“I like the word combining,” Ragini Das said. “Because balance sounds like 50–50. But combining could be 80–20 or 60–40, it depends on the moment.”
Ragini has spent over a decade helping shape some of India’s most loved consumer brands. She’s the Head of Google for Startups in India and co-founder of Leap.club, a women-first professional network that grew to over 25,000 members. Before that, she spent six years at Zomato, where she launched products, opened new markets across the world, and learned what it means to lead from the ground up.
Her experience from scaling startups to making the tough decision to pause one is as much about belief as it is about balance.
And as she tells Julia Middleton in her conversation on the Women Emerging Podcast,
“Ego pushes you forward. Empathy keeps people with you.”
Not Either/Or: Why We Need Both Ego and Empathy
For many women, ego has been painted as a flaw something to hide, tone down, or apologise for. But Ragini believes that without ego, you can’t dream big, lead boldly, or even survive in the world of startups. Ego, for her, is the energy that powers self-belief. It’s what gets you out of bed and makes you say, “I’m going to do this, even if the odds are against me.” It’s what gives you the courage to walk into a room of investors or colleagues and think, “This will work because I will make it work.”
Julia reflected that it sounded like a deep sense of belief in yourself and Ragini agreed. Ego, she said, isn’t self-importance; it’s self-belief. It’s what helps you keep showing up even when the world tells you that you can’t.
At Leap.club, the women’s community she built from scratch, ego meant showing up every day with conviction the belief that women deserve their own network, their own table, their own platform. “It wasn’t a business idea,” she said. “It was an act of conviction.”
But ego, left unchecked, can harden. Julia pressed her on that how do you make sure ego doesn’t turn into self-importance? Ragini’s answer was simple: you bring empathy into the mix.
Without empathy, she said, leading becomes lonely. People might obey your direction, but they won’t follow your lead. Empathy is what allows you to listen not just to what’s said, but to what’s unsaid. It’s the difference between driving people and moving with them.
At the same time, empathy isn’t about being soft or endlessly accommodating. “Too much empathy without ego,” she said, “and people will walk all over you.” Empathy isn’t people-pleasing it’s awareness. It’s knowing when to turn down your ego and when to turn up your empathy; when to stand firm, and when to truly listen.
Julia noted that this act of combining, not balancing, seemed to run through everything Ragini does her work, her team, her choices. Ragini nodded. “You can’t bucket yourself into one stereotype,” she said. “You don’t have to be the mother leader or the ice queen. You can be both strong and sensitive, assertive and kind. You just have to know which one the moment needs.”
The Courage to Be Transparent
Ragini learned these lessons while building Leap.club, a thriving online community of more than 25,000 women. What made Leap special wasn’t its size it was the trust it inspired.
From the start, Ragini and her team made a deliberate choice to build through honesty, not polish. Every decision whether about pricing, membership, or eventually, the future of the company was shared openly.
“Trust is a non-negotiable,” Ragini says. “People might not always agree with you, but they’ll respect you if you tell them the truth.”
That commitment was tested when Leap.club reached a turning point. As the team debated how to evolve the platform, Ragini made the difficult decision to pause operations. It would have been easier to let the community fade quietly but that wasn’t her way. She chose transparency over silence, empathy over avoidance.
And the response reflected that same spirit. When the announcement went out, hundreds of members wrote to say they didn’t want refunds they simply wanted to be counted in for whatever would come next.
That kind of loyalty, Ragini reflects, can’t be manufactured. It’s built one honest decision at a time, and it lasts because it’s real. It happens only when you lead with both ego and empathy.
Her closing words capture it best:
“My job wasn’t to be the most empathetic founder. My job was to be ambitious for other women.”
Because leading, in Ragini’s eyes, isn’t about softening who you are. It’s about standing tall for what you believe in and making enough space for others to stand tall beside you.
What Ragini Leaves You Thinking About
1. Back yourself, always.
Ego isn’t arrogance, it’s conviction. Let it fuel your courage to start, to keep going, and to believe that you can.
2. Lead with empathy, not apology.
Empathy doesn’t mean pleasing everyone. It means understanding people deeply enough to make honest, sometimes difficult, decisions.
3. Be transparent, even when it’s hard.
Trust isn’t built through perfection, but through truth. People respect honesty, especially when it costs you something.
4. Don’t get too married to your ideas.
Listen to what’s really happening around you. Growth often comes from letting go of how you thought things had to be.
5. Reframe success with integrity.
Sometimes, the most courageous thing you can do is pause not out of failure, but out of respect for your work, your team, and yourself.
Listen to the full conversation between Julia Middleton and Ragini Das on the Women Emerging Podcast.
About the guest:
Ragini Das is the Head of Google for Startups in India and the co-founder of Leap.club, a women-first professional network that grew to over 25,000 members. She previously spent six years at Zomato leading growth and international market launches. Recognised as a LinkedIn Top Voice and Forbes 30 Under 30 entrepreneur, Ragini is known for building communities that balance ambition with authenticity and for championing women who do the same.
