Sonia, originally from Bangladesh, moved to the US to complete for undergraduate and master's education. From there, she secured a job in oracle and micro-tech and stayed in the US for the next 20 years. On a dream to contribute to her country's success, she moved back to Bangladesh and worked at Microsoft. Soon, she became a Venture Capitalist in her journey to find a start-up and ignite their ideas for the betterment of people's health, education, and finance in Bangladesh. Today she has invested in over 40 start-ups.

 

Her journey of becoming a Venture Capitalist was not easy, being a woman made it more difficult and stressful. Tech and VC both being male-dominated industries, she had to face a lot of belittling and competition and had to work hard for her voice to be heard. Yet her resilience and confidence in her broke all the barriers allowing her to not only face the competition but to stand on top.

 

During her strenuous journey, her father and husband gave her all the emotional and personal support she needed, and she had several mentors who guided her toward her dream. Sonia being an athlete, sports also played a vital role in her journey, Sonia said “I grew up facing challenges in sports and it prepared me for my VC and tech journey.” She believes gender discrimination, sexism, and stereotyping all exist in society, and for a girl to fight back stronger, her home should be the starting place. It begins with the emotional dependency parents in our culture give to girls. She believes parents should allow their daughters to be independent emotionally, allowing them to make more decisions and become leaders. Sonia stresses that a good leader should be resilient, persistent, and curious. One of her main takeaways from her journey is “never give up on giving up”.