The REAL reason I built Silk + Sonder (+ something special for you) 💖

Hi there,

May is the month I think about what we inherit and what we choose.

It's Mental Health Awareness Month. It's the month we celebrate mothers. And as the daughter of Indian immigrants, it's also AAPI Heritage Month - a month that asks me to look at where I came from, and why I had to fight so hard to choose something different.

These three things aren't separate for me. They're the same story.

And this year, I want to tell it truthfully.

I didn't set out to build a company.

I set out to find myself.

I grew up as the eldest daughter of Indian immigrants — the kind of family where the path was already drawn before you were old enough to question it. Doctor, lawyer, engineer, academic. I was a good Indian daughter. I studied computer science and business, went to Goldman Sachs, then Stitch Fix, and checked every box I was handed. From the outside, it looked like success. From the inside, it felt like someone else's life.

My mother was the first clue that something was wrong with that blueprint.

She is one of the most creative, intelligent, intuitive people I have ever known and for so much of her life, she lived a role that was assigned to her rather than chosen by her. She dropped out of her master's program when I was one. Not because she wasn't capable. Because the world had other plans for her. When I understood that fully, as an adult, my heart sank - not with pity, but with grief. She deserved so much more. And I felt, deep in my bones, a ferocious refusal to let that story repeat itself.

The irony is that for years, I was repeating it anyway.

New job, new company, same rut. I was at StitchFix, on the verge of their IPO, in the best shape of my life, living in San Francisco, dating my then boyfriend and now husband. But I felt, persistently, like I was wasting my life. My own COO looked at me and asked what I actually wanted to do. When I said I want to start my own company, something in me exhaled. Like a truth that had been held underwater finally came up for air.

I started Silk + Sonder the way most real things start - quietly, almost accidentally.

I was hitting my own quarter-life crisis. Therapy felt intimidating. Coaching was expensive. Self-help books gave me inspiration without accountability. Meditation bored me. So I brought pen to paper. I dove into positive psychology, CBT, narrative therapy, habit science, and art therapy and built myself a guide. Reflection, intention, and action, in booklet form. I noticed a real shift. In my clarity, my habits, my ability to show up as the person I actually wanted to be.

I started shipping journals from my apartment. I printed every label myself. I remember watching those labels - different cities, different states - and thinking: we are serving every American woman from all cultures and backgrounds across every generation and walk of life.

Then came Megan. A mom of two daughters with adult ADHD, who emailed me anonymously at first, then got on the phone with me and described how Silk + Sonder was giving her calm, grace, and permission to start again even on the days she didn't fill everything out. She sounded like my mother. And I knew: this is so much bigger than a productivity tool. This is a movement.

Now I'm a mom myself. And I'll tell you what nobody warns you about: the mental load doesn't pause. It compounds.

The decisions. The invisible labor. The mental tabs you can never quite close. The version of yourself you're trying to hold onto while building a life, a family, a career — sometimes all at once.

That's what mental health actually looks like for most of us. Not a dramatic breakdown. A slow, quiet drift from who we know we're meant to be.

Silk + Sonder exists to bring you back. And Sonder Coach is the fastest way I know to get there.

What is Sonder Coach?

Sonder Coach is the thing I wish I'd had at every turning point in my life.

It's your own AI-powered thought partner, built not to give you generic advice, but to actually know you. Your patterns. Your blind spots. The thinking traps that show up when you're overwhelmed. The version of yourself you keep almost becoming.

It meets you at 11pm when you can't sleep. In the parking lot before a hard conversation. In the quiet moment when you're asking: is this really the life I want?

It doesn't just help you feel better. It helps you understand yourself and move forward as the woman you're actually trying to become.

So my gift to you for this Mental Health Awareness Month?

To honor this month - and every woman carrying more than she should have to carry alone, I'm opening 500 spots at 50% off your first 12 months of Sonder Coach (PLUS a 30-day money back guarantee).

That's a full year of support, clarity, and momentum - at half the cost as you step into the second half of 2026 with intention.

Use code MHA at checkout.

→ Claim your spot (only 500 available)

If you want to give the experience a test spin before you commit, you can start with your FREE personality report - a personalized snapshot of how you think, what drains you, and what actually moves the needle for you. No commitment. Just clarity.

→ Get your free personality report

But here's what I want every woman who finds Silk + Sonder to know: this is not a ceiling. It's a beginning.

My mother walked me into her office when I was a little girl and introduced me to her colleagues and without a single word, she handed me permission to dream. I'm building Silk + Sonder so that one day, my daughter Anaya looks at what I've created and knows she doesn't have to choose between her ambition and her joy. That she doesn't have to sacrifice her genius to be a good woman. That the gifts living inside her are hers to claim - fully, unapologetically, in this one life she gets to live.

That's what I want for her. And it's what I want for you.

With so much love,

As seen in - Business Insider | CBS | Forbes | Huffington Post