In 2001, a 25-year-old trailblazer had a scrappy idea to drive through Delhi’s wealthiest neighborhoods and cold-call the mansions that lined them.

His goal? Landing his first high-net-worth client.

That instinct would come to define his career. Seven years later, in 2008, mid-financial crisis, Karan Bhagat co-founded the firm now known as 360 ONE — today one of India's largest homegrown wealth management firms, advising thousands of India's top families (Bollywood stars, industrialists, and cricketers) and managing nearly $80 billion in assets. In 2025, the Swiss banking giant UBS took a 5% stake in his firm.

Karan spoke on multiple panels at the India Conference at Harvard — and I caught him for a few questions answered in this episode:

• What can he teach me about wealth creation as an advisor to India’s leading families?

• How do you get someone to trust you with their money? And that too… in 2008 when he started.

• What has changed about money and wealth creation back home?

In our conversation, Karan highlights the fact that India only really enabled wealth creation after 1992 in light of certain economic reforms. The founders who built businesses then are in their mid-50s to mid-70s today — and for the first time in the last 5-10 years, we’re watching Indian wealth transfer from one generation to the next.

Plenty of people assumed that wouldn’t go well. There’s a common platitude that by the third generation, most any wealth or platform is typically squandered.

Karan disagrees: “90% of India is passing on wealth very, very well.” We are living through the first true generational wealth transfer in modern India — and this conversation is a masterclass in what’s actually happening inside it…and how that squares in a country with severe income inequality.

Tune in if you want to learn: ☕

💫🚀 Karan Bhagat at a Glance

• Began his career at Kotak Securities in 2001 and co-founded IIFL Wealth Management in 2008 (one of India's largest diversified financial services conglomerates), which rebranded to 360 ONE in 2023.

• He built 360 ONE with $3 million in seed capital during the 2008 financial crisis

• He’s a Fortune India 40 Under 40 honoree and EY Entrepreneur of the Year

• He holds an MBA from IIM Bangalore

If you love us, you’ll actually hit SUBSCRIBE on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. 💌

🎙️ Karan Bhagat: How do we really create wealth?

🪞 How he got India’s most prominent people to trust him

Simi Shah: How did you build trust with prospective clients, especially in those early years?

Karan Bhagat: Clients, by nature, want to trust you. They don’t want to start from a position of mistrust. But building this at scale requires more. At the end of the day, it’s a multiplicative function between product, platform, and people.

If you compare two organizations — one ranks 9 out of 10 on all three (product, platform, and people) and the other 10 out of 10. It’s not 27 out of 30 vs. 30 out of 30. It gets multiplied. It’s 729 out of 1,000 vs. 1,000 out of 1,000. The difference becomes 27%. And if any of them is zero — e.g. if you have a great platform and great products but no people — it’ll be zero. 10 × 10 × 0 = 0.

🏛️ On why global banks can’t crack India

Simi Shah: Global banks broadly have struggled to crack the Indian market. What do you and other domestic players understand that the Goldman Sachs and UBSs of the world don’t?

Karan Bhagat: I wouldn’t say they don’t understand India. They understand India extremely well. In my own interaction with UBS over the last six to nine months, I think they understand not only India — they understand the wealth and asset management business extremely well. If at all, I’ve only learned from them.

But the reality is — you have to go back to the same equation. Product, platform, people. Honestly, I don’t think the global banks have built local platforms. India is not a country where you can fully convert your money. You can send out only a very limited amount of money outside the country for investing, so all of these global banks build their product capabilities only in Singapore — and very recently in Dubai. You can’t have the same platform. You can’t plug and play. It’s impossible. You need all the licenses, all the regulatory requirements, everything set up in India. You can’t function out of Singapore and Dubai. Most global banks haven’t really done it. Maybe one or two have tried in India for a short period, but most have tried to do it remotely — which won’t function.

📊 Key Lesson: Wealth optimization, not wealth creation — Wealth is Only Built 1 Way

Simi Shah: What have you learned about the creation of wealth in advising your clients?

Karan Bhagat: I love telling clients this — our business is NOT wealth creation. All our clients come to us after they’ve created the wealth. Wealth creation happens in your own business — entrepreneurs putting in the sweat, hard work, and labor. Only in your own business can you get ROEs of 20-25-30%. You really can’t get that purely by investing.

You come to wealth managers to optimize your money — not preserve, not create. Optimize. Clients who come to us saying “I want 20% a year” are not going to match with us. It’s impossible without taking risk the client can’t absorb — unless it’s his own business.

But what does it actually take to create wealth? For me, the order never changes: hard work and hustle. The ability to dream and have ambition. And surrounding yourself with good people. Those three are core to success.

✨ Key Reflection: The third-generation myth is officially over

Simi Shah: The common phrase in India especially is “by the third generation wealth is gone.” Do you feel like you’ve seen that in the families you work with?

Karan Bhagat: I think it’s changing a lot. People are much more disciplined. It’s not the rule at all anymore. India is changing in a very, very fast way.

If I look at our top 1,000 families, at least 750-800 of them would have done a good job in building an investment policy statement — involving the kids, their spouses in the financial portfolios, ensuring the mistakes they’ve made and the good things they’ve done are passed on. So the kids don’t make the same mistakes.

This generation doesn’t need the hard work and hustle their parents had — they have a platform. But they’re not wasting it. They’re actually using it to expand into new businesses, new ideas.

This newsletter is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Always consult a licensed advisor for your specific situation.

Nearly one year ago today, we sat down with a legend in comedy. Revisit some of our greatest hits, anywhere you stream your pods!

⚡ Rapid Fire

📈 Stocks or bonds? Stocks.

🏢 REITs or ETFs? REITs.

💡 Best investment advice you’ve ever received? Hang in there.

👑 A leadership mantra you live by? Lead by example.

🎬 If the 360 ONE story were a Bollywood movie, what would the title be? Kabhi Mat Ruko (Don’t ever stop), and it’s never enough.

📣 In this movie, what would the audience be screaming at you? Keep going.

🎈 The India you imagine in one sentence? It’s like an air balloon over a beautiful, beautiful garden — expanding forever, and can’t be pricked.

🔥 A hot take about the financial landscape in India? We can grow at 20% a year — maybe 20 times over the next 25 years.

🧠 Something you’re unlearning? Control.

⚙️ Something you’re learning? Delegation.

💫 A trailblazer who’s inspired you? Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. “I just had dinner with Federer a month back.”

🚀 What trailblazing means to you? A combination of passion, a lot of hard work, and dreaming big.

As Season 9 draws to its close, take 10 seconds to show us some love:

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With love and hustle, Simi Shah

In this episode, I ask one of India's most prominent curve models and content creators a simple question:

How do you measure success for yourself?

If you’ve followed Trailblazers for the past 9 Seasons, you know it’s one I love to ask. But Sakshi’s answer is one I’ll be putting to work myself:

How people meet me.

Sakshi Sindwani is the FIRST curve model to appear in a Manish Malhotra bridal couture campaign; the FIRST Indian creator invited to the Grammys.

She broke ground as a curve model on the runway at Dubai Fashion Week and Cannes Film Festival. She’s walked for Gaurav Gupta and Papa Don't Preach; she’s partnered with L’inclOréal, Johnnie Walker, and Swarovski.

But in response to this question, she relays the story of a mother-daughter duo she encountered — and their poignant reaction upon meeting her. (For my more curious readers, the details are in episode excerpts below).

“It’s not a measure of success. It’s a measure of impact.”

I am ever a skeptic of vanity metrics, but I recognize that for creators, numbers like followership aren’t really a vanity metric — it’s a KPI you live and do business by.

And that’s why I admired Sakshi’s answer even more. She could’ve cited a number, a milestone, or even moments of self-efficacy.

But instead, she measured her success with something simple, but tactile, exogenous to her, but endogenous to what she stands for:

How people meet you is an honest reflection of what you and your platform signify to them.

The answer is an honest capture of how Sakshi has built an audience of 700,000 women in India’s competitive creator market brick-by-brick — with zero eye toward virality, nor any desire to sensationalize inclusivity in stalwart Indian fashion.

She’s just here to change the conversation, and she’s not afraid to admit that the greats of the industry have a ways to go.

If you’ve struggled with body image, with the parts of our culture that are beautiful but can oft rear an ugly head, with how to cut through millions of noisy opinions, hit play on this one ASAP 💎.

Find us YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. 💌

P.S. 🇫🇷 I’ll be at Cannes Lions next week. Send me a note if you’ll be around!

💄 Sakshi Sindwani at a Glance

• Originally from Delhi, Sakshi launched her channel in 2015 and broke out during COVID under the handle StyleMeUpWithSakshi

• She’s known for fighting tokenism and normalizing inclusivity in Indian and global fashion — cold-calling designers to put herself on the runway at Dubai Fashion Week and pushing for representation to transcend surface-level inclusion.

🎙️ Sakshi Sindwani: Is Indian Fashion Inclusive?

🪞 On growing up without the language of inclusivity

Simi Shah: When you look at the beginning of your journey, what gave you the initial confidence to actually go and build this platform?

Sakshi Sindwani: There’s no way that I ever thought that this could be my platform, because I didn’t grow up with inclusivity as a conversation. Curvy — that wasn’t the word that was used.

‘You’re fat, you’re not accepted, and you’re never going to be valued, you’re never going to be worthy of love.’

Those were the words that I was familiar with. So now we talk about big words like inclusivity, representation, curves, body types — that wasn’t the language at all when I started. So I didn’t know the future of it. I just knew that I had this undying need and want to storytell. Storytelling can be done in different ways — it can be cinematic or it can be through fashion. For me, I chose to storytell my life through fashion, through my interests, through my hobbies, through my opinions. And I was my most authentic self every step of the way. People were not investing in me as a trend, they never saw Sakshi Sindwani as a trend. They always saw Sakshi Sindwani as this movement. And then they wanted to join my story.

💫 Advice for building your platform

Simi Shah: What do you say to young women who look to you, see someone that was able to build a platform, and go on to walk in Dubai Fashion Week and the Grammys with the biggest brands in the world?

Sakshi Sindwani: I don’t think I would make it very far in this industry if I just waited. Dubai Fashion Week did not happen to me, it happened because of me. The designers didn’t come to me, I reached out to them.

These are the Indian designers who are showcasing at Dubai Fashion Week. Nobody from India, specifically not a curve model, has ever gone and done a ramp walk globally. Can I please be in the room? I did so many things free of cost. I didn’t want to be paid for a lot of the things, because I knew: It’ll start a bigger conversation if I walk down the ramp.

I did three shows in my first year of doing Dubai Fashion Week. It was incredible. It started a wave of a conversation. People reached out to me: ‘Finally, we can see somebody who looked like us represented in fashion the way we would want to see it.’

People think that all of these opportunities sort of come to you or are happening to you. It doesn’t. We have to hustle for it — like for every good thing in any entrepreneur’s life, you have to hustle it out.

📊 Key Lesson: Measuring Impact over Success

Simi Shah: How do you measure that impact? How do you measure success for yourself?

Sakshi Sindwani: What people write to me — that’s enough measure of success. Or when they meet me, how do they interact with me? This mother-daughter duo came to me during a fashion week. I was standing with my mother. They came to me, and both of them started crying. The mother looked at my mother, and she told my mother that you’ve raised the most incredible daughter who’s helping me raise my daughter better. And that conversation — it was just the four of us — that changed everything for me. I then realized that whatever I’m doing, sitting in my room in front of a phone or a camera, is creating a much bigger impact than I can possibly imagine. I needed me when I was growing up, so the least I can do because of this platform is help them feel better about themselves.

✨ Key Reflection: Normalize it, don’t sensationalize it

Simi Shah: What are the conversations you still feel like you’re having that we’re not necessarily privy to, that are still going on behind the scenes?

Sakshi Sindwani: The prevalence of tokenism in the industry is the one big conversation I’m having. You jumped on the bandwagon when inclusivity and representation were cool, and when the Ashley Grahams of the world were walking the ramp for the biggest fashion houses. That’s when it became cool to hire a curve model who fit into your idea of beautiful, curvy. But now, are you still going to be on that bandwagon, or are you going to go back to conformity?

Can I just be honest? I don’t think I care anymore about these conversations. What I care about is strengthening my own voice, talking about it like it’s normal. I don’t want to dramatize inclusivity and representation. It needs to be as normal as drinking a cup of chai. It’s not about having the big conversations to change something. The change has already been made. Now you have to stick with the change, and how do you stick with the change? You have to normalize it.

The brands that already get this — Gaurav Gupta, Papa Don’t Preach, so many small homegrown businesses — those are my allies. And if you’re not going to be on that bandwagon? Well, you’re missing out.

Loving Season 9’s return to the subcontinent? Catch up on our most popular episodes YET:

⚡ Rapid Fire

🎬 Oscars red carpet or New York Fashion Week? Oscars.

👗 A fashion rule you swear by? Break the stereotype.

✨ Designer you’d love to collaborate with next? Michael Kors.

🎥 Who plays you in the biopic about your life? Ashley Graham.

📣 In this movie, what would the audience be screaming at you? She was fearless.

🔥 A hot take about your industry? Inclusivity is still on the surface. They’ve not internalized it.

🧠 Something you’re unlearning? Beauty standards.

📖 Something you’re learning? The true meaning of authenticity.

💫 A trailblazer who’s inspired you? Simi Shah. 🥺

🚀 What trailblazing means to you? Just being so unapologetically yourself — and hustle.

As Season 9 draws to its close, I hope you can take 10 seconds to support us:

🎙️ Subscribe and review us on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform

✍🏼 Forward this newsletter to a friend

👍🏾 Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, & TikTok.

🧢 Sport our new swag!

Sid Sriram is one of those if you know, you KNOW artists. From the moment we teased this episode, I’ve seen many of you emerge from the ether with a cult-level of excitement.

In having this conversation, I can see why. Sid’s articulation as an artist left me feeling like I was speaking to a true craftsman. Music is so clearly something he visualizes in his mind and reads and speaks as a first language. It evidently, as he puts it, “lights his soul on fire.” And his body of work confirms it:

• Sid Sriram was the first South Indian artist to perform at Coachella and took NPR’s Tiny Desk by storm.

• His career spans three worlds of music — Carnatic, playback singing, and his original music

• He trained at Berklee College of Music and got his start as a playback singer in 2012 when A.R. Rahman called him to record "Adiye" for the Tamil film, Kadal.

• He has since become one of India's most-streamed artists with 3.8 billion+ Spotify plays alone.

In this episode, we cover the journey — from the categorical successes to the profound ego deaths he surmounted; his forthcoming album (teaser inside👀) and his self-proclaimed boomer take on AI in music. If you’re a diehard fan or a listener who’s wondering how we get our Bad Bunny moment as a community, you’re going to fall in love with this episode.

Highlights below or stream is absolutely anywhere you get your pods 💎 on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. 💌

🎙️ Sid Sriram at a Glance

Born in Chennai, raised in Fremont, trained at Berklee, mentored by A.R. Rahman, Sid Sriram has spent 15+ years alchemizing Carnatic and R&B music and putting Eastern and Western music "in conversation with each other." He is widely credited with helping shape the modern wave of Indian creators putting their roots in conversation with global sound.

