Revolutionising Marketing With AI After Long Leadership Career w/ Anita Moorthy

Anita Moorthy: [00:00:00] This AI thing, the impact that it's going to make in marketing is huge. Like the first impact is going to be the marketing because what ChatGPT did so well was really help with content creation. And I'm like, Oh my, Oh my God. Like as a marketer, that's what you spend most of your time doing is creating content that's searchable and that, you know, Google can find.

Anita Moorthy: And I feel like that's just going to change and we need to think about how it's going to change. So that's what triggered this new idea that we're now building in stealth, the three of us.

Amardeep Parmar:  Today in the podcast, we have Anita Moorthy, who's the founder of a stealth startup in the AI and Martech space. And he's got an incredible journey. And what's really interesting is she grew up in Nigeria originally, has lived in several different countries, went in the consulting space to begin with before founding a company, in the dot comboom, which didn't work out.

Amardeep Parmar: But she then took those lessons. Got an MBA, [00:01:00] worked in several different industries afterwards, gaining a wide range of experience so that now later on in her career, she's starting a new company that's had all that experience behind her and is looking to thrive straight away. So it's a really interesting journey to see that failure early on.

Amardeep Parmar: How she recovered from that, took on senior positions, and now how she's ready to thrive at a more experienced level. So Anita, you've had such a successful long career, and now you're building up your own business. But if we rewind back, when you're growing up, like, did you ever think that one day you'd have the career you did?

Anita Moorthy: I  think if anyone tells you that they knew what they’re gonna do,they prolly a big actor.

Anita Moorthy: Um, because the truth is there's so much of life that's just, I mean, there's your hard work and the fact that you seize opportunities when, when it's presented to you, but I think there's so much in terms of luck and, you know, I'm always aware of that. Like I was born in a country where I had different opportunities than if I was born somewhere else, you know, [00:02:00] it starts from, from just your birth.

Anita Moorthy: So I think there's a lot of luck involved. So I definitely did not predict where I'm going to be. In fact, I distinctly remember this story when I, so I grew up in Nigeria, like my primary school was in Nigeria. And then my dad immigrated to Canada when I was in grade 11. So I did my grade 11 and 12 in Canada.

Anita Moorthy: And at that time we came on a visit to Boston because my parents knew someone there. So we went for like a holiday, like 10 days holiday. We drove to Toronto, to Boston. And when we reached there, they said, Oh, let's take you out to show you Boston. And we were driving past MIT and Harvard. And I thought, wow, like, amazing, like these are institutions that you hear about, but never in my mind, in my thought did it ever occur to me that one day I would apply to a place like MIT, you know, it just happened in a series of events later on, but there was no way I'd planned that.[00:03:00] 

Anita Moorthy: And then eventually I did go to MIT. So I guess my long story short is I definitely did not plan where I am today. I think it happened with a series of luck, opportunities, and hard  work. 

Amardeep Parmar: And looking at as well, so when you moved from Nigeria to Canada, that must have been quite a big adjustment as well, right?

Anita Moorthy: It was, it was a really big adjustment, especially because I came in grade 11. So as you can imagine, there was a huge cultural difference. 

Amardeep Parmar: How old is grade 11 for the..

Anita Moorthy:  Ah yeah, so grade 11 in Canada would be year 12 of K. So, you know, it's a very critical year to come into a new country, a new culture, new education system.

Anita Moorthy: But I'd come, it's a long story. Like I was in Nigeria, but actually the two years before that I was in India. So I actually came from India. My parents came from Nigeria. So, but the education system in India is good. So I didn't have any problem academically. But definitely in terms of the social circle, I had zero social circle, right?

Anita Moorthy: I would just go to school, come home, do my homework and hang out with my brother. And that was it. 

Amardeep Parmar: And so when you're looking at careers, right? So is it [00:04:00] MIT or you went undergrad? 

Anita Moorthy: MIT. I get, went for my business school, MBA. 

Amardeep Parmar: And so what did you look at for undergrad? What was your kind of..

Anita Moorthy: Yeah. So again, so, you know, I, I was in Canada and I had very good grades across sciences as well as arts and everything because I'd come from India.

