DANCING TO HER BEAT
Suhasini Sampath, CEO and Co-founder of Yoga Bar, is a trained hip-hop dancer
For 38-year-old Suhasini Sampath, CEO and Co-founder of Yoga Bar, a nutrition-led food start-up, music and dance is a way of life. “I am crazy about music. I listen to it all my waking hours,” says the accomplished singer who has learnt Carnatic music for over 10 years. However, it is hip-hop that gets her really moving. A trained dancer, Sampath has been moving to the African-American beats for the past decade and a half. “I was exposed to hip-hop music as a child by my parents. Hiphop is universal. You hear it all over the place, so effectively you can dance anywhere,” says the Bengaluru-based entrepreneur. Earlier, she learnt salsa but that is not easy to practise as very few places play salsa music. For the past six years, she has been training under Sridhar Jeeva from Bengaluru-based Hip Hop India. Sampath practises for two to three hours a week, down from five to six hours earlier. With business expanding,
“I WAS EXPOSED TO HIP-HOP MUSIC AS A CHILD BY MY PARENTS. HIP-HOP IS UNIVERSAL, SO EFFECTIVELY YOU CAN DANCE ANYWHERE”
time has become a luxury. Yoga Bar, which Sampath set up along with her sister Anindita in 2015, has seen over six times growth in the past two years, from `33 crore to `200 crore. Sampath, who is an alumna of Wharton, hopes to take the company to `1,000 crore in the next five years. Currently, Yoga Bar has over 40 products under its umbrella, including protein bars, oats, muesli, etc. Sampath is also passionate about theatre and was pursuing it actively between the ages 15 and 25. “Maybe I will get back to it when I have more time,” she says wistfully. Dancing and listening to music helps her de-stress. “A sense of balance is important. Days tend to be stressful. It helps maintain a work-life balance and dancing is also a good form of exercise,” says Sampath, who is looking at raising funding over the next couple of years to increase distribution.