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Aru Mehrotra - Most Inspiring Women Leaders 2025
Leader at a Glance
Aru Mehrotra, a seasoned leader, has turned skeptical Fortune 500s into believers by replacing pitches with co-created trust. Her empathetic, listening-first approach transformed perceptions of failed HR tech, reduced silent attrition, and proved that employee experience drives business impact.
Name: Aru Mehrotra
Designation: India Business Head
Company: inFeedo Tech Pvt Ltd
Industry: Software Development
Country: America
Designation: India Business Head
Company: inFeedo Tech Pvt Ltd
Industry: Software Development
Country: America
Aru Mehrotra - Most Inspiring Women Leaders 2025
Boardrooms can be intimidating places, especially when you’re the youngest voice in the room, passionately advocating for employee experience before it becomes a mainstream priority. Those were the early days that shaped Aru Mehrotra, now India Business Head at inFeedo Tech Pvt. Ltd., and one of the most dynamic voices in the country’s SaaS and employee experience ecosystem. Her leadership journey is not defined by hierarchy or milestones but by moments of conviction and courage, when she chose belief over pressure, empathy over authority, and purpose over process. Over the years, she has helped Fortune 500 leaders reimagine how technology can drive human connection, not just operational efficiency. At inFeedo, Aru continues to blend technology with empathy, helping organisations build cultures where data drives understanding and people feel truly heard. Her story is a reminder that leadership, at its best, is both deeply human and fearlessly transformative. She spoke with The Portfolio Magazine about her journey, transitions, challenging moments, lessons learned and the impact
What were the key experiences and milestones throughout your professional journey that shaped the leader you are today?
My leadership was shaped less by milestones and more by defining moments, especially the uncomfortable ones. Early in my SaaS journey, I was often the youngest person in the room, convincing CHROs and CFOs why employee experience mattered long before it became mainstream. Those experiences taught me that credibility is not given by age or title, it’s earned through consistency, clarity, and genuine problemsolving. A turning point came when I shifted from individual contributor to leading teams across regions, realising that leadership isn’t about having all the answers but asking better questions. Later, navigating complex enterprise deals taught me patience and emotional intelligence, showing me that relationships outlast products and trust opens more doors than any presentation ever will.
“Leadership is the art of choosing who you disappoint.”
You’ve spent over a decade helping Fortune 500 leaders transform their businesses. What first drew you toward SaaS and enterprise tech, and what’s kept you hooked all these years?
I didn’t enter SaaS because I loved software, I entered because I loved scale. SaaS has a unique power: solve a problem once, and you can solve it for every organisation in the world. That fascinated me. The idea that technology could reshape culture, improve efficiency, protect people, reduce attrition, and empower leaders to make better decisions offered impact at a level no traditional industry could. What keeps me hooked is its constant evolution. New markets, new expectations and new technologies. You can never stand still. Selling to enterprises isn’t about features but strategy; you don’t win by talking louder, but by understanding deeper. SaaS, at its core, is about behaviour, not buttons, changing how leaders listen, respond, and inspire lasting transformation. “You don’t win by talking the loudest, you win by understanding the deepest”
What was the hardest “yes” you ever got in terms of a business deal, and how did you finally get it?
One of my toughest wins came from a global enterprise where a previous HR tech rollout had failed. The CHRO had lost trust in platforms, processes, and promises. No demo or ROI pitch worked and she said, “We’ve heard the sales story before. It always sounds good at the start.” So, I stopped selling. I asked what went wrong, where employees struggled, and what caused the distrust. Instead of offering a readymade solution, we co-created one. She set the success criteria, adoption metrics, and rollout plan. Her “yes” came when she said, “You didn’t try to win the deal, you tried to win my confidence.” That moment taught me a lasting truth: enterprises don’t buy software, they buy certainty, partnership, and trust.
What’s one unconventional lesson about leadership that no textbook or mentor ever taught you?
“Leadership is the art of choosing who you disappoint.” When you lead, everyone wants something different. Your team wants time, customers want speed, finance wants precision, and the market wants results. You can’t please them all, and trying means failing quietly at each. True leadership is defined in tough moments, saying no to the easy path because the right one is harder. When times are rough, protect your people; when times are great, share the credit. Textbooks say “inspire people,” but real leadership means standing up for them. Teams don’t need perfect leaders, they need ones who show up, listen, and stand firm when it truly matters.
When you work with clients, how do you turn a conversation into a shared vision, and what does ‘impact’ mean to you beyond numbers?
A conversation turns into a shared vision when both sides stop talking about “what the product does” and start imagining “what the business could become.” I rarely ask clients about features; instead, I ask what their managers fear to say, what’s silently breaking, and what’s costing them talent without showing up in reports. Once we uncover the real problem, we cocreate success, defining risks, adoption, governance, and communication frameworks. We don’t just sell software; we drive a cultural shift and take accountability for it. For me, impact isn’t about dashboards, it’s when leaders start predicting, managers feel empowered, and employees feel heard. When someone says, “This didn’t just change a number, it changed how we work,” that impact truly lasts.
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