A brief interview with Payal Kadakia (June 18, 2018) about authenticity in entrepreneurship. Kadakia describes how hiding her passion for dance initially seemed necessary when meeting investors, but revealing it ultimately increased her credibility and helped her pitch; she encourages founders—especially women—to find whatever builds their confidence before important meetings.
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I had to find my passion towards my story and my pitch. That's when things connect. No one wants to see a robot.
You've said publicly that initially in some of, like, raising money and talking to investors, you had hidden your love of dance and, like, your passion for this, you know, fitness and that kind of thing purposely because you wanted to be taken seriously and you want it to be. Want it to seem like a distraction. I want to talk about, like, your revelation in, like, no, I don't need to do that. And like, really being your authentic self in this and how important that is to accomplish what you've been able to accomplish.
Absolutely. You know, and coming from, I think, like, the business background I had had, I think for me, you know, walking into meetings, wearing suits and blazers and all of that sort of felt sort of organic to how you would go and raise money. Right. And talk to investors. And I think when you're raising capital, right, especially at a seed level for something that you are passionate about, investors are looking for your passion and for you to have that magic. And of course, they wanted someone who can speak the numbers and talk about building a massive business, but they wanted to see your heart. They wanted to see that, wow, this girl is not going to stop until this is done. And so I think over time, I realized I needed to show them where that came from. After that, I remember I had a lot of shows and a lot of them would come, and I always remembered afterwards they would say to me, wow, I have more respect for you as a human being after watching you dance. And I think for me as a founder, I realized, wow, this is actually giving me more credibility, not taking away from it. And then I think there even came a point where I think I showed up to some investor meetings wearing my Lululemon leggings, and I just realized, like, I had to live the product I wanted the world to be and like, the customers who, you know, I was selling this to and that felt more authentic versus being somebody I wasn't and, you know, that I wasn't really trying to get the world to be.
Did that manifest itself in anything beyond, like, the dance portion of this and the fitness portion of this? Like, did that sort of revelation affect any other aspects of your dance feelings in those investor meetings or the way that you approached your efforts?
Yeah, absolutely. I had to find my passion towards my story and my pitch. And I think when people find that connection towards the story, they are going to tell to the room full of people that they're going to be sharing their story with. That's when things connect. No one wants to see a robot, right? They want to see a human being. And I think that was when that revelation for me of, wow, let me approach this the same way. I've been magical at anything else in my life from my childhood. And that pattern recognition in myself, I mean, obviously, help me invest your meetings. I think that helps you with anything in your life and whatever in your life that's brought you confidence. And I think it's so important, especially even today. I always say this for women, especially, like when you walk in that room, whatever's gonna make you confident, figure that out, right? And it could be anything from getting your hair done to going for a run that morning. Whatever you need to do to get into that place, because you need to channel that, that when you walk into that room.
