The Women We Build With

By Priyanka Gupta

Around Women’s Day, the world becomes very good at producing inspirational quotes. They appear everywhere — beautifully designed graphics about empowerment, ambition, and strength.

And while those are lovely, the women who shape my thinking about work and leadership are rarely the ones in quotes.

They’re the ones I grew up watching.
And the ones I build with every day.

My earliest understanding of business didn’t come from a classroom. It came from my mother.

She was a garment exporter, running teams, managing production cycles, dealing with artisans, vendors, buyers, deadlines — all while raising a family and holding everything together with a kind of grace that only seems obvious in hindsight.

I technically studied finance. In fact, I topped my college in it. But almost everything I truly know about work came from watching her.

How to balance families and business without pretending they are separate worlds.
How to celebrate the people you work with, not just the milestones.
How to manage teams with empathy and kindness rather than fear.
How attention to detail quietly becomes the backbone of great work.
How to work fruitfully and gracefully with vendors and collaborators — because relationships are as important as transactions.

And perhaps most importantly, my understanding of money.

Not just as profit or numbers on a balance sheet, but as something that flows through communities of people who build, create, and support each other.

Which is why the women I admire most today are the ones I collaborate with — the founders and entrepreneurs whose businesses intersect with mine in small but meaningful ways.

Women like Priyanka, founder of AMYRA, whose life in design began long before the brand itself. Growing up in her parents’ garment factory meant she was surrounded by craft and artisans from childhood. Over a decade ago, that environment evolved into the creation of AMYRA — a brand built on creativity, craftsmanship, and a leadership style rooted deeply in empathy.

At AMYRA, empowerment isn’t simply about providing employment to women. It’s about something more subtle but powerful — creating a space where women feel confident in their voices and unconstrained by the expectations placed on them.

In many ways, that philosophy echoes something familiar to me: leadership shaped by watching one’s mother lead with both strength and care.

Then there are founders like Mahek, the creative force behind Floristaa, whose brand is built around softness, celebration, and the emotional beauty of life’s meaningful moments. Floristaa creates jewelry that feels delicate and dreamy — pieces imagined for brides, celebrations, and those rare occasions when someone simply wants to feel beautiful.

But beneath that aesthetic is the very real work of entrepreneurship: persistence, emotional resilience, and the ability to keep creating even on days when the responsibility feels heavy.

Every founder knows the strange magic of watching an idea that once lived quietly in your imagination suddenly become real — something someone else wears, loves, and connects with.

And sometimes, a business begins with a moment of curiosity.

For Neha and her sister, founders of Akoya, that moment happened at a family wedding while searching for the perfect clutch. A luxury piece priced close to a lakh sparked a simple question: why couldn’t something equally beautiful exist at a more accessible price point?

That thought eventually grew into Akoya — a brand that blends modern design with Indian craftsmanship, offering statement clutches for contemporary celebrations. Like many entrepreneurial journeys, theirs began with stepping out of comfort zones and convincing both themselves and their families that starting something new was worth the leap.

Today, staying grounded in their roots and building personal relationships with clients remains central to the brand’s philosophy.

Listening to stories like these always reminds me that women empowerment rarely looks like a grand declaration.

More often, it looks like women quietly building things.

A founder sketching designs late at night.
A team celebrating a shipment leaving the warehouse.
Two sisters deciding to start something together.
A leader choosing empathy over ego.

Which brings me to a concept I’ve always found fascinating.

There is a Yiddish word — “Yargin.”

Within Jewish communities, it reflects a deeply embedded cultural value: helping others within your community succeed. The idea is simple but powerful — when people support one another’s growth, knowledge, and opportunities, the entire community becomes stronger.

Many historians and economists point to this ethos as one of the reasons Jewish communities have built such successful and resilient business networks around the world.

The principle is elegant: collective success grows from mutual support.

And I often think about how transformative it would be if we embraced that idea more consciously — within women-led businesses, creative industries, and entrepreneurial ecosystems.

If we supported each other not just in theory, but in practice.

If we collaborated, recommended one another, celebrated each other’s wins, and extended empathy when things became difficult.

If we passed those values not just to our colleagues, but also to our children and the people we work with.

Because businesses don’t exist in isolation.

They grow inside communities.

And if we nurture those communities with generosity, encouragement, and respect, we don’t just build stronger businesses — we build a better world around them.

This Women’s Day, I’m thinking about the women whose paths cross mine through work.

The ones designing, building, experimenting, and persevering every day.

The women we admire.
The women we collaborate with.
The women we grow alongside.

Because empowerment isn’t something we declare once a year.

It’s something we practice — quietly, consistently — in the way we work with each other every single day.