HOT SEAT
Engineer & Entrepreneur: Ria Rustagi, Co-Founder, PankhTech
- Sharmila Chand
- Jan 01, 2022
A
family tragedy turned Ria Rustagi into an entrepreneur. Pankhuri, Ms Rustagi’s
sister, suffered from a rare brain infection in 2016 at the age of 25. She was
hospitalised for six months and could not communicate with her family. Her
passing away deeply affected Ms Rustagi. In 2018, Ms Rustagi teamed up with her
fiance, Bhavya Madan, and co-founded PankhTech, a Noida-based company which
manufactures Neuphony, a wearable that helps bedridden patients to communicate.
An alumna of the NTU, Singapore, and TUM, Germany, Ms Rustagi is also a BTech
graduate from JIIT, Noida. Sharmila
Chand meets up with Ms Rustagi and is impressed with what she finds about the
engineer-turned-entrepreneur.
What is your
philosophy of life?
If
we are comfortable and happy in who we truly are, we can be better at our
performance and also towards the world.
What is your
passion in life?
I
am an engineer by degree but an entrepreneur by passion.
What is your management
mantra?
My
mantra is to make sure that our team
feels very comfortable with us.
A business leader
you admire the most...
I
actually don’t follow anyone. The only thing I admire is hard work and the
passion to do something!
Your source of
inspiration...
My
source of inspiration comes from within and my sister, Pankhuri. I have
dedicated my company to her, and it’s even named after her –
PankhTech.
You are a tough,
serious boss or…
I
feel that I am actually a mix. I like to call myself the mother in the office.
What do you
enjoy the most in life generally?
I
actually enjoy working a lot! Work apart, I really enjoy travelling.
How do you
de-stress?
I
de-stress by cooking. Good food can actually change my stress levels! And for
the past one year, meditation has become my go to whenever the uncertainty of
life impacts me.
Your fitness regime...
My
fitness regime is to stay happy! I don’t pressurise myself to do anything which
I don’t feel comfortable.
Your mantra for success
To
be true to yourself and work for something you really believe in
Ten years from
now, where do we see you?
I
see myself heading an NGO which would be a vertical of PankhTech where we help
people with mental health and neurological disorders.
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