Power Women

We are excited to host Kamal Hassan, Founding Partner Loyal VC for a talk on Angel and VC Investing. Over 30% of Loyal’s companies have a woman CEO, which is ten times the industry average. Kamal Hassan is a founding partner of Loyal VC, a fund taking an unconventional approach to early stage investing. He is also a Global Director with Founder Institute, the world's largest idea-stage accelerator. Kamal has spent 18 years as a startup and growth stage CEO, startup accelerator director, angel investor, and mentor to over 300 startups. He currently holds equity in 80 early stage companies. Kamal previously was a consultant at Bain & Co. Kamal has an MBA from INSEAD.

• What are the private equity, venture capital and angel asset classes?
• Why do top investors include these private market assets in their portfolio?
• What is the fundamental math for making money in angel, VC and PE?
• What are the three sobering realities of VC and angel investing?
• What is venture's gender and race problem, and why does it matter to you making money?

#InternationalWomensDay is coming soon and we would like to make some noise! As part of the celebration, we are bringing powerful stories from women who have been shattering the ceiling, setting new norms and inspiring us all! #EmpatheticLeadership, #WomenOnBoards, #WomenInSTEM, #WorkLifeBalance, this leader is an example of how to have it all!  We are deeply honoured to host Senior Vice President and Managing Director, SAP Labs India Sindhu Gangadharan. 

Sindhu Gangadharan holds dual responsibilities at SAP. As a Senior Vice President, she leads the SAP User Enablement unit, that provides a seamless, integrated end-user platform for all SAP's products. She is also the Managing Director of SAP Labs in India, responsible for product development and innovation at SAP's Research & Development facilities in Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Gurgaon. SAP Labs India is the largest R&D centre outside SAP's headquarters in Germany and a leading hub for innovation and a hot spot for talent and diversity. Sindhu joined SAP in 1999 when SAP Labs India set up its operations in Bangalore and later moved to SAP's headquarters in Walldorf, Germany. She has worked on various products, technology and innovation platforms and held several strategic and leadership positions managing global teams. She has played a pivotal role in shaping SAP's Integration strategy by growing SAP's Integration product portfolio as Head of Product Management for SAP Integration Suite, IoT and SAP Process Orchestration. Her deep technical expertise and business knowledge led her to head the critical integration function in SAP's Technology and Innovation organization in the Office of the CTO.

Sindhu led SAP's strategic and global Intelligent Enterprise Program reporting into SAP's Executive Board. She has been instrumental in bringing to life SAP's vision and strategy of the Intelligent Enterprise by orchestrating the end-to-end process delivery roadmaps.

In January 2021, Sindhu was appointed to the Board of Directors at Utah-based Qualtrics International Inc, the global pioneer of the Experience Management software category. She also serves on the Board of Titan Company Ltd as an Independent Director with a focus on technology. Sindhu is a member of the NASSCOM Executive Council – the apex industry body for the IT/IT enabled services in India. She is also a member of the Steering committee of the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce, an industry body driving the Bilateral trade and deliberations.

As a respected thought leader, Sindhu is a regular speaker at domestic and global conferences. She is a passionate advocate of using technology to benefit customers and the society, workplace diversity and inclusion. Sindhu currently resides in Bangalore with her husband and two daughters.

In this episode I am talking today to a true power house who has been working tirelessly so that India as a nation has better governance, has equality in the political arena and we the women of India have more representation.

Tara Krishnaswamy wears many hats. She is the Co-founder of Shakti, a pan-India, nonpartisan citizens movement working to get more women into State Assemblies & Parliament. The objective of Shakti is to enable more women to be elected as MLAs and MPs from all sections of society, to support women who are interested in political leadership. 

Tara Krishnaswamy  is an Author & Activist, a successful business leader in tech, Co-founder of Citizens For Bengaluru. 

Tara  gives us a lot to think about. 50% of India’s population are women, 50% of the electorate are women. The Indian constitution gives us equal rights to vote and to contest to both men and women. 70 years after a democratic republic, we have only ~11% women in Parliament,  why are leaving half our population unheard ?

Thank you so much for what you are doing for all the women in India, for the people of India, for the sake of equality, democracy, better governance in India. We are very honoured to have you as a part of the podcast, and wish you all the best to you and Shakti. More power to the women in India politics, we need them, we want them, for us and for the future generations to come!

With the launch of our #PersonalAdvisoryBoards, we are on a journey to be inspired and powered by other talented women from across the globe. We know the feeling of being moved by art and transported to new experiences, emotions and places. #PowerWomenOfIndia is incredibly honoured and excited to have among us the very talented artist, Mahira Kakkar.

Mahira will share with us, her journey from Calcutta to the west and the high of working with acclaimed film-maker Mira Nair in "A Suitable Boy". Mahira is a New York City-based actor who has worked in film, television and theater. Born in Kolkata she is the first person of Indian origin to attend The Julliard School’s Drama Division. In the last 16 years, Mahira has acted on stage, television and films, with appearances in Orange is the New Black, New Amsterdam and Louie. She has appeared in numerous plays both in New York and around the world, and guest-starred on many television shows. In 2013 she starred in Hank and Asha, for which she won Best Actress at the Napa Valley Film Festival.

The hosts for the event are our stellar #boss ladies Mrinalini Ramakrishnan and Shruti Van Dyke Gandhi. This is an invitation only event with limited seats. If you would like to attend, please kindly RSVP. We will share the login details a day before the event. I am confident that conversations will traverse the reel and real worlds, packed with take-aways that will hold us in good stead.

I caught up with Dr. Ruchi Dana to hear her journey into the boardroom, what she had to say about project KNOCK-KNOCK and the three things that women leaders should be doing to get onto those boards. Come listen with me!