Founder Of The Week: Zamiha Desai

• Zamiha Desai is a serial entrepreneur, awarded an MBE in 2025 for services to the British Asian community and founder of a portfolio of community-led platforms and brands.
• Zamiha built ProfessionalAsian (96,000+ members) and RecommendAsian (75,000+ women), trusted spaces connecting South Asian consumers with businesses, services and opportunities.
• She’s also the founder of Hey Gorgeous, a large-scale shopping event attracting nearly 20,000 visitors and championing female-founded small businesses.
• In 2024, Zamiha co-founded Luxurist magazine, an upmarket title telling richer, long-form stories from within the British Asian community.

Tell Me About Yourself and Your Companies

I have a small portfolio of businesses in the South Asian Community niche. I was honoured with an MBE for services to the British Asian community in 2025.

ProfessionalAsian is an on-line community with over 96,000 members. It is a platform to network and find products and services for a South Asian Lifestyle. We have seen countless business grow and thrive in sectors as diverse as finance, property, food, fitness, personal growth and coaching.

RecommendAsian is a highly engaged Facebook community of over 75,000 women, mainly of South Asian Origin. Content includes recommendations and showcases of services and products, peer advice, anonymous posts, taboo topics and a splatter of Asian humour.

I also founded a shopping event, Hey Gorgeous, which sees almost 20,000 visitors over the different exhibitions, showcasing small businesses, many of which are female- founded.

In 2024 I co-founded Luxurist magazine, a niche upmarket title in the British Asian community.

What Inspired You To Start These Businesses, and What Problem Were You Trying To Solve?

The business emerged unexpectedly. I created RecommendAsian, a women-only Facebook group, to swap personal advice and recommendations. The appetite for genuine, trust-based suggestions within the British South Asian community turned out to be massive. Things escalated quickly! As friends and family invited more members, people requested everything imaginable: accountants familiar with family business structures, suppliers for niche cultural products, and much more. The demand grew so intense that I launched ProfessionalAsian as an offshoot, which has since outgrown the original group.

I recognised this as a B2B opportunity. Rather than functioning like conventional networking circles where members primarily sell to one another, our communities evolved into spaces where businesses could gather authentic consumer insights and cultivate relationships with their target audiences naturally.

We spotted a significant market gap: the challenge of genuinely engaging with our community’s demographics in B2B marketing. Conventional marketing strategies frequently overlook the specific requirements of the British Asian community, particularly when it comes to smaller businesses.

What Has Been Your Biggest Challenge So Far, and How Did You Overcome It?

On a business level, the hardest part has been growing without breaking the trust that everything was built on. When your business is people led, scale can very quickly strip away the magic if you’re not careful.

I realised I was trying to make everything do too much for too many people. Once I stopped that and gave each brand its own clear role, things got easier. RecommendAsian stayed focused on trust and community. ProfessionalAsian became about growth and opportunity. Hey Gorgeous turned that energy into real-life experiences. Luxurist gave it all a more elevated voice. Once there was clarity, growth stopped feeling forced and began to feel sustainable.

Can You Describe a Pivotal Moment That Significantly Shaped the Direction of Your Businesses?

When I stopped seeing these as separate businesses and realised they were all part of one ecosystem. RecommendAsian showed me what trust looks like at scale. ProfessionalAsian revealed just how ambitious and capable the community really is. Hey Gorgeous proved that people still want real life connection, rather than online engagement in isolation. The latest venture, Luxurist, is now becoming the place to tell those stories in long form.

Once I stopped treating each one like side projects and started building them as businesses, everything changed.

How Do You Define Success?

For your business: Success is building platforms that are bigger than me and don’t rely on me to function. Our structure means we have now become a trusted reference point for the British Asian community over the last decade.

As a founder: Making that impact without burning myself into the ground, and being able to build meaningful work while still showing up for my family, looking after my health, and not losing myself in the process.

What Advice Would You Give To Someone Thinking About Launching Their Own Startup?

Start with a real problem you understand, not something that just sounds good on paper. Don’t chase trends, funding, or visibility before you have trust, because without trust none of that lasts anyway.

Also, stop waiting for “the right time”. Most people delay because they want certainty, perfection and to be “ready.” You just need to start doing that ‘thing’, and adjust along the way.

Build small, listen properly, and be willing to evolve as you go, in public if you have to.

What’s Next for Your Businesses? Any Exciting Developments We Should Watch Out For?

The main focus right now is growing our small business show, Hey Gorgeous so that more people can have access to these amazing small businesses. There is so much talent in the community that deserves visibility beyond social media algorithms.

For me, it’s about creating spaces where small brands can be seen properly, and real connections happen in real life. Scaling that in a way that still feels personal is the challenge, and also the opportunity.

Want to be featured as TechRound’s Founder of the Week? Find out more about this weekly feature and how to get involved here.

Founder’s 5 with Zamiha Desai

Zamiha is the founder of multiple successful companies, so naturally, we’re interested in what happens behind the scenes and exactly what makes Zamiha who she is as a successful “serial entrepreneur”. Here’s TechRound’s exclusive Founders’ 5 with Zamiha Desai.

Favourite business tool

WhatsApp – it just makes life easier – just don’t send voicenotes!!!

One lesson you learned the hard way?

ot knowing where your money is going is one of the most expensive mistakes you can make. Ignorance is no excuse for anything – know what taxes, what fees, what recurring costs you have; track them and know where you are at.

One future trend you’re watching?

Offline becoming premium – real life experiences, events, and human connection becoming more valuable as everything else stays digital.

One quote you live by

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

One book/podcast you recommend

he Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann. It is a good reminder that long-term success comes from generosity, relationships, and adding real value, not just chasing quick wins.

Want to be featured as TechRound’s Founder of the Week? Know someone who deserves to be recognised as a founder making waves in the startup landscape? Find out more about this weekly feature and how to get involved here.