Women entrepreneur: Shradha Sharma, Yourstory.in

Thanks to a small two-min chat with Vinita on Facebook a couple of days ago, I was sweetly persuaded coerced to  write for the Women Entrepreneur contest on the IndiBlogeshawari site, co-sponsored by http://www.womenentrepreneursinindia.com. Not that I wasn't considering this, entrepreneur ism of any kind excites the latent Gujju blood in me. I see it all around me, in big ways and small and I want to rush and talk to them, and share their story with anybody who is eager to listen.

Deciding on who to write was a difficult task - there was a choice of women from the www.womenentrepreneurs site, people in real life who've made it big, some people whose attempts are still Work in progress (but getting there, read here) and then there was my personal selection filter too ':-). My first preference was  to write about someone who works with new media, internet, information, and used it to impact lives and businesses offline; kind of giving fodder to the question which came first, the chicken or the egg. Pardon  my eccentricity  please, and this in no way takes anything from all the other women at all.

Shradha Sharma
Source: Google Images

It could very well be my idea for information aggregation and sharing since this concept is something I totally heart. Alas, a bit too late is my fate :) Presenting Shradha Sharma, who has started YourStory.in - a broad-based site giving a platform to entrepreneurs and start-ups in talking about their business and helping them move forward.

Shradha spent her childhood in Patna. She is one amongst 5 siblings, four sisters and a brother. She attributes her character to be influenced by the patriarchial environment in the state and the upbringing by her mother, encouraging her to be independent. Since her childhood she has had a strong drive to something which would make her mother happy and proud of her.  She majored in History from St. Stephen's Delhi and then pursued MBA from MICA. Post college, she has worked in the media sector, where she went on to become one of the youngest AVPs at CNBC TV 18 and a brand adviser at Times of India.

In fact, Shradha started Yourstory.in as a blog while she was working with CNBC. During her media stint, she  met a lot of entrepreneurs who were starting their ventures and who needed their story to be told, their struggles and triumphs to be highlighted. However, mainstream business media did not always see advertising money potential from struggling start-ups and a lot of stories remained untold. It is then when she decided to take up their cause and provide a broad-based platform to showcase their stories. Thus began www.YourStory.in.

Since its inception in October 2008 Yourstory.in has featured more than 8000 entrpreneurs and start-ups across sectors. Not only that, it has gone beyond providing mere visibility by extensive coverage in news, social media, enabling accesss to investors, potential partners, business opportunities, as well as offline marketing support. YourStory.in has today become an important go-to place for news makers, news writers, PR people, investors, start-up enthusiasts, corporates, influencers, bloggers, journalists.  In fact, their credibility and reputation is so high that research reports published by Yourstory.in are picked up and quoted from by leading print media houses.

Yourstory.in has 20 employees as on date. It is completely self-funded. Employees are spread across cities. Shradha herself is based out of Bangalore. Shradha has retained almost all of her original team in these 5 years. It is evident that the enterprise is fuelled with passion and the need to do good. In an interview to Hindu Business Line, Shradha says, "YourStory is your story, because being valuable to others gives me a sense of purpose." Shradha admits the being a woman entrepreneur is tough. She is strongly inspired by her mother. Other good things that keep her going are her dogs , the energy and positivity of the start-ups she writes about and her liberal husband.

Besides the website, YourStory.in has ventured into the events and workshops space to gain and give more traction. These events are again spread across business categories.  For instance, TechSparks is an event across 8 cities in India, which recognizes new and upcoming product  tech companies and gives them an opportunity to pitch to investors. They have the credit to bring to notice names like Attra, Flipkart, Twtbuck, Incept, Freecharge.in, Drona Mobile to name a few. They also conduct other annual events like CloudConclave and eSparks focussing on specific tech platforms, with co-sponsors like Amazon and Microsoft respectively. 

They also have a research and analysis wing YResearch bringing out insights, analysis, trends on start-up and entrepreneurship milieu in India. They also have a online media platform SocialStory, to provide a neutral visibility platform to social start-ups and innovators from India.  Shradha and Yourstory.in have a very active twitter presence and use this medium very deftly to connect with people. Women entrepreneurs in particular should not miss out the Womens Entrepreneur Quest (WEQ) 2013 coming up the third year running, from Nov 13-15, 2013.

I could not meet/speak with Shradha Sharma before attempting this profile. If and when I can, I will use the opportunity to add more details. I have used information from  the below given links for my research -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yourstory.in
http://yourstory.in/2013/03/accepting-myself-as-a-woman-entrepreneur/
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/features/weekend-life/listen-to-the-green-shoots/article4999986.ece
http://www.mybangalore.com/article/0810/yourstoryin-hosts-techsparks-2010-a-hunt-for-innovative-start-ups.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_185244&feature=iv&src_vid=w8suXZqFgws&v=e7nn2U0qrkU

Written for the Indiblogeshwaris Ladies Independence Special Contest in association with http://womenentrepreneursindia.com