Balancing the Grind with Ashim Joshi, Founder of Jhola

Ashim Joshi is the Founder of Jhola, a personal management app that will help users simplify, prioritise and achieve work-life alignment.

1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?

I started my career in the fashion industry in New York City, but I quick realized the Devil Wears Prada life wasn’t for me. At the time, a mentor of mine told me about UI/UX as an emerging field for designers and I quickly became obsessed with human behavior and design thinking.

After a few years of designing and shipping successful products in consumer, advertising and legal technology, I was appointed Head of Innovation to lead a group of data scientists, engineers, designers and product managers, where we launched 6 new products in 3 different verticals, generating $2M+ in revenue.

I am currently the founder of Jhola. My team and I are building the next generation application that seamlessly integrates with all of your favorite providers to give you a single view of your life.

2) What does a day in the life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?

As a new startup founder, everyday seems to be a different kind of hustle. My morning routine ranges from managing emails and communications to researching inspirations and cold calling potential partners/investors for feedback. I set myself three goals everyday, both professional and personal, and I refer to them constantly when I am feeling overwhelmed or blocked.

At Jhola, we focus on testing quickly and testing often, therefore I try to speak to a potential future customer everyday by walking them through the click-able prototype to get feedback. This allows me to iterate the designs on figma quickly and always stay ahead of development.

Throughout the day, I like to schedule in a bit of time for a quick workout or shoot some hoops in the park to release some creative juices.

3) Does your current role allow for flexible or remote working? If so, how does that fit into your life and routine?

Given the current situation, we’re all working remotely at the moment, I personally believe this will be normalized even after this.

Change is tough, and as humans we need to adapt and experiment. WFH is the world’s biggest experiment and I think this has actually made everyone’s daily routine more seamless.

4) What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?

For me, having a balance is being able to achieve your professional and personal goals by having great relationships with the people around you, being healthy and inspired. So I work hard everyday to make sure I achieve those three things.

5) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits to change your life?

I started experimenting with different methodologies of leading a team. Juggling multiple personalities and diverse backgrounds, even different technology choices, it was important that I kept trying different things to find the most effective way to get the best out of everyone.

I encourage every leader out there to never stop trying something new to make sure you always take care of your team.

6) Do you have any favourite books, podcasts or newsletters that you’d like to recommend?

My favourite book is Steven Pressfield’s – The War of Art.

My favourite podcast is Serial (I am addicted crime podcasts), but if we are talking business/tech podcast, it would be Invest Like the Best by Patrick O’Shaughnessy and lastly the podcast that taught me about the founders I never want to become, WeCrashed by Wondery and The Dropout by ABC News.

7) Are there any products, gadgets or apps that you can’t live without?

WhatsApp, it is my only way to connect with my family and friends from half way across the world.

8) If you could read an interview about work-life balance by anyone, who would that be?

Michael Jordan, the man could golf in the morning, enjoy his time on a poker table throughout the day and score 50 on anyone the same day. That man has the ability to balance his life better than anyone in the world.

9) Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?

Stay healthy, stay happy and stay inspired. The rest will just come easy.

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