Announcer: 0:00

The following programming is sponsored by Marc J. Bernstein. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of this station, its management, or Beasly Media Group. Entrepreneur, founder, author, and financial advisor Marc Bernstein helps high-performing business owners turn their visions into reality. Through his innovative work and the forward-focused forum, Marc connects entrepreneurs to resources that fuel their success. Founders Forum is a radio show and podcast where entrepreneurs share their journeys, revealing the lessons they've learned and the stories behind their success. Join Marc and his guests for a mix of inspiration, valuable insights, and a little fun. Now, let's dive in.

Marc Bernstein: 0:40

Good morning, America. How are you? It's a gray day in Philadelphia today, but I will tell you that the Phillies are playing great. So there's a little brightness in Philly right now. They're in first place. And uh all is good in the world for me in the summer when the Phillies are winning. So anyway, I have a guest here today, Shikha, and we were talking, we've gotten to know each other over the last few months, and we were talking offline about the concept of duality. And duality, you know, when I think of duality, I think of the contradictions of life. You know, where there's dark, there's light, where there's positivity, there's negativity, where there's um, you know, all kinds of things. I actually think of golf also, because in golf it's a game of contradictions. You know, you take a every everyone thinks it's the harder you swing the fur the further the ball goes, but everybody knows that's not true. So it's a game of contradictions. So I think about duality a lot. Um but I know Shikha thinks about it in terms of entrepreneurship, which it also makes a lot of sense to me. So Shikha let's uh give us your thoughts on duality and entrepreneurship.

Shikha Miglani: 1:51

Uh hey Marc, uh duality to me is a very powerful concept uh lately so because as I'm growing as a leader of a company, I'm seeing there is uh there's so much duality that exists in everything we do, the way we think about ourselves, our approach. And sometimes when people label you or you label people, you kind of get stuck in that image and you try to uh deal with things in a particular way. But if you slightly like open up your mind and allow the other side to come through and find a balance, I think you can you can create magic. So to me that's duality. I was asking Chat GPT, can you do a psychoanalysis for me? And it came back to me with saying, Oh, you are a leader who values uh, you know, who prefer who who would prioritize impact over ego or who would who is uh who can combine the hard metrics of business with soft skill softness of dealing with people, right? So to me that was very interesting. Wow, uh, you know, that if you you you don't have to let go of something to be something. I think you can have it all. You just need to learn the art of balance and regulation.

Marc Bernstein: 2:54

It also helps with non-judgment, I think. If you recognize that there's duality, you're less likely to judge because you can see the good and bad in people or the strength and the weakness and right? I mean, you can you can see all of that.

Shikha Miglani: 3:07

I think words are very powerful. If we use it on us or others, it becomes a part of our uh existence. So if we are very c uh a bit careful and gentle and you know nuanced with the choice of words, it can shape us as a different human being.

Marc Bernstein: 3:22

I like that. It's great, it's wonderful. So let's tell you about Shikha Miglani, who is the co-founder and co-CEO of Saarthee, a strategy analytics technology and AI company that empowers enterprises through transformative insights. With an engineering background and decades of consulting experience, she has led multi multi-million dollar initiatives across industry, seamlessly bridging data analytics with business strategy. A strong advocate for the power of mentorship, she serves as a passionate board member of Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Um also sends Mite Mighty, am I saying that correctly?

Shikha Miglani: 4:03

Mighty.

Marc Bernstein: 4:04

Mighty, where she spearheads the collaborative development of AI-driven solutions. Also, she left this out of her bio, but she has founded a um an organization called Girl of Substance. And we're we're gonna get to that. We're gonna talk about that. So welcome, Shikha. Thanks for being here.

Shikha Miglani: 4:22

Excited to be here, Marc.

Marc Bernstein: 4:24

Uh you um well I I know a lot of this, but let's tell the audience about your story. You know, you come from India. We can talk about how you grew how you grew up a little bit, but what influenced you ultimately to get where to where you are as an entrepreneur? That's the story we'd like to hear to start out.