📅 Join Us IRL

🎓 Fri, June 6 (NYC) — The Future of Fashion, Influence & Commerce (NYC) I’m moderating this panel for NY Tech Week — RSVP here

🇬🇧 Tue, June 10 (London) — Join founders and funders at London Tech Week: Happy Hour & Fireside Chat with our partners across the pond, Alumni Ventures Founder & CEO Mike Collins — RSVP here

P.S. None of these are official South Asian Trailblazers events, but we always want more of you in the room!

🎙️ Sid Sriram: Singer, Songwriter, and Producer

🦄 The Call From A.R. Rahman and His 3 Worlds in Music: Carnatic, Playback, and His Original Music

Simi Shah: You’ve spent so much of your career as a playback singer, and now, are writing more original music. Tell us how you entered that world.

Sid Sriram: When I was in college, that’s when I started writing my own music. At that time — 2008 to 2012 — that was my primary goal. I had this vision of becoming a pop star here in the West. And then very serendipitously, my final year at Berklee in 2012, I got the call from A.R. Rahman to sing “Adiye” for Kadal. That was my first song as a playback singer. Though I had this one vision for myself, my universe pulled me in a different direction, and I’m very grateful for that.

Now, I’m at the stage in my career where I’ve kind of existed at the top of the mountain with regards to film, music, and playback singing. So round the time of the pandemic, I felt this need to get back in touch with myself and start expressing my own vision and my own kind of like sonic perspective into the world. In terms of where I’m at now with my original music, when I was younger, I had this urgency and impatience to try and, “make it,” whatever that means. Now I know that there’s just the vocabulary so vast within myself. And the fact that I get to have this mechanism and avenue to express through after having had all this experience… it’s super exciting, quite humbling too.

🥊 On Chasing Celebrity and the Death of Ego

Simi Shah: There was a time when you were chasing those superficial markers of success — celebrity and fame. What helped pull you back to earth with respect to your art?

Sid Sriram: 2019 — on paper — was my most successful year. I had the most number ones, all this stuff. I was traveling and doing a ton of shows. But there was slowly this feeling of staleness and monotony settling in within myself. The ego kept telling me to keep going. Then the pandemic hit, and everything just stood still. I was sitting in the room I grew up in, in Fremont, California, just kind of staring at the wall when I’d wake up. I didn’t know what I was supposed to be doing.

Then, slowly, I just started practicing for the sake of practicing — a couple hours every day, just singing for the sake of it. Spending time with my mom. Learning new pieces. Starting to write music again. At first purely from a place of catharsis. What I took away from those couple years was a realigning of my creative and spiritual compass. That’s guided me since.

📊 Key Lesson: for the aspiring artist

Simi Shah: What advice do you have for someone that’s a student just like you in that spot — and how they should shoot their shot or find their way into this industry?

Sid Sriram: Two things. One — do the work you need to do to find your own voice and what really makes that thing unique. Obviously getting advice and feedback from the people closest to you is important, but you know best. Trust that inner voice. The second thing is a little cliché. Believe that anything is actually truly possible. My life, at multiple moments, there have been things that have occurred that don’t make any sense — shouldn’t have happened. But I truly believe that if you surrender to the universe and whatever it is that you believe in, anything is possible. Holding on to that fiercely is super important.

🌍 Key Reflection: Can South Asians Have Their Bad Bunny Moment?

Simi Shah: Bad Bunny just had this massive moment at the Super Bowl. The South Asian community is wondering when is that going to happen for us? What do you think it’s going to take?

Sid Sriram: The West is deeply in the throes of chaotic transformation, and I think what those moments allow for is new patterns in popular culture. It feels like we’re on the precipice. What it’s going to take is the idea of pulling from one’s roots as a way to envision a new future. We can’t just skim off the top of a culture or change the patina of how something looks and sub in. That just leads to a moment — and that moment is based on the patina of it. For something to really take shape and shift the way people listen, it has to occur fundamentally at the roots.

Fortune 500 CEO Revathi Advaithi was named one of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in the World for the 8th time. Listen to my convo with her:

⚡ Rapid Fire

🌆 Chennai at 6AM or New York at 2AM? Chennai at 6AM.

🎵 A lyric you live by? Silhouettes come alive when the joy is true. You spend a lot of your life feeling like you’re in your own shadow — when you feel real joy and love, it brings all the depth and the light to the right way.

🚴 Something you’re learning? How to ride a bike. As of very recently. I never learned as a kid.

🌱 Something you’re unlearning? Judgment of self and others.

🎬 If your life was a movie, what would the audience be screaming at you? Keep going.

🎤 Hot take about the music industry? People’s attention spans aren’t short — that’s just something they’re telling us. People have the capacity to take in a lot.

🌌 Since this episode was recorded at the India Conference at Harvard, true to the theme, what is the India you imagine in one word? Kaleidoscopic.

🎺 Dream duet, living or dead? Miles Davis.

✨ What does trailblazing mean to you? Fearlessly and honestly setting one’s own path.

I hope you’ll keep coming back for more.

✍🏼 If you loved this one, you know the drill: forward this newsletter to a friend

🎙️ Subscribe and review us on YouTube, Apple, Spotify — it helps us reach more trailblazers like you!

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💌 P.S. I hope you had a lovely AAPI Heritage Month! Welcome to Summer!

Happy Hump Day, trailblazers!

I’m SO excited about this week’s episode (we release on Wednesdays now BTW!). I got to sit down with Masoom Minawala — one of India’s most influential creators and a genuine pioneer of the creator economy. She started in the blogger era with her fashion blog, Miss Style Fiesta, in 2010 — at 17 years old — back when “influencer” wasn’t even in our lexicon. (Proof: our guest, Raj Shamani, India’s #1 Podcaster, calls her the OG in our podcast with him).

Since then, she’s collaborated with over 500 brands (Louis Vuitton, Dior, Samsung, Airbnb — the range is WILD), became the first Indian content creator to walk the runway at Milan Fashion Week, launched the viral #SupportIndianDesigners movement, wrote a bestselling book, and built MSF Media — one of India’s fastest-growing media companies winning with women in South Asia and the Diaspora.

But what blew me away in this conversation wasn’t the listicle of accomplishments. It was about the hard-hitting facts and realities she shared

• how motherhood rewired her brain,

• the online backlash that made her level set,

• her longevity as a beloved creator, 16 years in (from Cannes to Davos!?)

• India on the global stage, aka we’ve arrived, now what?

• The $770 billion reason she’s doubling down on Indian women

You know the drill. Highlights below or go ahead stream our convo 💎 on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. 💌

💄Masoom Minawala at a Glance

• Masoom Minawala is the founder and CEO of MSF Media and Host of The Masoom Minawala Show — the most-watched podcast by women in India (just one year after launch)

• In 2022, she became the first Indian content creator to walk the runway at Milan Fashion Week as showstopper for designer Vaishali S.

• Masoom is a regular at the Cannes Film Festival and recently took Davos by storm.

• She’s the creator of the #SupportIndianDesigners campaign (300,000+ posts during COVID-19) and an equity partner in The CAI Store (a vegan footwear brand)

• She’s the author of She'll Never Make It: My Journey From Doubt to Dominance (2024), which hit #1 on Amazon India.

• She’s lived in Antwerp and splits her time between Dubai and Mumbai with her husband and two kids.

📅 Join Us IRL

🗳️ Sat, May 30 (NYC) — Canvass for Furhan Ahmad (NYC) Join trailblazers to canvass for Furhan Ahmad, who’s running for State Assembly. No experience needed. — Join the WhatsApp group to sign up

🎤 Mon, June 1 (NYC) — South Asians Building the Next Wave of Tech — RSVP here

🎓 Fri, June 6 (NYC) — The Future of Fashion, Influence & Commerce (NYC) I’m moderating this panel for NY Tech Week — RSVP here

🇬🇧 Tue, June 10 (London) — Join founders and funders at London Tech Week: Happy Hour & Fireside Chat with our partners across the pond, Alumni Ventures Founder & CEO Mike Collins — RSVP here

P.S. None of these are official South Asian Trailblazers events, but we always want more of you in the room <3

🎙️ Masoom Minawala: Insights from one of India’s pioneering influencers putting South Asian women on the global stage

🎒 On starting Miss Style Fiesta as a teenager — and the campus gossip that followed

Simi Shah: You started your fashion blog, Miss Style Fiesta, back in 2010. Can you talk about what the inspiration was, what the genesis was of you starting this blog?

Masoom Minawala: I think it was probably a genesis of boredom, really. I was 17, 18 years old, and I literally stumbled upon fashion magazines and I stumbled upon the first blog. So I actually say that I didn’t enter the influencer era. I entered the blogger era. It was literally a hobby. It was literally like, okay, how do I feel about my fashion today? And let me post about it, and what am I wearing? And can I take something from my brother’s closet and style it?

Simi Shah: Did you have this aha moment when you realized, huh, maybe this could be something bigger than I initially realized?

Masoom Minawala: 100%. This was about a year, a year and a half in. Do you remember that time when we were in college, and your friends are all talking about something? Usually it’s like weird shit — you know that girl who got so drunk? But suddenly my blog was the gossip mill. And I’m a huge opportunist. I saw that as an opportunity, and I said, if everyone’s talking about it, there’s something there that they have to talk about, and what can I do with this?

👑 On turning criticism into conviction — and why overthinking is the enemy

Simi Shah: For a lot of people in the face of that type of criticism, they would shy away. How did you turn that criticism into conviction and lean into that audacity?

Masoom Minawala: I think when we’re younger, we’re not thinking that much, and that’s something I continue to remind myself. I think thinking is probably one of the worst things we do for our careers, for our mental health, for our personal growth. I think when we focus on the gut instinct, that’s when the good shit happens. I said, listen, I don’t know everything. I’m too young to know everything. There’s no point in me thinking about this. Let me just act. Let me act on that gut instinct. My gut is telling me that I’m on to something. Let me build on it.

📊 Key Lesson: On why “find your niche” is wrong — and what AI can’t replace

Simi Shah: What do you say to creators and others who feel like they need to just be one thing?

Masoom Minawala: Don’t find your niche, because you’re an entire human being. You cannot fit into a niche. Find your story. What do you stand for? What do you represent? AI does so much for the entire media industry today — it enables everyone to create content consistently over a long period of time. So it poses this existential question: what is your authenticity? Because the only thing that AI will not be able to replace is authenticity. It doesn’t come down to content or niche. It comes down to your story, and how honest you can be with that story.

🌍Key Reflection: Stop Calling India the Next Superpower

Simi Shah: You were the first Indian influencer to literally walk the runway at Milan Fashion Week. You’ve walked at Cannes. What do you think people are getting right about India? What do you think is still the ways we have to go?

Masoom Minawala: I think the world needs to stop looking and predicting India as the next superpower, because in that prediction of it being the next superpower in the future, I think it’s being undervalued in terms of what it’s bringing to the table now, in the present. It’s not coming, it’s now.

When I started going to Milan and Paris Fashion Week, I was wearing Indian designers and creating awareness about them on a global scale. Cut to I walk Vaishali S at Milan Fashion Week. Rahul Mishra went on the official Paris haute couture calendar. Gaurav Gupta went on the official Paris haute couture calendar. The IP was finally recognized. The craft was finally acknowledged. Indian fashion is now seen, accepted, celebrated on a global stage. Done. Let’s move on. The next step is actually building the commercial architecture around it, because the visibility is now there, but the IP is not protected.

Before you go, have you joined your fellow trailblazers in watching our most popular episode ever?

⚡ Rapid Fire

Dubai or Mumbai? That’s literally two pieces of my heart.

Dream collab you haven’t done yet? Barbie. I’d love to see a little Barbie of me.

Best business advice you’ve ever gotten? Don’t undermine what consistency can do.

If your life were a Bollywood movie, who would play you? 🎬 Deepika Padukone or Priyanka Chopra.

Designer the world needs to know right now? Mayyur Girotra — the one I’m wearing in this episode.

Something you’re learning? More self-belief.

Something you’re unlearning? The need to excel in every area of life.

Trailblazer who’s inspired you? Nivruti Rai.

What does trailblazing mean to you? It means pushing yourself forward when there’s no one else to do it for you. ✨

For more moments like this, support South Asian Trailblazers

✍🏼 Know a creator who needs a pep talk? Forward this newsletter to them — Masoom is the blueprint!!

🎙️ Subscribe and review us on YouTube, Apple, Spotify — it helps us reach more trailblazers.

👍🏾 Follow along for our South Asians in Sephora event and more on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, & TikTok.

🧢 Sport our new swag!

💌 P.S. Forward this to one trailblazer who needs to hear that the magic is always outside the comfort zone.

Hi friends — if you've been around this year, you know I opened Season 9 in a wild way: by bringing back one of my earliest podcast guests — Rooshy Roy — to announce the acquisition of her beloved beauty brand, AAVRANI.

In that conversation, I asked her a question percolating in my mind — and I suspect in many of yours, too: With 10+ South Asian-inspired beauty brands in market, is the dynamic competitive or collaborative?

Her answer was a mic drop moment: “There’s actually a Desis at Sephora WhatsApp group.”

In that moment, she planted a seed. I decided I HAD to bring that group chat to life — so I called every South Asian beauty founder in Sephora today. Every single one responded. Not all could make it in the room, but 4 extraordinary women said yes: Diipa Büller-Khosla (indē wild), Rooshy Roy (AAVRANI), Nisha Phatak (Lion Pose), and Lisa Mattam (Sahajan).

People say our community perpetuates the scarcity mindset. To me, this group chat, this room, this conversation, this episode prove otherwise.

Below are snippets from this historic event — our first-ever live panel of founders, all from the same industry — on South Asian Trailblazers. Thank you to everyone who joined!

From motherhood to the secrets of launching in Sephora, stream it for some valuable 💎 on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. 💌

💄Founders at a Glance

Diipa Büller-Khosla · indē wild · 🛍️ SHOP

• ✨ Modern Ayurveda for the Indian diaspora, built from her mother’s family rituals

• 📅 Launched 2021 · co-founded with husband Oleg Büller

• 🌟 First homegrown Indian beauty brand with a global Sephora partnership; Sephora’s #1 hair oil within months

• 🌱 1st Indian influencer to walk at Cannes

• 💰 Raised $8M+ across two rounds — led by Unilever Ventures

Rooshy Roy · AAVRANI · 🛍️ SHOP

• ✨ Modern Ayurvedic skincare for the diaspora

• 📅 Launched 2017 · co-founded with Justin Silver

• 🌟 Acquired by Nivora Group (announced 2026)

• 🤝 Celebrity partner: Lilly Singh

• 🌱 Wharton MBA, former PE investor, Forbes 30 Under 30

• 💰 Raised $15M+ before acquisition

Nisha Phatak · Lion Pose · 🛍️ SHOP

• ✨ Clinical skincare for women across life stages

• 📅 Launched at Sephora summer 2023 · co-founded with Madhu Punjabi

• 🌟 Sephora Accelerate; 2025 Tory Burch Fellow

• 🤝 Celebrity partner & investor: Mindy Kaling

• 🌱 HBS · prev. Great Jones, Indiegogo, Box

• 💰 Raised $3M seed

Lisa Mattam · Sahajan · 🛍️ SHOP

• ✨ Clean + clinical Ayurvedic skincare — pioneered before Sephora had a Clean shelf

• 📅 Launched 2015 · solo founder · bootstrapped until first raise

• 🌟 Inaugural Sephora Accelerate; First Ayurvedic brand at Sephora Canada · partnership with Marriott Luxury (Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, W, JW)

• 🤝 Celebrity investors: Yvonne Strahovski, Rupi Kaur, Celeste Burgoyne (Lululemon)

• 🌱 10+ years in pharma

• 💰 Raised $2M pre-Series A (oversubscribed), led by Ridgeline Ventures

💄 A Special Gift for Our Subscribers

💄You heard the story — now try the product.

