In the high-octane world of startups, where every minute counts and burnout lurks behind every deadline, Indian-origin CEO Caesar Sengupta offers a refreshing, almost radical, piece of advice. Just pause and meditate.
Sengupta, who once helped build Google Pay and ChromeOS, now manages Arta Finance, a fintech startup backed by big names like Sequoia Capital India and, notably, Google CEO Sundar Pichai himself. Despite raising $92 million, Sengupta admits that shifting from a corporate life (working at Google for 15 years) to the startup life has been as smooth as a bumpy gravel road.
According to him, his superpower is the 5 to 10 minutes that he spends on daily meditation. Yes🧘🏼♂️.
Caesar wishes how much better his life would have been back then if he had been introduced to this practice 3 years ago. According to him, these couple of minutes help him in navigating emotional highs and lows. After all, he has to deal with a LOT of things: from investor meetings to product launches and he cannot afford his mind turning into a circus.
As per a study from the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, just 30 days of guided mindfulness meditation can boost attention and reduce distractions, essentially sharpening the brain’s focus like a mental espresso shot.
Coming back to Caesar. When he is not meditating, he enjoys solo cycling, and you cannot reach him during this break. He considers it a luxury where he is with himself.
This approach marks a cultural shift in entrepreneurial wisdom. This shows how success isn’t just about hustle and hustle hard(er), but about cultivating inner calm to weather the storm. As funding climates grow volatile and pressures mount, Sengupta’s message to founders is a balm wrapped in wit. It is clarity and resilience, sprinkled with stillness which may just be as crucial as capital. So, next time you feel overwhelmed chasing your startup dream, consider pressing pause. Maybe that’s the true secret ingredient.
