{"id":14977,"date":"2015-07-07T14:23:41","date_gmt":"2015-07-07T18:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/creator\/?p=14976"},"modified":"2020-04-03T18:00:42","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T22:00:42","slug":"bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business","title":{"rendered":"BollyX: Blending a love of Bollywood dance and a keen eye for business"},"content":{"rendered":"

From an early age, Minal Mehta loved activities where everyone moved in perfect unison. She performed at Indian folk and Bollywood dance competitions and even choreographed moves for her synchronized swim team.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one of the reasons Mehta became the co-founder and president of BollyX<\/a>, a Bollywood-inspired high-intensity workout program. She\u2019s finally been able to bring together all her passions in perfect harmony.<\/p>\n

Before she began sharing BollyX with the world, the Harvard Business School graduate held senior positions at companies like Amazon and Hotwire. Yet she was never able to shake the dance bug. When Mehta reunited with fellow Bollywood dance enthusiast Shahil Patel, she knew they were on the brink of something great.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized that this was it when it all felt very natural,\u201d Mehta says.<\/p>\n

Beyond her co-founder\u2019s \u201cintellect and drive,\u201d Mehta recognized how well she and Patel meshed as a team. From that point on, it was a quick and decisive transition from the corporate world to the startup life.<\/p>\n

Walk in on a BollyX class and you\u2019ll witness something between a Bollywood dance routine and high-intensity interval training. There\u2019s a lot jam-packed into a 50-minute session, and it\u2019s all set to an energetic soundtrack of Bollywood and Top 40 songs.<\/p>\n

These days, Mehta and her crew have been moving to a mash-up of a bhangra song called \u201cShoulder\u201d and DJ Snake\/Lil Jon\u2019s hit \u201cTurn Down for What.\u201d If you\u2019re lucky, you can catch them in their WeWork Gramercy<\/a> office fine-tuning the choreography\u2014a normal day for them at the office.<\/p>\n

Although Mehta says she has to work much harder at BollyX, she loves the sense of control she has running her own business. She also prefers the freedom of being able to grow quickly with a startup.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I stay up until 1 a.m. working, it\u2019s my choice because it\u2019s for a project that I feel very passionately about,\u201d Mehta says.<\/p>\n

BollyX recently won an award for innovation in the Harvard Business School\u2019s global alumni New Venture Competition. She attributes her success to the tight-knit community she found there.<\/p>\n

Mehta says a business degree isn\u2019t an absolute necessity for entrepreneurs, but believes that getting an MBA has given her the skills to think strategically about her company. Her business education has helped shape decisions she made for BollyX, she says, and ultimately helped her become a better manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cManagers affect peoples\u2019 lives in a very direct way,\u201d she says. \u201cAs a manager, if I gave you a great experience at work, you now have that self-confidence that can then traverse every other part of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

And for early entrepreneurs, whose job descriptions run the gamut from product designer to accountant to social media coordinator, management skills are key.<\/p>\n

Despite Mehta\u2019s extensive experience, she says the learning never stops. One crucial lesson she has learned has been the importance of hiring the right people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith a startup, you have to constantly assess and be quick with making decisions,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s all about choosing the right people and giving them a chance to really contribute to the team. When it\u2019s not the right fit, you need to move quickly because it\u2019s not a good situation for both the company as well as the person.\u201d<\/p>\n