Use code SAT5 at indewild.com for a special discount on Diipa’s brand, indē wild, newly launched in Sephora U.S.

🎙️ South Asians in Sephora — Live Panel with Diipa Büller-Khosla, Rooshy Roy, Nisha Phatak & Lisa Mattam

🌍 Is South Asian Beauty Mainstream Yet? Rooshy Does the K-Beauty Math

Simi Shah: Do you feel like South Asian beauty is mainstream?

Rooshy Roy (AAVRANI): Not yet — it will be. There are four of us sitting here, probably four others doing really well in the space. But if you think about what it took for K-beauty to become a true movement, it took 100 brands — each having a nuanced perspective, their own unique interpretation of the culture. It’s going to take a bunch more brands coming to the forefront for non-South Asians to really respect the category as its own standalone category. But it starts with our community and excitement around it.

🥊 Calling Mindy Kaling — In a Hospital Gown

Simi Shah: Nisha, tell me about the genesis of your partnership with Mindy Kaling.

Nisha Phatak: She was the absolute top of our list. When you think about bringing a celebrity on, you really want to make sure the category you’re operating in is something people naturally link with that person. For Mindy, it’s fashion — and her skin. We were seeing tons of organic comments on her social posts, people asking about her skincare routine. On top of that, she’s in her 40s, a single mom — really resonating with the core audience we were building for. I cold-emailed her team over the holidays in 2021. The first time we jumped on a Zoom with her, I had given birth 48 hours before. I sign on, no makeup, in my hospital gown, and Mindy’s just like, ‘What are you doing here?’ And I was just like, ‘I had to meet you. I’m sorry.’

🦄 The Three-Year-Old Who Started Sahajan

Simi Shah: Lisa, can you speak to the inspiration behind Sahajan?

Lisa Mattam: I worked in pharma and specialty biotech for a number of years — no exposure to beauty. I was pregnant with my second child, and I came home to find my three-year-old daughter fully covered in my skincare. The biggest feeling I had: ‘What is everything I buy going to do to your young, beautiful skin?’ Because she was three, and everything I was buying at the time was anti-wrinkle, anti-fatigue, turn-back-the-hands-of-time. And I thought, ‘If my skincare isn’t good enough for you, then it likely isn’t good enough for me. And if this is what I really believe in, I need to spend some more time here.”

🤝 Diipa Büller-Khosla on collaboration over competition

Simi Shah: What did launching in Sephora USA mean to you?

Diipa Büller-Khosla (indē wild): Us South Asians need to stick together. It’s the rituals we’re trying to bring to the U.S. consumer. It’s the ingredients that are first to market. We need to teach them together. It’s not one brand that can make it. It has to be all of us screaming about hair oiling together. The same way with K-beauty — when it’s a movement, you do have to do it together. Collaboration over competition always wins at the end of the day.

Before you go, have you joined your fellow trailblazers in watching our most popular episode ever?

⚡ Rapid Fire

🧴 Beauty product you can’t live without (that’s not your own):

• Diipa: Tatcha cleansing oil 💆🏽‍♀️

• Rooshy: Red-light therapy mask✨

• Nisha: Tower 28 SOS spray 💦

• Lisa: Any black eyeliner

🎬 If your brand were a movie:

• Diipa: Keeping Up With the Khoslas

• Rooshy: Saving Private Rooshy

• Nisha: Bend It Like Lion Pose 🦁

• Lisa: It’s a Journey, Not a Destination

🌟 Define “trailblazer:”

• Diipa: Somebody who doesn’t give up on their dreams.

• Rooshy: A contrarian.

• Nisha: Paving your own path — not the path other people set out for you.

• Lisa: Relentlessly in pursuit of their own destiny.

For more moments like this, support South Asian Trailblazers

✍🏼 Share this newsletter with the skincare-obsessed, the founder friend, the new mom in your life — this one is for them.

🎙️ Subscribe and write us a review on YouTube, Apple, Spotify. This goes a really long way for us 💖

👍🏾 Follow along for our South Asians in Sephora event and more on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, & TikTok.

🧢 Sport our new swag!

💌 Reply here with your thoughts — I read it all, I promise! - Simi

Happy Friday, trailblazers! This past week marked one of the most surreal weeks of my journey as a podcaster. I waited to send you this email, so I could do more than tell you about it. I wanted to share it.

On Saturday, I sat down with Raj Shamani — the #1 podcaster in India. Ranked #25 in the world, the Host of Figuring Out has interviewed the likes of Bill Gates, President of France Emmanuel Macron, Aamir Khan, Cricketer MS Dhoni, Gary Vee, and Fugitive Billionaire Vijay Mallya — the list goes on. With 540+ episodes, 14.8 million YouTube subscribers, and 400+ million annual views, he’s beat out the Joe Rogan and Diary of a CEO podcasts in India, and he’s loud about gunning for the top spot globally.

What makes this episode so special is that Raj rarely gets on this side of the mic. He’s usually the one asking the questions, not answering them. And for me personally, as much as I get to interview the best & brightest in our community… I don’t always get to interview the Top 1% of Podcasters.

Trust that this one is special. Skip the excerpts and go ahead and stream it on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. 💌

(Translations on YouTube for when Raj speaks in Hindi!)

🎙️ Raj Shamani is an Indian entrepreneur, author, and the host of Figuring Out with Raj Shamani. Born in Indore in 1997, he stepped into his family’s chemicals business at 16 after a family health scare. After representing India at the United Nations Youth Assembly, he discovered a career as a speaker and creator. In 2021, he launched Figuring Out in 2021 to learn from people richer, smarter, and more connected than himself and build it into the global platform that it is today.

He is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, the bestselling author of Build, Don’t Talk, and the co-founder of House of X — a creator-led platform that helps influencers launch DTC brands in seven days. He’s also an angel investor in Classplus, GrowthSchool, Wint Wealth, and Neko Health.

👇 Read on for the highlights from this special LIVE episode.

📅 Upcoming Events

📅 This Monday 💄 SOUTH ASIANS IN SEPHORA — Last Call!

South Asian beauty founders are taking over Sephora — and we're bringing them together for one unforgettable conversation. Join us in conversation with Diipa Büller-Khosla (indē wild), Lisa Mattam (Sahajan), Nisha Pathak (Lion Pose), Rooshy Roy (AAVRANI).

Get Tickets

🎙️ Raj Shamani — Building a Top 25 Global Podcast

🧵 The myth of his own origin story

Simi Shah: At age 16, your father’s health suddenly failed and you had to step into your family’s business. Can you talk about how your childhood and that point of adversity set the stage for the person you are today?

Raj Shamani: First, I want to set one fact straight. A lot of people think that at 16 I had no other choice because my father was so ill and I had to actually earn money to support and buy vegetables and medicines at home. No. I don’t know which media house wrote that. The simple fact was we were from a humble background. My father used to make around 40, 50,000 profit per month, and that was a good life. I just saw that my father got really, really ill. He got a diabetic attack for 30, 40 minutes. We thought it was a heart attack. So that moment made me realize I need to do something — because if he’s not there, who’s going to take care of my family? He was the sole breadwinner. So that was the inflection point. I got serious. The first thing I did was apply to almost every FMCG company in India — HUL, ITC, 70, 80 of them. Nobody replied. So I had no other choice but to join my father. He gave me about 15,000 rupees and told me, ‘This is the only money I have. You can build your own product, you can hire a salesperson, I don’t care. This is it.’ Those 15,000 rupees taught me everything I know today.

🎤🔥 The “Jai Hind” speech that started his career

Simi Shah: You turned 17, you went to speak at the United Nations, and you started exploring this career as a speaker. When did you start to feel like you could really do this?

Raj Shamani: Honestly? I had no clue what the UN even was — embarrassing, I know. I joined Toastmasters and AIESEC as a student volunteer, and someone told me about UNIDO. About 10–20,000 people applied. I happened to be the lucky one chosen. My first ever speech there, I was in this small room with people from every country, all of them polyglots speaking 20 languages. I was so nervous and felt so inferior, I forgot my entire speech. So I just started saying — *”Meri speech mein…”* — blabbering in Hindi. And then I said, *”Jai Hind.”* There were two Indians in the room. One of them, Gaurav, started clapping and laughing. Everybody started laughing with him. And then I picked up my thoughts and started talking. *Jai Hind* saved me. After my speech, every person who came up to me said, “Jai Hind was so emotional.”

🧠 3 things Raj has learned interviewing the world’s top 1%

Simi Shah: What are some of the key things that you’ve learned in sitting down with biggest and brightest leaders in the world?

Raj Shamani:

1. They eat incredibly boring lunches. Same food every day. Athletes, presidents, billionaires.

2. They are really fast decision makers. They don’t think about it a lot. They just do it. And even if they’re taking the wrong decision, they back it up as if it’s the best decision in the world.

3. They don’t do complex things. They ask one question — “What’s the most obvious next move?” — and they go do that.

🗑️ Why he killed a 15-million-view episode

Simi Shah: You’ve literally turned down guests if you didn’t feel like it was values aligned. Can you speak to a specific example?

Raj Shamani: In our office, there’s a big sign: “Values over views, sense over sensationalism, teachings over trends.” There was a politician — very celebrated, very decorated. We recorded one podcast. He started giving me content that I knew was minimum 15 million views. He told me about affairs of politicians, what goes on inside when they choose tickets, things people had bought their way into. Sensational, controversial, easy money.

But anything I asked him about teaching, learning, insight — zero. He just gave me gossip. So we didn’t upload it. Today he probably hates us. His team tried to threaten my team. But it didn’t align with our values. So we said no. We record about 230 episodes a year. We only put out 150. The rest get rejected after recording, because if it’s not helping you think better, we discard it.

🎙️Stream the full conversation for more insight:

🔑 1 Key Lesson: Credibility beats virality.

Raj Shamani: As a creator, you should not look at what you do as distribution or going viral. You should start looking at it like this: Every right thing that you do is a micro-deposit of trust that you’re making in a public bank. Every wrong thing is a withdrawal.

🪞 1 Key Reflection: The Question He Asks Himself Every Year

Given he’s the expert interviewer, I asked Raj if there was a question he wished I’d asked him:

Raj Shamani: There’s a question I ask myself every year, and I spend a lot of time on it: “What would I do this year if I was not afraid to be embarrassed in front of the people I care about?” It’s a really powerful question, because once you ask it, 90% of the things you want to do are only the things you’re not doing because you’re afraid of being embarrassed in front of the people who matter to you.

This Season is a Hall of Fame. From Heiress Ananya Birla to Fortune 500 CEO Revathi Advaithi to Actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas, I hope you’ll lean in with your fellow trailblazers and listen:

⚡ Rapid Fire with Raj Shamani

Mumbai or Indore? Indore for food and my childhood. Mumbai for opportunities — and pressure.

If your life were a Bollywood movie? Tamasha 😂

Dream podcast guest? Taylor Swift, because she doesn’t go on podcasts. Everyone else eventually says yes.

Hot take on other Indian podcasters? Stay in your lane.

What does trailblazing mean to you? Be a diva. Have really high standards. Get bothered by small things. Be unrealistic about details. Because if you’re not a diva about your craft, the world will treat you like an average person.

Forward this episode to one person in your life who’s been waiting for permission to bet on themselves.

✍🏼 Share this newsletter with that friend.

🎙️ Subscribe and write us a review on YouTube, Apple, Spotify. This goes a really long way for us <3

👍🏾 Follow along for our South Asians in Sephora event and more on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, & TikTok.

🧢 Sport our new swag!

💌 Reply here with your thoughts — I read it all, I promise! - Simi

Happy Women’s History Month, trailblazers! I’m Simi Shah, and this is South Asian Trailblazers — where I dive deep into the journeys of leading South Asians. If you love learning from leaders who look like you, we have some exciting events for you below. 📅

In today’s episode, I sit down with Revathi Advaithi — CEO of Flex, one of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women, and one of the most extraordinary leaders I’ve ever had on the podcast. Flex is a $24 billion global manufacturing company that builds the critical infrastructure behind AI, cloud computing, healthcare devices, and automotive for some of the biggest brands in the world. They’re the brand behind the brand (of a lot of the everyday tech you and I use).

They operate in 30 countries with over 140,000 employees — and under Revathi’s leadership, the stock has soared from ~$7 to over $60.

But Revathi’s path to the Fortune 500 didn’t start in a corner office. It started on a factory floor in Shawnee, Oklahoma — a town of 20,000 where she was often the only immigrant and only woman in the building. Revathi grew up in Chennai — the youngest of five sisters who lost their father at 15. She nearly failed out of engineering school (BITS Pilani) and was given an ultimatum by her mother: graduate or get married. She hustled from small-town America to China — eventually being tapped to lead one of the most consequential companies in the world. In the last year, she’s seen record profits…and also battled breast cancer.

The stories in this episode are some of the most jaw-dropping we’ve ever aired. If you aspire to be a leader in your industry, you have to stream it on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. 💌

This episode marked our first live podcast in San Francisco, hosted in partnership with Pratham USA — an organization that has been championing education across India for 30+ years, reaching 8 million young minds in the last academic year alone. If their mission resonates with you, consider supporting their work:

get involved

🎙️ Revathi Advaithi — CEO of Flex

Revathi Advaithi is CEO of Flex, the global manufacturing partner helping a diverse customer base design and build products improving the world. Since 2019, she has led Flex’s transformation across 30 countries, driving technology innovation and supply chain resilience.

Previously, she served as President and COO of Eaton‘s electrical sector with corporate responsibility for EMEA, and spent six years at Honeywell in manufacturing and supply chain leadership. She has been appointed by the U.S. President to advisory committees on trade policy and supply chain competitiveness, and serves as co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Advanced Manufacturing CEO Community. She holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from BITS Pilani and an MBA from Thunderbird. Today, she is one of Fortune's Most Powerful Women in the World, Fast Company's Modern CEO of the Year, and serves on the board of Uber and MIT.

👇 Read on for the highlights from this special LIVE episode.

📅 Upcoming Events

April 4 🎙️ RAJ SHAMANI — Live at Columbia University

We're thrilled to announce that Raj Shamani — host of India's #1 podcast Figuring Out, with 14.8M+ subscribers — is joining Simi for a special live episode at the India Business Conference at Columbia University. Tickets Here.

