Saumya's 13 years of career experience started in London, including 8+ years as a Management Consultant at well-known firms leading complex technical projects, M&A transactions and operational strategies for several Fortune 500 companies.
From there, Saumya launched her own entrepreneurial venture blending technology and spirituality that she describes as “like the Amazon of spiritual services.”
Her past experiences working in Europe and Asia provided global insights & innovative ideas which enable her to bring a diverse range of best practices and perspectives to client projects. Since 2018, Saumya’s been a part of the Propeller team working out of our San Francisco office, where she brings the best version of herself every day by applying practices and qualities she’s gleaned throughout her experiences.
Consuming technology
“As a consultant, I have the luxury of working out of my clients’ offices in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, or Propeller’s office in San Francisco. It gives me an ability to be part of tech networking events in both SF & Silicon Valley with some of the top start-ups and entrepreneurs in the world. Thanks to Propeller, I can also accommodate running my own meet-up group, Crack into Tech, with more than 400+ members currently.
Really living, breathing and consuming tech products that are built within miles of my home and our client sites is a joy!”
Launching India’s first religious e-commerce platform
“I launched India’s first religious e-commerce platform Shubhpuja (loosely translated to “Auspicious Worship”), a science and technology-based platform providing ancient Indian spirituality services (a $30B market), through authentic and qualified professionals. I saw a huge gap in the industry as the younger generation was looking for more science/technology-based services and wanted to find genuine professionals. We were ranked as the #2 most inspiring start-up of India in 2014, awarded the Best Digital Service Disruptor in 2016, and was granted seed funding by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India (the equivalent to the Science & Technology Division of Homeland Security in the US). It gave us great pride being honored by the Ministry in the country.
Bringing tech into a very traditional spirituality industry, which hasn’t been changed over thousands of years, has helped me expand my horizons and bring in more innovative and simpler techniques for problem solving.
You can read more about it in our Forbes profile.”
Learning new skills through ancient texts
“In order to move from Finance to Spirituality — from applying numbers in a business field to applying them in peoples’ real lives — I had to study scriptures and text in Sanskrit in order to learn practices such as Vedic astrology and numerology. Having done that, I now feel I can learn any unknown subject, whether it’s Kubernetes, Python, or Mathematics based on ancient sciences. I don’t feel daunted anymore!
Starting my own business helped provide a real-time experience for testing and improving my decision-making skills while running a business with limited resources. I learned to find quick fixes, hacks, and creative ideas without spending a huge amount of time and money. Entrepreneurship has helped me become more agile, innovative and connected to different personas and experiences.”
Despite our differences, we can invent options that deliver mutual gain.
“Through learning and studying spirituality I have realized the value of some of its teachings in my life and started to implement them in my work at Propeller. Everyone comes with different ideas and with their own logic and we should use it to our advantage. Despite our differences, we can invent options that deliver mutual gain, be open to opinions that differ from your own, and separate the people and their personalities from the problem at hand.
Emotional intelligence and empathy have become important parts of my toolkit when working with clients. It has made me a versatile, multi-skilled consultant and enables me to drive through ambiguity; Truly living the 'change is the only constant' principle every day!”
Hitting the ground running at Propeller from Day 1
“My most interesting moment with Propeller was that I was asked to send my resume to a client (whose engagement requirements fit my experience) just hours after I said yes to my offer. My first engagement started on Day 1 working to develop an end-to-end Proof of Concept business model for one of the world’s top global manufacturing services company. We worked to help their customers capitalize on accelerated change & create bleeding edge technologically advanced products.
To my surprise, I found out that my everyday gadgets — from my coffee maker to my washing machine — are all developed & manufactured by this client!
We conducted interviews & meetings with stakeholders from Taiwan, Belgium, US East coast and West coast, all in one day!”
Expanding skillsets & expertise
“Propeller is a great place to work as a consultant as you get to work with some of the best companies in the world. In a short span of time, I have expanded my skillset and project scope beyond strategy-related engagements into the hardware technology space, along with implementing Agile at top Bay Area companies with a global presence.”
Propeller alumnus Saumya Vardhan is an accomplished award-winning innovator, emerging tech influencer and product disruptor. Driven by a steadfast thirst for knowledge and an entrepreneurial mindset, she’s mastered the art of identifying the opportunity amongst the chaos. An inspirational and multi-faceted leader, she propels everyone around her to new heights. Saumya holds a BS in statistics (Gold medalist, Top rank) from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, an MS in operational research from Lancaster University, UK and an MBA (with Distinction) in finance and strategy from Imperial College London, UK.
