Bharti Singhla

Bharti Singhla grew up in a small, rural town in India, but her years as a chemical engineering major at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi put her directly into her country’s notoriously toxic stew of urban air pollution.

After graduating in 2015, she joined forces with like-minded engineers and entrepreneurs to co-found Chakr Innovation and focused her energy on developing products that could address the problem, including a retrofit device for diesel engines and generators that can reduce emissions by 70%.

But by 2021, Singhla says “we had reached the stage where the company was doing well, operations became stable and we were growing, and I was itching to do something new.” So the former college track athlete left her role on Chakr’s management team to see climate action in Silicon Valley and enrolled at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

“The problem of climate change doesn’t get solved with just one product, and I wanted to build something at a global scale,” she says. “I thought it was time to take a step back and broaden my understanding.”

Did you apply to other post-graduate programs?

I only applied to one business school, Stanford, because it offered the dual degree that I’m doing with the Doerr School of Sustainability. I was really excited to have this link between business and sustainability. I wanted exposure to new technologies being built at Stanford and the engineering side of things. Second, I’ve been an entrepreneur, and Stanford is probably the best campus in the world for living in an entrepreneurial ecosystem.

In your application essay, you said you wanted to “promote large-scale adoption of high-impact products to solve the problem of waste and energy.” Has that changed now that you’re approaching graduation?

That goal remains. What’s changed is my understanding of how quickly I might get to an idea. Having gone through the entrepreneurial journey once, I’m aware that, whatever problem I’m trying to solve, I’ll need to be working on it for almost ten years of my life. My bar for finding a problem statement that’s exciting and well-timed is really high, and I still haven’t figured out what that problem statement is. So it’s not changed, but there’s more awareness that I’m still on the journey.

Did you learn anything during your time at GSB that would have changed your approach to co-founding Chakr?

One thing I learned through a lot of these entrepreneurial immersion courses is the power of customer discovery. As entrepreneurs we can often be myopic about what we want to solve, and don’t spend a lot of time talking to customers before we go out there to start building and selling the product. A lot of classes here give you the opportunity to take a step back and just talk to customers without feeling the need to sell. That has really helped me think through some of the things we could have done differently. We found the right product eventually, but it might have been faster if I’d known what I know now.

How did your background as a chemical engineer help you with Chakr’s pollution-reduction technologies?

Our product consists of catalysts and chemicals, so that helped. But more than that, the whole engineering ecosystem, right from the entrance exams to the courses in India invites analytical thinking in students. It pushes you to think rigorously. That carries through the whole four years of undergraduate work. That probably helped me the most, rather than just the chemical engineering degree.

In addition to your role as a co-founder and executive, did you take a role on the engineering team?

At a start-up, you end up doing everything. As the COO, I was leading the manufacturing operations, and the engineering team. I was also working closely with the R&D team because things are changing rapidly and you’re learning in the field and applying your learnings to the product real-time. The product is evolving, and you’re trying to adapt your manufacturing process. You can’t really isolate the two.

You’ve advised female entrepreneurs to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Why do you think that level of self-awareness is so important?

I’ve definitely met a lot of people who underestimate themselves, but most importantly I have been that person, and sometimes I still am! I don’t think it’s a factor of just gender, but it’s probably a lot of nurturing that happens as we grow. A lot of women underestimate their own strength because we grow up with the expectations of being perfect, and if we can’t do something perfectly well, we feel that we have failed. And because we’ve underestimated ourselves, we don’t play to the strengths well. At the same time, we also tend to forget what’s a real weakness versus what’s a shadow weakness. If you don’t identify your real weaknesses, it’s obviously difficult to work on them.

What’s a strength you didn’t realize you had that you actually possess?

Resilience. It came up especially during COVID. I never looked at myself as a resilient person, but I realized I can be unusually calm when there’s a crisis, and I look for a solution. I didn’t really know that I had that strength till one of my colleagues pointed it out to me.

What did it mean to you to receive a “Women Entrepreneur of the Year” award from The Indus Entrepreneurs in 2021?

One of my teammates applied for me on behalf of the company. I didn’t know she had applied for it until I was called for the interview. This award was a surprise but also a reminder of the amazing support system I have around me through my friends, family, and colleagues who believe in me.

When I am invited to such events or awards, this thought often crosses my mind that maybe they just wanted a woman on the panel for diversity, rather than for whatever strengths I had. It doesn’t help that I have had people who I respected also say this to my face.

And so I believe there shouldn’t be a need for a Woman Entrepreneur award. I wish for a day when we just have Entrepreneur Awards and there are enough women entrepreneurs competing in that category.

A year later you were recognized as one of 100 Emerging Women Leaders. Why do you think your work stood out for those who named you to that list?

Two reasons. Obviously, the mission at Chakr is to solve air pollution, and there’s a lot of support to solve that problem. We need more and more people tackling such tough problems of climate and sustainability, and having public platforms recognize this work is always a great way to drive interest. Secondly, there are far fewer women in the hardware manufacturing space in India, or even the world. So having someone from a gender that’s less represented in a traditionally male-dominated field was probably another reason.

Do you think world leaders are considering energy production and pollution reduction with the same passion you do?

They’re definitely considering it seriously, but it may not be coming from the same place as people who care about the environment more broadly. World leaders obviously care about political power as well as energy security. They’ve realized that renewable energy is cheaper and gives them national security, and they know that climate change is a problem they’ll have to deal with eventually. Their actions may be coming from a very different place, but at the same time, it’s a win for climate action that the leaders have finally figured out it’s important for their future. I’ve seen a lot of change in India with regulations around investing in renewable energy, electric vehicles, and grid storage. I see that as a positive sign, but also think a lot more needs to be done.

Did you meet any particularly influential mentors at GSB?

I met an amazing former Stanford MBA who is now an adjunct professor of civil and environmental engineering. She teaches an experiential course called Stanford Climate Ventures. She’s someone who believes in you as a person. She’s super-busy, but she has the ability to take time for you and invest in understanding what you need. In my own journey now, I’m trying to be actively present for the people I believe in and I’d love to emulate that quality.

Any classes at GSB that have made a big impact on the way you do business?

One class is called Leading With Values. Our professor, Ken Shotts, had this ability to allow debate and dialogue on super-controversial topics with adequate respect to all opinions. It was an enlightening moment for me to understand that the point of view I have might not be correct. Ethics can be very broad, and each person might be coming from a very different set of values. What might seem ethical to me might not seem ethical to them, and what might seem ethical to them might not seem ethical to me. Hence, it’s important to understand where they’re coming from.

I also learned a lot in a course called I’m Just a Bill, with instructor Keith Hennessey. It’s a simulation in which you are playing a senator or a congressional representative. You have objectives that you have to meet, and you have to negotiate and convince people. There’s nothing else at GSB that emulates the real world as much as that course does. I learned a lot about people and negotiations, and made really good friends as well.

Photos by Elena Zhukova