April 13 💄 SOUTH ASIANS IN SEPHORA — Live Panel

South Asian beauty founders are taking over Sephora — and we're bringing them together for one unforgettable conversation. Join us in conversation with Diipa Büller-Khosla (indē wild), Lisa Mattam (Sahajan), Nisha Pathak (Lion Pose), Rooshy Roy (AAVRANI).

Get Tickets

Subscriber Perk: Use code [FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY] at checkout for a special discount. This code is only for our inner circle — that means you!

🎙️ Revathi Advaithi — From the Factory Floor to Fortune 500 CEO

🎒 On nearly failing out of college — and her mom’s ultimatum

Simi Shah: You weren’t exactly a star student at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS Pilani) and almost failed out. That’s hard to imagine given where you are today.

Revathi Advaithi: I was the only girl in the class — in the engineering population, 10% were girls in the overall class of that year, but in the mechanical engineering class, I was the only one. I probably did the least research in choosing this degree. And the reason I talk about not doing well in college and almost failing out is because I think it’s important. In the Indian, South Asian context, to some extent, there’s an expectation that everybody is an A student. Everyone goes to top schools, and your path is just charted, envisioned in a certain way by your family and all of that. that I think it’s important to talk about. Not everyone who is successful comes through that lineage, right?

I experienced everything that one should do in college, which was had fun, partied a lot, did not prioritize education. I remember trying to intercept the postman to get the grade card so my mother wouldn’t see it, and the postman unfortunately knew my mother really well and said, ‘No way.’ So my mother gets the grade card, and she’s obviously very disappointed. She said, ‘Well, we have two choices. Either you finish college and you pass and get a job, or I can just get you married. She knew very well this would be motivating. And it worked really well. I was very determined — if nothing else, I needed to graduate so I didn’t have to get married to one of my mom’s friend’s sons.

👑 On the boss who said no woman had ever succeeded under him

Simi Shah: Tell me about the boss who said he’s never worked with a woman before.

Revathi Advaithi: When I talked to the CEO of Eaton, I told him I wanted to go to China. There was this leader who was known to be tough. And he got the job of Chief Operating Officer for Electrical, and he was told that he’s going to have to take me to run Asia Pacific.

The first day, I walk into his office, and he’s like, ‘I just want you to know I’ve never had a woman work for me who was successful.’ I was shocked. I paused for a second, then I just laughed, because I didn’t know what to do. I was like, ‘I guess I have to prove you’re wrong.’ And that’s all I said. But I worked for him for seven years, and got promoted three times after that. When he retired and I took his role, I mentioned that at the retirement party.

⚙️ On why she said yes to becoming CEO of Flex

Simi Shah: You were tapped for various roles in the industrial sector, but you said no until Flex came along. At the time, the business was hyper concentrated in all these commoditized segments, and the CEO — who had served for 12 years — was on his way out. Why was it yes this time?

Revathi Advaithi: The thinking really was as simple as, 'Hey, the stock is $7.' It felt like a quant problem to solve. It was like, 'I think I can double the stock.' How hard could it be? There are three people in the competitive space, and they're all fiscally irresponsible. I thought I could fix this. My husband, Jeevan was like, 'Yeah, do it for a couple of years. If it doesn't work out, you could go do something else.' I said, 'Yeah, but failure would be quite public — it's a public company.' And he's like, 'Who cares?' We had to tell the kids that if mom fails, it won't be pretty — and they didn't know what it meant. I wasn't as enamored by market cap as I was by being able to really drive shareholder value. One of my favorite books is called Outsiders — it's all about CEOs and shareholder value. So I wanted to take this stock from $7 to $14, and that would be victory.

🥊 On battling cancer while staying on as CEO

Simi Shah: You were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023. Can you talk about your diagnosis and the decision to keep working?

Revathi Advaithi: I was traveling, and I found a lump on my way to India, and it turned out to be cancer. Stage two. My first reaction was, maybe I should quit and focus on my health. The chairman of our board said, ‘Don’t make any decisions. You can work through this. You at 50% is better than nothing at all.’ When my husband, Jeevan, and I talked about it, his first reaction was: ‘We don’t need you super focused on cancer. We need you to be distracted from that.’ The kids were very against me leaving my work because they thought then I’d be very focused on cancer (and them, hilariously). I didn’t miss a day of work. And most importantly, we ended up with a record year.

🎙️Stream the full conversation for more insight:

📊 1 Key Lesson: The 80/20 Rule for Decision-Making

Revathi Advaithi: I’m the queen of the 80/20 rule. I do not need lots of information to make a decision. You have to decide whether that extra analysis is worth it or not. Can you sell somebody on something with 60% of the information and make the decision and go with it, and be prepared to take the risk of failing if that doesn’t work out? I would love for all of us to use speed as our friend more than overthinking the decision. But you have to be confident to say, ‘If it fails, I’m okay with it.’

🏠 1 Key Reflection: On balancing work and family

Revathi Advaithi: My son wrote a blog in high school that said, 'Who says my mom can't have it all?' It was a retort to the Anne Marie Slaughter article, because I was having a really bad day — my daughter was insisting I make it to a science fair that I couldn't make it to, and I was like, 'I can't do this. I have to quit.' And he said, 'Mom, I can go to the science fair.' And she was so excited — she loved having her brother there versus mom, so it kind of canceled the drama. And I didn't quit. But those periods are very, very difficult. If you decide to have children, that's going to be part of the journey — and not only the physical support system, but the mental, emotional support system is really important. I surround myself with family, with friends who are great for this. And if you're lucky, you'll end up with a partner like mine — and that makes the journey complete.

As we wrap Women’s History Month, check out our episodes with leading women — Priyanka Chopra, Ananya Birla, Rooshy Roy and more:

⚡ Rapid Fire with Revathi Advaithi

San Francisco or Shanghai? San Francisco today. 🌉

A leader, living or dead, you’d shadow for a day? Abraham Lincoln. He wasn’t afraid of different opinions.

A leadership mantra you live by? The 80/20 rule — make quick decisions with enough information.

Comfort food? Rasam. 🍲

Who plays you in the biopic? Deepika Padukone.

Something you’re unlearning? Being a nosy, 24/7 mom. I’m really trying to learn these strategies of ‘give yourself space.’ I don’t know what that means. Trying to do that. 😂

Something you’re learning? AI and the hardware infrastructure side. I’m fascinated that in my lifetime, this is going to be a game-changer.

A trailblazer who’s inspired you? Indra Nooyi, for sure.

What does trailblazing means to you? A go-getter. Somebody who’s not afraid to take risks — just jumps in there and gets it done.

How to share Revathi’s story:

✍🏼 Know a woman navigating corporate America, balancing family, or building her career through adversity? Share this newsletter with her.

🎙️ Subscribe and write us a review on YouTube, Apple, Spotify.

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🧢 Sport our new swag!

💌 Reply here with your thoughts! This is our most incredible season yet, and I can’t wait to hear what you think — Simi Shah

Good morning, trailblazers! I'm Simi Shah, and this is South Asian Trailblazers — where I dive deep into the journeys of leading South Asians.

In today’s episode, I sit down with Ananya Birla — yes, as in The Birlas (aka the Rockefellers of India). Ananya is a musician, microfinance pioneer, mental health advocate, and seventh-generation scion of one of India’s most storied business families (see: the Aditya Birla Group). For context, the Birla conglomerate is one of the largest industrial dynasties in the world and the largest Indian investor in the U.S. ($15 billion).

At 17, Ananya founded what is now India's second-largest microfinance institution. After dropping out of Oxford to pursue music, she became the first Indian artist to go platinum with an English single. A consummate multi-hyphenate, she became the first woman in her lineage to join the family business — now leading subsidiaries across film, real estate, cosmetics, and AI. Today, Ananya is recognized as one of Fortune's Most Powerful Women in the world, shaping India's relationship with the world.

And for those of you who think it’s all generational privilege that got her this far, I’d encourage you to listen to this episode.

The candor will endear you to Ananya — so I’m giving you permission to skip the excerpts below and join your trailblazing peers in tuning into the convo on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. 💌

What’s on deck for Season 9? We’re 3 episodes in and this season is stacked — watch the trailer above! But today’s episode is distinct. It's the only conversation hosted on the mainstage with a LIVE audience — you can see and sense the energy. It’s the first time I’ve caught up with an enterprising trailblazer from India who’s also roughly my age. And it’s momentous because I first started my podcasting journey 100 feet from where we sat, at the Harvard Innovation Lab. It’s special for a lot of reasons, but the conversation alone will have you rapt.

🎙️ Ananya Birla — Live at the India Conference at Harvard

Ananya Birla is an entrepreneur and business leader with a track record of building institutions defined by scale, governance, and profitability. As Founder and Chairperson of Svatantra Microfin, she has steered the company to become India’s second-largest and best-performing microfinance institution — with a $7 billion portfolio, over 4 million customers, and 24,000 employees across 19 states. The company is heading toward IPO in 2026 — the fastest any Birla has taken a company public in seven generations.

Beyond music, she stewards several billion-dollar businesses: Birla Cosmetics (LOVETC and Contraband), Birla Studios (with a Sandra Oh-led production), and Birla AI Labs (Sophius). She serves on the Aditya Birla Group’s apex strategic body ABMCPL, and on the boards of Hindalco, Grasim, and Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail.

Beyond business, Ananya is the first Indian artist to have multiple English-language multi-platinum singles in India, and the first Indian artist featured on an American national Top 40 chart. She has collaborated with the likes of A.R. Rahman and Sean Kingston and has a new album on the way…more on that below.

👇 Watch the trailer above, or read on for the highlights from this special LIVE episode.

📅 Upcoming Events

Dinner with Trailblazers: C-Suite Series

Our Dinner with Trailblazers — a ticketed fellowship in New York City — kicks off this Spring with 3 inspiring C-suite executives. Across 3 dinners, we’ll gather 20 of you around the table for real conversation and meaningful connection.

Join the Waitlist

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• Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer at Coinbase

• Nishant Roy, Chief Communications & Impact Officer at Chobani

• Rishi Daing, Chief Marketing Officer at CELSIUS

📅 P.S. Save the Date: A Panel Event on April 13 in NYC — follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn for the deets!

🎙️ Ananya Birla — Carving Her Own Path inside a Multi-Billion Dollar Dynasty

🦄 On dropping out of Oxford for a record deal

Simi Shah: You went to Oxford and ultimately dropped out to pursue music. What gave you such conviction at a young age?

Ananya Birla: The first thing I learned at Oxford was opportunity cost, which kind of changed my life. I was having a hard time with my mental health, and I picked up the guitar and started expressing myself. I found a group of people and we started gigging in Brixton and Camden. I would go Saturday night, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday — 8am I had my tutorial back at Oxford. I had sent some original demos to Universal Music Group. Sunil Disa called and said, ‘Would you be willing to fly down to India to meet with me?’ He heard my demos once, then he just said, ‘Come to our office — I want to sign you up.’ I asked for a week. In that week, I had a couple more gigs, and I remember feeling super alive. I didn’t need anybody else’s validation. My gut just said, do it. My master at college said, ‘This is going to be either the best decision of your life or the worst decision of your life.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, Master — I guess we’ll see.’

🌍 On building her own lane — inside and outside the family business

Simi Shah: Most people coming from a family business choose one lane — often to steward the business. What motivated you to work both in the business and outside the business — and have these creative pursuits?

Ananya Birla: Having founded businesses myself has given me that strength and confidence to get involved in the family businesses. Because of Svatantra, Birla Cosmetics, and all the other businesses that have been successful — I think people in my family business take me seriously, especially as a woman. It’s been a journey of a lot of questioning. But I’m a layered human being, and I love multiple different things. Someone who already has been born with a platform — it’s my duty to work that much harder, to do more with it. And I’m genuinely obsessed with all that I do.

🎙️ Want more? Watch the full conversation on YouTube.

📊 1 Key Lesson: Separate Success from Self-Worth

Ananya Birla: This is my issue. I never feel good enough. No matter what I do. It's so easy to say, when the next company goes public, or when Svatantra gets a great multiple at IPO, I'll be happy then. But that's not the point. As soon as I get trapped in this cycle of connecting my self-worth to my work, that is a pitfall. Success and failure are two sides of the same coin. The most important thing is to just watch and to not take action. That makes work so much easier — because then you're doing it because you want to do it, not because you're doing it for an outcome.

🤝 On being the only woman in the boardroom

Simi Shah: You’re the first woman in your family line to join the business across 7 generations. Has that been daunting? Have you faced criticism or struggled to be taken seriously?

Ananya Birla: Still till today, in board meetings, I’m the only woman, and everybody else — men in their 40s. Has that come with a lot of work behind the scenes? Yes. But at the end, work speaks for itself. When they see that the numbers are making sense, her businesses are doing well, the teams under her are happy, they’re vouching for her. It’s really important for us as women to have blinders and just keep working. With love, with hard work, with the right intention. Eventually, things come around and work speaks for itself.

🚧 1 Key Reflection: On privilege

Ananya Birla: I probably have gotten this far because of my family. I mean, that's just truth that I've accepted, and that's fine. I could have turned out to be a completely spoilt brat, I guess, but I didn't. Do we choose where we're born? No. Did Advent invest $400 million into a company because of my family name? They want financial returns. Is a family name going to give financial returns? I don't have an upfront answer. But would I like to give credit to my family? 100%. I love them to death, and everything I do, I do to give back to my legacy.

In time for Women’s History Month, this season is packed with powerhouse women. Don’t miss out on our popular episode with Priyanka Chopra and Anjula Acharia — on the partnership that took Priyanka from Bollywood to Hollywood:

⚡ Rapid Fire with Ananya Birla

Santoor or guitar? Santoor. 🎵

Family WhatsApp group — muted or unmuted? Muted. Depends on the group. 😂

Best business advice you’ve ever received? No shortcuts.

If the Ananya Birla story were a Bollywood movie, what would it be called? Misfit. Everything I do is about bringing misfits together so everyone feels a little bit less alone.

What would the audience be screaming at you? I’ve made a couple of really bad decisions in my life. You guys will have to wait for the movie — but I hope it doesn’t happen while I’m alive.

A trailblazer who’s inspired you? Yesterday I met a girl who said she lost her father, then lost her mother. Her brother has been a huge support. She now studies at a university in America and is making a life for herself. It doesn’t have to be someone of huge stature. It’s everyday stories that really inspire me.

What does trailblazing mean to you? Authentically being yourself and going after the craziest of dreams, no matter how delusional it seems.

Share this with the multi-hyphenate in your life:

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💌 Reply here anytime with your thoughts! — Simi Shah

Happy Sunday, trailblazers! Simi Shah here, interrupting your inboxes ahead of schedule for our most star-powered episode yet. I hope you’ll forgive me. 😉

In this unprecedented conversation, I sit down with power duo Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Anjula Acharia — best friends and business partners of 15 years — at Harvard, to tell the full story of how they built one of the most extraordinary empires in global entertainment.

P.S. You can always skip the Spark Notes and listen now on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, and SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. 💌

Fifteen years ago, Priyanka was looking to evolve her presence in Bollywood. (The politics that pushed her out didn’t help!) Anjula, a VC investor with a knack for spotting unicorns, saw something the rest of the world didn’t: a star who could transcend both Bollywood and Hollywood and become truly global.

