Started First Business
Companies Founded
Global Employees
Enterprise Value Created
WEEKLY TRANSPARENT PROGRESS
AUTHORS
STREAMS
ALBUMS
USERS
Beyond the labels, fancy titles and numbers, I'd like to show you the real me and provide a little more insight on what inspired me to launch the Haute Mindset community.
Read on for my long, winding journey to where I am today.
Growing up in India, I became acutely aware of the inequalities and challenges that girls face from a very young age.
All I had to do was look around me, talk with elderly women, turn on the TV or flip through the pages of a magazine to get the memo: women were expected to be domesticated and only men were encouraged to thrive and pursue ambitious careers.
Girls weren’t supposed to be ambitious, we weren’t allowed to do risky things like play impact sports.
I often asked “Why can’t girls do that?” and the answer to my question was always simply, “Because you are a girl and those things are for boys.” For an independent, high-achieving, driven girl like me, this didn’t sit well.
Fine, I thought. I’ll pretend to be a boy.
When I was 12-years-old, I got a boy haircut from my father’s barber without prior approval. I started to dress like a boy and do “boy” activities - not because I truly wanted to be a boy, but because I desperately wanted to be able to do the things boys were allowed to do.
For me, this haircut was more than a cosmetic shift; it was an act of rebellion and a symbol of self-empowerment. It was my own way of rejecting who I was expected to be and a decision to take charge and call the shots. That, I believe, was the beginning of Haute Mona.
I had just set "haute" standards for myself and it was the first time I challenged the norms of what a woman could do, but certainly not the last.
I wouldn't be a successful entrepreneur today if I were afraid of discomfort.
It’s no secret that my parents had a huge impact on the person I am today. I often credit my father for my entrepreneurial drive and my mother for being my "North Star". Together, they set me on a path to explore a future without limits, and empowered me to travel beyond the boundaries of my comfort zone.
After high school, I wanted to come to the US for higher education. I was eager to experience life outside India and create the life I always dreamed of, in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
After much deliberation, I decided to attend Rutgers University in New Jersey, in part, because I had an aunt who lived close by. Being nearly 8,000 miles away from home, this gave my parents a level of comfort and security.
Even with a family member nearby, I had to cope with this enormous life transition without a familiar social network and support system.
Between navigating language and cultural barriers and my lack of familiarity with American customs, even seemingly simple tasks such as buying groceries, navigating through the snow, or opening a bank account required extra effort.
As anyone who has dealt with a significant life transition knows: the unfamiliar can be overwhelming no matter the scale of the event. Often, we have some level of control over our lives' day-to-day changes, but as an immigrant, everything becomes unfamiliar overnight.
Although my time at Rutgers proved to be a success academically, I was ready to return to familiar surroundings as weeks turned into months. I decided that it was best to complete my undergraduate education in India. And hopped on the next flight back home at the end of the spring semester.
It took me a few years to truly crystallize the valuable lesson from this experience, and after deep reflection on my journey up until that point, one lesson became abundantly clear: discomfort is a prerequisite for accomplishment. All things that are worthwhile are difficult.
This "aha" moment gave meaning to a situation I initially viewed as a personal setback.
At 22, I decided to dust myself off and try again. I packed three large suitcases with most of my priceless possessions and moved from India to Dallas, Texas.
Since returning to the U.S., I’ve earned a graduate degree and founded eight companies in industries like Healthcare, Tech and Real Estate.
My varied expertise has provided me with the unique ability to integrate multiple industries to create strategies for success. I can easily navigate between being an abstract thinker with a maker’s mindset to an operationally-driven CEO, which allows me to see things others may miss.
Often dubbed a Renaissance woman, I possess both breadth and depth of knowledge at very disparate areas with the unique ability to integrate it across various industries. This approach has served me well and led to exponential business growth. It also helped me to transition from not just living the Haute Mindset but also appreciating and collecting haute fashion.
But I’m not all tenacity and drive; my spiritual upbringing stressed the qualities of humility, empathy, compassion, and kindness.
.jpg)
A few years ago, despite my tremendous material success, I was left feeling unfulfilled.
I was seeking a deeper purpose — and found it after a soul-searching conversation with my mother, who helped me realize I needed to be grounded to my values and what mattered most: giving back and creating a legacy of positive impact.
When you reach a certain level of success, I believe it's essential to not forget how you got there and to throw down the ladder for others to climb up.
And what better way to do that than empowering girls through the work of my nonprofit organization Couture for Cause and by utilizing my personal platform to remind other women that they can be whatever they want to be.
Today, I’m an advocate for gender equality and an investor in women's entrepreneurship and girls’ education because I understand first-hand how to transform your life into a position of strength.
In 2017, researchers from NYU, Princeton, and the University of Illinois collaborated to present this finding from their groundbreaking research on the subject.
They also reported that, by the age of six, girls stop associating brilliance with their gender. They start avoiding activities that require what they perceive to be high levels of intelligence.
When these gender stereotypes regarding a lack of intellectual ability in females take root early, they are believed to have life-long negative effects on women’s interests, choices, and career paths.
Through the work of my nonprofit Couture for Cause, I aim to change this.
While women have made consistent and impressive gains in education attainment and the workplace over the last 50 years, men still outnumber women in high-ranking leadership positions by large margins across many organizations, including in universities, businesses, courts, unions, and religious institutions.
If you’ve read this far, thank you. I hope this is just the beginning of our relationship and I’d love to learn more about you. To learn more, sign up for my newsletter and check out my blog.
If you're a first-time WOC founder, the best way to share that and stay connected is to pre-apply to become a member of our Haute Mindset private community.
To join us, simply click here to fill out the short application.
