About Me
I first dove into the public financial markets during the most eventful trading month of 2020, and perhaps the decade. I am referring to mid-February, when global markets plunged as much as 35% in over 30 trading days, resulting in a steep recession. In that moment of market frenzy, I had two options – to sink or to swim.
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Hi, I’m Sonakshi Agarwal, and I manage the equity portfolio of my family business. I am responsible for analyzing stocks, building investment strategies and executing them. What draws me to the stock market is that each trading session is unique. I am therefore bound to learn new skills every day, by the virtue of being an active investor and growing from my mistakes. The YTD returns of my portfolio for Financial Year 2024-25 stand at 17.72% vis-à-vis 5.11% of the benchmark, S&P BSE Sensex (as on March 31, 2025).
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I'm currently on a sabbatical, pursuing an MBA at INSEAD Business School. My current research explores how international family offices can better access and benefit from India's dynamic equity markets while navigating cross-border investment complexities.
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Apart from work, I relish playing the violin (both Indian and Western Classical), exercising outdoors with my sister, playing tennis, and spending time with my family. Every once in a while, I steal time away from the stock market to travel and log my adventures here.
Once I dove in,
I began to learn
Intrapreneur. Investor. Traveller.
My life is comparable to a mosaic, with different pieces coming together over time to shape my present self.
An upbringing in India taught me invaluable lessons in spirituality and business, many perhaps unintended. An extended stay in France was a cultural immersion in a distinct society whose influence on the world is quite unique. A shorter stay in United States brought out the importance of focus and resilience to overcome hardships. And two stints in Singapore created a lasting interest in investing and technology, and their unrealized potential in our lives.
Here, my purpose is to take you through these key pieces. Dive in!
INDIA
A comprehensive foundation for entrepreneurship
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I spent the first 17 years of my life in New Delhi, India - the place where I learnt to combine various pieces of a puzzle together. It meant seeing the larger scheme of things.
Being raised by two first generation entrepreneurs, I encountered real-life business case studies on a daily basis. The hot topics of dinner conversations were often always along the lines of “what commercials should we air during an ongoing negotiation with a tough supplier?” or “how can we add differentiated value for a potential client?” or “what can we do to continuously build a company culture of innovation?”.
Being a participant (primarily a listener and only sometimes a contributor as a little girl) in such conversations early on translated into the ability to synthesize multiple pieces of information at once, much like a CEO. This enabled me to successfully capitalise on knowledge for good decision making.
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My learnings in tandem with the inherent Indian philosophy of mindfulness informed the way I work today. Indeed, India was a solid foundation for the emergence of my entrepreneurial spirit.
FRANCE
Realising the strength of differences in a team
Upon graduating from high school, I moved to France to pursue the Global Bachelor of Business Administration (Global BBA) program at ESSEC Business School. In retrospect, I made the move unaware of its full implications, overlooking the fact that I did not speak or understand French well. Adapting to a radically different way of living was definitely challenging, but beyond the cultural distance, I also struggled to manage diversity.
Our cohort consisted of students from 33 nationalities, creating a large melting pot of different cultures, backgrounds, and perspectives. Communication among such diverse teams was difficult yet manageable. However, the real challenge was building interpersonal relationships and establishing trust.
Here is my core learning from ESSEC and my time in France: differences, if embraced for a common cause, act as a lever that uplifts the whole team. These differences are the strength of a team, which ultimately lead to the creation of better solutions.
USA
New challenge, new opportunity
During an exchange semester at Ross School of Business, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, my observation was simple – the tier one B-school burgeoned a culture of ambition and struggle. Coffee chats were an attempt to create an impression on a tier 1 investment bank recruiter, late nights meant practicing case interviews until your body gave up and crafting the perfect ‘impromptu’ elevator pitch. At this point in time, I asked myself, “what am I doing here?”
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After a month of being pulled in overwhelming energy and rat race, the answer was right in front. I wasn’t here to kick-start my career with a marvellous job. I had 12 weeks left with me to learn everything that America was globally known for – the art of storytelling, self-confidence, the passion to excel in your area of work and the skill of marketing it all to the world. By now I was an analyst in Global Investments Committee (a student run multi-asset portfolio), along with a Value Investments and an Impact Investing Club.
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These few weeks taught me the power of networking and communication. But my big takeaway was the importance of not flowing with the current and instead carving my own unique path. After all, it was this uniqueness which empowered me to create an impact with integrity, in a place where I was beginning from scratch, in merely 16 weeks.
SINGAPORE
Edging towards (an ever-evolving) tomorrow's vision
In 1994, Bill Gates said that while banking is necessary, banks are not. I realized the reality of his statement when I landed in the Fintech hub of the world – Singapore.
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Having spent a semester studying in Singapore, I joined Bambu, a FinTech startup, for a 6-month full-time internship as a financial analyst. Wealth advisory, a service that has traditionally been offered by banks to wealthy clients, is fast changing its form – both for the advisor and the advisee. If businesses really are about bundling and unbundling (as James Barksdale said), companies in the InvestTech, WealthTech, payments and lending space have begun to master their pieces. I witnessed this at the largest festival for the global Fintech community – the Singapore Fintech Festival. This was the time I truly unravelled the tech hype, and understood what’s genuinely doable and what’s far-fetched with Artificial Intelligence.
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I recognized how in the current scenario an interplay of human intervention and data science is the recipe for faster decision making, enhanced risk-adjusted returns, and superior portfolio management.