After an awkward first phone call, a partnership was born — one that would transform the two largest film industries in the world in the creation of a global crossover career unlike anything we’d all seen before.

Recorded live at the Annual India Conference at Harvard, ahead of the upcoming premiere of her new movie, The Bluff, Priyanka keeps it cool and candid with Anjula — the investor and entrepreneur who bet on her when no one else would. (You’ll remember Anjula from the live podcast we did together in 2023!)

This episode is incredibly special to me. To sit down with these two trailblazers at Harvard — the campus where I first began podcasting as a hobby my senior year — is something out of my wildest dreams. It’s a surreal inflection point in my journey and that of South Asian Trailblazers. And I’m so thrilled to share it with all of you.

Tune in for the origin story behind the icon that is Priyanka — as told firsthand by the partnership that powered this global stardom.

🎙️ In Conversation — Like Never Before

Priyanka Chopra Jonas, actress, producer, entrepreneur, needs no introduction — but here’s one anyway.

In 2000, she won Miss World and went on to become one of India’s biggest stars with iconic performances in Fashion (2008, National Film Award for Best Actress), Barfi! (2012), and Bajirao Mastani (2015, Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress). With over 60 Bollywood films and five Filmfare Awards, she is one of the most decorated actresses in Indian cinema.

In 2015, Priyanka broke ground in Hollywood as the lead of ABC’s Quantico — the first South Asian woman to headline a primetime American network drama. She has since starred in Baywatch (2017), The White Tiger (2021), The Matrix Resurrections (2021), and Amazon's Citadel (2023). Today, she is the founder of Purple Pebble Pictures, a production company championing regional Indian cinema; an ambassador for brands like Bulgari; a wife and mother. Her oeuvre is triumphant and vast — from her upcoming pirate thriller, The Bluff (out this week) to Citadel Season 2 to an upcoming comedy alongside Will Ferrell and Zac Efron, to her biggest feat yet: S.S. Rajamouli's Varanasi (2027) — the most expensive Indian film ever made alongside Mahesh Babu.

Anjula Acharia is an entrepreneur, investor, and cultural catalyst. Born in England, she started her career in tech and venture capital before pivoting into entertainment. To date, she has backed billion-dollar companies like Bumble and ClassPass at the earliest stages. She has managed Priyanka Chopra Jonas’s career for 15 years, orchestrating her crossover. In 2025, she co-founded 5 Junction Records with Warner Music Group to develop South Asian artists globally, including Rhea Raj and Nora Fatehi. She has been recognized by Billboard, Forbes, Vanity Fair, and ELLE.

P.S. As we grow, I want your feedback. Spare me 5 minutes and win a $100 Amazon gift card + Trailblazers swag. 👉 Take our subscriber survey

📅 Dinner with Trailblazers: C-Suite Series

Our Dinner with Trailblazers — a ticketed fellowship in New York City — kicks off this March with 3 inspiring C-suite executives. Across 3 dinners, we’ll gather 20 of you around the table for real conversation and meaningful connection.

Join the Waitlist

🍽️ FEATURING:

• Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer at Coinbase (March)

• Nishant Roy, Chief Communications & Impact Officer at Chobani (March)

• Rishi Daing, Chief Marketing Officer at CELSIUS (April)

🎙️ Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Anjula Acharia — Their Secrets to Global Stardom

Episode excerpts below!

🦄 On approaching Priyanka’s career like a startup

Simi Shah: Can you talk about what you saw in each other and why you decided to initiate a partnership with one another?

Priyanka Chopra: No one’s ever asked me this question!

Anjula Acharia: I know, I want to hear this! For me, I saw Priyanka on TV years before I met her — at my mom’s house in England. I didn’t really consume Bollywood movies, but I was struck by her. I had this fleeting thought: If anyone could make it here, it would be her. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be the facilitator of that, because I wasn’t in entertainment — I was in venture capital. Prior to her, I was looking for startups. You look for founders who are disrupting — unicorns. She was a unicorn — in India. She just wasn’t a unicorn here.

Priyanka Chopra: I was in a precarious place in my career, trying to figure out what my next evolution was. I’ve always believed that in entertainment, you have to keep moving. I was shooting a movie in Coorg for two months and this persistent person kept calling me. I eventually got on the phone. Anjula pitched music to me — which was confusing, because I’d never thought about pursuing music professionally. But it happened at the right time. And through our two years of pursuing music — meeting incredible people, being in the room with will.i.am and the Chainsmokers and Bono — she and I developed a trust. I had never considered America at all before that.

🤝 On growing personally and professionally together

Simi Shah: What has it been like to grow personally and professionally together the last 15 years?

Priyanka Chopra: When you’re in a public profession for a really long time, you learn how to protect yourself and to only have people around you that you can trust. Not everyone has their agenda on their face. The basis of our business was this trust, and eventually it became a friendship. She was one of my bridesmaids at my wedding and I hope to be one at hers.

Anjula Acharia: I hate the word “manager,” because it makes it sound like I’m telling Priyanka what to do. That’s definitely not how it is — we’re partners. We strategize together, we build together. It’s such an intimate journey. You’re discussing everything, and life happens while you’re doing all of these things. You have to really love the person you’re working with.

🎙️ Want more? Watch the full conversation on YouTube.

📊 1 Key Lesson: Data vs. Instinct

Anjula Acharia: Everyone said to me, ‘You can’t bring Priyanka Chopra here. It will never work. A Bollywood star has never worked before.’ All of the data said that. Well, here we are 15 years later. Not only that — India initially rejected her for coming here. And now? She’s going back to India to do the biggest movie of all time with Director Rajamouli (of RRR Oscars Fame). The data doesn’t support what we’ve accomplished together because we built everything on instinct.

🌍 Their Strategy for Global Stardom

Simi Shah: You've accomplished so much together — music, film, TV, brand partnerships, investing. What was the strategy?

Priyanka Chopra: The strategy was to be true to the story. I wanted to create space for myself that wasn’t interchangeable — that I was approached for what I bring to the table, not to be a check in the box, or to be the brown representation in an ensemble cast. I had to make my own lane. And that takes time. The North Star was always to be unique — not to further stereotypes that people before me sadly had to because they had no other choice.

Anjula Acharia: One thing about Priyanka — she’s always waited for the right things. She’s not in a hurry for anything. She’s not desperate. It’s about her craft, about excellence, and putting her best foot forward.

🇮🇳 On India and America: Then vs. Now

Simi: Traversing these two worlds,the India you left and that you’re returning to with your highly-anticipated film, Varanasi are quite different. As you reflect on your journey then vs. now, being here at Harvard, what do you see?

Priyanka Chopra: When I was in high school here, at Newton North, I was embarrassed of being Indian. I was made to feel like my culture and my identity was something I needed to hide. A friend of mine named Varun changed his name to Warren.

It brought tears to my eyes to see a young woman walk in a sari at Harvard. This is the America in which I want to see my daughter, Malti Marie, grow up — not have to explain her name, but people being curious about it, because she’s so proud of it, because she sees people like you. It was a tough fight for me when I started working in Hollywood 15 years ago, to fight for that identity and be proud of my culture and heritage. I always felt like an exception, but now it feels normal. My younger self is very proud of you guys.

Simi: That’s very kind, but it’s no longer an exception because you both have set the rules!

🚧 1 Key Reflection: Priyanka Chopra on Pivots

Priyanka Chopra: My biggest advice is to recognize your strengths. Don't waste time on your failures or trying to fix something you don't know. Everyone has their own strengths. Run after that. Pivoting is just the name of the game. We pivoted out of music when we knew it wasn’t working for me instead of staying in. If you feel like you’re stuck in something, and it’s just not moving — pivot. Get yourself out of it. Personally, professionally, emotionally.

Y’all are obsessed with Season 9! Don’t miss out on our trending episode with Rooshy Roy — on Exiting Aavrani, the Beauty Brand She Spent 9 Years Building:

⚡ Rapid Fire with Priyanka & Anjula

Bollywood dance number or Hollywood action sequence?
Anjula: Hollywood Action Sequence.
Priyanka: That’s hard. I’m coming off of 4 action movies, so the dance number.

If your journey together were a movie, what would the title be?
Anjula: Thelma and Louise
Priyanka: I was gonna say, Dumb and Dumber. 😹

Something you’re unlearning?
Priyanka: How to be wound so tight. I was always in fight or flight mode. I’m unlearning that.
Anjula: Saying yes. I say yes to everything.

Something you’re learning?
Priyanka: To find something I like doing outside of work. I’ve never had a hobby.
Anjula: To spend time on my own.

A trailblazer who’s inspired you? Priyanka: Anjula Acharia. 😭

What does trailblazing mean to you?
Anjula: Once you’ve trailblazed, how do you hold your hand out behind you to pull people up? So many young actors and musicians tell me that if they hadn’t seen Priyanka do it, they wouldn’t have thought it was possible. That, to me, is everything.

P.S. This is what holding that hand out looks like:

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💌 Reply here with your thoughts! I’m on the EDGE of my seat! — Simi Shah

Good morning! I’m Simi Shah, and South Asian Trailblazers is where I dive deep into the journeys of trailblazing South Asians. Today, we’re kicking off Season 9 in the most incredible way.

Six years ago (2020), in Season 1 of our podcast, I spoke with Rooshy Roy — founder of AAVRANI, a breakout beauty brand rooted in ancient Indian tradition. She was newly-married, freshly-funded, and building an iconic beauty brand inspired by ancient Indian traditions.

The quality of the pod? Cringe. (The video didn’t even record). The conversation? One of our most memorable.

This week, Rooshy becomes the first guest we’ve ever brought back to the podcast. And there’s a reason for that:

🚨 AAVRANI has been acquired!

In this raw, deeply personal conversation, Rooshy gives us an intimate look at her experience building this brand and what ultimately motivated her exit. She takes us through AAVRANI’s arc over the last 9 years — from meeting her co-founder at Wharton to raising over $10MM; from pivoting from skincare to hair care at Sephora’s request to partnering with Actor Lilly Singh; from becoming a founder AND first-time mom to the moment she realized she was playing a game she no longer wanted to win. It’s a masterclass.

Rooshy shares the full story for the first time on our podcast — an episode unlike anything we’ve ever released.

Rooshy Roy is the founder and former CEO of AAVRANI. She co-founded AAVRANI in 2017, while completing her MBA at Wharton. A first-generation Indian American, Rooshy previously worked at Goldman Sachs and Warburg Pincus before launching AAVRANI to bring Ayurvedic beauty rooted in Indian traditions to the global stage.

👇 Read on for Rooshy’s revelations. If you’re thinking about how to build, why should pivot, or when to let go, tune in on YouTube above, Apple, Spotify, our website, anywhere you stream podcasts.

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📅 Quick Note: Meet us IRL in 2026

🎙️ LIVE with Legendary Designer Manish Malhotra LIVE at Harvard — See you this Sunday, February 15 in Boston. Get Tickets

🍽️ Dinner with Trailblazers — Our invite-only fellowship dinners in NYC. Join the Waitlist

🎙️ Rooshy Roy — Founder of AAVRANI: Building, Pivoting, and Exiting a Beauty Empire

Episode excerpts below! Compare and contrast? Listen to my 2020 conversation with the Founder of AAVRANI — then and now 👇

On AAVRANI’s Acquisition:

💣 What’s Next for AAVRANI

Simi: You’re exploring a strategic partnership as it relates to AAVRANI. Can you tell us what’s going on?

Rooshy: AAVRANI has been acquired as of year end 2025. Over the last couple of months, I’ve been transitioning the business to the new owners. I won’t be involved in the business anymore long term, but I’m really excited about this acquisition because it allows the brand to scale and grow further with resources that I just don’t have.

🪞 On the real reason she let go

Simi: Was there a key inflection point when you decided you wanted to exit? Was this something you actively pursued or something that came to you?

Rooshy: The game changed so much that I’m not sure if I want to play it anymore. What it would require of me at this point — excellence around ops, supply chain — stuff that I find very boring. Stuff that’s very exciting to other people, but not why I started the business. I was forcing myself, molding myself into getting motivated to work on those things, but it just wasn’t aligned with the thing that lights me up. So I realized that in order to give the best to my customers, I had to let it go.

🎙️ Want more? Watch the full conversation on YouTube.

Reflections on the Journey:

🛍️ Does Sephora make you or break you?

Simi: There was an era — probably the Drunk Elephant era — where Sephora incubated brands and catapulted them into massive empires. Can you talk about your experience with Sephora?

Rooshy: Sephora is no longer a brand builder. They will take what you’ve created and amplify it, which is incredible. But it’ll expose all your strengths and weaknesses. There’s no forgiveness around a learning curve anymore. When it comes to retail, you have to be excellent from the moment you enter.

👯 Community or Competition: South Asians Founders in Beauty

Simi: Compared to when you started, there are now upwards of 10 South Asian-inspired brands in Sephora. Did it feel collaborative or competitive?

Rooshy: We’re actually all on a WhatsApp group — Desis at Sephora. We were very honest with each other. Like, ‘Hey, did you try this?’ And one of the founders would be like, ‘I did that last season. It doesn’t work, but this works — so try this.’ It was truly incredible and more than I could have ever expected.

💸 1 Key Lesson: Fundraising ≠ Success

Rooshy: Raising money is not as much of an accomplishment as actually selling your product. When you’re raising money from certain investors, there are certain expectations around growth and pace. And I wish I had had the patience and knowledge to understand that a solid brand takes minimum a decade to build. But the headlines were all ‘three to five years and you’re out.’

🤱 1 Key Reflection: Chase new dreams

Rooshy: I thought, ‘If I’m 80 years old and I’ve taken AAVRANI to the highest possible potential — a billion dollars — and I’m sitting on my yacht, not a care in the world, but I don’t have a family... what would that feel like?’ My immediate visceral reaction was: No, I’ll take a family over that any day. And it just shifted everything.

⚡ Rapid Fire with Rooshy

Worst advice you ever received as a founder? Network as much as possible from the beginning.

Piece of advice you wish you’d taken to heart earlier? Don’t try to do everything.

If the AAVRANI story were a Bollywood movie, what would the title be? Dreams Are Possible.

If your life were a movie, what would the audience be screaming at you? You already have everything.

A hill you’ll die on in the beauty industry? It’s not what it seems.

A hot take? The things that make beauty brands successful are not the things that they say or that you read about.

Something you’re unlearning? To take on other people’s expectations.

Something you’re learning? To give myself more grace.

A trailblazer who’s inspired you? Lilly Singh.

What trailblazing means to you? Going against the grain. Doing something contrarian.

🎤 Rooshy’s Advice: Then and Now

2020: Just start. Make an effort to meet your heroes and role models. DM someone on LinkedIn. Sometimes all we need to see is more people who look like us following their passion.

2026: Don’t underestimate the power of your dreams and your motivations. They are what make you who you are. Even if it feels like your circumstances aren’t right, or it’s just too different, or no one else will understand — in many ways, that’s what makes it real, and that’s what makes it trailblazing.

Follow her for more wisdom:

Rooshy’s Substack

My personal Substack

By Rooshy Roy

Who needs to hear Rooshy’s story?

