A decade ago, Meet Semlani looked like a textbook success story in global finance. Fresh out of college, he landed an internship at JPMorgan in the United States, then moved to the bank’s asset-management division in India. By his mid-twenties, he was on a fast track in an industry where climbing to “VP by 30” is worn almost like a badge of honour.
Today, that same banker runs Tartan, a data-infrastructure startup that has raised more than $6 million from global investors, a journey that began not with a promotion, but with a 10-day silent meditation retreat and a decision to walk away from comfort, status and most of his salary.
Meet Semlani: The rise and emptiness of a ‘30 VP’ career
Semlani joined JPMorgan in 2015 as an intern in the US before returning to India to work in asset management. On paper, the trajectory was enviable: a brand-name employer, clear growth prospects, and a pay cheque that comfortably funded a gadget-heavy, restaurant-filled lifestyle.
But by 26, the glamour had thinned out. His days had settled into a rigid routine, reaching the office at 9 am, cycling through back-to-back meetings, repeating the same tasks, and leaving around 7 pm. Outside work, friendships and relationships slowly faded into the background as the job took over more of his time and energy.
He later admitted that the hardest part wasn’t the workload but the identity wrapped around it. Introducing himself as a JPMorgan professional reliably drew impressed reactions. That external validation became part of how he saw himself and one of the biggest reasons it was so difficult to imagine leaving.
A silent retreat that turned into a turning point
In search of a pause, Semlani signed up for a silent meditation retreat. For 10 days there were no phones, no conversations and no distractions, only long hours with his own thoughts.
The first few days were uncomfortable. But as the silence settled, a different kind of noise surfaced: questions he had managed to quieten with long hours and late-night dinners. Did he actually want the life he was building? Was the prestige of the job enough reason to stay? Did he want to be known only by the name of the bank printed on his business card?
By the time he returned home, he had his answer. Back at work, he informed his manager that he planned to quit not for another bank or a promotion elsewhere, but without any clear next step in hand.
Moving back home and swallowing a 70% pay cut
Once he resigned, Semlani moved back in with his parents and began searching for roles at startups. Eventually he joined a young company that helped international students, taking up a customer service role that came with a roughly 70% pay cut.
The shift hit more than just his bank balance. To make the numbers work, he slashed his travel, stopped eating out at expensive places and scrutinised every lifestyle habit that had quietly grown around a comfortable salary. Some days, he wondered if he had miscalculated, giving up a stable, prestigious job for a position that offered neither the same money nor the same status.
What he did gain, though, was proximity. At the startup, he could walk up to the CEO with an idea, see decisions being taken in real time, and feel the direct impact of his work. That energy convinced him he was in the right kind of environment, even if the transition was rough.
Laid off before the pandemic and pushed towards entrepreneurship
The startup ride was far from smooth. By late 2019, the company ran into fundraising challenges, and Semlani was among those let go. Suddenly, the safety net he had built after leaving JPMorgan vanished.
For a brief period, he considered going back to a large corporate job, the kind of role he knew he could secure, with the salary and recognition to match. But somewhere along the way he had outgrown that mould. The idea of returning to the old routine no longer fit the person he had become.
Then the pandemic struck, bringing with it both uncertainty and time to think. Instead of rushing back into employment, he chose a riskier path: to build something of his own.
Tartan: from personal reset to $6 million in funding
Out of that period of reflection came Tartan, a data-infrastructure platform that he would go on to co-found and scale. According to his account, the company has since raised more than $6 million from global investors and grown into a leading player in its space.
The journey from high-paying banking job to startup founder was anything but linear. It wound through a meditation retreat, a drastic pay cut, life back in his childhood home, and an unexpected layoff each phase forcing him to let go of a previous idea of success before he could move on to the next.
No bitterness for JPMorgan but a new definition of success
Despite walking away, Semlani says he still looks back at JPMorgan with respect. The discipline, structure and work ethic he absorbed there continue to shape how he operates today. In his view, had he stayed, he might well have climbed to the level of managing director by now.
But he no longer measures success in corner offices or senior titles. Instead, he frames it in far simpler terms: being able to start and end the day with a genuine sense of contentment. As he put it, success for him now is about “waking up smiling and going to bed smiling” and if he can manage that, he says, he is “good.”
A story that mirrors a wider shift in ambition
Semlani’s arc from chasing a designation by 30 to prioritising purpose over pay, reflects a broader shift in how many young professionals think about their careers. The prestige of a big-name employer and a predictable promotion ladder still matters, but for a growing number, it is no longer the only yardstick.
His decision to leave came only after he had pushed himself to pause and confront difficult questions in silence. The 70% pay cut that followed was not just about money; it was about dismantling a lifestyle built around that money.
And the startup he eventually built stands, in his own telling, as proof that walking away from a conventional definition of success does not necessarily mean abandoning ambition, it can mean redefining it.
For Meet Semlani, that redefinition now lives in the contrast between the life he might have had, a senior title in global banking and the one he currently leads, building a data-infrastructure company from the ground up. The leap from JPMorgan to Tartan began with silence, continued through sacrifice, and arrived at a version of success that has less to do with paychecks and more to do with peace.
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