With all startups, the learning curve is tremendous and problems are bound to appear at any stage of the process, but Mehta feels the first, most significant step is to \u201cjust build it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of aspiring entrepreneurs spend a lot of time in the strategy phase of their business,\u201d she says. \u201cBut the true measure of whether or not something is going to work is when they actually build it and see what results from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Minal<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo credit: BollyX<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From an early age, Minal Mehta loved activities where everyone moved in perfect unison. She performed at Indian folk and Bollywood dance competitions and even choreographed moves for her synchronized swim team. That\u2019s one of the reasons Mehta became the co-founder and president of BollyX, a Bollywood-inspired high-intensity workout program. She\u2019s finally been able to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1521,"featured_media":14983,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43903,43911],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-stories","category-member-spotlight"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBollyX: Blending a love of Bollywood dance and a keen eye for business<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Minal Mehta, the co-founder and president of BollyX, a Bollywood-inspired high-intensity workout program, has finally been able to bring together all her passions in perfect harmony.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BollyX: Blending a love of Bollywood dance and a keen eye for business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Minal Mehta, the co-founder and president of BollyX, a Bollywood-inspired high-intensity workout program, has finally been able to bring together all her passions in perfect harmony.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ideas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-07-07T18:23:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-03T22:00:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/07\/minal_300dpi.jpg?fit=3106%2C1634\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"3106\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1634\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"BollyX: Blending a love of Bollywood dance and a keen eye for business\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-07T18:23:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-03T22:00:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business\"},\"wordCount\":649,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/07\/minal_300dpi.jpg?fit=3106%2C1634\",\"articleSection\":[\"Community Stories\",\"Member Spotlight\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business\",\"name\":\"BollyX: Blending a love of Bollywood dance and a keen eye for business\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/07\/minal_300dpi.jpg?fit=3106%2C1634\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-07T18:23:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-03T22:00:42+00:00\",\"description\":\"Minal Mehta, the co-founder and president of BollyX, a Bollywood-inspired high-intensity workout program, has finally been able to bring together all her passions in perfect harmony.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/07\/minal_300dpi.jpg?fit=3106%2C1634\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/07\/minal_300dpi.jpg?fit=3106%2C1634\",\"width\":3106,\"height\":1634,\"caption\":\"BollyX Minal Mehta Founded By Women WeWork Gramery\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"\/ideas\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Community Stories\",\"item\":\"\/ideas\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Member Spotlight\",\"item\":\"\/ideas\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"BollyX: Blending a love of Bollywood dance and a keen eye for business\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/\",\"name\":\"Ideas\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization\",\"name\":\"WeWork\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/welogo_black_55x55.jpg?fit=55%2C55\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/welogo_black_55x55.jpg?fit=55%2C55\",\"width\":55,\"height\":55,\"caption\":\"WeWork\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/author\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"BollyX: Blending a love of Bollywood dance and a keen eye for business","description":"Minal Mehta, the co-founder and president of BollyX, a Bollywood-inspired high-intensity workout program, has finally been able to bring together all her passions in perfect harmony.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"BollyX: Blending a love of Bollywood dance and a keen eye for business","og_description":"Minal Mehta, the co-founder and president of BollyX, a Bollywood-inspired high-intensity workout program, has finally been able to bring together all her passions in perfect harmony.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business","og_site_name":"Ideas","article_published_time":"2015-07-07T18:23:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-04-03T22:00:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":3106,"height":1634,"url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/07\/minal_300dpi.jpg?fit=3106%2C1634","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"BollyX: Blending a love of Bollywood dance and a keen eye for business","datePublished":"2015-07-07T18:23:41+00:00","dateModified":"2020-04-03T22:00:42+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business"},"wordCount":649,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/07\/minal_300dpi.jpg?fit=3106%2C1634","articleSection":["Community Stories","Member Spotlight"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business","name":"BollyX: Blending a love of Bollywood dance and a keen eye for business","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/07\/minal_300dpi.jpg?fit=3106%2C1634","datePublished":"2015-07-07T18:23:41+00:00","dateModified":"2020-04-03T22:00:42+00:00","description":"Minal Mehta, the co-founder and president of BollyX, a Bollywood-inspired high-intensity workout program, has finally been able to bring together all her passions in perfect harmony.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/07\/minal_300dpi.jpg?fit=3106%2C1634","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/07\/minal_300dpi.jpg?fit=3106%2C1634","width":3106,"height":1634,"caption":"BollyX Minal Mehta Founded By Women WeWork Gramery"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/bollyx-blending-a-love-of-bollywood-dance-and-a-keen-eye-for-business#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"\/ideas"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Community Stories","item":"\/ideas"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Member Spotlight","item":"\/ideas"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"BollyX: Blending a love of Bollywood dance and a keen eye for business"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/","name":"Ideas","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization","name":"WeWork","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/welogo_black_55x55.jpg?fit=55%2C55","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/welogo_black_55x55.jpg?fit=55%2C55","width":55,"height":55,"caption":"WeWork"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/author"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/07\/minal_300dpi.jpg?fit=3106%2C1634","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14977"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49132,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14977\/revisions\/49132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}