✍🏼 Share this newsletter with that friend — you know the one I’m talking about — that ambitious woman, founder working tirelessly, that skincare connoisseur, or working mom

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💌 Reply here with what else you want to see in Season 9 — Simi

🎙️ A Live Podcast at Harvard: Manish Malhotra

I’m thrilled to announce a special live-recorded edition of our podcast in partnership with the India Conference at Harvard, featuring Manish Malhotra — cultural icon, pioneer, and one of the most influential designers of our time. Join us in 📍 Boston on 🗓 Sunday, February 15:

Get Tickets

For over three decades, Manish Malhotra has shaped the visual language of Indian cinema and luxury fashion — building a globally-recognized brand that bridges Indian heritage with contemporary glamour and worldwide cultural influence. We’ll go beyond the runway to explore creativity, cultural power, and what it takes to build relevance that lasts on a global stage.

I hope you’ll join us in the room for this one!

💌 An Invitation: Join Us at the Table in 2026

Beyond our live podcasts, we’re opening up more opportunities to connect and be in community.

We’re opening our invite-only Dinner with Trailblazers to you — as a ticketed fellowship in New York. You’ll gather around the dinner table with a senior South Asian leader and a curated group of professionals across 3 intimate dinners for real conversation and meaningful connection.

👉 Spots are limited. Join the waitlist here.

🎙️ Season 8: From comedians to Congress, this season’s mic-drop moments

Are you a creative, technologist, founder, or rising leader at the top of your game or aspiring to be? Join 30,000+ professionals in learning from leaders like you — catch up on Season 8 before our next season drops:

Episode 1: Jay Sean— Multi-Platinum Artist, Entrepreneur, & Record Label Executive

When you know you’re meant to do something, you just know it. I trusted my intuition, even when it didn’t make sense to anyone else. And when Virgin Records came to sign me, I told my parents, ‘It’s happened. I’m quitting medicine.’

Episode 2: Gurbir Grewal — Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement

When I was announced as Attorney General, I said I took this role so my daughters knew that there were no limitations on their success, that they could do whatever they wanted to do. That it doesn’t matter where you come from, what you look like, what your background is, what your gender is, who you love — that if you do the work, it’ll get recognized and you can achieve whatever success is in the cards for you.

Episode 3: South Asian Trailblazers at the Oscars — Charithra Chandran (Bridgerton), Saagar Shaikh (Deli Boys), Manish Dayal (90210, The Walking Dead), Sway Bhatia (Succession), Iqbal Theba (Glee)

Get an education so your parents get off your back, and then, don’t give up. There is a space for you, and no matter how hard it seems, there is a place for you in this industry. - Charithra Chandran

Episode 4: Dilawar Syed — U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Deputy Administrator

What I did know was that as an immigrant, you have to work twice as hard to get a seat at the table. And sometimes, even when you get there, people will try to push you out.

Episode 5: Sandeep Acharya — Founder and CEO of Octave Health

You hear about how cancer forces you to reevaluate your priorities. I feel like my priorities were pretty good — family and work. But being a lifelong musician... realizing I might lose that gift with my surgery made me realize there were so many things that, by not enjoying, I was doing myself a disservice. Celebrating your gifts is a good thing. It’s not immodest.

Episode 6: Vir Das — Comedian & Actor

My aim is that within 20 seconds of watching my art, you know who I am, and therefore, whether you remember a punch line or a lyric or not, you will remember who I am.

Episode 7: Ali Sethi — Musician

Two weeks before the song was supposed to go to Spotify, a mini war broke out between India and Pakistan. Indian singers were forbidden from collaborating with any Pakistani artists. We had to pull the song. This album is called Love Language, but it’s made in response to a very real hate language — one that stalks my creativity in the form of censorship, fear, and unsafety.

Episode 8: Karishma Mehta — Founder of Humans of Bombay

You prepare and you plan, but the minute you sit across someone like Ratan Tata or the Prime Minister, everything goes out the window. And yes, the public aspect is hard. You can speak for an hour, and one 15-second clip will get taken out of context and blow up online. For me, the only way has been turning inwards — meditation, spirituality, and learning to detach. You can’t please everybody.

Episode 9: Ani and Ayan Sanyal — Founders of Kolkata Chai Co.

Some brands follow a playbook where community is an add-on, not an intentional investment. We decided community would be our cornerstone. - Ani Sanyal

Episode 10: Representatives Suhas Subramanyam, Raja Krishnamoorthi, and Shri Thanedar — U.S. Congressmen

“When I first ran for office, no South Asian had ever been elected in my state. People asked, ‘Can you really win?’ Being able to point to others — like Raja and Ro who had won — showed it was possible. That’s trailblazing — showing what’s possible, so more of us can follow.” - Rep. Subramanyam

Join the Trailblazers Inner Circle in 2026

🎙️ Write us a review and subscribe on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform

👍🏾 Follow us: Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, & TikTok.

🤝🏽 Partner with us: Not sure how? Reply here.

✍🏼 Share this newsletter with a friend seeking inspo in 2026.

🧢 Sport our new swag!

💌 Season 9 coming soon to your inboxes — Simi

A Note on 2025

This year, I decided that as a founder, I would set aside vanity metrics. I wouldn’t ignore them, but I wouldn’t chase them either. If we hit them, great. But I strived to measure Trailblazers more rigorously against how true we stayed to what makes us uniquely us. To me, that’s the reason you keep coming back — or came to us at all: because you saw something here of value, of substance, with deeper resonance than you could find anywhere else. If that’s true, how could I measure our success by anything else?

When we release an episode, host an event, or welcome a new listener or trailblazer into our orbit, I don’t want to be solely lasered on the metrics they teach you in business school — nor in the glam school of social media.

I wanted us to measure ourselves on the intangibles: how we made you feel in the room, on the authenticity that keeps you here and the connection that keeps you coming back; on our special sauce — a platform that is inspirational and aspirational, intimate yet accessible, cerebral yet evocative, and unflinchingly real in a world that is increasingly manufactured. I believe that’s how we continue to deserve the gift of your attention.

To those of you who’ve given it to us already — thank you. In a second, I’ll share where we netted out, but you choosing to be here and having as great a time as we are is the grandest win of all. I hope we made you proud this year.

In that spirit, I want to learn more about you, so please take this 6-minute survey ($100 Amazon gift cards & swag await you!)

🎁 In 2025, South Asian Trailblazers...

🎉 Celebrated 5 years, 8 seasons, and 80 stories of South Asian leadership told

👥 Grew our community to 30,000+

Special milestones: crossing 25,000+ of you on Instagram, nearly 8,000 on LinkedIn, and 3,000 of you right here ❤️

🌎 Gathered 1,000+ of you IRL 🗓️ across 10 events, 8 cities, and 2 countries

You met us in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Houston, Washington, D.C., London — meet us in your city in 2026

📱 Reached 1.9 million of you online…and went viral a few times

Just one of a few you loved:

🤝 Trusted by 35+ industry-leading companies, non-profits, and small businesses

We partnered with 14+ industry-leading organizations and collaborated with 20+ South Asian small businesses:

🎙️ Elevated 20+ new South Asian leaders — hosting live podcasts from the Oscars to Capitol Hill to the Fortune 500

From recording our most popular podcast ever with Vir Das — live in New York on the eve of his Netflix special — to sitting down with Fortune 500 CEOs like Revathi Advaithi (coming in Season 9 👀):

▶️ Launched our newest season on YouTube

Listeners tuned in from 150 countries, now able to see AND hear the mic-drop moments. (You still found us on every major podcast platform, especially Spotify. 😉👇)

🏢 Scaled our Agency, supporting individual & institutional clients

We supported organizations seeking to authentically reach South Asians — and advised global leaders on brand and narrative. We even hosted our first Agency event with leaders from LinkedIn and Axios.

🎉 Celebrated 5 years of South Asian Trailblazers — together

A milestone made meaningful by community:

💌 An Invitation: Join Us at the Table in 2026

2025 reminded me of something powerful: in the age of AI, community and connection win.

For the first time, we’re opening our invite-only Dinner with Trailblazers to you — as a ticketed fellowship in New York. You’ll gather around the dinner table with a senior South Asian leader and a curated group of professionals across 3 intimate dinners for real conversation and meaningful connection.

👉 Spots are limited. Join here for the details.

🎙️ Season 8: From comedians to Congress, this season’s mic-drop moments

Are you an ambitious leader? Here for the culture? Driven by a New Year’s resolution to engage with brain food instead of brain rot? Catching up on Season 8 of South Asian Trailblazers is a great place to start:

Episode 1: Jay Sean— Multi-Platinum Artist, Entrepreneur, & Record Label Executive

When you know you’re meant to do something, you just know it. I trusted my intuition, even when it didn’t make sense to anyone else. And when Virgin Records came to sign me, I told my parents, ‘It’s happened. I’m quitting medicine.’

Episode 2: Gurbir Grewal — Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement

When I was announced as Attorney General, I said I took this role so my daughters knew that there were no limitations on their success, that they could do whatever they wanted to do. That it doesn’t matter where you come from, what you look like, what your background is, what your gender is, who you love — that if you do the work, it’ll get recognized and you can achieve whatever success is in the cards for you.

Episode 3: South Asian Trailblazers at the Oscars — Charithra Chandran (Bridgerton), Saagar Shaikh (Deli Boys), Manish Dayal (90210, The Walking Dead), Sway Bhatia (Succession), Iqbal Theba (Glee)

Get an education so your parents get off your back, and then, don’t give up. There is a space for you, and no matter how hard it seems, there is a place for you in this industry. - Charithra Chandran

Episode 4: Dilawar Syed — U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Deputy Administrator

What I did know was that as an immigrant, you have to work twice as hard to get a seat at the table. And sometimes, even when you get there, people will try to push you out.

Episode 5: Sandeep Acharya — Founder and CEO of Octave Health

You hear about how cancer forces you to reevaluate your priorities. I feel like my priorities were pretty good — family and work. But being a lifelong musician... realizing I might lose that gift with my surgery made me realize there were so many things that, by not enjoying, I was doing myself a disservice. Celebrating your gifts is a good thing. It’s not immodest.

Episode 6: Vir Das — Comedian & Actor

My aim is that within 20 seconds of watching my art, you know who I am, and therefore, whether you remember a punch line or a lyric or not, you will remember who I am.

Episode 7: Ali Sethi — Musician

Two weeks before the song was supposed to go to Spotify, a mini war broke out between India and Pakistan. Indian singers were forbidden from collaborating with any Pakistani artists. We had to pull the song. This album is called Love Language, but it’s made in response to a very real hate language — one that stalks my creativity in the form of censorship, fear, and unsafety.

Episode 8: Karishma Mehta — Founder of Humans of Bombay

You prepare and you plan, but the minute you sit across someone like Ratan Tata or the Prime Minister, everything goes out the window. And yes, the public aspect is hard. You can speak for an hour, and one 15-second clip will get taken out of context and blow up online. For me, the only way has been turning inwards — meditation, spirituality, and learning to detach. You can’t please everybody.

Episode 9: Ani and Ayan Sanyal — Founders of Kolkata Chai Co.

Some brands follow a playbook where community is an add-on, not an intentional investment. We decided community would be our cornerstone. - Ani Sanyal

Episode 10: Representatives Suhas Subramanyam, Raja Krishnamoorthi, and Shri Thanedar — U.S. Congressmen

“When I first ran for office, no South Asian had ever been elected in my state. People asked, ‘Can you really win?’ Being able to point to others — like Raja and Ro who had won — showed it was possible. That’s trailblazing — showing what’s possible, so more of us can follow.” - Rep. Subramanyam

Join the Trailblazers Inner Circle in 2026

🎙️ Write us a review and subscribe on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform

👍🏾 Follow us: Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, & TikTok. Content and community events drop there first!

🤝🏽 Partner with us: Elevate your brand or company — sponsor an event, an episode, or a swag bag. Use our Agency to tap into our vast network of South Asian leaders. Want to partner with us, but not sure how? Reply here.

✍🏼 Share this newsletter with a friend seeking inspiration.

🧢 Sport our new swag!

Thank you to my amazing team, Sarah, Rhea, Aashna, Ariba, and Nandini for their incredible work this year.

See you in the new year, trailblazers — Simi Shah 💙

“You choose what you don’t change.” Choose to read this, if anything, today.

Hi, trailblazers — today, we have a historic close to Season 8. It’s a powerful live episode from the Impact Summit — a frank, timely conversation with 3 of the 6 South Asian members of Congress: Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08), Rep. Shri Thanedar (MI-13), and Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (VA-10).

Yes, this one’s a lil late. But it’s worth it. While we didn’t get the full Samosa Caucus, this trio still delivered a masterclass on leadership under pressure — from navigating unprecedented political violence to immigration and a looming government shutdown. But there’s also a whole lotta hope in here.

🔔 Do you consider yourself a trailblazer? Then join 20,000 others just like you by tuning in — on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or our site.

🇺🇸 Reps Krishnamoorthi, Thanedar, & Subramanyam — Fighting for the American Dream

Raja Krishnamoorthi, who previously joined us on South Asian Trailblazers, is in his fifth term representing Illinois’ 8th District. He is the first South Asian American to lead a Congressional committee, serving as Ranking Member of the Select Committee on Strategic Competition with the Chinese Communist Party. He also recently launched his Senate campaign!

Shri Thanedar, representing Michigan’s 13th District since 2022, is a former chemist, entrepreneur, and immigrant from southern India who rose from poverty to public service.

Suhas Subramanyam, elected in 2024 to represent Virginia’s 10th District, is the first Indian American elected to Congress from Virginia. A former Obama White House technology advisor and Virginia state legislator, he now serves on the Oversight and Science, Space, and Technology Committees.

🎧 This is South Asian leadership inside the nation’s highest halls of power. Episode excerpts below!

📅 Upcoming Events

We had a BLAST seeing you in September in Atlanta, D.C., San Francisco, and Boston! With more to come:

🌉 London — Nov 3-4: Diwali Special Event

Especially for our investor, operator, founder friends. RSVP Here.

🌟 Houston — Fri Dec 5: A Panel with Pratham USA
Join us for a special event celebrating South Asian leadership at the leading non-profit focused on education in India. RSVP Here

On Political Violence & Safety

Simi: We’ve seen a harrowing rise in political violence — most recently with the assassination of Charlie Kirk. How are you navigating your own safety, and how do we restore civil discourse?

Rep. Krishnamoorthi: “This hit home for me, because my name was in the Minnesota murderer’s notes. I only learned about this when I got home and there were two police cars stationed in my driveway, 24/7 for two weeks. It mirrored what happened after January 6, when threats caused the Capitol Police to send extra security. When you combine charged rhetoric with the mass proliferation of high-powered guns, you get the most vicious type of political violence you’ve ever seen. We have to stop this nonsense.”

Rep. Subramanyam: “Unfortunately, it’s becoming one of the risks of the job — but it shouldn’t be, and we can’t normalize it. My office got a threat that someone would bring an AR-15 to our office. Other members told me they got two death threats in one weekend. What’s not helpful is blaming the other side. What is helpful is making our events safer, and figuring out what’s fueling this online so we can fix it.”

Simi: Rep. Subramanyam, this is your first time serving in national elected office. It’s not about how your leadership style has evolved, but how you’re approaching it for the first time. How are you navigating these times?