Anita Moorthy: I think it gave a good training. And my dad's like, you know, everyone's talking about computers. You should do computer engineering. So I had no idea what computer engineering was, but I applied. And Canada is very similar to the UK in that your grades matter. And like some, Okay. Like a short essay of why you want to do whatever you want to do.

Anita Moorthy: So it's pretty easy. So I went to engineering in University of Waterloo and studied computer engineering. And I don't know how many of you know Canada or the Canadian system, but they have this incredible program called the co op program, where basically an engineering program instead of being four years, it's four years and eight months.

Anita Moorthy: So it's an additional eight months. You never get a summer holiday. So you study for [00:05:00] four months and then you work for four months and then you study for four months and then you work for four months. So when you graduate, you come out with two years of work experience. So like, that's one of the things, like I said, it was luck and opportunity, but that gave me two years additional work experience than anyone else who was coming out of Waterloo.

Anita Moorthy: So like I got hired by Microsoft, for example, which hires a lot from Waterloo, which was at that time, like the company to work for.

Amardeep Parmar: And like your early career, right? So you stayed in the corporate space. You're looking at consulting, right? 

Anita Moorthy: I was at, yeah, I was in consulting, SAP consulting. Yes. 

Amardeep Parmar: And how did you find that?

Amardeep Parmar: Was it something which was fulfilling or where was your head at? 

Anita Moorthy: Yeah, the consulting was actually a really good next step for me because like I said, I think I went into computer engineering because my dad said it was a good career to go into, but I was not the typical Computer engineer. Like I didn't love coding.

Anita Moorthy: So being on technical consultant, like an SAP consultant was great because you needed to understand the power of software and [00:06:00] the, and not be afraid of technology, but being a consultant was all about understanding what that company was doing. What their business was, why they were doing what they were doing, and how technology can enable it and make it more efficient.

Anita Moorthy: So it was a really good grounding or training in understanding how technology can be an enabler to solve big, challenging problems. And I got to travel like I was in Thailand. I was in UK. I was in different countries doing these six months consulting projects.

Amardeep Parmar: And it wasn't too long after that we decided to start your first company, right?

Anita Moorthy: That's right. So my very first company was, um, funnily enough during the dot com boom. And, uh, I had a friend of mine who was a doctor, but he wasn't a very typical doctor because he, he was very entrepreneurial and he felt like, Oh my God, this internet is going to change the way, you know, people do healthcare and we need to be at the forefront of it.

Anita Moorthy: So he, he was the domain expert, like he, and he [00:07:00] wanted to build something that doctors and nurses would use at that time. Everybody was using technology to help consumers. So WebMD was the big thing where people would, you know, self serve and figure out what their problem was. And he felt it was going about the wrong way and wanted to do something to empower physicians and nurses to

Anita Moorthy: use the power of internet to better educate their consumers. And I was very fascinated by that idea. So I joined him. I was head of product for him and we built the product. Um, we raised some initial seed funding. We had like 5, 000 doctors actually use the product. So it was good, but we didn't get to an institutional stage.

Anita Moorthy: And the reason was the VCs told us repeatedly, we love your idea. We love the company, we love the team, but we think you are in the wrong space. Like had you built this product for accounting or legal or any other profession, we would have been much more bullish about it. But [00:08:00] we don't think doctors, because there's such, you know, laggards when it comes to adopting technology, will really adopt your technology because they're not incented to, right?

Anita Moorthy: They're not incented to use the internet. So they felt that adoption would be a challenge. And it was a big learning lesson for me to understand that it's not just about the problem you're solving, but making sure that your market is ready is just as important. 

Amardeep Parmar: And obviously making that transition from the corporate world to start in this company, which like I said, at that time, there's quite a big risk there, right?

Amardeep Parmar: Because our doctor is going to use this. Yes, this is potentially the future and obviously it has worked out that way, but at that time, obviously it wasn't obvious. We can look back in the hands like, oh yeah, obviously, Doctors can use the internet, but back then it was visionary. Right. How did you take that risk?