Shikha Miglani: 4:40

Uh sure, Marc. So, Marc, I grew up in India, uh, you know, did my education engineering. Um, there was this involvement of math and science and the family. Uh my dad was uh my both my parents were uh, you know, a big proponent of education. We were in a small town, um very humble, simple lives. Uh but my parents were dreamers. I got my uh ambition from my mom, and I got my sensitivity from my dad. Journalists the other way around, but I now that I'm talking to you, it's like you know, occurring to me even more clearly that she was the ambitious one, you know, she was the one who would uh she was the she was the one who would execute vision into ideas, and my father was like he would have these ideas about you know what to do. Uh and and a lot of sensitivity, the lot of values I get is from my dad.

Marc Bernstein: 5:26

So your dad was like the visionary and your mom was like the implementation person.

Shikha Miglani: 5:30

They both were visionaries, but they uh they uh my mom was more like she would take it to the end, you know. She would want to so the the the strength to really uh you know see it in actuality is something she had uh, you know, completely uh which was a part of her personality. So yeah.

Marc Bernstein: 5:46

Nice. So and I think you there were some entrepreneurs in your family as well. Didn't we talk about that?

Shikha Miglani: 5:51

Yes. My father's side, uh, you know, uh actually even my mother's side too, they had their own small businesses, they were entrepreneurs. So it was like a and I would see them working late hours, you know, uh having their shops open till ten. So I think uh my dad was the only salaried person in his family, and we broke that.

Marc Bernstein: 6:08

Right.

Shikha Miglani: 6:09

Uh for you know uh and then I I I did my engineering there, studied for some time. Um I was I think the first woman engineer on the shop floor. There were not many women. I think I was the first one. I was uh they were not giving me a job. I said, okay, I'm not I'm gonna quit the job if you don't give me this. And back in those days, younger people, I was young back then. Right. So they were not uh uh they didn't want to do the core jobs, you know. But I it was my love. My father, you know, gave me that love for machines, engineering, and I wanted to pursue something which I you know studied in, you know. Um so they gave me shop floor. I worked there for four years. Uh it was amazing. The most magical. I think it really hardened me up being the only woman in the room most of the time.

Marc Bernstein: 6:49

In the in India?

Shikha Miglani: 6:51

That was in India.

Marc Bernstein: 6:52

In India.

Shikha Miglani: 6:52

Yeah, it was like I would travel to remote sites, set up, you know, the the designs that I created, you know, face the crowd where, you know, I'm the only uh you know, you just see it, right? You can't ignore the fact that uh you're the only per woman in the room. Uh but great experience, uh, you know, um and then I you know worked there for four years and then I came here for masters. Uh there was, I don't know, I suddenly I got an itch to travel the world, just go to the other side and you know, do my masters. So after finishing up my masters, I worked again for some time. And then uh, you know, uh on uh me and my partner always uh we were very dreamy folks, you know, all ambitious. We were in a really good job we were doing really well with the jobs, but there was something more inside us, more so in my, you know, in my partner who was like more ambitious than me, I would say. For me, ambition was across dimensions, but for him it was definitely about you know doing something.

Marc Bernstein: 7:44

This is your partner in business today you're talking about. Yes, yes. Who may we say he's also your husband? Yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay.

Shikha Miglani: 7:51

So I would see that, you know, uh, you know, that he was never happy with, you know, whatever he was doing. He wanted to do something more, and it kind of rubbed off on me, I think, in a way. Uh but I was ambitious. There was a part in me, my mom's, you know, DNA in me that kind of you know immediately connected to that. So we would talk about, you know, what we we could we would talk about our dreams, ambitions, you know, they are like seeds that you are creating, and then one day you sow those seeds when the timing is right, and you water it and you put fertilizer. Yes. And then that tree became Saarthee right now.

Marc Bernstein: 8:20

Um did you s did you start I'm not sure if I know the answer, Saarthee in India and bring it here? No.

Shikha Miglani: 8:26

It was uh Saarthee is founded in America.

Marc Bernstein: 8:28

Yeah.

Shikha Miglani: 8:29

And yeah.

Marc Bernstein: 8:30

And so how did you get to that point where you decided to to start that company?

