Meet Sampriti from India who built a company in the US when nobody believed in her (Marina Mogilko)

I love your funnel it's huge flying electric boat no you would need a 50 million dollars to do that how do I play the game in the world that is given to me right building the Next Generation Maritime company humans can actually go outside of this planetary body and go somewhere wow hey guys welcome to Silicon Valley girl today we have another great guest a conversation with some pretty who came to the US from India and is now changing the world of boats and building a maritime company there is a boat right there you can actually write it this is an electric boat which is going to be autonomous we're going to try it we're going to talk to some pretty about her journey from being in India to raising from some of the top investors here in Silicon Valley and about changing the world let's do it I am excited I hope you are too [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] so 3D thank you so much I am so excited to be your guest and to have you on this interview podcast uh please tell me like you have the most fascinating story I've ever heard you're building this amazing company can you start from the beginning because you're from India can you talk about your childhood can you talk about how you got here you know similar to you I was not born and raised years so I was born in India in Kolkata have you I haven't heard of that place but I've never been to India the only common thing with Kolkata and San Francisco is that we have a bay the Bay of Bengal and we have the Ganges there you know so I grew up in Calcutta very different you know live society and I don't think flat building flying electric boat was not really part of that plan but at the age of 12 I um got really fascinated by space whether that was reading Stephen Hawkings or watching the polo Mission To The Moon which had a profound impact on me the idea that humans can actually go outside of this planetary body and go somewhere you know this curiously for the unknown the the exploration that really like fascinated me and I learned about NASA and you know this cool lab in this other country everything I Learned was through movies right and Discovery Channel but you know I was not the Stellar student actually I went to a small what you would call equivalent of Community College and you know people's expectation of me was well maybe I you know be a creational housewife just like you know which is very common in India maybe I'll work in a front desk maybe I'll work in I.T right but it was when I was about 20 we just had our computer at our home and internet connection I don't know if you remember the days when you had to go to a cafeteria to to get internet but it was the first time we are now have internet at home and I had learned from some folks about this thing called internship and I was like what is an internship Well turns out you get to go on an airplane to America and work on cool science stuff we work in a lab and I always thought that's what I wanted to do I want to invent that I want to build but you know I was from a small college and there was no direct path to go um so I Googled internship American National Lab and you know all emails that I send saying hey I'm a junior in this college I'm trying to redesign a Mars rovers by the way I don't really have resources to do so but here are my sketch but you had background already yeah or like why were you suggesting that oh yes I was studying electrical engineering but I was so fascinated by space and stuff I was reading and learning by myself just self-taught ideas first week nobody replied everything was a no but I think I was so into it like when I am obsessed with an idea I just go till I drive it to a success or failure and I've like literally not have any stone unturned almost like so one in over 540 emails wow got me an internship how many answers did you get to those 140. four probabilistic yeses to have a conversation two interviews and one worked out I love your funnel it's huge how how long did it take the first batch of like emails was about three weeks like to send everything but I was like not moving much from my computer and you didn't have anyone who went through the same experience was it just you you came up with this idea got inspired did everything by yourself yeah because you know the way it worked was I had gone to some conference I used to also sneak into science conferences and such so I had you know wanted to contacts me my God and I just was trying every path I didn't know anyone in America I didn't have any family in America it's like but there must be a way did you ever share with your parents that you want to go to America no but how would they react what do you think well when I said I don't think they like we did not know anyone close um then like you know who had gone through the entire experience so we had to like find out who went through that I mean they were surprised because I'm you know there was like not a very uh straightforward thing expected out of me I don't think I was not this Taylor student crushing it I just was a girl with weird you know interest like I wanted to build a soundtrack in solar panel for a Mars Rover and started a space Club in my college but that's such an unusual thing for Indian girls to do so I was like could not fit in I was like the nerd outlier but like by no means I was like this Stellar in class student so you were different were they supportive of that I mean you know I was kind of left alone to be yeah whatever I wanted to be stored I was a little uh yeah because I feel like you're coming from a traditional I come from a very like tradition as a super important in Russia like you have to be married by certain age you have to have to have kids it's changing now but it used to be very different that was horrible that's so that's that's probably a you know good good way of putting in just like you know finding my way how do I you know get out and break the convention and do my own thing have you ever thought of like okay I need to be like everybody else because this is weird this is getting me into trouble no I think when I have a strong conviction about it when I have this strong feeling that this is the right thing to do or this is what I should go for I think I'm very comfortable being alone in that Journey it's weird it's almost um I can give you an example I mean people might have different says about it but back in the college you know I don't really know what they call in America this but hazing is a thing like older students do to the newcomers and you kind of have to like play along with it and be okay and the first day of college I called out on it I was like no this is not the way to do introduction and I'm like not going to do this and I got like a band like from like you know all this like um social interactions and they were like well the senior is not going to help you and you know you're not going to get any help and I was like oh my gosh I'm just famous in the college first