Amardeep Parmar: Like how did that feel? Were you like this is the right moment, or was it something which took a bit of time to build up the courage to quit? 

Anita Moorthy: Yeah, I think, I think I'm an accidental entrepreneur to be honest, because I've kind of fell into it. Two things happen. [00:09:00] One is there was such a frenzy at that time around dot com.

Anita Moorthy: Everyone was starting companies, you know, there were all these networking events where people were meeting other people and there was a lot of excitement in the air. So, and everybody felt like if they had an idea, they could do it. So I think that was partly the reason. Second, I really trusted my co founder.

Anita Moorthy: I thought he was brilliant. And so I felt that the problem he was talking about was one that was very real. And then the third thing is, and this is what I mean by a little bit of fate, because I'd been a consultant for like a couple of years before that. And I was living out of my home, my parents home for some part of it.

Anita Moorthy: I'd saved up money. And so I had the ability to take a risk without needing to ask someone for it. So, and then also I was working for a big company, so I was able to, in the beginning stages, when we were still trying to validate the idea, I was able to do that as a moonlighting, like after, after work hours.

Anita Moorthy: So I think those things helped me to kind of gradually ease into it. And then when I was deep into [00:10:00] it, I was like, Oh my God, this is really good. I'm going to quit and try to see if this goes anywhere. 

Amardeep Parmar: And obviously it's a big transition from that corporate space to working in a startup there. Like, what did you enjoy most about it at that stage?

Amardeep Parmar: Cause I guess there's obviously a lot of pressure that comes with it too. And you've got the VCs and all that kind of stuff, but did you enjoy that period of your life? 

Anita Moorthy: I  did. I did. I felt like I was working and thinking about it all the time. Like I couldn't sleep without thinking about it. But it also didn't feel like work, surprisingly.

Anita Moorthy: So it's, it's interesting that you work a lot, but it didn't feel like work. It wasn't draining. It was energizing. So, you know, whereas if you're a consultant, and by that time I'd done SAP consulting for a while, so I was a little bit bored. And also, I think in consulting, one of the thing that you discover is That you come up with advice and plans, but ultimately the company has to implement it.

Anita Moorthy: So there were cases where you did a lot of work and for whatever reason, the company doesn't implement it. And that's not a nice feeling. You felt like, what did I do this work for? And so doing this [00:11:00] startup was the exact opposite. Because everything you did mattered. Every second and everything you did mattered.

Anita Moorthy: So it was really fulfilling. 

Amardeep Parmar: And  then coming out of that, right? So I think what stops so many people from starting something is a fear of failure and not working out. And you had that quite early in your career where you had this idea which, like you said, people love the team, love what you're doing, but it just wasn't maybe the right time at that point.

Amardeep Parmar: How did you get out of that? Was it something which you felt like, You've done your best and it was easy to move on or to take a bit of time to figure out your next steps. 

Anita Moorthy: It was really hard to, you know, realize that this wasn't going to be wildly successful. It was disappointing and it really made me reflect and think, why?

Anita Moorthy: Why didn't it work? Like, what was the problem? And I, At that time, thought maybe it's because I don't have all these other skill set, you know, like I looked at it from a technology perspective and engineering perspective, but I felt like I lacked [00:12:00] some of the other elements like marketing and finance, et cetera.

Anita Moorthy: So the thing that made it easy for me to not dwell, too much into why this wasn't successful was because I had a plan, which was to go to business school and to see in retrospect what I could have done differently and learn from others in terms of how to start a business successfully. So that gave me an anchor to sort of say, okay, this didn't work out, you know, I'm bummed about it, but I'm going to do, I'm going to do this and maybe something else will happen later on.

Amardeep Parmar: And do you  feel like business school really helped you because, and it's a debate amongst different entrepreneurs, like, should you go to business school? Should you just start your company and learn on the fly? Do you feel like business school helped?

Anita Moorthy: Yeah, that's a really good question. I think business school is 80 percent common sense and 20 percent a very expensive education.

Anita Moorthy: So my advice is if you have an idea, you don't need today to go to business school. [00:13:00] There are so many resources out there. You can teach yourself. There's so many people that are willing to help. So if you're resourceful, you know, you can get things done and learn along the way. So I don't think. It's that necessary?