Shikha Miglani: 8:34

So my you know, my daughter was born and I was like, you know, um I was in between, I was taking a small break, so uh and we had this, you know, a clear idea of something doing of our own. And then my ex-employed called up and said, Hey, I need your help. I said, I'm not gonna get back because I've decided to be an entrepreneur. I decided to start my own company. So even if you even only if you register me as a vendor, I can come on board and do your work. And that's how we kind of you know got into the first project and you know, uh my first paycheck for Saarthee. Yeah. And then uh thereafter, clients on his side, you know, came in and you know, there was this a lot of you know respect we had in our work. People respected our work, who we are, and we were, you know, uh we were we had the ability to bring in technology and business together through analytics, right? Uh so people just loved us, we really challenged the norm. We were like so anytime there are companies around, there are always a room for newer companies. Uh almost like a David versus Goliath logic, you know. Uh people become easy uh when things go like as you grow. But then we brought in this anti-establishment mindset, a new thought process to do things. So we grew very organically. It was all about work to us. We really, you know, uh respected, we we wanted to do a great job rather than selling all the time. And I'm so glad we did it that way. That way we found our own identity as a founder. Uh as founders, uh, we found uh, you know, we we were able to create a vision, understand the vision, create it, and bake it so we can grow from there. Yeah.

Marc Bernstein: 10:02

Um in in a few words, in a sentence, if you can do it, can you describe in in an easy to understand way what Saarthee does?

Shikha Miglani: 10:09

Yeah. So I'll give a quick uh, you know, um I'll I'll share a quick note on the name Saarthee. Saarthee means mentor, guide, trusted companion. It's a sa Sanskrit word which originates from a mythological war that happened many, many years ago in India between two brothers. They were two cousin brothers, and they both had the option to choose Saarthee or Lord Krishna, who was also the chief strategist or a million soldier army. So the brother who chose uh Krishna, Saarthee, uh won the war versus the brother who chose a million soldier army. So the moral of the story is quality is better than the quantity. So if you have the team led by subject matter experts we call Saarthee, you can really uh drive the business outcomes in a very strategic way. So we have we think of us as a James Bond where we can wear the business suit, we can jump the trains, uh we can wear the business suit uh to speak the language of the business, but we can also jump the train and fix the bomb to do all the dirty work that is needed to be done with data technology and area.

Marc Bernstein: 11:03

That's great.

Shikha Miglani: 11:04

So very, very premier but not pretentious. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Marc Bernstein: 11:06

And for what industries? What industries do you work for?

Shikha Miglani: 11:09

So we work across uh verticals, you know, telecom, media, uh, real estate, retail, banking, healthcare, pharmaceuticals. So we we we we we are you know vertical agnostic and we have uh built solutions and results that have dramatically you know improved outcomes, saved millions of dollars for an end client.

Marc Bernstein: 11:27

One thing our listeners can't see, but they maybe be able to hear it, is that you have a wonderful smile, that you're always smiling. She's there's so much energy um emerges from Sheca and it's contagious. You can't help I can't help but smile when I'm talking to her. So hopefully you can hear mine as well. It's always a joy to speak to her. Um in building a business, you know, we know it's not a um straight line to success. There's a lot of challenges along the way, right?

Shikha Miglani: 11:54

It should not be a straight line.

Marc Bernstein: 11:55

It should not be a straight line.

Shikha Miglani: 11:56

Yeah, that's a fun part, right?

Marc Bernstein: 11:57

That's the fun the roller coaster, right?

Shikha Miglani: 11:59

Right.

Marc Bernstein: 11:59

So it's a roller coaster ride. So tell me a little bit about that. What kind of challenges did you face along the way that um that caused some bumps in the road for you or some uh hills on the roller coaster?

