New Delhi, March 8 -- Meghna Agarwal grew up in Alwar, in a traditional Marwari household where the expected trajectory for girls was marriage, not business school. Her parents chose differently. That one decision, made quietly in a small town in Rajasthan, is where the story starts.

At 25, her plan was investment banking. Then September 11 attack happened, markets froze, and the path disappeared. She co-founded HirePro, a recruitment technology company, with no capital, no network, no safety net - and spent the next two decades walking into rooms that weren't designed for her. Rooms that directed questions at the person standing next to her. Sectors with no template for women. And when COVID hit, a company whose entire model depended on...