Anita Moorthy: The only time I think business school makes sense is if, first of all, you should go to top 10. Like if you're going to go to like, you know, 50th ranked university, you might as well just learn on the job instead of paying that money and losing two years of U. S. or one year in the UK, in Europe, doing this MBA, the opportunity cost is a lot.

Anita Moorthy: The other reason to do it is if you're trying to change industries. So a lot of people that go to business school came from banking, wanna go back into consulting or came from consulting, wanna go into banking, came from nonprofit, wanna shift to something else, then it's great 'cause it opens new doors for you.

Anita Moorthy: But if you are thinking of starting a company, I really don't think you need to go to business school. 

Amardeep Parmar: So what did you then do after business school? What was your plan after that? 

Anita Moorthy: Yeah, so I was in the unfortunate class [00:14:00] of right after nine 11. in the US. So it was recession time. It was really not great, but I managed to get a job with Siebel.

Anita Moorthy: So now I here, I date myself here, but Siebel at that time was a darling company, which for those of you who don't know, got acquired by Oracle. So it's now part of Oracle, but they basically built the first CRM or customer relationship management software. And they used to take like 90 MBAs every year.

Anita Moorthy: From the top universities around the world, including some in Europe. And it was a great ground. It was like McKinsey, Amex, you know, there's some companies that really do a good job of cultivating leaders. And Siebel was also one of those companies. They had like a one month bootcamp and they, you know, really taught you all these different aspects of business and they had a really good role.

Anita Moorthy: It was called product management, but it was advertised as a mini CEO position. So basically you were either owning a small product or part of a bigger product, but you are responsible for all [00:15:00] aspects of that product. So, you know, you would figure out analyzing the market, what you should build, so you'd put together like a business plan, you'd work with engineering to build your product, you'd work with marketing to position your product, and you'd work with sales, you'd be on, on sales to close the revenue and you were responsible for a revenue number.

Anita Moorthy: Um, for that feature or that part of the product or, you know, and it was a really good training ground again to get a sense for how to think about product and how to think about product that drives revenue. Um, so it was, it was a really good, good opportunity. And then, and then, you know, like I said, life happened.

Anita Moorthy: I got married, my husband was going to Kazakhstan and India and I had kids. And so for a few years, actually. The rest of my career took a backseat, backseat, and I was in Kazakhstan for a few years, I was in India for a few years. I always had a job, I was working, but it was kind [00:16:00] of like whatever sounded interesting.

Anita Moorthy: So like in Kazakhstan, I worked for an innovation fund for a few years. I opened an IT bar, you know, just random things that I felt I could be part of and Kazakhstan to its credit is very good about allowing and embracing foreigners if they have the skills and they had the initiatives and so they were happy for you to come and do things.

Anita Moorthy: So anyway, for a few years I did these odd things and then I had little kids at that time and yeah, and then, and then I said, okay, I need to go back to tech and I need to, um, be somewhere closer to the West. Not because of tech being in the West, but because my family was in the US. So then we came to, to, to, to UK here.

Anita Moorthy: And even here, I took a job as head of marketing for a FinTech company. It was based out of, of US, but they had a, they were starting off the European practice. And I was their first head of marketing. So I started marketing for them and grew the business here in Europe. But. I guess, not that you asked me this question, but I'll just tell you that I now think that [00:17:00] life comes in phases.

Anita Moorthy: Just because I couldn't do something when I was 28 or even 38, you know, doesn't mean you can't do it later on. I feel like there was a phase when I had to think about family and kids and then there was a phase where I just wanted to work and earn money and there was a phase where I just wanted to learn.

Anita Moorthy: And I feel like. In today's day and age, we have a lot, we have loads of these phases in our life. 

Amardeep Parmar: So, so just come back to the Siebel point quickly. So I never really mentioned this because most people don't even know what Siebel is, right? So I was a Siebel CRM consultant from 2014. Until 2021. So I know exactly what you mean by the products because how Siebel was built was that they had a different CRM for say life sciences, for telecoms.

