Influential Woman · Retail

Geetanjali Gupta

Sr Program Manager, Sales Strategy and Operations, Amazon

Austin, TX

Certifications · Degrees · Memberships

Degree Jewelry Design (degree from home country)

Her Story

About Geetanjali

I immigrated to the U.S. around 18 years ago and have built my career through multiple pivots and stages. Currently, I work at Amazon as a leader in sales strategy and operations. Before joining Amazon, I led e-commerce and websites at one of the home shopping TV channels. My background is quite diverse - in my home country, I was a jewelry designer, but when I came to the U.S., my trajectory completely changed due to visa purposes and I had to go for whatever was available to me. I built my career out of that experience. Even though I don't hold a U.S. degree, I've reached where I am today through experience and hard work. I'm also an entrepreneur at heart, coming from a business background. I started selling on Amazon back in 2014-15 when it wasn't a common thing yet, and made a lot of money there. Currently, I run a weekend catering business in Austin that I started to connect with the Indian community. It's based on chai, a very popular Indian drink. My business focuses on luxury catering and luxury grazing table setups, which was a concept that didn't exist in Austin when I started - there was a huge gap in the market. People are loving this very different concept where we bring carts to people's events on weekends. My vision is to expand the cart business into different ethnic food items. I'm a workaholic and I love what I do - my party is my work. I don't feel tired because extreme passion drives it, and wherever passion shows up, you just don't feel any challenge. This is truly a passion project for me, and I want to grow it, especially as my son is finishing 9th grade and will be going to college in three years. I want to have something on the side that I can lean on that is super passionate to me.

Her Interview

Ten minutes with Geetanjali

01What do you attribute your success to?

I personally attribute my success to my mom if I have to attribute it to a human. I gained all my strength from her - strength, vision, the way of living life. If it's non-human, I would give my credit to the universe. I'm a very spiritual person. I feel like whatever is happening to you is given to you by the universe because of your good karmas. Even if things are not in the right direction, you just do a good karma to turn it into the right direction. So absolutely, your success comes from your good deeds. And that's what I attribute that to.

02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?

My only advice would be, be comfortable with ambiguity. The world is changing even faster than we can ever think. When I completely pivoted my career, back in my home country I was a jewelry designer. I had no idea, did not even know back then anything about computers, anything about e-commerce at all. And I came to the U.S., my trajectory completely changed. Due to visa purposes, I had to go for whatever was available to me, and I built my career out of that. I totally pivoted from what I actually learned. Now, in today's scenario, the world is even more fluid, ever-changing. Do not hold on to what you think tight. Just be comfortable with what's coming your way, take it, grab it, and then figure out what to do next. Be comfortable with ambiguity. I think dealing with ambiguity, a lot of people feel is challenging, but I think, in the end, it's signals from the universe to take it.

03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?

I think empathy is something that always could be the basis of your foundation. Strength should not be confused with non-empathy. Strength should always have a part of emotions. For people who are fighting for their career, life, situations - be soft on yourself. Be empathetic. Emotions are everything at the end of the day. One thing is how successful you are, but then you don't want to be alone. Success is usually lonely. I would suggest, and we do not realize it until we reach that stage at the age of 50, 60 - it is lonely. People say all the time, success is lonely, leadership is lonely. Emotions is something to always take along with you, and carry them as an asset, as you would value your career.

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