On the last day of 2024, as timelines flooded with celebratory posts and perfectly filtered reels, Shreya Jaiswal, now the founder of Fawkes Solutions, shared a post summarising her “amazing year.” But behind the polished lens was a far different reality that she is only now ready to speak about.
What actually unfolded in Shreya’s life in 2024 was anything but picture-perfect.“September, October, November, these three months were something I wouldn’t wish for my worst enemy,” she confesses in a raw, recent post. Behind the public façade was a cascade of personal and professional losses. A toxic business partnership ended. Emotional turmoil within her family erupted. Trusted friendships dissipated without clarity.
And a relationship that was on the verge of becoming something meaningful, fell apart. Each domain that grounds a person work, family, friendships, and relationships collapsed, one after the other.
“I spent two months alone in my room, in the darkness,” she recalls. “Only doing the bare minimum work that was coming to me from the front. That too because I didn’t have it in me to accept defeat.”
But there’s a thread that runs through Shreya’s story resilience. As she puts it, “The worst of tsunamis come and go in my life, some I swim through, some I just try to stay afloat, but never drown.”
The Turning Point: Birth of a Bold Idea
It was in the thick of this storm, in October 2024, that Shreya found a flicker of clarity. A deeply pragmatic, almost self-coaching conversation with herself turned the tide.
“See, it’s not that you are dying. In either case, you are living. If you are living, you will have to make money. If you are making money, it for sure has to be greater than last year. And if it has to be greater than last year you will need to structure your taxes. And if you need to structure your taxes, let’s incorporate a partnership firm.”
And so, in the most unorthodox fashion, not through ambition, but through survival, Fawkes Solutions was born. A name as symbolic as the story behind it.
Fawkes, much like the phoenix from which it draws its name, signified rebirth. With a business clause drafted broad enough to encompass “probably making dinosaurs,” the firm’s initial flexibility was its strongest asset. But as fate would have it, dinosaurs weren’t on the menu.
Instead, Shreya went back to what she loved most- helping businesses and founders build brands.
From Shadow to Spotlight
In just seven months since its inception, Fawkes Solutions has found solid ground in the startup and branding ecosystem. And perhaps more importantly, Shreya has found her footing again, emotionally, mentally, and professionally.
She credits the initial push to three individuals who placed their trust in her at a time she was still rebuilding her own confidence: Ajay Lakhotia (Founder of StockGro), Arjun Vaidya (Co-founder of Dr. Vaidya’s and venture investor), and Kiran Shah. These first clients became more than just names on a ledger they became the foundation of her second act.
Today, Shreya Jaiswal wears many hats: a Chartered Accountant, a branding strategist, and most of all, an unconventional founder. Her journey isn’t about the meteoric rise we often glorify in startup culture. It’s about quiet persistence. About finding structure in chaos. About telling the truth, even if it comes late.
Beyond The Hashtags
In a time that’s so #winning and #grindset-obsessed, Shreya’s story breaks through the clutter. It tells us that failure is not a negation of success, and that weakness is not a disqualifier of leadership it makes it better.
Her decision to finally come clean on social media was not an act of confession, but one of courage. It underlined a universal truth often lost in the digital age: sometimes, the strongest move you can make is to admit how close you came to giving up and how you didn’t.
Now leading Fawkes Solutions with renewed vision and authenticity, Jaiswal continues to help startups and founders build their own resilient, unapologetic brands. Because she knows, perhaps better than most, that the best brands like the best people are not built in perfect conditions.
They’re forged in fire.
Also Read: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw: From Brewery Dreams to a Biotech Giant