Amardeep Parmar: And you ran one of those verticals, right? 

Anita Moorthy: I ran one called ERM, employee relationship management, which was like a baby within the bigger CRM world. And it was like a mini startup within their overall company. And it was like the thought that just like you have to build relationship with customers, [00:18:00] you need to have software to help build relationships

Anita Moorthy: with your employees. And it had things like training, like e learning, recruiting, performance management, all these like employee related software, which at that time, no one had thought about having a, like all of those be like a software platform. So that's what I worked on. 

Amardeep Parmar: I think what's interesting about that as well as a CRM is that it forces you to think in a very logical way.

Amardeep Parmar: Right. And what I find really interesting about your journey that we've talked about so far is that, so you have had consulting background, which teaches you different skills. Then you're a head of product at a startup, then you've got the MBA, then you've got marketing, then you've got receivable product management.

Amardeep Parmar: So you're covering so many different bases and each time learning different things. It's worth doing random things, but I often think the best entrepreneurs do have a random background because it means you understand how things fit together. Whereas when someone's got a very myopic view. Then that's where they've got blind spots, right?

Anita Moorthy: Right. 

Amardeep Parmar: All of this background and all this random stuff you've done and living in different countries, I think is a huge impact because it means that you've got that experience to now [00:19:00] understand how customers might think or how this is going to impact that. But now you're going back into your journey as a founder again.

Anita Moorthy: Yes.

Amardeep Parmar: So tell us behind what's happening there. What's the story? 

Anita Moorthy: Yeah, so, uh, and I'm really excited, um, I'm going to write a blog post at some point about this, but I feel like, you know, actually I did some research. The average age of founders who've started successful, started companies and been successful at it is actually 47.

Anita Moorthy: It's really surprised me because, you know, that's not the image you get when you think about entrepreneurs, you think about young Mark Zuckerberg and young, you know, the guy who started Figma or whatever, like, you just don't think about people in their older phases. And so I think what led me to it again is

Anita Moorthy: a little bit of fate and luck. So I was doing full time work until about, until COVID and my background has been leading marketing teams. So B2B marketing is kind of what my biggest strength has been. And I did that for a FinTech company. I did [00:20:00] that for, um, a cybersecurity company. And then when COVID came, I decided I wanted to do something different.

Anita Moorthy: I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do. So I took a break. I started a podcast and I knew that I loved talking to entrepreneurs. And I knew that I wanted to help entrepreneurs with marketing. Um, but I wanted to do it on my terms. I wanted to work for founders that I found inspiring, that I liked what they were doing.

Anita Moorthy: And I wanted to do the things in marketing that I enjoy doing rather than just all aspects of marketing. So this was my way. Like I, I started meeting a lot of people through this podcast and then I would take on fractional work, fractional CMO, fractional VP of marketing. Like people would say, I'm looking to hire full time.

Anita Moorthy: And I said. I'm not looking to come on full time, but I'm happy to help you to set up the foundation and do whatever you need. And we can, you know, structure it in different ways so that it works for you. Um, so that when you are ready to get somebody full time, then you can do so. So that worked out really well.

Anita Moorthy: And one of [00:21:00] the things that I did at that time, my brother was an entrepreneur. In San Francisco, he had a really cool startup called The Factual that was building software that looked, that analyzed lots and lots of news articles to find the most credible news, looking at various factors in the algorithm.

Anita Moorthy: Like what's the expertise of the author and you know, um, how much third party references are in it. So how, how well researched is it or how neutral is the tone, et cetera. And they found credible news. And I really liked what he was building and he was doing it for about five years. But as you would know of most first time founders, he was very focused on selling his product and thinking about marketing as

Anita Moorthy: a very metrics driven function. What I mean by that is his attitude towards marketing was if I put in a dollar, how is that converting to revenue for me? And that in, in marketing language is called like [00:22:00] performance marketing. Like I'm going to pay for a Facebook ads because I know that it converts at this ratio, which converts at this, and this is how it, you know, helps me.

