‘Why did you come back to India?’: Grandfather upset with Harvard-educated founder for leaving US

Entrepreneur Naiyya Saggi has revealed that her grandfather was upset with her because she chose to return to India after studying at Harvard rather than building a life in the US. Speaking to content creator Viraj Ala in a recent vox pop-style interview, Saggi revealed that her grandfather did not speak to her for three months after she moved back to India.Naiyya Saggi got a full scholarship to Harvard for her MBA.Naiyya Saggi is best known as the founder of BaChakra and co-founder of The Good Glamm Group. She is currently building a new consumer-tech company called EDT.A full ride to HarvardWhen Viraj Ala asked her which college she attended, Saggi revealed that she got a full ride to Harvard.Her LinkedIn profile further reveals that she studied BA LLB (Hons) at the National Law School of India University and later earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Fulbright and JN Tata scholar.After obtaining her MBA from the Ivy League institute, Saggi spent a year working as a consultant with The Bridgespan Group. She moved back to India in 2015 to — in her own words — “change the world”.Moving back to India“I came back to change the world. I came back to India in 2015. Built my first company out of India and now I’m on building my third company,” she told Viraj Ala.Saggi founded BaChakra in 2015, after seeing her ser struggle to find reliable information during pregnancy. In 2021, BaChakra merged with MyGlamm. Saggi subsequently became a co-founder of The Good Glamm Group, alongside Priyanka Gill and Darpan Sanghvi.During the conversation with Ala, the entrepreneur revealed that contrary to perception, she does not come from generational wealth. “My parents were in the government, they were government servants. I don’t come from money, actually,” she said.She also explained that not everyone in her family was happy with her decision to move back to India. Some, like her grandfather, saw it as a wasted opportunity.“When I moved back to India in 2015, my granddad didn’t talk to me for 3 months. He was like, ‘You had the opportunity of a lifetime to be in the US, job offers, full scholarship—why do you come back to India to build?’” Saggi revealed.Today, her three companies are worth upward of $1 billion. Naiyya Saggi ended the interview with a note of encouragement for fellow-founders.“Indian founders and Indian teams can build globally-defining companies from India to the world,” she said.(Also read: Harvard-educated US founder hits back after backlash over Bali trip with staff: ‘Calling me a toxic loser’)