Rep. Subramanyam: I feel like I’m playing with house money — I never thought I’d be here. They don’t elect a lot of people named Suhas Subramanyam in Virginia… now they do. The way I approach the job is to ask: how would I feel if I were just an ordinary person outside of politics, reading the news? What would I be complaining about? What would matter to me? That’s helped me not get stuck in the DC bubble. It’s easy to get lost in policy intricacies, but sometimes you have to step back and think about how the average person will digest this. Our job is to make the work visceral so people feel the impact.

🛂 On Immigration: America’s Competitive Edge

Simi: Congressman Krishnamoorthi, Illinois has seen ICE raids and even National Guard mobilization. How are you navigating that — and how should our community approach the immigration conversation?

Rep. Krishnamoorthi: Immigration is our number one competitive advantage. Nothing distinguishes the U.S. more — and yet we’re putting barriers not just on undocumented people but on legal immigrants who want to work and study here. That’s one of our biggest long-term diseases as a country right now. The cure is you — elections. We must make comprehensive immigration reform an election issue. I’ve called for an inspector general inside ICE because they’re acting with impunity. This has to be one of the top issues we vote on.

Rep. Thanedar: Forty years ago, I was 24, living in poverty in India, admitted to a PhD program here — and rejected for a visa five times by the same officer. I fainted in the consulate when my papers were pushed back. On the sixth attempt, I got lucky. That’s how broken our system is. Our greatness lies in immigrants and diversity, but this administration spreads hate. We have to fight it.

🌏 On U.S.–India Relations

Simi: With tariffs straining U.S.–India relations, what’s at stake for both countries?

Rep. Thanedar: Trump’s chaotic tariff policy is going to ruin the relationship. It risks pushing India into the arms of China and Russia — exactly what we should be countering. A stronger U.S.–India relationship is the best check on Chinese aggression.

Raja: Far-right voices like Laura Loomer, Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon are ascendant, and they detest us. For the first time, I’ve felt there are people who really don’t want us here. That hostility makes policies like these tariffs possible. We need to call it out — and build coalitions that push back.

In times like these, Diwali is a welcome celebration that brings our community together. As you gear up for the season, check out our popular Gift Guide — click in on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, & TikTok.

🌟 On Trailblazing (to leave you inspired!)

Simi: To close, what does trailblazing mean to you?

Rep. Thanedar: I achieved my American Dream, but realized life wasn’t about wealth — it was about helping others achieve their Dream. That’s what motivated me to serve.

Rep. Subramanyam: When I first ran, no South Asian had ever been elected in my state. People asked, ‘Can you really win?’ Being able to point to others who had won showed it was possible. That’s trailblazing — showing what’s possible so more of us follow.

Rep. Krishnamoorthi: America’s DNA isn’t about bloodlines or where you pray — it’s about equality and opportunity. Those values are in doubt today, and we have to be the warriors who fight for them. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow’s a mystery. But today is a gift — and America is worth fighting for.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Sad because Season 8 is ending? Catch up on every episode, including my convo with the brother-founder duo backed by Hasan Minhaj:

P.S. Back in a jif with our Season 8 recap — and a new guest you won’t want to miss.

Simi here! Today’s episode is one of my favorites ever. It’s with two trailblazing brothers and co-founders who’ve built one of the most iconic South Asian brands in America.

If you’re serious about leveling up — about building something iconic, scaling culture, or just learning from people who’ve actually done the founder thing — this one’s for you.

In today’s episode, we’re joined by Ani and Ayan Sanyal, founders of Kolkata Chai Co., an 8-figure masala chai brand that started out as a side hustle and now spans viral cafes in NYC, a booming e-commerce arm, and a cult following. We dive into everything — co-founder dynamics, fundraising from HNWs, and the business of community. And yes — we talk about their celebrity investor: Hasan Minhaj.

🔔 p.s. Are you a leader, operator, founder, executive, or aspiring one? More convos with trailblazers like you on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, SouthAsianTrailblazers.com.

Now, for today’s ☕ (literally).

☕ Ani & Ayan Sanyal — Founders, Kolkata Chai Co.: Brewing Culture & Community

Ani and Ayan Sanyal are the Bengali-American brothers behind Kolkata Chai Co., a fast-growing food & beverage brand bringing authentic masala chai to the Western world. What began in 2018 as a side hustle has since exploded into an 8-figure empire — with investors like the Founder of Vice Media and CPG Guru — and our previous guest — Nik Sharma, in the mix. Before Kolkata Chai, they co-founded a creative agency called Green Room Creative. Episode excerpts below!

Read on 🧠 Or just…let me interrupt your feed with some brain food — find us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, & yes, even TikTok.

📅 SAT in September: Upcoming Events

🌉 San Francisco — Mon Sept 22: LIVE PODCAST 👇

Join us for an exclusive evening with Revathi Advaithi — CEO of Flex, board member at Uber, and one of the most powerful women in business. RSVP Here

🌟 Boston — Weds Sept 24: LIVE PODCAST
Join us for an intimate evening with Rajesh Iyengar, Founder & CEO of Lincode Labs — a pioneer in applying AI to real-world manufacturing from aerospace to apparel giants like Nike. RSVP Here

Let me know when you're in my city

🌱 On the Origins of Kolkata Chai Co.

Simi: Ayan, in 2018, you were still running your agency, Green Room Creative, when you took a trip to India that planted the seed for Kolkata Chai Co. What happened?

Ayan: Every time I had a chai at cafés here, it was the worst thing imaginable. I grew up with this stuff — why wasn’t it being respected at the same level as an Ethiopian light roast? On that trip back to India, I started making chai every day and just thought: how do we bring this to New York City?

Simi: Ani, how did you react to this?

Ani: I was annoyed. We had work to do. We were full-fledged in the agency. Ayan’s the more creative one, and when he gets on a random art project I’m like, alright, do your thing. But he wouldn’t put it down. I was very lightly involved. I had a lot of things going on. At that time, I was managing an artist named Anik Khan. I was running the agency. I was starting Real Estate Fund. I was doing a lot, and it was just not something I could see. And if we fast forward a bit, that was one of our toughest conversations. Ayan said, ‘If you want this, if you want KCC to become what it can be, you have to wind down everything else. Or you have to find a way to spend 5% on everything else and 95% on this one thing.’ That was an important moment for us, but also a difficult one. We were building so many things, going all in on one thing felt unnatural, but it was probably the best decision we made.

🧠 On Being Co-Founders & Brothers

Simi: How do you guys navigate the co-founder dynamic as brothers?

Ayan: We did a lot of work on it. And personally, it’s one of the things I'm most proud of is being able to make this relationship work and make it work in terms of the business as well. We go to therapy together. We go to therapy separately. And we've all kind of worked on our issues. We just stepped it up and really figured it out.

🎶 Ali Sethi Live — Concert Ticket Giveaway!

We’re celebrating the release of Ali Sethi’s new album Love Language with a special giveaway of tickets in EVERY city.

👉 Head to our Instagram for your chance to win tickets to his latest shows. Or reply here with why you want to go for a chance to win tickets for your city. P.S. Don’t miss our episode with the musician.

💸 On Hasan Minhaj Investing

Simi: I want to double down on what you talked about in terms of some of your best investors actually being customers. Celebrity comedian Hasan Minhaj started as a devoted customer and then became the second-largest stakeholder in your company. Can you talk about how that partnership came to fruition?

Ani: Correct me if I’m wrong, Ayan, but we had never talked about a celebrity investor before. That was just something we had never cared for. Because I think we knew the power of KCC lied in the community… Bringing someone else on would be introducing them to the family.

My first meeting with him — I had no idea. He had told me that he was looking to get more involved in things on the brand side. I said great. I know a bunch of brands. I've been working with brands my whole life. I brought him a list of places that I thought might be a really good fit and he was like, ‘What about KCC?’ And I was like, ‘What about it?’ That was honestly our first conversation.

🎓 On fundraising from investors

Simi: You raised a $1 million dollar pre-seed round, but in a pretty non-traditional, unconventional way. You went to personalities, high net worth individuals in the space. What did that look like?

Ani: For everyone watching or from a similar situation — where you don’t have the pedigree of an Ivy League education, or you don’t come from environments where even opening your mouth to raise money is a normal thing… Those are all imposter syndrome–type of things we faced. But I always tell people: I can’t afford imposter syndrome.

Ayan: Back then, we were just two goons in the East Village making chai… That’s maybe the toughest part—not having the Rolodex and having to build it yourself… We had to really smarten up quickly.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Hooked yet? 🎙️ Catch up on our episode with Ali before heading to his his concert:

And look, there’s a LOT of brain rot out there.

My pitch to any of our listeners & readers is always this: Do you want to be a leader in your industry? Or at least, the top of your game? If so, you need to learn from the Top 1%. In building South Asian Trailblazers, I’m trying to give us all the opportunity to do that — to learn from people who look like you and have faced some of the same challenges and questions you did. So I hope you’ll join 20,000 professionals just like you…

🔔 Follow us on any platform you like to listen to podcasts: YouTube, Apple, Spotify, SouthAsianTrailblazers.com.

🧠 Or just…interrupt your feed with some anti-brain rot — find us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok.

Now, for today’s ☕…

All the way from Mumbai 🇮🇳✈️ our latest podcast features Karishma Mehta — Founder & CEO of Humans of Bombay, India’s largest storytelling platform. This memorable, previously unreleased conversation…is finally here. WATCH IT ON YOUTUBE.

📖 Karishma Mehta — Founder & CEO, Humans of Bombay: Storytelling at Scale

Karishma Mehta is the founder and CEO of Humans of Bombay, India’s largest storytelling platform. At just 21, she launched the platform on the streets of Mumbai, and in the decade since, she’s interviewed everyone from everyday citizens to icons like Ratan Tata and even the Prime Minister of India. Over the last decade, she has expanded the brand into YouTube shows, books, podcasts, and a creative agency, cementing Humans of Bombay as a force for storytelling in India. Episode excerpts below!

Wake me up when September ends:

🍑 Atlanta — Sept 5: Book Launch with Sheetal Sheth & Manish Dayal

🏛️ Washington, DC — Sept 15: Dinner with Trailblazers (Invite Only)

🌉 San Francisco — Mon Sept 22: LIVE PODCAST 👇 RSVP Here

More cities en route….

RSVP FOR MY CITY

✨ On Starting Out at 21

Simi: You launched Humans of Bombay at 21, after studying Industrial Economics at the University of Nottingham. Did you ever envision yourself becoming an entrepreneur?

Karishma: No, never. I thought it was the most boring thing on the planet, because my father runs his own business, and I was just like, this seems and feels boring. Somewhere along the line I realized I have a knack for it. And then once I started talking to strangers on Marine Drive, I knew there was no turning back.

⚖️ On Defining Success

Simi: How do you define success?

Karishma: Balance. For me, that’s success — because if you’re an entrepreneur, you see so many highs and lows. If you’re able to ride the curve, and not let a really big interview get to you, that’s success. It happens so quickly. Like, I’ve interviewed the Prime Minister, but Virat Kohli won’t give me an interview. So there’s always a level.

🌀 On Balance, Backlash, and Building in Public

Simi: You’ve interviewed Prime Ministers and titans of industry, and faced backlash in your work. How do you stay grounded?

Karishma: You prepare and you plan, but the minute you sit across someone like Ratan Tata or the Prime Minister, everything goes out the window. It’s overwhelming. And yes, the public aspect is hard. You can speak for an hour, and one 15-second clip will get taken out of context and blow up online. For me, the only way has been turning inwards — meditation, spirituality, and learning to detach. You can’t please everybody.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Hooked yet? 🎙️ Don’t be the only one who missed our viral episode with Vir Das:

On the heels of his NEW album Love Language, I spoke with world-renowned artist Ali Sethi. It was a full-circle moment: we both went to Harvard, were shaped by the same stages on campus, and found ourselves in a studio talking about shared identity and art. WATCH IT ON YOUTUBE. 👇🏽

Simi here! 5 years ago, I founded South Asian Trailblazers to elevate leading South Asians. Keep going 👇🏽 + find us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok for exciting events & episodes.

❤️‍🔥Ali Sethi — Singer & Songwriter: Turning Censorship into a Love Language

Ali Sethi is a world-renowned vocalist, songwriter, composer, and published author. He is known for blending classical South Asian forms with contemporary global genres. Born in Lahore, educated at Harvard, and currently based in New York, he studied under acclaimed mentors before rising to international acclaim with his viral hit “Pasoori,” which surpassed 1 billion streams.

He is the author of The Wish Maker, and his work has been featured in publications like The New York Times and The Washington Post. A TIME 100 NEXT honoree, he has performed at Carnegie Hall, Coachella, and we’re thrilled we got him on the pod. Episode excerpts below!

Join 20,000 trailblazers in subscribing 🔔 on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, SouthAsianTrailblazers.com, & socials.

🌍 Join us & friends in your city!

RSVP FOR MY CITY

🍑 Atlanta — September 5: Book Launch with Sheetal Sheth

🏛️ Washington, DC — September 15: Dinner with Trailblazers

🎬 Los Angeles — September 18: Live Podcast: Guest TBA

🌉 San Francisco — September 22: Live Podcast: Guest TBA

🗽 New York City — September 30: Dinner with Trailblazers

🤠 Houston — December 5: Panel Conversation

On the song that got censored

Simi: In some ways, this album is an ode to te experience you've had of being censored amid political tensions between Pakistan and India. Earlier this year, your music was banned in India. How have you grappled with that?

Ali Sethi: The first song, O Balama, was a beautiful duet I wrote featuring three voices — mine, my friend Tariq Al-Sabir, and a leading Bollywood singer. We recorded it as a kind of love song between countries and cultures. It was meant to be the follow-up to Pasoori.

But two weeks before it was supposed to go to Spotify, a mini war broke out between India and Pakistan. Indian singers were forbidden from collaborating with any Pakistani artists. So we had to pull the song.

This album is called Love Language, but it’s made in response to a very real hate language — one that stalks my creativity in the form of censorship, fear, and unsafety. That’s the tension I wanted to preserve. This song —what’s left of it — bears the scars of the war it survived.

The album is a cabaret for the End Times.

🏳️‍🌈 On Growing Up Queer and Finding Refuge in Classical Music

Simi: Tell us about your upbringing, about working across genres, languages, countries. Do you feel the pressure to offer multicultural representation through your music?

Ali Sethi: I definitely had that — this sense that to do it for music’s sake was not enough. It had to feel like activism, or like it was changing the world in some way. Partly because I think my parents expected that of me, and I didn’t feel like I had the license to be just an artist.

When you grow up queer, and you feel marginal, you end up relating to things that are also marginalized. And certainly in Pakistan, classical music was shadowy and marginal. It wasn’t really state-supported. I was drawn to it — it felt like this beautiful, velvety, misunderstood thing. And I wanted to be enrobed in it.

There’s a line I love — John Berger says this about Walter Benjamin: “Most people assume the antiquarian and the revolutionary are opposites… but they both reject the present as given.” That’s how I feel. I love the archives, I love the remote past — but I’m also impatient to build a better future. Music became a way to do both.