Anita Moorthy: And, and I told him, I said, you know, this is really good, but if you want to make a really big impact and a really big company. You need to create a movement and what you're doing is really cool, but people need to emotionally connect to it. And so he's like, well, you're seeing all these things come and do it.

Anita Moorthy: Like, why are you working for all these other companies? Come and do it here. So then I said, Oh my God. Okay. Working for my brother, like, you know, like it's one thing to advise him and talk to him every day, but to work with him is another thing I wasn't quite sure how that would go, but he and I generally have a good relationship.

Anita Moorthy: So I said, okay, I'm going to do it. So I, I started working with him and redefined or like created a whole new identity in a whole new motion to go to market and in a different way of pitching his story and his idea. He had a lot of seed funding and he was looking for institutional at that time. So did that.

Anita Moorthy: And, um, we had a really lucky [00:23:00] outcome in that we sold the company to Yahoo. He was pitching the ideas to raise money. But he got an inbound request and Yahoo really liked what the factory was doing and he sold Yahoo. But at that, and by that time I'd worked with him and his co founder, a technical phone co founder for a year.

Anita Moorthy: So the reason that now we're starting a company is because with, is with him and the other co founder. So the biggest lesson for me and why I would not start it in any other ways is when I did my first startup, the hardest part was the dynamics between the co founders and, you know, in some, in a lot of ways we respected each other, et cetera, but there was also a lot of tension and friction because of the way our personalities

Anita Moorthy: work together, you know, in terms of like one person being like long tempered, another person being much more inward and needed time to think like that set up of how people work together, their communication style is so critical. And [00:24:00] when you're a founder, it's like you're married to the person. And I don't think I would have started another company if I didn't know my co founders as well as I knew

Anita Moorthy: Arjun and Ajoy who had worked with for a year and we all, we worked really well together. We complimented each other's skill and our styles of working was very good. So I think that was the incentive to say, okay, let's, and then, and then this AI thing happened. So that was a trigger. I'm like, Oh my God, Arjun, this AI thing, the impact that it's going to make in marketing is huge.

Anita Moorthy: Like the first impact is going to be the marketing because what ChatGPT did so well was really help with content creation. And I'm like, Oh my, Oh my God. Like as a marketer, that's what you spend most of your time doing is creating content that's searchable and that, you know, Google can find. And I feel like that's just going to change and we need to think about how it's going to change.

Anita Moorthy: So that's what triggered this new idea that we're now [00:25:00] building in stealth, the three of us. 

Amardeep Parmar: So I just said that you're building in stealth, so you can't rule the name or anything like that. Can you give us some insight into how it's going so far? What progress you've made?

Anita Moorthy: Yeah. So we just incorporated the company and it's really early, but we've, we had like, um, lots and lots of conversation with marketing leaders and we're at the stage where we're building an MVP.

Anita Moorthy: So the third co founder of Ajoy, um, technical, so he's building it and we plan to have some beta testing probably in the new year. Um, so yeah, I'm really excited to see how this unfolds and this is like we're in the honeymoon phase, right? We're like building the product where we think we have a great idea and it's going to help a lot of people, but really when the, you know, rubber meets the road is when the beta is in the hands of the customer.

Anita Moorthy: So I'll have more to say in the new year on that. 

Amardeep Parmar:  Can you mention the fundraiser or not? It's up to you. 

Anita Moorthy: Yeah. So, um, we, we raised three and a half million. I don't know. I would consider it's, it was a price round [00:26:00] and I would consider it pre- seed, seed because we don't have a product. And I think the reason we were able to raise that amount of money, because a lot of people say, Oh my God, how did you raise that money without having a product?

Anita Moorthy: And in some ways I feel like it might be easier that we raised on this vision. So a couple of things. One is, if you're doing VC route, you need to have a big vision. And I think they liked the vision we had. Second, we are second time co founders, we've worked together. So that risk has been removed. We've exited.

Anita Moorthy: So that risk has been removed. And the fourth thing is we're working in a domain, which we know really well. So I have 25 years working in just B2B marketing. Arjun worked at HubSpot and he was there for like six years or something and saw their journey. So he comes at it from a different perspective, but also

Anita Moorthy: understands that space. So I think these were the reasons that we were successful in raising funding. 

