What’s your home country and what brought you to the US? 

I’m a British Indian, born and brought up in London. 

We believed that the US was the perfect place to base and grow our tech startup, Tallyfy. From the very beginning, the talent, funding, strategic partners and customers were all leading us here. We applied for an investor visa and also won an ArchGrant to start the company in the US and moved to St. Louis in 2015. 

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What have you done over the last 5 years? Where have you worked and where are you currently working?

I am a co-founder at Tallyfy, a simple workflow system to document and automate any business process or approval process with your team. We conceptualized Tallyfy in England and spent the first couple of years in the US, developing the product and raising funding. Five years in, we now have a fully developed product, a large team, and hundreds of companies around the world using Tallyfy.

 

 

How has being here changed you? What values have you imbibed?

I went from working in the corporate environment and with non-profits around the world to being an entrepreneur here in the US. We grew our company from nothing to a well-known name in its space in just a couple of years. I think the US has systems in place to make entrepreneurs successful. The startup ecosystem in established places like Silicon Valley and cities wanting to be like it are full of opportunities for those who are hungry for them. I feel that the people in the U.S. are very altruistic and giving with their time and energy, especially here in St. Louis. It’s made me want to be more giving, I now truly believe what you give out, all comes back to you, in abundance. In London, I often felt that early in life and with my family, job security was touted more than entrepreneurship. If you decide to go against the grain and do start something, there are simply too many others trying the same thing and after the same scarce resources. Here, I felt the community is rooting for you to start something new and to succeed. 

 

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Besides work, how else are you involved in the local community?

The St. Louis community has given us a lot, our company is headquartered here, we raised our first investment here and even got our first big corporate customer here. Early adopters of your product are key to validating your offering and becoming successful. We owe our success to the St. Louis community and ArchGrants. When I can, I speak at events about my experience as an entrepreneur, navigating funding and lessons learned, and why we pivoted several times. I also mentor other early-stage startups.  I hope this will help others be more successful. I am a big fan of St. Louis and speak to how it’s a perfect place to start a business and also a family! I have often represented and spoken about St. Louis and women in leadership in panels and trade missions.

 

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Can you share an example of something you absolutely love about St. Louis and believe you can’t get anywhere else? For example, food, a place, a saying, an experience etc.

In a city like St. Louis, I can drive to anywhere in 20 minutes and park my car, without having to pay for it! This is not possible in London. I love that I can pick up a prescription by driving through and not having to walk into a drug store :)