South Asian Trailblazers

Simi catches up with Shilpa Shah, Co-Founder and Chief Experience Officer of Cuyana.

Founded in 2011, Cuyana is a direct-to-consumer luxury fashion brand founded on the philosophy of “fewer, better” to encourage customers to invest in fewer, but higher-quality essentials. Over the past decade, the brand has become a favorite among celebrities like Jessica Alba, Ayesha Curry, Poorna Jagannathan. In addition, the  company has grown to encompass 7 brick-and-mortar locations and over 150 employees. During their latest funding round in 2019, they raised $30 million from H.I.G. Capital. 

Before co-founding Cuyana, Shilpa began her career in information architecture and built web and mobile interfaces for multiple Fortune 500 companies like Disney, AT&T, and Sun Microsystems, as a part of the early class of UI/UX designers. She received her MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, where she also completed her bachelor’s degree in Human Computer Interaction and Computer Science. Shilpa is a mover and shaker in the new cohort of conscious and compassionate executives stewarding the future of consumer goods.

South Asian Trailblazers is an award-winning media platform, community, and agency dedicated to elevating leading South Asians. Join our community at SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. Subscribe to our newsletter to get new episodes and updates on our latest events in your inbox. Follow us @southasiantrailblazers on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify.

Simi speaks with Usman Ahmed, Head of Global Public Policy and Research at PayPal.

Usman began his career in public service at non-profits focused on voting rights and good governance. Eventually, he decided to pursue his law degree at the University of Michigan. While there, he pursued a legal fellowship at eBay, quickly ascending to the role of Policy Counsel just a few years after graduating. 

In 2015, after PayPal was spun off of eBay, he decided to joined the newly-separated company as Head of Global Public Policy and Research — his current role. In addition to his work in the tech sphere, Usman teaches international and fintech law as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown.  He is also Millennium Fellow at the Atlantic Council and a Security Fellow at the Truman National Security Project, and he has been widely published in the World Economic Forum Global Information Technology Report, MIT Press Innovations Journal, and elsewhere. Beyond his J.D., Usman holds an M.A. from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a B.A. from the University of Maryland.  In this episode, we hear about Usman's early inclinations toward civic engagement and law, his role in building PayPal's policy arm post-spinoff, and what the future of fintech holds.

South Asian Trailblazers is an award-winning media platform, community, and agency dedicated to elevating leading South Asians. Join our community at SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. Subscribe to our newsletter to get new episodes and updates on our latest events in your inbox. Follow us @southasiantrailblazers on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify.

In this episode, Simi catches up with Sushma Dwivedi, Head of Communications and Brand Marketing at Daily Harvest and Founder of the Purple Pundit Project. 

Sushma spent the early innings of her career with major global communications firms including Edelman and Fleishman Hillard. Focused on food and beverage space early on, she worked closely with companies like Chobani, Dannon, and Perdue Farms. 

In 2020, she joined Daily Harvest, a food startup that makes ready-to-blend smoothies, soups, and more all with the intent of making healthy eating easier. In November 2021, the startup raised their Series D at a valuation of $1 billion backed by investors like Serena Williams and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Sushma moonlights as a Hindu priestess or pundit. In 2016, she founded Purple Pundit Project to help South Asian couples more easily find modern, inclusive pundits and officiants for their weddings. To date, she’s officiated over 40 weddings, many of which were for LGBTQ+  couples — and one while she was in labor. More on that story and Sushma's vision for the future of food in this episode.

South Asian Trailblazers is an award-winning media platform, community, and agency dedicated to elevating leading South Asians. Join our community at SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. Subscribe to our newsletter to get new episodes and updates on our latest events in your inbox. Follow us @southasiantrailblazers on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify.

Simi speaks with Saeed Ahmed, Director of Digital News at NPR.

Prior to joining NPR in 2021, Saeed served as Assistant Managing Editor of CNN Digital. He began his 13-year career at CNN as a news desk editor for The CNN Wire, and went on to spearhead content diversity efforts and create the top two newsletters in CNN's portfolio: 5 Things and The Good Stuff. Prior to CNN, Saeed spent seven years at the Atlanta-Journal Constitution,  where he was a part of the breaking-news team that became a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Recently, he was awarded a News Emmy Award for an interactive media piece: How American Police Gear up to Respond to Protests.