Amardeep Parmar: And just before we jump into the equip [00:27:00] file questions, what are you most excited about for the future? 

Anita Moorthy: I'm really excited because I feel like if I could do it again, this is the best time to actually be a co founder.

Anita Moorthy: My kids are older, you know, I feel like I have a second wind and I've got this purpose to build something really big and impactful and that can change lives. And so I'm really excited about the fact that I have this opportunity in front of me and I have the time and energy to dedicate to it. I'm really excited by that.

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Amardeep Parmar: That sounds great. So. I'm going to need to move on to five questions now. First one is, who are three British Asians that you'd love to spotlight that you think are doing incredible work? 

Anita Moorthy: Yeah, there's so many British Asians that are doing amazing work, but a few that I wanted to mention that I think will also be helpful for the audience.

Anita Moorthy: One is this woman, Geetha Nathan. She's a friend of mine who works in Innovate UK and she is the deputy director there and I think she is [00:28:00] really, uh, pivotal and sort of looking at, um, innovate applications. So she's one person. Then a good friend of mine, her name is Vidya Narasimhan. She was in the corporate world like, you know, Goldman Sachs and University of Michigan.

Anita Moorthy: She's got an MBA and now she is in the wine field. So she's a, a, Studying to be a master wine scholar, she writes and contributes to the Decanter magazine, which is well known, but it's really impressive to see a South Asian in in this industry, which is, you know, typically very white and male dominated, um, and her background being so corporate and very multicultural coming into this, um, this field and making a name for herself.

Anita Moorthy: So that's another person. And then the third, um, I don't know her that well, but I follow her. Her name is Namrata Kamdar, and she has a business where she has her own line of skin care. The name of the [00:29:00] company is Plenair, P L E N A I R, and I'm really impressed again with the ability for a South Asian British entrepreneur to make a dent in this field again, which, as you know, you know, brand is such a big deal.

Anita Moorthy: Like you have such big brands in this space. Um, it's a very crowded market and yet she's trying to carve a space for, you know, very good organic skincare. I think it was inspired by what she felt her daughter needed and her daughter's skin needed. And I think, um, it's, it's a really up and coming feel. So yeah.

Amardeep Parmar: Awesome. So obviously we're in stealth right now, so there's not gonna be a website people can go to, but if you want to be following goose, they can see what the next steps are. And when the company is announced to be the first ones to see it. What should they do? 

Anita Moorthy: Yeah. And, and, you know, honestly, if anyone also wants to just reach out to me for whatever reason, I'm always happy to, to chat, um, follow me on LinkedIn, LinkedIn, Anita Moorthy.

Anita Moorthy: Um, just look me up. Probably the easiest is also to [00:30:00] follow my podcast. Uh, it's called the European startup show. I often interview people with the entrepreneur in mind and ask questions about what would be helpful for them. So maybe they can follow that as well. 

Amardeep Parmar: And if the audience could help you in some way.

Anita Moorthy: I'm always looking for inspiring guests for my podcast that, um, that would be one. Another would be, you know, I'm always looking to talk to marketers and B2B marketers and hear about their, the world, what's working for them, what's not working for them and get some feedback on what we're building.

Amardeep Parmar: Awesome. So thank you so much for coming on today. Really love this. Have you got any final words to the audience? 

Anita Moorthy: No, I think, uh, Amar, you're doing a great job. I think this is so needed. There are so many British Asians that are doing amazing work and I look forward to seeing how I can support you.

Amardeep Parmar: Hello, hello, everyone. Thank you so much for listening. It means a huge amount to us, and we don't think you realize how important you are [00:31:00] because if you subscribe to our YouTube channel, if you leave us a five star review, it makes a world of difference. And if you believe in what we're trying to do here, 

Amardeep Parmar: to inspire, connect and guide the next generation British Asians. If you do those things, you can help us achieve that mission and you can help us make a bigger impact. And by doing that, it means we can get bigger guests. We can host more events. We can do more for the community. So you can play a huge part.

Amardeep Parmar: So thank you so much for supporting us.

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