Simi Shah

Strategist for Chief Executives & Founders. Founder of South Asian Trailblazers. Forbes30U30. Harvard + Wharton.

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

India has sent 96 people to America who started billion dollar companies. No one else is even close.

There's only about 5 million Indians in America. Almost one in 50,000 of them is a unicorn founder!

What a holy, special, beautiful people.

I will always fight for them.

[Sheel Mohnot @pitdesi]

Almost 1/3rd of YC founders are of Indian origin now 🤯

[Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 @pmarca]

When one thing becomes abundant and cheap, another thing becomes scarce and valuable.

[Simi Shah @simishah_]

@JayaGup10 Every company wants to be a media company

[Erik Torenberg @eriktorenberg]

The future of marketing is buying creators/media properties

[Simi Shah @simishah_]

So excited to sit down with @rajshamani, India’s #1 podcaster at Columbia Next week!

[Simi Shah @simishah_]

You can be a world-class investor, but ill-prepared to run a fund.

You can be the world’s greatest agent, but struggle to operate an agency.

You can be a sought-after writer, and bad at running a media business.

As they grow, founders often spend more ON the business, around the craft, than IN the business, in the craft.

You have to be skilled at both.

[Simi Shah @simishah_]

@JayaGup10 @akoratana Hi

[zehra ✨ @zehranaqvi]

The internet curated for the obsessed. Welcome to Lore.

[Simi Shah @simishah_]

@JayaGup10 Dating or dress code?

[Simi Shah @simishah_]

@pitdesi Screaming

[Simi Shah @simishah_]

My interview with @priyankachopra and @anjulaacharia

https://t.co/QUiTjQEldp

[Simi Shah @simishah_]

Hosting a meet & greet for financial creators at @NYSE next Friday. If that sounds like you — dm me!

[Simi Shah @simishah_]

💌 Follow South Asian Trailblazers on YT, Spotify, any pod platform to get the episode as SOON as it drops: https://t.co/UppyfsFj7S

[Simi Shah @simishah_]

THE @priyankachopra & @anjula_acharia on #SouthAsianTrailblazers Podcast 🔜❤️‍🔥

Hosted where it all began, my alma mater @Harvard ✨

Moments like these remind me why I started Trailblazers in the first place. 🙏🏽🧿 Thank you to these two icons for their grit & grace. Priyanka, Anjula, you lit the fires that blazed the trails the rest of us run on today.✨

I can’t WAIT for y’all to hear this one! 👇

[Simi Shah @simishah_]

@JayaGup10 FOMO

[Simi Shah @simishah_]

🚨BREAKING: @aavrani has been ACQUIRED!

I brought Founder @rooshyroy back to #SouthAsianTrailblazers to share the story - in her own words.

🔗 📺 Podcast 👇

In 2020, I sat down with a rising star in the beauty industry. She was building Aavrani — a modern skincare brand rooted in ancient Indian tradition.

Rooshy had recently graduated from Wharton, been named #Forbes30Under30, raised $2.5 million, and was off to the races with a V2 brand refresh.

Capturing the close of this chapter felt full circle in many ways.

In the last 6 years, Rooshy launched in SEPHORA, pivoted from skincare to hair care, partnered with Celebrity Lilly Singh, raised upwards of $10MM, and grew AAVRANI into one of the most recognized names in South Asian-inspired beauty.

But this episode digs into much more than these highlights. Despite speaking with her about her experience building Aavrani over the years, I learned a ton:

✨How to actually exit your startup
✨The truth about launching in Sephora
✨How celebrity partnerships ACTUALLY work
✨Fellow South Asian beauty founders in Sephora: competitive or collaborative?
✨3 things Rooshy would do differently as a founder
✨Myths and truths about building in the beauty industry
✨Choosing family, chasing dreams, and knowing when to let go

Our conversation is tactical yet emotional. It's not just about building in consumer or beauty, but about building in any industry with tenacity and realism. It's about the hard realities of being a founder, learning to let go and letting your dreams evolve with you.

Tune in:

https://t.co/xytfmB7raW

[Simi Shah @simishah_]

@JH47900883 Thank you so much for sharing and I’m so glad you enjoyed the episode. They really are a power duo - in every sense of the word!

[Simi Shah @simishah_]

Yesterday the Washington Post laid off a third of its staff — including roughly 300 journalists.

I am not a career journalist. I didn’t come up through a newsroom. But my love for media — and the I reason I work in this industry — grew out of a deep love of great journalism. The kind of deeply-reported, artfully-produced work that institutions like the Post made possible.

Newsrooms have been under attack for a long time — and its saddens me to think that as much as AI is improving lives, it’s also exacerbating the loss of livelihoods.

In October, at the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA), I encouraged a number of widely-respected veteran journalists to bet on themselves: to grow into the discomfort of building their individual brands, and launch independent platforms.

To the hundreds of reporters, editors, and producers who just lost their jobs, your work has shaped how we understand the world - and it still can. And as you navigate the pain and frustration of this moment, I hope you’ll take this vote of confidence to heart.

I’ve spent the last few years building in independent media and working with journalists navigating this exact transition. The skills that make someone a great journalist — storytelling, sourcing, cultivating trust and piquing interest — are exactly what independent media needs.

The business and brand-building part is learnable and the platforms (like @Substack and @beehiiv) are easier to use than ever.

If you need a thought partner or a shoulder, my door is always open.

[Simi Shah @simishah_]

Can all the AI platforms give me a way to port everything over more easily — my switching cost is that ChatGPT has known me for 3 years 😭

[Harry Stebbings @HarryStebbings]

Every single 20VC show we now run the same prompt into Gemini, Claude, ChatGPT and Grok to help us create questions and schedules for the show.

12 Months Ago: (Best to Worst)

1. ChatGPT
2. Claude
3. Grok
4. Gemini

Today: (Best to Worst)

1. Gemini (By far)
2. Grok
3. Claude
4. ChatGPT

The times they are a changing...