Originally born in Bangladesh and raised in the United Arab Emirates, Saeed first immigrated to the U.S. to attend Morehouse, a historical Black college. In this episode, Saeed takes us through his journey in journalism, from being an Atlanta-based cops and crimes beat reporter to shaping the future of news at National Public Radio today.

South Asian Trailblazers is an award-winning media platform, community, and agency dedicated to elevating leading South Asians. Join our community at SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. Subscribe to our newsletter to get new episodes and updates on our latest events in your inbox. Follow us @southasiantrailblazers on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify.

To kick off Season 4, Simi welcomes Payal Kadakia, Founder of ClassPass, Artist, and Author.

ClassPass is a subscription-based platform that enables people to book a variety of fitness classes without paying for individual memberships. After founding the company in 2013, Payal served as CEO of the company until 2017, at which point she became Executive Chairman. By 2020, ClassPass became the first unicorn of the decade and in late 2021, the company was acquired by MindBody in an all-stock deal and secured $500 million in investment. Prior to founding ClassPass, Payal worked at Bain & Company and at the Warner Music Group.

She continues to serve as founder and artistic director of SA Dance Company, a contemporary Indian dance troupe that performed at hallmark venues. Payal holds a degree in Economics and Operations Research from MIT.  She is also a newly-minted author with her upcoming book, LifePass. In this episode, Payal expands on the art of the pivot, how her identities and passions played into her career, and what's next for her.

South Asian Trailblazers is an award-winning media platform, community, and agency dedicated to elevating leading South Asians. Join our community at SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. Subscribe to our newsletter to get new episodes and updates on our latest events in your inbox. Follow us @southasiantrailblazers on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify.

For our Season 3 finale, Simi catches up with Sunayna Tuteja, the first-ever Chief Innovation Officer of the Federal Reserve.

Prior to joining the Fed in February of 2021, Sunayna served as the Global Head of Emerging Tech & Strategic Partnerships at TD Ameritrade. She spent a number of years building out their cryptocurrency and blockchain practices as Head of Digital Assets. Prior to TD Ameritrade, she was at TD Bank, leading digital transformation. She brings 10+ years of experience leading change and innovation at the nexus of finance, technology, and policy. And she spent a number of years in banking and in the venture capital and tech ecosystem both in North America and Asia. Sunayna is a total firecracker — a trailblazer fit for our Season 3 finale. In this episode, Simi cracks the code on Sunayna's conviction in crypto and her future-forward vision for the U.S. central banking system.

South Asian Trailblazers is an award-winning media platform, community, and agency dedicated to elevating leading South Asians. Join our community at SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. Subscribe to our newsletter to get new episodes and updates on our latest events in your inbox. Follow us @southasiantrailblazers on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify.

In this episode, Simi speaks with Paraag Marathe, President of 49ers Enterprises & Executive Vice President of Football Operations.

Paraag is no stranger to football — he is in his 21st year with the 49ers. And previously, he served as team president and Chief Operating Officer.

On the football side, Paraag serves as the team’s chief contract negotiator and salary cap architect, while overseeing the team’s football analytics department. Paraag has played an integral role in rebuilding the 49ers current roster, including QB Jimmy G. He also oversaw the development of Levi’s Stadium, and he leads 49ers Enterprises' minority ownership stake in Leeds United as Vice Chairman of the English Premier League club. In addition to his leadership in football and soccer, Paraag was named Chairman of USA Cricket in 2018. 

Paraag moonlights as a faculty member at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, where he earned his MBA after graduating from UC Berkeley.

South Asian Trailblazers is an award-winning media platform, community, and agency dedicated to elevating leading South Asians. Join our community at SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. Subscribe to our newsletter to get new episodes and updates on our latest events in your inbox. Follow us @southasiantrailblazers on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify.

