2021 was a momentous year for Re:Set, an enterprise that the founder Aakanksha Tangri bills as “an online resource of tools and stories around education, parenting, gender, inclusivity, mental health, and well-being.” For starters, the year saw Re:Set cross a million visitors to its platform, and this achievement has now gone on to lay the foundation for its further growth and development.

“The insights from our engaged users have been instrumental in extending our products for 2022,” Tangri explains. “Being a non-technical founder, it has been exciting to work closely with our new technical team members. It has been a steep learning curve for me, as we started working on expanding into different verticals, and I had to deep dive into everything from product development and design, to the tech side of things and understanding audience behavior. Having found the product-market fit in 2021, the key lesson has been to put my business development hat on, and work on the frontlines with clients. One has to keep focus, but also roll with the punches. As they say, the show must go on!”

It’s a similar kind of tenacity that characterized several of Re:Set’s initiatives through the course of 2021. For one, as parts of the world found themselves badly hit by the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tangri and her team ensured Re:Set provided people in these affected locations access to resources that would help safeguard not just their physical health, but their mental well-being as well. “We stuck true to our values of helping people through difficult times, and creating a safe space for difficult conversations,” Tangri recalls. “I am proud of our team who navigated these tough times and showed resilience. As a young entrepreneur, this was unchartered territory for me, and I am grateful for the timely mentorship and guidance offered from my network.”

The same ethos governed another of Re:Set’s projects in the UAE, which saw it partner with the New York University (NYU) Abu Dhabi’s Office of Social Responsibility to provide bespoke and multilingual mental health and COVID-19 resources for their expat domestic staff and contract workers, whose families and friends back home were dealing with the impact of the pandemic’s second wave. Such efforts, and the positive feedback Re:Set received for them afterward, have cemented Tangri’s plans for the platform in the new year. “As we see our efforts to normalize mental health conversations pay dividends, 2022 is all about giving more do-it-yourself tools and autonomy to students and professionals to work on mental health, beyond therapy,” she says. “Our North Star remains to make mental health accessible and inclusive to all.”

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Reflections 2021: Aakanksha Tangri, Founder, Re:set

Take risks, and get out of your comfort zone. “When the buck stops with you, you may be scared to venture beyond your comfort zone. But by taking risks, and putting ourselves out there, we embrace growth, and set ourselves up to unlock our true potential, and what we’re capable of.”

Failure makes you stronger. “Being an entrepreneur certainly isn’t easy, and it takes a special person to start something of their own. It’s a journey riddled with challenges, but also one of immense satisfaction and success. You will fall as you tread this path, but the learnings from the times we stumble offer us perspective, and make us resilient as we forge ahead in our career.”

Hire people smarter than you. “This is key, because a good entrepreneur is always self-aware of their shortcomings, and learns how to surround themselves with people who have strengths in the areas they are weak. Don’t be afraid to hire someone smarter than you. You have to learn to set your ego aside.

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