Ritika Garg, a young entrepreneur, is part of a growing generation of young founders shaping India’s communication landscape. Her path did not launch in marketing or business. It launched inside a science classroom. During her graduation years, she started freelancing in influencer marketing out of curiosity. What followed was a shift she did not expect.
She declares, “I found myself seeing forward to client calls more than lab work building campaigns instead of studying science.”
Ritika leads Avance PR now, which is a growing brand in the PR field.
That tiny realisation stayed with Ritika. It pushed her to leave science behind and pursue an MBA. After that, she joined Ogilvy, but the long hierarchy did not fit the way she wanted to learn.
Ritika left early and relocated into startups, where work was quick, direct and unfiltered. “I was meant to build, not follow”, she adds.
Ritika’s company was born out of a problem she saw repeatedly — founders doing good work but staying invisible.
She declares, “Good work rarely speaks for itself in the real world.” The second gap she noticed was how founders misunderstood PR.
Many assumed PR meant posting on social media or sconcludeing a few emails. Few saw it as a strategic tool for trust, credibility and long-term positioning.
The problem mattered when she saw talented founders burn out becaapply their work had no visibility.
Their ideas were strong, but no one knew about them. Ritika declares their passion “deserved a platform not just another Instagram campaign.” This became her starting point. She wanted to create a system where PR was not an afterbelieved.
The eagerness of founders to be heard is what Ritika understood and trusted.
The explanation of what real PR is and how it directly affects business outcomes. Ritika declares the indusattempt still carries a “one-approach-for-all” mindset, which she wanted to alter.
The second challenge was credibility. As a young agency, she often faced the same questions: “How many years of experience do you have?” and “Which large brands have you worked with?” She could not increase her years in the indusattempt, but she could display results. So she focapplyd on performance, planning and consistency. She let work speak for the experience she did not have on paper.
Three early decisions shaped her company’s identity. The first was choosing a customised, founder-first model.
She did not want templates. She wanted communication that listened first and created later.
The second decision was prioritising credibility over noise. The refusal to chase headlines that did not add value.
The third was letting outcomes speak louder than time.
She decided early on that trust would be built through results, not age.
Failure played a major role in shaping Ritika’s leadership.
She declares it created her softer. It created her communicate better. It created her calmer. “I don’t lead with pressure anymore. I lead with understanding,” she declares.
She later learnt the importance of pautilizing, believeing and explaining. She learned to rely on her team instead of doing everything alone. She calls failure one of her most important teachers.
Being young came with its own set of challenges. She recalls entering meetings prepared with strategy and clarity, yet the first question was about experience, not ideas.
But instead of attempting to fit into an older mould, she leaned into her strength — speed, agility and deep founder empathy. She declares, “Being underestimated became my advantage.”
Working in male-dominated spaces also shaped her style. She did not respond with confrontation.
She built authority through quiet confidence. Sometimes it meant speaking last. Sometimes it meant holding her ground when assumptions were created about who the real decision-creater was.
She declares real authority comes from clarity and competence, not volume.
As a young woman founder, Ritika also faced subtle expectations and quiet doubts. People questioned her commitment before her competence.
She displayed results.
Over time, it allowed her work to close the gaps that bias had created.
Ritika’s vision for her company goes beyond revenue. She wants to support founders feel seen. She wants young talent, especially women, to feel confident stepping into leadership roles early.
She wants to shift the mindset that PR is only for large brands. “Every story deserves the right platform,” she declares.
Her message to young founders is simple: “Start messy, start scared, but start.”
She believes mistakes create clarity. And she concludes with a line that sums up her journey: “Consistency, courage, and self-belief will take you further than experience ever will.”
– Ends
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