House of Experts Ep 33: Vibha Kagzi in conversation with Sheta Mittal, Co-Founder of Andme

House of Experts is a show that ReachIvy kick-started to help those who are unclear about their career choices. We hope through these sessions with some very successful people, we can shed light on a new career path every week. House of Experts plans to make a collection of interactive and informative sessions with experts from various domains.
Vibha Kagzi, the host, is the Founder and CEO of ReachIvy.com, a premium study abroad and career consultancy organization. Vibha, a Harvard alumna, is a successful entrepreneur and believes in helping others chalk out their future careers.

In episode 33 of House of Experts, we were fortunate to host, Sheta Mittal, Co-Founder of Andme. Sheta Mittal is an Aerospace Engineer from IIT Bombay and Harvard Business School Alumnus. She is passionate about Health and Wellness and consumer-focused problem-solving. She started her career as a Management Consultant with The Boston Consulting Group, worked as a marketing manager with Future Group and then spent 5 years with NIKE in their US and China office.

Last year, Sheta got back to India and started & Me a Women’s first, solution-driven, research-led company to serve women’s unique needs across menstrual health, fitness, beauty and mental health.

Some excerpts from the interview:

1)Tell us about your early years, and childhood influences.
I grew up in Agra, and have always been a hopeless romantic! Because my Dad was in a government job, we used to move to different cities very frequently. I was a very introverted kid. My Mom was a national-level hockey player, which was a really big deal, which I really didn’t realize until much later when I started my journey in sports. I was really influenced by my Dad. I used to study all day, and was really influenced by biographies. I wanted to be an aerospace engineer and wanted to secure All India Rank 1! I was doing great academically, but I did not clear IIT in my first attempt, and that was a really great turning point into my life, which gave me a really important life lesson.

2) What is it like building a team as a fairly new company in the field of health and wellness, and what are some challenges you face while building a team?
Having a good team is very important, and building a team for the future is really crucial. As founders, we’re guilty of building a team for the short term. One thing I learned when I was working at Nike is that we need people who are really passionate about the work. They must have an understanding of the work they do, but should have the desire to be molded and mentored. In India, the challenge we face is that sometimes people have big brand names on their resumes but it doesn’t translate into the skills we actually need for a startup. So, we’ve struggled, we’ve failed, we’ve learned. The team has really young, passionate people, and we have a mix of people from different schools and colleges.

3) What are your impressions of entrepreneurship, and what is the whole experience like?
It is hard because you need to get into the absolute nitty-gritties. There are a lot of ups and downs, and we don’t know what tomorrow will be like. I think that people get into entrepreneurship thinking about all the exciting things they’ll get to build, but you must also know about the risks. That should drive your decision. If you’re okay with experiencing failures, it makes it slightly better. I know that I will try hard, despite all the risks I might have to face.

We at ReachIvy.com are truly grateful to Sheta for sharing her journey and experiences with us.

Missed out on the previous house of expert episodes? You can watch them here

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