Entrepreneur Gagan Dhawan, author of The New Me, champions intentional entrepreneurship—slow, mindful, and value-driven over hustle culture.
Gagan Dhawan
“It’s no longer about building fast. It’s about building consciously,” says the author of The New Me.
In a startup culture often defined by speed, scale, and sleepless nights, serial entrepreneur Gagan Dhawan offers a refreshingly different lens: slow, steady, and deeply intentional.
As the mind behind The New Me, a wellness and self-transformation brand that started as a bestselling book and has grown into a powerful community and platform, Dhawan is part of a growing tribe of founders reimagining success.
“For years, I built businesses the traditional way, scale fast, do more, chase the next milestone. But The New Me was different. I didn’t just want to launch a brand. I wanted to build something I could live inside,” he shares.
He calls it the opposite of hustle culture.Intentional entrepreneurship is about designing businesses that serve not just customers, but also the founder’s life. It’s a shift from reactive building to value-led creation.
This includes bootstrapped, slow growth models, purpose-driven brands over trend-chasing, work-life harmony for founders and teams and deep customer connection, not just acquisition.
Dhawan notes the trend comes on the heels of a collective founder burnout crisis, one that’s become especially visible post-pandemic.
“Founders today are no longer okay sacrificing health, time, or relationships for growth. The new success metric? Stillness. Sanity. Sustainability.” He addes that many Gen Z entrepreneurs, especially those starting solo, are intentionally designing their businesses around mental wellness and long-term ease.
“I built The New Me at my own pace. It made me trust my rhythm again. That’s what intentional entrepreneurship is, working in tune with your values, not against them.”
For those entering the startup world, Dhawan shares a simple mantra:
“Build the kind of business you won’t want to escape from.”
He suggests getting clear on what your version of “success” really looks like. Prioritizing systems and wellness from Day 1. Avoiding comparison-led goal. He believes we’re entering a golden age of micro-businesses, solo founders, and slow-built, emotionally intelligent brands. Not every business needs to be a unicorn. Some are meant to be sacred, self-run, and deeply impactful, even if they never make headlines.
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