady salary,” she says.

 

The second was identity: asked what she did, she no longer had an easy answer.

 

“That cost me a lot of my physical and emotional energy,” she says.

 

Two mentors, Vaibhav Kaley, a bamboo architect, and Ramesh Venkat (RV), a former CIO, gave her perspective and a network to test ideas in. An online community of eco-enthusiasts eased the isolation.

 

Validation came from repeat customers. Around 90 percent came back saying they couldn’t believe how well the products worked, telling her to take the idea further.

 

She grew into “an explorer of life”, realizing it’s impossible to learn by sitting on a couch. “My personal brand has grown from a place of being unsure of the path forward to being confident,” she says.

 

Her family no longer doubts her belief in her mission, and some have started making the same choices she did.

 

Originally from India, she moved to the UAE to join her husband. “The freedom to choose conscious living in harmony with our soil, water, other beings unlocks an inherent connection with nature that cannot be claimed or replaced by any other consumption,” she says. “If we miss this connection in this life, we have merely existed.”