Shikha Miglani: 12:11

You know, for us it was a very easy journey because people knew us and we believed in our work. Uh we were enjoying every single day. I uh Marc, I can't there's not even a one dull day in Saarthee. That is my that is a joy. Saarthee is the joy of my life because I didn't even realize how 11 years went by and we have done this amazing body of work. We have innovated, you know, products, we have created solutions, we have our stakeholders who have signed us up for you know year after year, right? Our contracts renewed. The five-star customer service that we have given to people is the most satisfying part. Um so it was very easy, but yes, there were the chores. You had to wear multiple hats. We started with one laptop and then we had servers, and now we have a full, full-fledged IT, you know, team working for us, right? So that was interesting. Being an entrepreneur, I think I would say you have to be single-minded if you can. All the entrepreneurs love their work. I think all of them, uh if they are successful, they're single-minded. So just stay focused on the work was very natural to me. To other people, it may be a challenge, but I'm quite single-minded. Quite I get obsessed about something. And it kind of reflects in my professional life too. So yeah, I mean, I I don't know, I don't see it as a challenge. It was uh hard work. It was like sheer hard work trying to prove your you know worth and trying to prove your point of view. But uh I loved it.

Marc Bernstein: 13:34

So the hard work is really what was driving the roller coaster to a certain extent.

Shikha Miglani: 13:39

Um. I mean no. I don't know. I it it's a hard question because I never felt the challenges. But yes, sometimes when you are coming as an immigrant into a country and you are talking to the business uh leaders out there, they've not seen people who could also do strategy and analytics. Normally people would have seen us in the technology space to to have them uh you know uh understand who we are was a little bit of a work, but it was not a challenge, I would say. For example, I was doing some training sessions and I had the option to keep my keep my accent or copy the accent, you know, of somebody who was doing it for years, a very fancy company doing it. I said, no, I'm not gonna do it. So I created my own content, almost like a poem, and uh added, you know, the with my wonderful smile, like whatever you said just now. And uh, you know, I just put the content forward, right? Marry the content with the compassion, with the empathy. And people really take it well. It was a very successful session. People came and told me, hey, hey, your sessions are so cool. They are really, you know, uh they really were the ones I was able to wrap myself uh uh up, but it was so and so in I had such an enjoyable experience attending your training sessions, right? So things like that where you had the choice to be somebody else you're not or the choice to be who you are. I would say embrace yourself. People love real people, end of the day.

Marc Bernstein: 14:54

And you have expressed to me that the challenge of being an immigrant and the challenge of being a woman leader in business have right?

Shikha Miglani: 15:01

I mean, there's you know, there's I think as women leaders we always have to prove ourselves. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Always uh when you enter a room, uh you know, you uh and I'm almost I'm so used to it, it doesn't even bother me anymore. It has empowered me that you know I walk in and people are not gonna be sure who what I do and whether I'll be able to do it. Uh but uh don't listen to it. And I think it gets better. Then your body language becomes so different that people don't even doubt you. And things change at certain point of life. I'm like 11 years into it, right? So I go into a meeting, bam, I know what to do, I know what I'm talking about, I know exactly where goes what. So that adds up and biases fizzle out. But yes, there'll always be a new crowd that has not seen something. What you do. There are not many female founders out there. In fact, when I do interviews, young girls come and tell me, I have not seen a female founder. I said, Okay, Marc, my day's done. This is why you should be doing your work, not just to make money, right, but also to inspire people in a subtle way, right? As simple as that girl carrying that image of a female founder, you know, completely in her spirit and soul, right?

Marc Bernstein: 16:03

Listen, it's about confidence. So over time you build a lot of confidence. And and by the way, if you don't mind me saying, this is a great this show is a great example because you were a little nervous about how this was gonna be and say, I don't know how this is gonna be, and you're doing a wonderful job. And with that, we're gonna take a one-minute break and we'll be right back.

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Marc Bernstein: 16:57

We are back on Founders Forum with our guest today, Shikha Miglani of SART. And um so we've we've talked a lot about the building of the business. I know you are a person with vision, like your mother and like your father. And um what let's tell me about your future vision. If this were three years from today, Shikha, and we're talking, what would have to happen over that three years for you to tell me, hey, that was a very successful period in our business and in my life? What would that look like?

