As the daughter of two entrepreneurs, business was in Depop CEO Kruti Patel Goyal's, blood from birth. After eleven years in senior leadership roles at Etsy, she made the move to head up Depop in 2021, continuing her quest to empower women in business.

“We’re a platform for women… for female entrepreneurs,” she said at AllBright’s International Women’s Day Step Forward Summit. “I spent a lot of time at Etsy really getting to know our customers… What the challenges are of starting and scaling a business. [This was] really consistent as I stepped into Depop, really understanding what our young female entrepreneurs are facing and what they're looking to do.”

For Kruti, her role is all about breaking down barriers for women who want to run their own business through Depop, particularly as the platform has a higher than average number of female entrepreneurs using it.

“In comparison to the small business landscape in the UK, where only 1 in 3 entrepreneurs are women, on our platform the majority of our sellers are female,” she tells AllBright. “I love the fact that we’re a platform that brings down the barriers to entry to entrepreneurship and fashion for everyone.” 

While in conversation with AllBright CEO Vix Paxinos and other women in business at the Step Forward Summit, she spoke about the importance of identifying your own superpower: “then you can think about ‘how do I apply this in any given environment or situation to help make my unique mark?’” This is key in both staying true to yourself in the business world and ensuring your work has its own unique impact.

Kruti also recommends “being your own cheerleader” at all times when operating in the workplace. True self belief is something that has to be cultivated and practised everyday, she says: “Resilience and self-belief is a muscle that you have to flex and actively nurture, through practice. Don’t wait for everybody else to cheer you on, cheer yourself on!”

Of course, we may have both positive and negative thoughts about ourselves, professionally and personally, but Kruti recommends not letting the positive voice be drowned out by self-doubt or self-flagellation. 

“It’s so vital to listen to and actively nurture that positive voice, to make sure it’s the one calling the shots,” she says, adding that when she hears hers, it belongs to her own mum. Kruti encourages us all to find our own positive voice, and identify who that is: “In challenging times, imagine what your biggest supporter or your best friend would say to you to drive you on – and try to be that voice for yourself.” 

Of course, she is in a position of power in business during a time where women still struggle to get to the top of the world of work. According to the 2023 Global Gender Gap report, only 31% of people in leadership roles are women, and recent analysis shows that as of 22, only 21 of the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies had female CEOs. A 2023 study also found that almost 90% of women feel penalised and undermined due to their achievements at work.

"There’s definitely a lot of progress still to be made to make the working world truly representative, equitable and inclusive for everyone,” Kruti says. “We have a long way to go, and as a society, and within specific industries and businesses, we need to be actively focusing on driving progress and taking tangible actions to improve."

That said, she advises individuals to try not to be discouraged and to shift their focus from the negatives to their own goals and how they can make them happen. “But for individuals and women in the workplace today, at a personal level - I would encourage them to focus less on the limitations that might exist, and more on their own goals, strengths and networks - and the opportunities that come out of those.”

Of course, if you do manage to reach a position of power in business you may feel overwhelmed by expectations, particularly if you are a woman and feel imposter syndrome at taking up space in this part of the working world.

“It's really important to not get too distracted by those expectations,” Kruti advised at the Step Forward Summit. “It's really easy, especially when you step into a new leadership position to think about what everyone in the room is expecting of me right now – they're expecting me to have the answers. I think that at best, that can be distracting. And at worst, it can be really detrimental – because it keeps you from focusing on the job to be done at that point in time.”

She recommends keeping a focus on “knowing your strength” and cultivating a sense of purpose to combat this. In particular, finding your purpose helps you to “develop marathon energy” in how you approach work. “If we treat every day like it's a sprint, you can't run the marathon,” Kruti says. Prioritisation is also key, and for her that means carving time in her diary to join a running group multiple nights a week. "I am home for dinner with my children, that time is sacred,” she says. “I'm organising my life and saying no to things in service of what I want to say yes to.” And finding that prioritisation is truly empowering, and can help to prevent or alleviate feelings of burnout.

Kruti adds that making the move from New York to London for her job at Depop reminded her to take time to nurture her personal and home life as her family adjusted, and would recommend anyone looking to step into their power at work to do the same. “Your personal and home life is the foundation that everything else is built on,” she told AllBright. “If you’re not feeling fulfilled and happy and settled in your life outside of the office, it can carry over into your work and negatively impact your whole mindset. So look after yourself, first and foremost.”

A big talking point when it comes to navigating the workplace as a woman, particularly in positions of power, is the pressure to “people please”. Kruti recommends that we don’t give ourselves too much of a hard time about this impulse, and rather use it to our advantage.

“I think it’s hard not to want to be liked and respected by others, in all aspects of life. It’s a natural human instinct,” she says. “But as a leader, it’s really important to balance the personal, pastoral side of managing a team with transparency and directness.”

She goes on to explain that, in her experience, humanity and emotional intelligence in leadership is key: “Lots of people believe that as a CEO, you have to be a tough talker and detach yourself from emotion. But actually, I believe that an open, empathetic and honest approach can really enhance your leadership. 

“You can lead with authority AND empathy, leveraging personal connections and relationships and drawing on qualities like communication and empathy to make the team work better. Basically, being a people pleaser isn’t all bad, but you have to be able to be honest and transparent as well.”

While working at both Etsy and Depop, Kruti has been passionate about ensuring the team around her building the businesses and products represent the community it’s built for – in this case, for women. “When I was at Etsy, and I was running product development, 60% of the product development team were women,” she explains. “And I think that's really important when you have a product that serves a majority female audience.”

For her, this is an important responsibility and motivation to make the business and product as representative as possible, particularly for future developments. “I think what's exciting is that as women in positions of power, we have the opportunity to build teams that are more representative of the communities that we're serving, we have the opportunity to really lay the groundwork for this next generation.”

Kruti is frank when discussing the current state of diversity in the business world. “Still only 11% of power roles [in the fashion industry] are held by people of colour, 24% by women," she says. “So we know that especially at the leadership level, there’s a lot of work still to be done to drive representation.” 

She adds that in order to make progress on this, Depop needs to be “deliberately developing the talent pipeline and proactively opening up opportunities”. The business already has various schemes in place to prioritise representation. “We work with amazing talent organisations like Women Who Code, Black Young Professionals, and Black Create Connect to aim to increase representation internally from underrepresented communities. We post roles on their job boards, co-create compelling social media content, and host inclusive events throughout the year.”

So a huge part of stepping into your own power, for Kruti, is paying that power forward to future generations. “I can honestly say that the most gratifying part of my career has been the role I’ve played in helping to grow other people in their careers.”