Malibu’s Smita Bagla is an accomplished businesswoman and entrepreneur. Trained as a computer engineer in her native India, Bagla moved to the United States in 1986 at age 22. As a young mother of two, she sold her own company in 2001 to concentrate on raising her family in Cerritos and becoming the PTA president of her youngsters’ school. She continued management consulting and ran an innovation game company. Her current business is Aligned Strategies, another management consulting firm. The main goal of her company is to help in product technology and advice for big corporations and startups.
“We advise companies on their product and technology roadmaps as well as providing investment advice,” she said. It’s a passion of Bagla’s—but not her only one.
Bagla also dreams of breaking into show business, an aspiration she has held since her childhood in India. Despite recent successes on the stage, Bagla has not lost sight of her business ambitions.
In fact, since moving to Malibu just under four years ago, Bagla has stepped up into a major role as an advisor and encourager to startups and young entrepreneurs. The 56-year-old is the president of the Southern California chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE). TIE is a 26-year-old worldwide organization—the largest known of its kind—whose mission is to empower entrepreneurs with networking connections, investment funding and education with a focus on giving back to the community. TIE started as a group to empower those of Indian origin, but now is an inclusive organization. In her two years as president, Bagla grew her chapter by 400 percent. She’s forged relationships with local university entrepreneur groups such as Pepperdine and USC and brought them to the attention of angel investors and incubators including Malibu’s Beyond Hook Ventures.
The sociable businesswoman easily navigates with investors of all types including female-based funding groups.
“I was able to attract and get them to participate and become partner investors with TIE,” she described. “I created an ecosystem of startups to come and present to our charter members and partner investors.”
In her leadership role at TIE, Bagla set up a West Coast Woman Entrepreneur of the Year award to recognize other women business founders and connect them with investors. Part of her youth mentoring involves speaking at Pepperdine and UCLA classes. She has invited local students to a “shark tank” presented by TIE. There, startups can present ideas to judges—including Bagla—who may decide to back their young companies.
“It’s Shark Tank in real life, but 30 investors attend,” she said. Bagla is proud of one investment success story—Ootify, out of USC. It’s a mental health community platform powered by artificial intelligence technology.
“My passion is to empower startups because I got a lot of advice and mentoring when I started my first company. That’s why I’m giving back,” Bagla said, mentioning TIE is growing funding to invest in more companies.
However, with all of her personal and professional accolades, Bagla has another passion that many consider a tough business to break into and that’s show business. But Bagla has been flourishing in it since her move to Malibu. She is also an actress with some success on stage, including a Hollywood production and at the Santa Monica Playhouse. Her Santa Monica credits include “Make It!” and “Intimacy.” She’s currently working on a show set to open in a few short weeks. Although Bagla caught the acting bug, her current project includes technical acumen as well. “We write the play together. Create it, act and present it to the public, all in eight weeks,” Bagla described. She also has UCLA student films to her credit as well as DVD releases.
Bagla has been interested in working in theater and movies since she was a child in India. In fact, as a youngster she did appear in a Bollywood blockbuster—very briefly.
“My mother wanted me to become a doctor or engineer—not an actor. When I was very young, I was approached to act. I had a lot of fun doing it. It’s a good stress reliever,” she said. “Even though I became an engineer and had my own company, I found that being an actor took me away from all the real world. Living as a character and being in a production gave me a lot of freedom and a lot of peace. So that’s what I try to do with my hobby—to act in different plays. I hope that becomes one of my mainstays later on in life.”
With acting credits piling up in just under four years, Bagla may soon focus more time on her hobby. She’s looking for an agent to try her hand at commercials. With her tenacity, expect to see her on your TV screen soon.
