At 22, Akash Mehta started off as the youngest manager at beauty behemoth Estee Lauder Companies. In less than three years, he was the youngest digital manager to ever be hired at Dior. And now, he runs his own brand consultation firm, co-owns the hair care label, Fable and Mane, with his sister Nikita Mehta, and is also a global guardian for UNICEF. Before all of this, his claim to fame was an Ariana Grande mashup, that garnered over 1 million views on Facebook. And those are only a few of the many hats the London-born super-achiever wears. The millennial entrepreneur is always on the move, often mixing work with pleasure— he’s either scuba diving in the Caribbean, strategising business with his sister while exploring the Californian Redwoods, or soaking in the street-spirit of Medellín, Colombia. However, his introduction into the world of digital marketing was anything but a natural sequel to his education. The electrical engineering graduate from Imperial College in London simply trusted the voice in his head. “I remember the day I graduated, I wrote down my potential career options as engineering, music or brand building. As I read them aloud, brand building felt just right,” he says.
Even before joining Dior, Mehta was a social media influencer with over 250K followers. He took his prowess of the ’gram and moved to Paris to commence his global role at the brand, all at the age of 25. He says, “There’s this notion that experience only comes with age. I tried to break this stereotype and explain that experience is not linear.” His work at Dior led to the Forbes 30 Under 30 award, with him being the only Indian in the media and marketing space to make it to the list.
Mehta’s entrepreneurial ventures have also been closely tied to his family. He says “Our brand, Fable and Mane, is inspired from the times our grandmother used to oil our hair while telling Indian fables of Panchatantra.”
After all this, if there’s a thought that comes to one’s head, it’s this: how does this multitasking powerhouse juggle the many roles of his life? “Some days I feel on top of everything and other days I want to give up. It’s my parents and my sister who really keep me motivated,” shares Mehta. His journey to success may have been quick but it sure was one sans short cuts.