Simi welcomes a founder trio to the podcast. Mythili Sankaran, Chitra Nayak, and Sruthi Ramaswami are the co-founders of Neythri, an organization dedicated to creating a network of South Asian professional women. Most recently, they launched the Neythri Futures Fund, a startup investment fund with an investor base of primarily South Asian women.

Now a little more about the women behind Neythri.

Chitra Nayak is currently an independent board member at companies like Infosys, and LifeWorks. Most recently, she served as COO at Comfy, a real-estate tech startup, and prior to this was COO at Funding Circle, an online lending marketplace. She was at Salesforce for eight years, where she served as COO of Platform and SVP of Sales Development. Chitra has an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MS in Engineering from Cornell University, and a BS in Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology.

Previously, Mythili Sankaran led regional operations for the U.S. - India Business Council and the American India Foundation. Mythili also served as CEO of Koollage, a web service company. Earlier in her career, Mythili spent several years in research and product at IBM and AT&T Bell Labs. She has a MS degree in Physics from Texas Tech University, a M.Sc in Electronics from the University of Bombay, and an Executive MBA from Wharton.

Sruthi Ramaswami is a growth equity investor at ICONIQ Capital, an investment firm that has served the likes of Sheryl Sandberg and Jack Dorsey. Prior to her current role, Sruthi was at Goldman Sachs. She is the co-founder of Shakti Collaborative, a digital platform that showcases the narratives of South Asian women. Sruthi holds a BA degree in Economics from the University of Chicago.

In this episode, they discuss talk the ways in which each of their respective careers informed the building of Neythri, how they came together, and their work bringing together South Asian funders, founders, and operators.

South Asian Trailblazers is an award-winning media platform, community, and agency dedicated to elevating leading South Asians. Join our community at SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. Subscribe to our newsletter to get new episodes and updates on our latest events in your inbox. Follow us @southasiantrailblazers on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify.

Simi catches up with Dhanusha Sivajee, Chief Marketing Officer at Angi.

In her role, Dhanusha is responsible for brand and marketing strategy. Angi, previously known as Angie’s List, is an online resource for finding vetted, local providers for various home services. Prior to Angi, Dhanusha served as Chief Marketing Officer of The Knot, a platform providing content and services to couples planning weddings and starting their lives together. She also previously served as Chief Marketing Officer at the AOL Brand Group prior to its acquisition by Verizon. 

Dhanusha got her start in the space at Bloomberg and at HBO after pursuing her MBA at Duke. And while at HBO, she was part of the efforts to launched HBO on-Demand and HBO Go. Currently, she also sits on the board of HNI, one of the world's largest office manufacturing companies. Dhanusha is originally from England where she grew up immersed in the world of small businesses run by her Sri Lankan immigrant parents. In this episode, Simi explores the impact of Dhanusha's South Asian and small business roots on her career trajectory.

South Asian Trailblazers is an award-winning media platform, community, and agency dedicated to elevating leading South Asians. Join our community at SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. Subscribe to our newsletter to get new episodes and updates on our latest events in your inbox. Follow us @southasiantrailblazers on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify.

Simi welcomes Brinda Adhikari, Executive Producer and Showrunner of The Problem with Jon Stewart. This new AppleTV show marks the famed Jon Stewart’s return to television as he tackles a new societal issue in every episode. And Brinda — she's at the helm.

Brinda joined The Problem  from CBS News, where she was a senior broadcast producer for segments anchored by major TV personalities like Norah O’Donnell and Scott Pelley. She began her career in broadcast television at ABC news, where she started as a researcher and rose the ranks to become a producer on World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer and David Muir. She spent over a decade at the organization. Brinda is unlike any other guest we’ve had on Trailblazers to date. In this episode, we delve into why she chose to pursue production, diversity in the industry, and her vision for her highly-anticipated new show.

South Asian Trailblazers is an award-winning media platform, community, and agency dedicated to elevating leading South Asians. Join our community at SouthAsianTrailblazers.com. Subscribe to our newsletter to get new episodes and updates on our latest events in your inbox. Follow us @southasiantrailblazers on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify.