By Laura Scaletti
Portraits by Kristie Scholten
“Don’t be scared!” This is the advice Dr. Sylvia Kampshoff gives women when it comes to chasing their dreams in business and taking care of their own health. “I want to be a role model to my daughter, so she can witness firsthand that women can pioneer businesses and effect positive change,” Sylvia said.
Through her company Pata Life, Sylvia has done just that by combining her passion for Argentina, quality handbags and giving back to women. An avid polo player, Sylvia visited Argentina regularly with her family. The country and its people left a lasting 
impression on her.
“Each time I returned home to Texas with my Argentinian bags, friends would comment on how unique they were. One day at lunch, I was trying to think of how to support and inspire an Argentinian friend who’d lost his mother to breast cancer. We came up with the idea to create a collection of Argentina-inspired handbags and donate proceeds to mammogram resources for Argentinian women in need,” Sylvia said. “That’s how Pata Life and the Caring Bag was born.”
Polo Journey
Growing up in Germany, Sylvia loved horses from a very young age. “I started off focusing on jumping and cross-country and worked hard as a groom after school to be able to ride and grow in the sport,” she said.
Sylvia took a hiatus from riding when she went to law school; however, her interest in horses never waned. When her husband, Philipp, had the opportunity to move from Munich, Germany, to Austin, Texas, for a six-month business project, Sylvia immediately started researching riding opportunities in the area.
“I was working on my PhD thesis, so I had the time to move with him and get back in the saddle. I did some Google searches and found the Austin Polo Club,” she said. “We stopped by and they were the most amazing people who introduced us to polo and the warm and welcoming Texan lifestyle.”
That was all it took for Sylvia to get hooked on polo. Unlike Philipp, she already knew how to ride so she immediately started hitting the ball. “I had never felt adrenaline like that before. It really is the best thing to gallop down the field and hit the ball,” she said. “From those first days at Austin Polo Club, we have been passionate about horses and in love with the game and its people.”
When their six months in Texas ended, Sylvia and Philipp traveled to Argentina for a three-week vacation. “We ended up buying our first polo pony and flew her to Munich. It was such an exciting day, because I had always dreamed of owning my own horse,” Sylvia said. “My husband wasn’t a horse person when we met, but once we started with polo, he went all in and loves the sport as much as I do.”
Back in Germany, Sylvia and Philipp found a new “home” polo club and continued their polo journey until they made a permanent move to Texas in 2014. “It was always our dream to own our own ranch. It’s our sanctuary to get away from the hectic day-to-day life and allow our kids to grow up outdoors,” Sylvia said.
Two and a half years ago, Sylvia and Philipp were able to build their own full-size polo and stick-and-ball field, which allows them to practice and play as much as possible. “Having our own polo field has been such a gift. We can practice more, and it’s been an honor to share it with the wonderful Texas polo community,” she said. “It’s a place for us to bring family and friends together and have fun and share a passion together.”
Sylvia loves sharing her passion for polo with her family. “The sport is so time consuming, it’s been great to be able to share it with my husband and now with my kids. It’s such a special way to spend time together,” she said.
Serial Entrepreneur
Although Sylvia has a law and academic background, she eventually became an entrepreneur. “I enjoyed law, the team spirit and fast pace of working on big transactions and deals, but I never was as passionate about it as I am now running my own company,” she said.
When Sylvia was pregnant with her son, Tristan, in 2015, her husband was traveling quite a bit for work. One day Philipp told Sylvia he wished he could schedule a personal trainer to come to his hotel, just like he could arrange for an Uber to pick him up from the hotel.
“Being a fitness enthusiast, I immediately fell in love with the idea and couldn’t stop thinking about it and why nothing like it exists yet,” Sylvia said. During her maternity leave, Sylvia started working on Kanthaka, developing the app with a team in India and onboarding trainers in the States. She eventually followed her passion and quit law to build the Kanthaka Trainer On Demand app.
Kanthaka was more than just creating an app to give travelers access to trainers; it was about trying to give everyone in the United States a chance to be the best, healthiest version of themselves. Through Kanthaka, 30,000 personal training and yoga sessions were conducted with 2,000 trainers. Most importantly, Sylvia was able to hone her entrepreneurial skills before dissolving the company in 2023. “Everything I learned as the CEO and founder of Kanthaka enabled me to ramp up Pata Life even faster,” she said.
Started by Sylvia in 2022, Pata Life has the mission to end preventable breast cancer deaths of women in need in Argentina. “Learning that Argentine women suffer from one of the highest breast cancer mortality rates in the world triggered me to start Pata Life,” Sylvia said.
Pata Life produces a luxury collection of handbags, belts and vests handcrafted in Argentina for the U.S. market. “My unique background, shaped by a European upbringing and a life spent across various continents, infuses each creation with a global perspective, resulting in truly distinctive pieces. Pata Life caters to women who value fine craftsmanship over flashy labels, reflected in the brand’s signature three pink female-warrior stripes,” Sylvia said. “This emblem not only represents a commitment to sophistication but also serves as a symbol of solidarity for early breast cancer detection.”
Giving Back
Sylvia enables women to help other women through Pata Life sales proceeds. With both her mother and mother-in-law being breast cancer survivors, Sylvia was no stranger to the impact breast cancer can have on women and the importance of early detection. Shortly after coming up with the idea for Pata Life, Sylvia visited the University Hospital Austral in Pilar, Argentina.
“I walked into the hospital, with my little kids and broken Spanish, and basically told them I want to help and give them money for mammograms. I explained I would set up a business, design a collection of bags, produce the bags in Argentina, sell them in the U.S. and give them a percentage of the proceeds,” Sylvia said. “They sent me all around the hospital, from one person to another, until they found someone to talk to me.”
Eventually, Sylvia found herself in a conference room talking to a Professor Ignacio Mc Lean, who was excited about setting up a program to help the local women. “From there we went to Posta Sanitaria Las Silas, where women who couldn’t afford to go to the hospital went for health services,” she said. “Unfortunately, although many women relied on the services at this building, 
mammograms weren’t available at the time.”
In a community where many people don’t have cars or even motorcycles, getting mammograms wasn’t on the list of top needs for many women. Through Sylvia’s partnership with the Hospital Austral and Posta Sanitaria Las Lilas, local Argentinian women in the area now have the option to go to the clinic to get their yearly mammograms and, if necessary, ultrasounds and biopsies.
Unlike companies where a donation is just sent to the organization, Sylvia makes a point of personally visiting Pilar each year to hand-deliver her donation. “It’s important to me to see where the money goes and who is impacted through our donations. When I’m visiting, I’m able to find out what their needs really are,” she said. “Last visit, I found out that a portable mammogram machine would be extremely valuable to those who can’t travel to the clinic. A portable machine costs around $1 million, so that obviously will take a lot of sales, but it’s a goal worth fighting for.”
Sylvia has already inspired her daughter, Lottie, to give back. “Last trip, she proudly joined the cause by donating all her savings from the year. I think it’s very telling when a 6-year-old can see that donations are needed,” Sylvia said. “I was so proud of her!”
Looking Ahead
In 2024, Sylvia is looking to expand her retail footprint to 100 stores accompanied by trunk shows throughout the U.S. “I want our customers to be able to enjoy the beauty of fine Argentine craftsmanship combined with the best leather while giving back to a 
cause that is so important to me and many others. Our philanthropic goal for 2024 is to again double our annual mammogram donation in Argentina and help even more women and save lives,” she said. “I’m dedicated to building a legacy handbag brand that infuses each creation with a global perspective, resulting in truly distinctive pieces without a flashy label.”
While Sylvia was lucky to have previous entrepreneur experience with Kanthaka, she encourages other aspiring women entrepreneurs to just go for it. “There are definitely ups and downs and it’s an emotional rollercoaster, but being an entrepreneur has been an amazing journey for me. If you find something you’re passionate about, it won’t feel like work,” she said. “There’s an amazing entrepreneur family out there waiting to support you.”
When it comes to her own family, Sylvia is really excited about sharing her passion for polo with Tristan and Lottie. “Polo is one of the few sports where you can compete at a high level with your children. Throughout our time in the polo community, we’ve seen so many families playing together,” she said. “Long before we had children, playing together as a family was always a dream.”
Now that Sylvia has children and her polo facility, she’s truly living her dream. “This year we’ll start practicing with them and play together on the field. If they’re still as passionate about polo in two or three years, we’ll all play together as a Pata Life polo team,” she said. “For me that will be the most amazing thing!”
For more information, visit patalifestyle.com
Photos by Kristie Scholten, kristiescholten.com
