Naina Sahni — coach to founders, systems thinker, author.
Executive coach to founders and CEOs at some of India's defining technology companies. Former Zomato Chief of Staff. Founder of Aklara, co-founder of sAvaka. This is the short, honest account of who she is and what she does.
Who is Naina Sahni?
Naina Sahni is an Indian executive coach to founders and CEOs at India's leading technology companies. She spent over a decade inside Zomato — joining in 2011 in content and rising to Chief of Staff to founder Deepinder Goyal, where she also led Feeding India and was embedded through the Grofers→Blinkit transformation. She left as an operator and became a coach to the kind of leaders she once worked beside.
Today she coaches 12+ founders and CEOs on clarity, judgment and learning capacity under sustained pressure. She is the founder of Aklara and co-founder of sAvaka, an operating system for living organizations. Her work fuses systems thinking — she is a Master Practitioner trained at the MIT Centre for Systems Awareness — with doctoral research and a long contemplative practice.
She is also an author. Her three books — Flatland, CULTure at Zomato and Systems of Grace — sit at the intersection of leadership, organizational culture and inner clarity. The throughline across all of it: thinking more clearly, seeing the whole system, and holding steady when it matters most.
What she's known for.
Three things, mostly — and they reinforce each other.
Coaching founders who keep coming back
The strongest signal in coaching is a founder who returns, and sends their leaders too. Naina coaches 12+ founders and CEOs across Zomato, Blinkit, CARS24, Bijnis, Xpressbees, Animall and others — on judgment and clarity, not frameworks for their own sake.
A decade inside hyper-growth
She didn't study scale from the outside. She lived it — content to Chief of Staff at Zomato across 2011–2023, and through the Grofers→Blinkit transformation. That operating experience is what lets her read pressure differently.
Systems thinking, doctoral research, and books
A Master Practitioner from the MIT Centre for Systems Awareness and a PhD Scholar at MGM University, she writes as well as coaches. Her work on the inner game of leadership shows up in three published books.
Career in brief.
Operator first, then coach, then founder. Each stage informs the next.
2011–2023 · Zomato
Joined in content and rose to Chief of Staff to founder Deepinder Goyal. Led Feeding India. Embedded through the Grofers→Blinkit transformation — close enough to the centre to see how scale actually breaks and rebuilds leaders.
Executive coach to founders & CEOs
Moved from operating to coaching — working with 12+ founders and CEOs at India's leading tech companies on clarity, judgment and learning under pressure. The work is on the leader, not the problem. See ways to work.
Founder of Aklara · Co-founder of sAvaka
Aklara is her coaching and transformation practice. sAvaka is an operating system for living organizations — extending the same systems lens from the individual leader to the whole company. She is also Founder & President of Ananta (NGO) and co-founder of ILEKA.
Author & speaker
Three books, a TEDx talk, and a Professor of Practice role at NSBT — alongside her coaching practice. The writing and the coaching feed one another.
Credentials at a glance.
PhD Scholar, MGM University
Doctoral research where she developed the ARSL and GBLA constructs.
Master Practitioner — MIT Centre for Systems Awareness (Cohort 7)
Systems-thinking practitioner credential, verified profile.
200-hour Yoga Teacher · Long-term Vipassana practitioner
A grounded contemplative practice underpinning the coaching work.
TEDx speaker · Professor of Practice, NSBT
Public speaking and teaching alongside the coaching practice.
Founder, Aklara · Co-founder, sAvaka · Founder & President, Ananta · Co-founder, ILEKA
Building across coaching, organizational tooling, and the social sector.
Books.
Naina has written three books on leadership, culture and inner clarity: Flatland; CULTure at Zomato, co-authored with Deepinder Goyal and Ashish Goel; and Systems of Grace. Together they trace the same thread that runs through her coaching — how leaders think, how culture is actually built, and what stays steady under pressure.
What founders say.
"Naina is the longest-standing coach I've ever had, and the most demanding. Every leader I've sent to her comes back sharper."Vikram Chopra · Founder & CEO, CARS24
"During the transition from Grofers to Blinkit — Naina was the uncomfortable but necessary voice pushing everyone, including me, to seek more clarity."Albinder Dhindsa · CEO Eternal · Founder Blinkit
Where Naina Sahni is online.
workwithnaina.com
Her site — coaching, frameworks, and over 150 essays. See about, ways to work and media & speaking.
linkedin.com/in/naina-sahni — where she writes most often.
Amazon author page
All three books in one place.
connect@workwithnaina.com
The direct way to reach her about coaching, speaking or writing.
Naina Sahni, in plain answers.
Who is Naina Sahni?
An Indian executive coach to founders and CEOs at India's leading tech companies. She spent 2011–2023 at Zomato — content to Chief of Staff to founder Deepinder Goyal — and was embedded through the Grofers→Blinkit transformation. She is the founder of Aklara, co-founder of sAvaka, a systems thinker trained at the MIT Centre for Systems Awareness, and author of Flatland, CULTure at Zomato and Systems of Grace.
What is Naina Sahni known for?
For being a long-standing executive coach to founders — 12+ leaders across Zomato, Blinkit, CARS24, Bijnis, Xpressbees, Animall and others — for her decade as a Zomato operator and Chief of Staff, and for fusing systems thinking with doctoral research and contemplative practice across three books.
Is Naina Sahni a CEO coach?
Yes. She is an executive and CEO coach to founders and chief executives, working on judgment, clarity and learning capacity under sustained pressure.
What companies has Naina Sahni worked with?
As an operator: Zomato (2011–2023), through the Grofers→Blinkit transformation. As a coach: founders and CEOs at Zomato, Blinkit, CARS24, Bijnis, Xpressbees, Animall, Massive Restaurants, Market on Mainstreet, Pravaayu, LeverageEdu and SheerME.
Where can I find Naina Sahni online?
Her work lives at workwithnaina.com. She's on LinkedIn, her books are on her Amazon author page, and her systems credential is verified at the MIT Centre for Systems Awareness. Reach her at connect@workwithnaina.com.