Shikha Miglani: 17:26

Uh yes, Marc. So uh we have taken Saarthee to uh you know a great place. Uh you know, every day is like some new achievement. Uh we are trying to scale it up globally. Uh we are trying to solve newer problems, we are trying to be innovative, uh, which comes very easy to us. So in three years, um I I would like to scale my company to newer heights that uh you know I only imagined uh you know for Saarthee. Uh before Gen EI, if you were to ask me this question about scaling, I would say people, but I think with Gen EI, the stakes, uh the game has changed and you have to think about growth and innovation in terms of growth in terms of innovation. So if I can create very cutting-edge solutions, uh, you know, where I can really help my clients find efficiencies and find new ways to optimize their ROIs, I think that will be a success. And as I do it, I to I I want to really when I say cutting-edge technology, I'm really thinking about can we make India the Silicon Valley of the world where so much innovation happens on the on the s in in the Silicon Valley of California, right? Can I create the same, you know, uh as I mean, I have the aspiration at least to have the same level of innovation coming from India. So that will be the true impact I can make on the technology. Uh and in and that's my three-year vision, you know. Can I get there? Uh I would love to get there. I know I can get there, but we have to work on it every single day and we'll do it. Um I also want to make an impact. I think life should not just be about numbers. I think it should be about uh the uh the the number of lives that you have touched and impacted. So right now I'm on the board of Big Brother Big Sisters, so it's happening very naturally. We both are like Sartimi's mentor guide, Big Brother, Big Sister is a mentorship organization. So we are helping them. We are doing, we did pro bono analytics for them, we sponsored events. Now we are helping them find strategy into new ways to raise the funds and everything that goes along with that, you know. And we are supporting them with our team in India. Um at some point, I would like to, and I think it's in the works setting up my own foundation and creating purpose-driven uh uh enterprises. Encouraging my daughter, uh, you know, said that as you grow, uh find and you know, create purpose where you donate 100% of your profit, right? To nonprofit. Just run it like a business and donate 100% is another concept I would like to try from my impact perspective. And as a woman entrepreneur, I think being here uh is great. Uh but if I can truly uh change lives through AI, how can we, you know, how can we overcome this bias in AI, right? So for that, and that's why I created MIT. Um, you know, I'm the CEO of Maiti, which is a collaborative AI uh uh you know uh uh company where we collaborate with business stakeholders or you know people who know what problems to be solved and we solve them along with it. But how can we uh you know uh unbias it from a gender perspective, race perspective? So that I think would be very meaningful to me. So yeah, my own business, I mean everything is only, but yeah, my business and then you know, impact, social impact um that we are currently making, but even to a larger scale. And then how do I use AI to overcome the biases in the society and find some innovative solutions around that? Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.

Marc Bernstein: 20:42

We missed one thing, which is um talking about social impact through business, girl of substance. Let's talk about that.

Shikha Miglani: 20:49

Oh yeah. So, Marc, this is a girl of substance is my first baby, uh uh uh business baby, you know. Uh even before Saarthee, like I saw my daughter, uh like he she would enter into an elevator, and then there's a boy who enters into the elevator, and then this is America, you know, and then they said, Hey, hey, your t-shirt is uh you know, you you that's so cute on your t-shirt, right? You're so cute and so everything would translate from what she was wearing. Whereas there was a boy who had a fighter jet or something on his shirt, and he and they would say, Hey, you want to be a fighter palette? So just imagine a girl being bombarded with these with these messages from day one, and then you expect her to go to Harvard one day and start doing things, right? Right. Why not to change that perception from day one when we can start talking to them, right? Uh in the same way. So to me there was a bias, and I was wondering if this is could happen in America. I can't imagine what could happen in India, right? And I think the toy and clothing industry was very gendered. So I it was my answer to the to the norm. It was my answer to the big folks out there uh that you know, this thinking is very, you know, archaic and we need to think new. So I founded Girl of Substance, which uh is a clothing store. In future, I see it as a media platform for girls uh to empower them. But when when I founded it, it was all about you know um creating empowering clothing for the girls so they can envision themselves as future leaders, as future you know.

Marc Bernstein: 22:08

So you sell t-shirts and things like that? Clothing, yeah. Yeah. And how what what what's empowering about the clothing? What's different about it? Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.