💥 On the Global Explosion of “Pasoori”

Simi: Let’s talk about Pasoori. It’s been streamed over a billion times. Did you expect it to be a breakout success?

Ali Sethi: I expected it to be a hit. But three months in, I thought: This is crazy — to see so many people get behind it all over the world, and then to see little children just recite it like a nursery rhyme. Kids growing up in Toronto or Madrid — their parents will post reels of them singing it. There’s something about the melody that makes you want to throw it back. It’s hooky. But I did not know it would be the song that anyone with any South Asian connection — all over the world would be singing and dancing to.

On Red as Resistance

Simi: You use a lot of red in the visuals of your latest album. Why?

Ali Sethi: I said to my friend Somnath… I want to evoke poetry as armor. I am shielding myself and my community from all the hate and the fires of the world — with extreme delicacy and beauty. How do we convey that in a way that feels both ancient and South Asian but also futuristic? That’s what this album cover is about.

Red is traditionally the color of revolution, right? But also, red is the color of seduction. Red is the color of flirtation.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Hooked yet? 🎙️ Don’t be the only one who missed our viral episode with Vir Das:

🤫✨ Trailblazers Founding Circle Membership

They say we are the sum of the 5 people we spend the most time with. What if you were spending more time with trailblazers?

We’re kicking off with a pilot dinner on Tuesday, September 30 in NYC. 20 rising professionals in conversation with a prominent South Asian trailblazer. Want the invite? Reply Invite to this email.

Hi! Simi here. On the night his new Netflix special FOOL VOLUME hit screens, I sat down with global comedy icon Vir Das for an unforgettable podcast live-recorded at the ‪Asia Society New York. WATCH IT ON YOUTUBE.

This is South Asian Trailblazers — a media platform, community, and agency dedicated to elevating leading South Asians. Here, I share a conversation with a trailblazer, every other week. Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok to catch our next event or episode.

🎤Vir Das — Actor & Comedian: Indian Comedy is not SILENT

Born in Dehradun, raised in Lagos, and educated everywhere from Delhi to Knox College in Illinois, Vir Das is definitionally global.

He’s traversed Indian cinema and inspired India’s comedy scene – from crowd favorites like Delhi Belly to performing stand-up at Carnegie Hall. In his career, he has worn the hats of actor, director, writer, comic, and soon-to-be author.

To date, he’s released five global specials – winning an Emmy for his special, Landing in 2023. In 2024, he hosted the International Emmy Awards. Vir was the first Indian comedian from India to launch a special on Netflix.

This year, he’s back with his boldest work yet — this special, a memoir entitled The Outsider: A Memoir for Misfits, and a host of other inspired projects. Episode excerpts below!

Hooked yet? 🎙️ Join 20,000 trailblazers in listening 🔔 on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, and SouthAsianTrailblazers.com.

Vir Das on losing his voice before filming Full Volume

Simi: You lost your voice six weeks before you were supposed to record this special — and suddenly, a show that’s supposed to be about joy gets rewritten around silence. What was that like?

Vir: I woke up the day we sold out a stadium in 20 minutes — and my voice was just gone. My family immediately said, “It’s the Nazar.” I tried everything: vocal doctors, adult speech therapy, Ayurveda, chakra healing… nothing worked. I didn’t cancel. I just waited. And five days before the show, it came back.

Usually, when you film a Netflix special, you’re at your tightest. You've done 180 shows. You're rehearsed. I just spent six weeks in silence with my own intrusive thoughts. So it became a show about silence, but not so much mine, but also yours, and not so much my voice, but also what it means for the audience to have a voice.

On the Emmy win that almost didn’t happen

Simi: After the “Two Indias” controversy, people were afraid to work with you. Projects were canceled. But somehow you went from that to winning an Emmy. What happened?

Vir: So Netflix had signed the contract to do another special post–Two Indias. So there's a lady called Natalie at Netflix, and she called me two months after that, and she's like, “You gonna do a show about it?” And I was like, “Yes.” And then the Netflix global mandate for Indian comedy changed, and they got rid of a bunch of specials, and mine was one of the specials that got axed. So I have no work, right?

And this one project that I’d put everything in my heart into is canceled. And there’s a Netflix exec called Tanya, who's wonderful. I called her up on vacation — just bluster and desperation — I was like, “Tanya, either I go to this network and that network who have never fucking heard of me, by the way, and I'll work with them, or you and me go get nominated for an Emmy together.”

Vir: And she was like, “All right, give me two weeks. You seem very passionate about this.” And then we shot Landing, and then we got nominated for an Emmy together.

Simi: You manifested an Emmy.

Vir: I manifested — yeah, this is what you Gen Z kids call manifestation. This is manifestation, guys.

On advice for creatives trying to break through

Simi: You’ve said this is one of the best times to be a comic. What advice would you give to the younger version of you, to creatives trying to break through?

Vir: I’m not giving this advice from a place of success, but from a place of desire. My aim is that within 20 seconds of watching my art, you know who I am, and therefore, whether you remember a punch line or a lyric or not, you will remember who I am.

And so with artists, I would say, even if you don't feel fully formed yet, and even if you haven't done your 10,000 hours yet, unapologetically put yourself into who you are, make sure that they know you real quick, and that connection will be deeper and longer lasting.

🎙️ We return with Vir Das in two weeks — 🔔 on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, and SouthAsianTrailblazers.com.

🌍 Catch us in your city!

Live podcasts and networking mixers across the globe.

RSVP FOR MY CITY

• 🎤 LA — Wednesday, August 13

• 🍽️ DC — Monday, September 15

• 🌉 San Francisco — Monday, September 22

• 🍹 NYC Networking Mixer — TBD

• 🎓 Boston — Wednesday, September 24

• 🤝 Houston — Monday, November 3

🤫✨ Trailblazers Founding Circle Membership

They say we are the sum of the 5 people we spend the most time with. What if you were spending more time with trailblazers?

We’re kicking off with a pilot dinner on Tuesday, September 30 in NYC. 20 rising professionals in conversation with a prominent South Asian trailblazer.

Want the invite? Reply Invite to this email.

The Trailblazers Founding Circle is our VIP membership for those looking to go deeper:

• 🍽️ Intimate, off-the-record events with South Asian leaders

• 🎙️ Early + discounted access to our live podcasts

• 🤝 Invites to curated mixers and salons

• 🎟️ Insider perks at some of NYC’s most riveting cultural events

Hi! Simi here. Welcome back to South Asian Trailblazers — a media platform, community, and agency dedicated to elevating leading South Asians.

In exciting news, we’re sitting down with Vir Das, international Emmy-winning comedian, the night before his latest Netflix special, Fool Volume, drops.

Y’all have been asking... so yes, we sold out in under 24 hours. 😮‍💨

🗓️ Fear not, we have several events coming across the U.S. (RSVP below) + an exciting new membership that will guarantee you early access (this is NOT the time to stop scrolling). 👀

🎧 But first, did you miss me? And by me, I mean the podcast.

🧠 2,500+ leaders read this newsletter.
🎧 2,500+ leaders have streamed our episode with Jay Sean.
Are you really going to be the one missing out?

Binge the best of Season 8 before we’re back in 2 weeks:

• 🎶 EP 1: Jay Sean — From med school stardom, the artist and label exec opens up about risk and reinvention, and quitting med school…to rap.

• 🧑🏽‍⚖️ EP 2: Gurbir Grewal — The SEC’s top enforcer gets personal on justice, leadership, and the post-9/11 journey that shaped him.

• 🎬 EP 3: South Asians at the Oscars — Featuring Mindy Kaling, Charithra Chandran, Manish Dayal, Saagar Shaikh & more — a front-row seat to history-makers in Hollywood.

• 🇺🇸 EP 4: Dilawar Syed — From Silicon Valley to the SBA, this public servant-entrepreneur talks AI, small business, and being America’s highest-ranking Muslim official.

• 🧠 EP 5: Sandeep Acharya — Cancer survivor. Tech exec. Mental health reformer. A powerful conversation on healing, leadership, and building Octave.

🎙️ We return with Vir Das in two weeks — 🔔 on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, and SouthAsianTrailblazers.com.

🌍 I see London, I see France: Catch us in your city!

Thank you to the beautiful people of London who showed up and showed out — we missed you. And we’re not stopping:

RSVP FOR MY CITY

• 🇬🇧 London — June 12 (complete!)

• 🗽 NYC — Thursday, July 17: Vir Das Live Podcast (sold out!)

• 🎤 LA — Wednesday, August 13

• 🍽️ DC — Monday, September 15

• 🌉 San Francisco — Monday, September 22

• 🍹 NYC Networking Mixer — TBD (August)

• 🎓 Boston — Wednesday, September 24

• 🤝 Houston — Monday, November 3

Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok for the deets.

🤫✨ Trailblazers Founding Circle Membership

They say we are the sum of the 5 people we spend the most time with.

What if you were spending more time with trailblazers?

The Trailblazers Founding Circle is our VIP membership for those looking to go deeper:

• 🍽️ Intimate, off-the-record events with South Asian leaders

• 🎙️ Early + discounted access to our live podcasts

• 🤝 Invites to curated mixers and salons

• 🎟️ Insider perks at some of NYC’s most riveting cultural events

💌 Forward this to a friend who needs the invite.
- Simi

Five trailblazers. Five journeys. Five reasons to keep listening.

Hey, trailblazers — it’s Simi — and welcome back to South Asian Trailblazers! This season, we said go big or go home. Every single episode is now on video, available to watch on YouTube. I’ll make it easy and take you there:

I love getting smarter

Lemme fuel Simi's villain origin story

My villain origin story:

“You’re so funny.”

Thanks, my readers got this far in the newsletter, but didn’t watch the episode <3 Okay, enough of that, here’s a recap of this season so far — like you needed more convincing!

🎶 EP 1: Jay Sean, Artist & Record Label Executive

From med school to Billboard No. 1s. 🎙️ Mic Drop Moment:

Jay Sean gets real about taking risks, his ‘Rocky moment,’ and launching 3AM Entertainment to elevate the next generation of South Asian artists:

🧑🏽‍⚖️ EP 2: Gurbir Grewal, Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement

From getting bullied after 9/11 to leading enforcement at the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) —🎙️ Mic Drop Moment:

A live episode with a senior government leader — recorded with the South Asian Bar Association of New York and Morrison Foerster:

🎬 EP 3: South Asians at the Oscars

With Mindy Kaling, Charithra Chandran, Manish Dayal, and the Deli Boys. 🎙️ Mic Drop Moments — too many to count:

“A sign of a good actor — but also maybe a bit of a trap — is when people think you are your character.” — Charithra Chandran (Bridgerton)

“I come from a gas station family like my character in Deli Boys. The only difference is [my character] Raj just wants to do drugs. I just wanted to be an actor.” — Saagar Shaikh (Deli Boys)

“My kids see brown people on TV every day. I didn’t grow up with that. They don’t like anything I do — but they see it, and that’s what matters.” — Manish Dayal (90120, The Resident)

Go behind the scenes of Hollywood’s South Asian celebration at the 2025 Academy Awards.

🇺🇸 EP 4: Dilawar Syed, U.S. Small Business Administration's (SBA) Former Deputy Administrator

America’s then-highest-ranking Muslim official.🎙️ Mic Drop Moment:

From Silicon Valley to the State Department, Dilawar talks how small businesses can win in the age of AI, getting access to capital, and why he had to win his confirmation battle:

🧠 EP 5: Sandeep Acharya, Founder and CEO of Octave Health — revolutionizing mental health

Cancer survivor. Tech founder. Mental health reformer. 🎙️ Mic Drop Moment:

A powerful conversation on leadership, healing, and building a company that centers care:

🚨 What’s Next?

More unapologetic South Asian excellence. But if we tell the stories, we need you to hear them.

📺 Subscribe on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, to catch every conversation
📩 Forward this newsletter to a friend who needs the inspiration
📱 Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

Season 8 returns in a few weeks. Are you ready?

Hi! Welcome back to South Asian Trailblazers — a media platform, community, and agency dedicated to elevating leading South Asians. Two weeks ago, I introduced you to Dilawar Syed — the Former Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administrator. Moments from our episode with him went viral (the episode is at the bottom of this newsletter):

Today, I’m introducing you to Sandeep Acharya, Founder & CEO of Octave — a company transforming mental health care in America.

In this conversation, we go far beyond the bullet points — talking about his recent battle with cancer and what it really takes to build a company that’s both mission-driven and sustainable. Watch it on YouTube or listen on Apple, Spotify, and SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. & find the highlights on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

Season 8 Episode 5 🎤 Sandeep Acharya — Founder & CEO of Octave Health

Sandeep Acharya is the Founder & CEO of Octave, a company that’s reshaping the mental health care landscape by making exceptional care the standard.

Under his leadership, Octave has partnered with major insurers to make high-quality, affordable therapy accessible across 23 states. It’s been named one of the best places to work in the country several times.

Before founding Octave, Sandeep wore many hats: investor at Bain Capital and Insight, consultant at Bain & Company, and executive at One Medical — where he helped scale the company nationwide and saw firsthand how deeply unmet our mental health needs are. Select excerpts below — condensed and lightly edited for clarity!

On facing cancer — and celebrating joy

Simi: You're back at work after undergoing treatment for thyroid cancer. How did that experience shift your perspective?

Sandeep: You hear about how cancer forces you to reevaluate your priorities. I feel like my priorities were pretty good—family and work, they're fine. But I think I had taken the things I have for granted. One of those is music. I’ve been a lifelong musician... realizing I might lose that gift with my surgery made me realize there were so many things that, by not enjoying, I was doing myself a disservice. [...] I flew across the country to do karaoke with my 10 masala buddies. I threw a birthday party when I turned 40... and I realized: sometimes celebrating your gifts is a good thing. It’s not immodest. We should do it.

On the broken mental health system

Simi: What makes mental health care such a difficult problem to solve?

Sandeep: We under-reimburse mental health professionals by about $6 billion. Professionals can make 30% more just charging cash and not dealing with insurance. So prior to about five or six years ago, most professionals in America were not even taking insurance. That’s the first thing.

The second thing is it’s very hard to determine what good looks like. And the last thing is, it’s a very hard matching problem. When you combine those three or four things, what happens is four out of 10 patients quit in the first month of treatment. And it’s not only hard to find a practitioner, but when you find a practitioner, you’re don’t gett the help you need. And people say, 'Hey, I’m just not right for therapy.' Well, it’s actually not true....There isn’t enough work to make sure you end up with the right person. The real question is: how do we fix this market failure at scale?

On building Octave’s culture

Simi: Octave has been named a top place to work. How did you build that kind of culture?

Sandeep: I got great advice along the way from a coach who I work with, and one of the things that she told me is: you create your culture by how you treat your leadership team and how they interact with each other. The people that you bring in and the manner in which you interact informs how they interact with other people. I focused really hard on hiring a team that I felt was apolitical, was focused on the core mission, and was smart and assertive but not too aggressive. And then I tried to create a culture where we could openly disagree with each other, where we understood each other as humans, not just as workers. So one of the things that we do is a check-in where we spend 15 minutes before we start every meeting and we talk about something random, like, 'What’s your favorite show growing up?' Over time, people get to know each other on a really related level,