Mango Bites 🥭

If you’re new here, welcome to Mango Bites - a newsletter featuring the best South Asian professional events happening in NYC. Reply and say hi!

Two Investors and A Founder Walk Into a Bar...🚶🏽🚶🏽🚶🏽

I took a gamble with the subject line resonating. But let’s be real - if you’ve been on this newsletter a while, there’s a solid chance building a startup has crossed your mind…

This event might just help you turn that thought into reality. On March 13, I'll be hosting a panel with some of the brightest minds in New York’s South Asian early-stage ecosystem to talk about what it takes to build a successful startup, emerging sectors with opportunities, and the unique challenges (and advantages) of being South Asian in this space:

• ​Bharath Krishnamoorthy, Co-Founder and CEO at Denim (Series B)

• ​Nihal Mehta, Co-Founder of Eniac Ventures

• ​Vinny Pujji, Managing Partner at Left Lane Capital

The weird thing about this event? We’ve got space for about 100 people, but we’re already 60+ tickets deep before this announcement. Go figure. That means we’re genuinely expecting to sell out well ahead of the date.

Click the image above for your tickets (Use MANGO20P for 20% off today, just for Mango Bites subscribers)! If you want to guarantee your spot, grab a General Admission ticket now. Free ticket requests are specifically for venture-backed founders and experienced investors - if you qualify, you will be put on a waitlist, pending capacity. Only purchased tickets guarantee entry today. Hope to see you there!

P.S. We’re looking for volunteers to help out at the event - if you want guaranteed admission but don’t want to buy a ticket, reply to inquire!

Upcoming Mango Events 🎇

Register on the links below!

• Mango x NYCB2B: South Asians in Startups - A Panel and Mixer (3/13) - Newsletter subscribers can use MANGO20P for 20% off today! Celebrating South Asian excellence in New York’s startup ecosystem with a panel of incredible investors and founders, followed by open networking. Check out NYC B2B!

  • Free tickets represent a waitlist for venture-backed founders and experienced investors. Other free ticket requests will be declined. To guarantee your spot, please purchase a GA ticket.

• South Asians in Climate and Energy (April) - Still figuring out specifics, but gathering a small group working in the climate or energy sector (investors, operators, or whatever else!) for an event. Fill out the google form if you’re interested and we’ll be in touch!

Mango Job Board 💼

Looking for a CTO or Founding Engineer opportunity? A founder in the Mango network is assembling a team to transform clinical trials with agentic AI. The company has already landed initial hospital and pharma customers and is looking to accelerate product development. If you have 4+ years of software experience, are excited to build 0 to 1, and want to learn more, reply to this email!

The Scene 🪔

Other South Asian events I’m keeping an eye on in and around the city

Cool Desis Doing Cool Thing 🐘

Highlighting people in our community making strides in diverse fields!

Gautam Kamthan is an eye surgeon, entrepreneur, and the founder of the exclusive social club Gotham House.

When he’s not disrupting the medical device space in eye care or traveling the world with his social club, Gautam likes to read, surf, workout, and catch up with family.

Why do you do what you do?
As a surgeon, I love seeing patients and doing surgery. It’s so rewarding to help and comfort someone in distress. I’ve always been good with my hands, so surgery is fun and feels like arts and crafts—allowing me to be creative, but still challenging me to think on my feet.

Medical device innovation also stimulates my creative side, constantly demanding me to think of outside-of-the-box novel solutions. It’s incredibly empowering to feel that I can build the very technologies I need to perform surgeries. In the end, even the best surgeons are only as good as their tools.

Lastly, I realized a couple years ago that socializing, itself, was a hobby I had. Building the social club has enabled me to automate and elevate my social life intentionally. While my career aspirations are truly fulfilling, the social club has opened the doors for me to live a dream lifestyle I couldn’t have imagined.

What does your Desi identity mean to you, and how has it influenced your journey?
It has been tremendously influential. Unfortunately, for many years in America, our community has not been branded very positively. Growing up, I encountered that we have a reputation of being nerds and losers who are socially awkward, unattractive, and physically less athletic than others. I have seen many guys and girls who have fallen into this negative self talk of buying into these limiting beliefs, often making self deprecating jokes, rather than stepping up and demonstrating that we are on par with and can compete just as well as others in all areas.

To that end, I have gotten involved in various organizations in our community and taken up leadership roles, such as becoming the incoming president for the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin Young Physicians Section (AAPI YPS) and joining the Leadership Committee of the American India Foundation Young Professionals (AIF YP) charity that provides education to underserved women and children in India.

I’d like to leverage the combination of these multiple networks and the lessons I’ve learned from my social club, life as an entrepreneur, and personal experience to rebrand our community.

What advice do you have for those entering your field?
Try many things. Try everything, even if it doesn’t make sense. There is a point when you have to start living your life for yourself and only you can make you happy. Too many people in our community I’ve seen are plagued with the fear of “Loge kya kahenge?” and restrict themselves to pleasing their parents and peers for fear of rejection or embarrassment. The path to success is not linear, and the detours are necessary to grow and prepare us for the opportunities we dream of.

Gautam’s favs 🌟 
🎬 Bollywood Movie: Sholay
🍛 Desi Eat: Mom‘s food hands-down
🌶️ NYC Restaurant: Ippudo, Ravagh Persian Grill

Meme Bazaar 👳🏽‍♀️

Random Stuff 💃

• Mango Resume Drop - if you’re looking to make a career switch!

• Love what Mango is doing? 🥭 Buy us a coffee - any support would go a long way and let us keep hosting events!

• Want to sponsor an event or host something with me? Get in touch!

• Have a friend who’d want to be on this newsletter? Sign up for Mango Bites here!

• Interested in booking a luxury experience in NYC? Check out Speranza, and use code MANGO for 10% off any experience!