Himani Kankaria at Parul University: How the Founder of Missive Digital Built a 200-Person Agency, Why Startups Transform You More Than They Pay You, and What She Told Women Students About Breaking Every Rule Society Sets

Himani Kankaria did not start with a business plan. She started with the phrases women hear when they choose to work on their own terms. Her mother-in-law’s friends questioned why she worked after marriage. Society asked what people would say. People told her this field is not for women. Her response to each was the same: ignore the noise and keep building.

She opened by asking how many students genuinely wanted to start a startup. When hands went up across the room, she made a distinction that set the tone for everything that followed. These students were not interested in the rat race. They wanted to build something of their own. That desire, she said, is the starting point. Everything else, including the funding, the team, the product, follows from that first decision to start. And if you too want to explore how they ideate and execute, enrol into Parul University’s BBA in Digital Marketing!

Her advice was direct: the people who talk when you are trying will praise you once you succeed. She gave the example of female cab drivers in Mumbai through Uber’s verified female driver option, showing that women are entering every sector, including those traditionally considered male-dominated. The AI and technology students in the room, many of them female, were proof that the next generation does not categorise opportunity by gender.

The growth trajectory is different: traditional business is a steady curve while a startup can deliver sudden growth, flat periods, or even losses.

She defined startup simply: having the control to make things change according to you. That control is what gives a woman entrepreneur independence. Managing people who work with you. She illustrated this with examples from her own team, including a team member who manages vendor purchasing and a business partner who is a civil engineer by profession and designed and built her own house from scratch, managing labourers, raw materials, and everything in between.

Her most memorable point: a startup is not just to earn money but more importantly about transformation. Upgrading yourself, transforming your personality, building capabilities that no job description can teach. Many founders think about exiting at a good price, but Himani argued that building and controlling something you created is the real purpose. She referenced Shark Tank India and how investors like Aman Gupta, Namita Thapar, and Vineeta Singh evaluate products on the scale of profit and loss, but the founders who stay and build are the ones who truly succeed. Inspired enough? Build a successful startup by enrolling into Parul University’s MBA in Digital Marketing and Sales!

Himani’s agency, Missive Digital, focuses on making unseen brands visible. Brands that are not yet well known to people. Her journey reveals the ups and downs of the journey she made so far. In 2018, she worked as a consultant and influencer, and in 2020, she landed one of her biggest projects and finally the growth was accelerated. In 2021, she got the opportunity to write content as an author for a well-known marketing platform, building recognition. In 2024, she achieved a major milestone: purchasing her own office space after years of remote work. Today, around 200 people work with her, mostly from India. She also highlighted that PIERC at Parul University has already incubated 230+ startups and encouraged students to explore it!