My Story

Wow! I am blessed to live my dreams.

Early years

Education and global experience have made me the free and independent person I am today. I always say that I never want to stop learning, because the day I do, I will stop growing as a person. It’s so important to travel and meet people and expand our horizons. Without either, we will never be able to tap into the infinite opportunities out there. I have been extremely fortunate to have lived across the world since childhood, having lived and studied across US, UK and Asia. This has not only made me an independent person but also sensitive to different cultures and people. It allowed me to see the way world works and how we can all make an impact with our experiences and education. My diverse experiences have allowed me to think how I can impact those around me. Having lived in Asia, and being witness to the widening income inequality, the contrast between urban and rural, makes you think of frugal innovation. Makes you think of what an immense impact new technology can make in the field of education, work, finance and healthcare.

My family

I love my work and I love my family. As a mother and reflecting on my adolescence, I realize how a mother believes in you, supports you and helps you embrace your strengths and weaknesses as you build the determination to move forward. It’s so nice to have been inspired by the way my father has led an exciting and successful journey. I have grown up among dreamers, my brother, the avid footballer and sportsman and my sister, the multitalented social media queen, who are like my children, my lifelines and who are my go-to buddies for everything. For a women, it’s so important to have a loving and supportive family. My extremely supportive and passionate husband, inspires me every day to take more risk and achieve more. All of this comes together so beautifully as I think of my little bundle of joy, Aveer, for whom I want to touch the stars and bring the moon and make everything colorful, like a rainbow.

My exciting career

My private equity and venture capital career took me across the globe, starting with Aureos Capital in London, before I took the mantle of managing the Vashistha global family office – Tholons Capital, based out of San Jose, California. Along the way I met amazing women who were investors, founders, creators and mothers. I learnt from their commitment to execute their ambitious visions and the tenacity and skill with which they navigated and executed challenges. I wanted more women to participate as entrepreneurs and investors, giving me the opportunity to participate in their journeys to change the world. I was fortunate to have amazing global women leaders who inspired me to launch the first women entrepreneurship fund (Saha Fund) and were my early believers. Saha Fund, was the first venture capital fund globally to invest in women entrepreneurship, to provide capital, networks and support to female founders and all companies that are working to create a thriving ecosystem for women to participate as economic contributors.

My inspiration

My thoughts and inspirations are a culmination of meeting and being able to work with the most amazing and special people in my life. Teachers at School, made me a free and an independent thinker. My mentors have always inspired me every day to come to work with their ‘never say never spirit’. I am always curious and intrigued and love to talk to successful, trail blazing, passionate leaders. Be it crazy entrepreneurs who make innovation happen. Be it the perseverance of extraordinary visionaries that make the impossible, possible! Be it, the women entrepreneurs who achieve their dreams, implement innovation at scale and create a unicorn against all odds. I take my passion from these amazing individuals that I have come across.

My passion

How can we empower women in a world, where still, only a single digit percent of women represent startups and companies at leadership positions? How can we get 50% of the population actively involved in the working ecosystem? How can we bring in all the amazing innate qualities a woman has, and inculcates in the multiple roles she takes on during her lifetime, to the workplace? This thought pushed me to think about diversity and inclusivity, and I launched a non-profit in the US – MyStepUp Entrepreneurial and Innovation Foundation, with the primary goal to impact more women entrepreneurs to get funded, more women entrepreneurs-in-residence across VC funds and have more women in leadership positions. To create gender balance in business, we need to create a huge wave of women entrepreneurship and get everyone involved in thinking about it. We must make an impact by not just thinking, but by actually doing and implementing. My GOAL by 2025 is to scale to 200 spoke points (25 universities, 100 companies, 25 incubators-accelerators and 50 public organizations), impacting 50,000 women. Our evidence-based solution will reduce wage gap for priority population by 50%, triple women entrepreneurs who get funded and increase women of color in leadership positions by 50%.

My fantastical vision

I am euphoric on the launch of StrongHer Capital, the largest and most impactful venture capital fund platform for women entrepreneurs. The fund is investing in Femtech, Fintech and Future of Work. I am also excited at creating a pre-seed fund to engage and invest in 100 startups by 2025. I am doing 100 things to make StrongHer Capital platform live up to what I have built in my dreams. I feel a sense of excitement, impatience, urgency, rush of energy and am very happy on how it is spilling over to get more leaders, entrepreneurs, enterprises and investors involved. I definitely feel that we are on to something amazing and great.