Mango Bites 🥭

Happy New Year!! 🥳🎉 Anyone else still nursing a hangover from f*ing Wednesday?? 🥴

This issue of Mango Bites is about making 2025 a year of opportunities for you. Kicking things off with two exciting updates to hopefully help:

🌟 Firstly, I’m looking to bring on a new leader/partner at Mango!

More details on my LinkedIn post here. TL;DR: If your 2025 bingo card includes finding a fulfilling mission-driven project, serving NYC’s South Asian community, meeting amazing people, or leading exciting new initiatives on an existing significant platform - I’d love to hear from you. 💡 Bonus points if you have experience in product design, branding, content creation/social media, or building and growing communities.

Reply 📩 to this email and we’ll get talking. Know someone who’d be a great fit? Referrals are very welcome—and I promise free admission to any ticketed Mango events in 2025 for successful recommendations!

💼 Secondly, in 2025, I’m looking to help Mango community members both find and fill new jobs

A common pain point I’ve heard in our community is career transitions, and I’ve been hearing from both sides - Mango members eager for a switch and others hiring for their awesome startups and companies. With such incredible talent in this community, I’m excited to help connect the dots.

Here’s a few examples of open roles I’m aware of in the Mango network:

• Investment Associate @ Family Office (1+ YoE)

• FP&A Senior Analyst @ Consumer Tech Company (2+ YoE)

• Operations @ Robotics Startup (Flexible YoE)

• Various roles (Product, Strategy, BD, Talent) @ Interior Design Company

If you’re considering a career move in 2025, fill out this form. I’ll personally review responses and connect you with opportunities—no ghosting algorithms here! 🙂 Rest assured, your information will remain confidential, and I’ll always seek your approval before making any introductions.

If you’re hiring, reach out via email ([email protected]) or phone (+14849547985). Whether you’re looking for top-tier South Asian talent or just want to chat, I’m here to help - no fees or commissions, just a genuine effort to add value!

Upcoming Mango Events 🎇

Register on the links below!

• Samosa Capital x Mango: Future of India (2/12) - An expert panel, including former RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya, and networking for those interested in Indian business and markets (food and drink provided!)

  • We’re running early bird pricing with MANGO2K25 until Sunday, Jan 5 - tickets go up to $40 after, so grab them ASAP!

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!

Rahul Lath recently finished a stint as SVP, Data science and engineering at WWE where he led a team of 50+ developing data products and experiences driving annual D2C revenue to $400m. Previously, he led the Retail, Media and Telecom practice at Exlservice, advising CDOs/CTOs at various Fortune 100 companies and setting up large scale centers of excellence. He studied Aerospace Engineering at IIT Bombay.

Why do you do what you do?
I led Data Science and Engineering at WWE. This involved leveraging the power of data and AI to create compelling content and digital experiences, grow our audience engagement on our digital products as well as on Netflix, YouTube and monetize them.We managed ~30m fan profiles through a Data, AI and Martech platform which captures billions of data points daily, directly supporting ~400m of revenue and enabling long term agreements like the 1- year, $5B relationship with Netflix.  We achieved this with a team of data scientists, data/ML/AI engineers and product managers.

What does your Desi identity mean to you, and how has it influenced your journey?
I grew up in a small town in India but was raised with the mindset of aiming high, being curious, putting in the work, persistence and the power of community. To me that is really what the Desi identity means to me. Keeping these at the foundation of everything I do has served me well in my career both in India and the US. 

What advice do you have for those entering your field?
The rate of change in the world, especially tech (and data), is always increasing. So I would focus on things which will always matter. In my view, those are being relentlessly curious, continuing to evolve how you learn, learning to write well, willingness to try things despite failure, and kindness. Also, start with the business problem and figure out how to tailor the technical solution not the other way around.

Rahul’s favs 🌟 
🎬 Bollywood Movie: Jaane bhi do yaaron
🍛 Desi Eat: Gup chup (Pani Puri)
🌶️ NYC Restaurant: Mala Project

Meme Bazaar 👳🏽‍♀️

Random Stuff 💃

• Mango Resume Drop

• 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!