Uppma Virdi is a trailblazing female entrepreneur. Just when her legal career in a disruptive startup was about to take off, she made the decision to run her own business called Chai Walli. She built this business from the ground up, making it her and her team’s mission to preserve the Indian culture of teas and spices by bringing the most authentic chai blends to the Australia market. She runs her business and her side projects with deep values of purpose, vulnerability and passion. She’s proved to be an innovator, a natural leader, a marketer and a conscious entrepreneur changing the face of business.Uppma is a truly captivating speaker that brings her own unique style to the podium. When Uppma takes her place on a stage, her raw and honest persona will leave you feeling moved and shaken. She’s perfected the art of having uncomfortable and difficult conversations in an open and closed arena. Uppma is known to push boundaries with her work and her projects, continually challenging herself to make the impossible possible. As a person, and also as a speaker, she challenges others to expand their thinking as she slowly peels back layers for and with them, allowing them to see things they normally would not. Uppma has an unshaken commitment to self-awareness and strives to show up each day as the best version of herself. Being a first generation migrant with no role models growing up for her to look up to, she needed to first inspire herself to believe that she could achieve anything. She is now a role model for other WOC, BIPOC and South Asian communities. Uppma’s connection to her Indian heritage and her pursuit to preserve culture inspires others to tap into and explore their own roots.Some outstanding achievements Uppma has been awarded include being listed as a Forbes 30 under 30 in Retail and E-Commerce, CNN’s 40 under 40, Business Woman of the Year by the Indian Australian Business Community Awards, featured as a Woman to Watch by the Project on Channel 10 featured and being DFAT’s Guest of Honour for International Women’s Day in India by the Australian High Commission.