Shikha Miglani: 22:15

So there are many dimensions to it, but we are we are encouraging girls to dream big, whether it's STEM or arts or philosophy. So it's a whole philosophy. I don't want to just say STEM because I think you can't just send a girl to a Harvard and empower them. You have to empower uh every core, every element of their existence. And that can only happen when we talk to them and when we, you know, converse with them, and we have the similar expectation as we have from a boy, right?

Marc Bernstein: 22:44

Yeah, that's great. That's that's uh I that was one of my favorite parts of your story was girl of substance. So you um here's a question I like to ask you. What does success mean to you, Shikha, today? What does it mean to you today, and how has that definition evolved in your life over time? Yeah. I know it's changed.

Shikha Miglani: 23:04

Yeah, so success um you know I have always been an A student. I was always an A student, very popular kid into leadership roles, house captain, you know. I every time I was in that, I was never on the sidelines. So it was very hard for me to stay on the sidelines. But I was also seeing success through the lens of others where they were applauding me. So it was good, but I think it was also limiting me in a way what how I want it to be. So and with Saarthee, it has liberated me. It is, I mean, I've I don't do things because, you know, people for social recognition, I do things because I feel good about it. So success is when you can really, you know, uh succeed, feeling good about it, right? And when you can take some chances with life, you know, where you don't have to uh, you know, uh answer to every anybody, right? So to me, success is about um, you know, about this liberated feeling of you know not losing yourself, rather gaining yourself, right? I mean there's a dimensions to success. Uh money is money, revenue, yes, that's a part of the business. That you don't want to lose sight of as an entrepreneur, but you don't want to lose your sight of who you are. So if you gain something, gain yourself. Don't lose yourself in the process. That to me is true success.

Marc Bernstein: 24:14

Like marching to your own drum, like following your own path and being who you are.

Shikha Miglani: 24:19

Being who you are, yes.

Marc Bernstein: 24:21

I love that. Um one uh one other question. So if you were looking back and if you could speak to your younger self, uh what advice would you give you? What would you do differently?

Shikha Miglani: 24:34

Yeah, um I think be more con like be more confident. I mean uh you know, don't be don't be scared to fail. I think when we are young, and especially when you're doing so well as a you know student or you were the favorite child of your I mean your parents really applauded you for everything you did, uh, you know. Uh it was as I said, it was I couldn't take failures that easy. But with time and with, you know, um with some uh yeah, with time I've yeah, with with time I've kind of, you know, um I don't care about it anymore. It's really about you know what I want to do and failures failures are a part of success, right? And if you don't fail much, you don't discover new things. So yeah, I would I would tell that, but I think it's a journey we all go through. But I'm very comfortable in my skin right now to be whatever I want to do.

Marc Bernstein: 25:22

You seem very comfortable in your skin. You're smiling all the time. I love that. Um we have another minute. I'm gonna throw a couple surprise questions at you. Uh what book are you reading, or what what is your favorite book, or what what book would you recommend to our listeners?

Shikha Miglani: 25:36

I could read Paolo Colo all day, every day. He's very inspiring. So I just uh uh you know, my daughter gifted me on my mother's day. I don't know how she knew I'd like the author. It's called the Fifth Mountain. So I don't know what's there in the book. Yeah. So I will be I'll start to read that book. But I love Paolo Colo so much. It's um uh I believe that uh you know life becomes what you want it to be. And there is so much power you have in your self to shape your own life. And if you uh want something really bad, it kind of falls in your way, is the magic I still want to believe. So yeah, I mean uh yeah, just something which can inspire me and uplift me, right? And uh make me think in a way I've never thought before would be a good book for me. Ralo Colo always does it. I'll be open to new books. I would love to hear your suggestions too at some point after the show.

Marc Bernstein: 26:27

We can talk afterwards. I think I think we're just about uh uh finished with the show. I think we're just uh I think we're out of time. But uh wonderful having you here, Shikha and you might stay on for the next show we record today, and uh you're welcome to do that if you'd like. And uh we thank you all for being here on Founders Forum. And uh please listen to us again next week. Please uh subscribe, please uh hashtag, please uh get in touch with us if you have any ideas or if you'd like to be on our show. And with that, have a great day.