WOW STORY OF THE DAY: From Harvard to Indra Nooyi's Office — Simi Shah Built What She Needed to See

 From Private Equity to a Platform That Changes Everything

•⁠  ⁠Simi Shah grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, the daughter of Nitin and Pravina Shah. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Harvard University and began her career as an investor at Audax Private Equity. At 23, she walked away from what many would call a dream job, recognising that her real calling was somewhere else entirely.

•⁠  ⁠What followed was a career arc that reads like a masterclass in intentional building. She served as Head of Business Development at Paperwork Studios, a venture-backed media startup. Then came the opportunity that sharpened everything: serving as Chief of Staff to Indra Nooyi, the former CEO of PepsiCo and one of the most consequential business leaders of the modern era. Working alongside one of the world's most powerful South Asian women gave Simi a direct and deeply personal understanding of what it meant to lead at the highest level, and how rarely those stories were told with the depth and identity they deserved.

•⁠  ⁠"I noticed that while South Asians were consistently leading and achieving across industries, their stories were rarely captured with respect to their identities," Simi shares.

In 2020, she launched South Asian Trailblazers.

 A Media Platform, a Community, and an Agency Operating as One

•⁠  ⁠The most powerful decision Simi made was to build South Asian Trailblazers as three interlocking engines rather than a single content channel.

•⁠  ⁠The flagship podcast sits at the centre, now in its eighth season. Simi has welcomed over 100 South Asian icons to the microphone: Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan, ClassPass founder Payal Kadakia, San Francisco 49ers President Paraag Marathe, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal, Emmy-winning comedian Vir Das, global music star Ali Sethi, and Priyanka Chopra Jonas alongside her business partner Anjula Acharia, in what Simi describes as a first-of-its-kind conversation. The guests span politics, business, entertainment, sport, and culture, united by one thread: they are South Asian, they are extraordinary, and their stories matter.

•⁠  ⁠Alongside the podcast, South Asian Trailblazers built a thriving community infrastructure: live podcast recordings, exclusive dinners, industry gatherings, and networking events across New York City, Washington D.C., San Francisco, and London. These events make the platform tangible and human, translating digital reach into real-world relationships.

•⁠  ⁠The third engine is the Trailblazers Agency, where Simi advises high-profile executives, founders, and leaders on digital brand building, strategic communications, stakeholder engagement, and executive positioning. This is where the intelligence gathered from hundreds of conversations with the world's most accomplished South Asians gets channelled back into building the next generation of leaders.

•⁠  ⁠Simi also completed her MBA at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she was named to the 100 Best and Brightest MBAs in the United States, graduating before the Forbes 30 Under 30 recognition that would follow.

Scale, Numbers and Real-World Impact

•⁠  ⁠South Asian Trailblazers reaches listeners and viewers in 146 countries. The podcast has now completed eight seasons since its 2020 launch. The platform has featured over 100 South Asian trailblazers across business, politics, entertainment, and the arts. Community events are held across four major global cities. Simi Shah was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in January 2025, at age 27. She has been invited to the White House and the New York Stock Exchange, and has been recognised in global outlets including Forbes and Yahoo Finance.

•⁠  ⁠The platform has become a premier destination for South Asian representation in global media, operating at the intersection of storytelling, community, and executive influence in a way that has no precise equivalent elsewhere.

The Communities That Are Underserved Hold the Biggest Opportunities

•⁠  ⁠The sharpest lesson from Simi Shah's journey is this: the spaces where representation is absent are exactly where the most loyal, most engaged, and most underserved audiences are waiting.

•⁠  ⁠South Asians represent 1.9 billion people across the globe. They lead some of the world's largest companies, hold the highest offices in multiple democracies, and create culture on every continent. And yet for decades, a media platform built specifically to honour and amplify their stories simply did not exist.

•⁠  ⁠Simi built it. A Harvard economist who worked at private equity, then alongside Indra Nooyi, then at Wharton, could have gone anywhere. She chose to build the platform she had always needed to see.

•⁠  ⁠"South Asian Trailblazers is here to amplify these voices, centre South Asian stories, and inspire the next generation," she says.

•⁠  ⁠She is 27. The platform is in its eighth season. It reaches 146 countries. And Simi Shah, by every measure that matters, is herself becoming exactly what the platform is named for.

Sources: Simi Shah Official Website, NRI Pulse, Asia Society, New India Abroad, Apple Podcasts / Spotify, American Bazaar