Sunaina Sinha Haldea founded Cebile Capital in 2011, boldly entering the heavily male dominated world of private equity advisory at the age of thirty.
She built a diverse business where more than half of the employees were women or minorities, and her work earned her repeated spots on the Dow Jones list of the 50 Most Influential People in Private Equity. In 2021 Cebile was acquired by Raymond James, which built a brand new global division around it and named Sunaina Global Head of Private Capital Advisory. At the point of acquisition she was the only woman of colour to have completed such a deal in the history of the industry. She did all of this while raising three children, with three under five in quick succession, a global business and no family living nearby.
Today Sunaina is a regular on the BBC and CNBC, holds board seats and chairs a public company board. She is also a passionate advocate for maternal mental wellbeing in the workplace and a firm believer in the power of daily meditation.
In this conversation, Sunaina speaks candidly about the realities behind the headlines: hiding pregnancies from prospective clients, pumping breast milk in airports and negotiating a deal while timing contractions. She shares why her husband taught her to treat childcare as capital expenditure rather than operating expense, why she believes the idea of having it all at once is a myth and how to raise capital when you are an outsider. Throughout, she returns to one idea: we cannot control outcomes, but we can master how we show up.
💡 “You can have it all over the arc of a lifetime. Over the arc of a decade you can look back and say: I did manage to get a lot of stuff in, but just not at the same time.” - Sunaina Sinha Haldea
In this conversation, we explore:
✨ How the entrepreneurial bug bit at Stanford during the first dot-com boom, and why Sunaina chose to start Cebile on her own terms at thirty
✨ Why her husband’s advice to treat spending on help as an investment rather than an ongoing burn changed the way she thought about childcare
✨ The practical systems that held their family together, from two stable nannies to the rule that she and her husband do not travel at the same time
✨ Why Sunaina believes the idea of having it all at once is the biggest disservice women have done themselves, and the advice she received at twenty that you can have it all but not all at once
✨ Choosing where to be present with her children, from breakfast and bedtime to protected weekends, and letting others meet the needs that someone else can meet
✨ The honest memories of early motherhood in a male dominated industry, from hiding pregnancies and pumping milk in airports to a first work call four hours after giving birth
✨ Why it is okay to have days when it all feels too much, and why building a village matters
✨ Three pieces of advice for raising capital: network relentlessly, find trusted mentors including a well-connected man who can open doors and consider joining forces with a connected co-founder
✨ Why every painful moment is here to teach us something, and how Sunaina runs her own lessons learned sessions
✨ Why a daily meditation practice builds the resilience of the mind, and why she believes it is the investment mums are most likely to put off
About the Guest:
Sunaina Sinha Haldea is Global Head of Private Capital Advisory at Raymond James and the founder of Cebile Capital, which she launched in 2011 and which was acquired by Raymond James in 2021. A Stanford University graduate with an MBA from Harvard Business School, she has been named repeatedly to the Dow Jones list of the 50 Most Influential People in Private Equity and is a regular contributor on the BBC and CNBC. She sits on company boards, chairs a public company board and was an early investor in and chair of Mindful Chef. She is a mum of three and an advocate for maternal mental wellbeing in the workplace.
You can connect with Sunaina on LinkedIn, where she is most active.
About The Host:
I’m Victoria Phipps – a Mum of two, analogue family photographer, personal brand photographer, educator, charity co-founder, marketer and now podcaster! 🎙️
I was raised by a nurturing Mother and an entrepreneurial Father and have inherited traits from both, so the tension between ambition and motherhood is one I grapple with on a daily basis!
I’m fascinated to hear the stories of other women on a similar path, who are striving to build thriving businesses whilst being present for their children. It's a tough juggle, but I hope the conversations shared on this podcast help Mums in business feel less alone and inspired to keep going in pursuit of their dreams.
Head to the Mum Means Business Podcast website for full show notes.
I would love to hear your thoughts on the topics discussed in this conversation, so please do let me know on Instagram where I'm @victoriaphippsmbe or @mummeansbusinesspodcast.
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