Her Story
About Sampada
I started my career in India working in the luxury fashion space at Sabyasachi, which is a global luxury brand that has collaborated with big names in the global fashion industry such as Christian Louboutin and Elaine Crawford. I began as a senior associate contributing to cost optimization strategies and day-to-day back-end operations, then moved up to a leadership role pretty quickly where I was eventually heading planning and operations. I also worked in cost and quality control for a brief period, all while still working under the operations umbrella. When COVID hit, I got really curious about e-commerce and how companies were transitioning online and moving their businesses to digital platforms, so I started working at an e-commerce company in a strategic marketing role as a U.S. marketplace marketing executive. I became more and more curious about how businesses operate on a holistic level, which brought me to pursue my MBA at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. I moved here in 2023, did a couple of internships, and decided I'm really interested in business analysis, overall research, and helping both small and large businesses optimize their current strategy. Now I work as a business analyst at Nelson Scientific Labs, a scientific research and advisory firm, where I help the research team scale their current software and come up with marketing strategy for that. My day-to-day includes helping revamp their current website to attract more investors and users, thinking about go-to-market strategy, and leading business case development when we're considering expanding or diversifying revenue through new income streams.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Sampada
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Looking back on my life now, the pivots that I've made in my career, I don't regret any of them. They make me who I am today. I have pivoted from luxury fashion to biotech, and from different roles, although operations and strategy has always been at the center of it all. I would tell my younger self to not be scared of taking chances, because in my life, some of the biggest and most rewarding opportunities have come when I have taken an unconventional path, and I've actually learned a lot more through those opportunities. I would just tell my younger self to not overthink too much, and not be scared of trying something new.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think the biggest opportunity is that I'm working with cancer research scientists and product developers. It's amazing how much innovation is happening on a day-to-day basis in the field of science and research. A lot of these are small businesses that have the potential to grow, and are also growing really fast. The biggest opportunity is for them to find investors who see the potential in their software products, which can actually revolutionize science research and this entire field. It doesn't matter what field they're doing their research on, but there is innovation happening on a daily basis, and I think that is one of the biggest opportunities in this field, especially with AI coming in. We are also working on making the software as relevant to today's technology as possible.
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