Hello! I’m Simi Shah, and I dive deep into the journeys of South Asian trailblazers. This issue concludes Season 4. Subscribe and follow us on Apple, IG, & LinkedIn for updates on Season 5!
This season we’re celebrating…
🌎 Reaching listeners in 122 countries
✍️ Getting featured on Cheddar TV, Morning Brew, and Apple Podcasts
📝 Partnering with 10+ South Asian brands who sponsored our season
🎙️ Hosting events: our first-ever live podcast, a mixer, and the launch of our Dinner with Trailblazers series!
🔥 Showcasing 10 phenomenal trailblazers
None of these achievements would be possible without you all, so thank you! In case you’re wondering how to…
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Season 4 Sparknotes 🔥
This season — like every other — was unprecedented. We welcomed firsts in fashion and fitness; serial entrepreneurs and seasoned execs. But what struck me most this season was the radical candor. Payal Kadakia discusses her decision to part with ClassPass; Shilpa Shah talks about the intense struggles of juggling motherhood and entrepreneurship; Sushma Dwivedi underscores the burden of online hate; Maneesh Goyal shares his coming out story; and Saeed Ahmed reveals the realities of being a Muslim journalist in post 9/11 America.
At Trailblazers, we strive to cut beneath the surface, to dive deeper, and this season, we really did.
More in our season summary below. If someone’s story really resonates, we’d love to know — drop us a line!
Episode 1: Payal Kadakia, Founder @ ClassPass
All of my investors have seen me dance. Because when I'm on stage, I know I go to a totally different level. Because I don't know anyone who's seen someone in their element and said, 'Oh, I wouldn't invest in this person.'
The decade’s first Unicorn founder, Payal details how her passion for dance laid the foundations for ClassPass, the art of the pandemic pivot, and why she’s obsessed with the number 2.
Episode 2: Saeed Ahmed, Director of Digital News @ NPR
I kept trying to join my college newspaper and they would say, 'No, we don't need you right now.' So one day, I took a copy of the paper and I circled all the mistakes in red. I left them a yellow sticky note saying, 'This is why you need me.' The next day, they took me on.
Saeed takes us through his journey in journalism — an immigrant from Bangladesh turned Atlanta-based cops and crimes beat reporter who’s now shaping the future of news at NPR.
Episode 3: Sushma Dwivedi, Head of Comms @ Daily Harvest and Pundit
When I got married, it was the first time I realized how hard it would be to find a pundit if you were Hindu and LBGTQ+. So I got ordained. My amma helped me contemporize the rituals and get it down to a 35-minute science. Today, I've officiated over 42 weddings.
Sushma takes us through the whirlwind world of comms, both in-house and agency life. She also dives into her experience as a Hindu pundit who’s officiated 40+ weddings, many for LGBTQ+ couples — and one while she was in labor.
Episode 4: Usman Ahmed, Head of Global Public Policy and Research @ PayPal
I still don't know what I'm doing. Most people don't, and there's nothing wrong with that. We live in a dynamic world. We're all trying to do our best. If your ethos and focus is on trying to do whatever you can to improve the lives of those around you, you're gonna do great.
How did this lawyer find a home in tech? Usman digs into the linkages between his childhood attending protests on Capitol Hill and building PayPal's policy arm post-spinoff.
Episode 5: Shilpa Shah, Founder @ Cuyana
Why would we spend energy building something that already existed? To this day, the way we make and produce products is different. Because we aren't trying to make a different economic proposition. We are trying to blow up the way products are made.
Shilpa is a mover and shaker in the new cohort of conscious executives stewarding the future of D2C consumer goods. She sheds light on the success of Cuyana’s ‘fewer, better’ philosophy and the raw realities of being a female founder.
Episode 6: Aparna Shewakramani, Breakout Star of Indian Matchmaking and Author
Season ones of shows are interesting. You'll see this rawness, hope, and vulnerability in the contestants that you'll never see again. I can tell you this: every single person on Indian Matchmaking' was really looking. Because wouldn't it have been great, if at least one of us had found someone and you could've seen it on screen?
Our first podcast with a LIVE audience! Aparna goes beyond her claim to fame — recounting her life from surviving Hurricane Harvey to her battle with an autoimmune disease. She gets real: how life changed after Indian Matchmaking and what she’s done to set the record straight.
Episode 7: Maneesh Goyal, Founder & Partner @ SONA NYC
In November 2001, I got a call from Puff Daddy's office to do his New Year's Eve party in Miami. A gay Indian guy ended up working for an impresario of hip hop. None of it makes sense. But I was willing to take risks. And I said yes, a lot more than I ever said no.
Maneesh talks about the role of identity in his various entrepreneurial endeavors, including his latest: launching New York’s iconic SONA restaurant with Priyanka Chopra and paying homage to the first Indian restaurant in Texas.
Episode 8: Aditi Shah, Instructor @ Peloton and PUMA Ambassador
I'm so happy that people can see Shoba Narayan on Broadway and see me at Peloton and think, 'Oh, I could take a different path.' Because I didn't see that representation growing up. And I'm so grateful to be a part of a platform where I can be myself and say, ‘Hi, I'm Aditi, welcome to Peloton Yoga.’
Aditi unlocks representation in fitness, covering everything from cultural appropriation concerns to spearheading the yoga and meditation practice at a pandemic player like Peloton. More on how this math major charted an unlikely path.
Episode 9: Dr. Sreekanth Chaguturu, Chief Medical Officer @ CVS Health
I spent a year in South India, and I found that the questions I was asking, 'What are the right medications to give in a resource limited setting?' were not the questions that were of interest to my patients. They were asking, 'How do I get medications? How do I access a doctor and get treatment at all?'
We traverse Sree's unique positioning as a leader who’s operated from the industry's 3 critical vantage points: that of business leader, practicing physician, and distinguished academic — and that too, during a pandemic.
Episode 10: Megha Rao, Fashion Designer and Founder @ holiCHIC
I'm not trying to solve everything at once. There's too many things: 'Are we sustainable? Are we inclusive?' My priority has always been to make people feel included when they wear my clothes. Once I feel we've achieved that, we'll move onto solution #2. We're all human. We have to take it step by step.
Megha discusses how she leveraged her experiences in modeling and corporate America to break into fashion design. She underscores what sets holiCHIC apart and what it’s meant to outfit icons like mentor Payal Kadakia and actress Mindy Kaling.