Imagine a career where you bet on the future - of others

There was a time when Google and Facebook were startups. There were people who believed in them. And understood their potential early on.

Being a venture capitalist is for those who like taking big risks for big payoffs. Or understanding markets so well, that you see the possibilities that no one else has seen - yet.

Divya Sampath has a career path that converged with the internet boom in the mid-90s. And she saw things change faster than the gigabyte speeds that would soon be taken for granted.

Rarely does someone sign a check for 500 crores on their third day at work and walk away with a lesson about humility rather than pride. That early moment at Citibank in mid-1990s Bombay captures everything about how Divya Sampath has approached her career: with perspective, curiosity, and a relentless search for meaning.

Divya's story moves through timeshare marketing at Sterling Holidays, a bold leap into India's nascent internet industry, and eventually building a practice from zero to $110 million in five years at Cognizant. What ties it all together is her belief that finding purpose in your work matters more than achieving traditional work-life balance, and that meaningful work is genuinely essential to mental wellbeing.

What happens when a mentor sees your passion more clearly than you see it yourself? That question sits at the heart of this conversation. A pivotal 1998 appraisal with mentor VN Bhattacharya redirected her entire trajectory toward technology.

After leaving ServiceNow in January 2020, Divya pursued causes around climate, women's development, and the digital skills divide. (The pandemic, it turned out, was actually fortuitous timing for launching virtually.)

She calls it the "University of Other People's Experiences." Tune in and start enrolling.