“Welcome to our women’s protection home.” Not a sentence a child should ever hear, but one I heard more than once growing up.
As the eldest of three siblings in a destructive home, I was forced to grow up fast, becoming both caretaker and mediator between my siblings and our so-called grown-ups. With a strict father and an absent mother, I developed traits my therapist now calls defense mechanisms. But two have stayed with me for life: resilience and daydreaming.
Giving up was never an option and when things became too dark, I escaped into imagined worlds.
The Healing Power of Animals
I’ve loved animals for as long as I can remember. Dogs, horses, turtles, snakes, birds, rabbits, fish, you name it, I’ve had them as pets. The stable was the only place where I could truly breathe. No pressure to perform, no need to protect anyone, just a silent exchange of trust between me and the horse. With them, I found something I never had at home: to be seen, to be safe. All my daydreams were of working with animals.
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My father was one of the few constants in my life, my constant fear, my constant safety, my constant demon, and my constant love. Complex, right?
As of recently, I’ve realized: he shaped my obsession with disruption. Working at the Swedish government by day, he spent his spare time in the evenings helping immigrants build better lives. He is the recipient of the Nelson Mandela Prize.
While my classmates talked about fashion and pool parties, my father was on the news shedding light on immigration issues, organizing peace talks between Indians and Pakistanis. He pushed me to study, to debate, to lead. He wanted me to be a politician, the prime minister but I wasn’t interested in politics, but the spark to challenge broken systems was definitely built in me by him.
Career Built on Chaos
My career path? Anything but straight. From SSE to banking, fashion, fintech, and finally, animals. The common thread? Disruption.
When everything seems to be “working,” we rarely question the system. We accept tradition. We overlook what’s broken.
At Klarna, I joined a marketing team so small we could barely call it that. The brief: make payments sexy. The strategy? Disrupt the oldest industry in the world. The result? A hero campaigns and partnership with Snoop Dogg.
Over six years, I helped launch Klarna’s first app, build its loyalty program, and shape products that changed how millions shop and pay. But eventually, I felt ready for something new, something purposeful.
This time, it is personal
What do banking and pet healthcare have in common? Both are outdated industries desperately in need of disruption. But this time, the cause was deeply personal. I founded PlutoVets to give back the unconditional love animals showed me growing up.
When raising funds, many angel investors questioned our vision to start a mobile veterinary service. “There’s a reason no one has done this before,” they said, lower margins, extra costs, travel time, and lower occupancy rate. But I asked them: isn’t it better to treat fewer pets with better care, rather than squeeze in as many as possible just for profit?
The biggest difference between home visits and clinic visits? It directly improves the animals’ wellbeing. Pets receive calmer, stress-free, and safe health care. One thing is clear: this industry needs me, my expertise and resilience to disrupt it.
The Leader I Always Needed
Today, I get to be the kind of leader I once needed. I believe growth is personal and how we lead determines what others believe they can become. A phrase I often repeat is: “Just be a good person.” It sounds simple, but it’s rarer than it should be.
Disrupting Tomorrow
If life has taught me anything, it’s that you can’t predict what’s next, but I know this: working with animals feels like destiny. However I know animals aren’t the only voiceless beings in our world. With war, displacement, and deepening inequality, I hope to use my future to serve others I can be a fighting voice for, for refugees, for children. Maybe through politics, maybe something else. Only my daydreams will tell.
