An entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity. Entrepreneurship is about being able to face failures, manage them and succeed after failing. It has nothing to do with one’s gender, caste, or race. In the past couple of decades, the status of women in Indian society has started changing. Today, women have been playing a vital role in the growth of the Indian economy and have made a big impact and got success in almost every sector. Apart from just being a daughter, mother, or daughter-in-law, women are now becoming successful entrepreneurs and carving an identity of their own.
From running their own houses to running their own company, women in India have come a long way. Here are few women entrepreneurs who have proved that leading a company all by themselves is not beyond their capacities –
Imagine, you want to buy makeup products and want to get them from the authorized seller. Which website does spark in your mind when it comes to beauty, wellness, and cosmetics? Most of us must have thought of NYKAA. Valued at an estimate of $ 1.2 billion, Nykaa is a one-stop destination for cosmetics and other beauty range. Falguni Nayar endeavored her journey at the age of 50, the time when most people think about retirement. After resigning from a job, she began to think about various ideas. Still, Nykaa was never in her head until she observed the unbiased approach used among retail shop sales managers to select the best products. She saw how her friends in the States relied on Amazon. She saw the lack of good beauty sale experience in India and launched Nykaa in 2012. Shortly, several well-renowned brands started listing themselves on the platform along with 850 brands and more than 50,000 products.
“I wanted to stand for those women who want to be beautiful for themselves, not for men or other women” – Falguni Nayak, Founder of Nykaa
MENSTRUATION: One of the most tabooed topics in India. People rarely talk about it openly and still, a lot of superstitions are followed. Especially, in rural areas, this is a topic which is never talked about. Similar was the story of Aditi who belonged to a middle-class family and was brave enough to break the chain of silence of the menstruation. For her, it was a much painful time in which she had to go through a lot without any help to mitigate the pain. Later, she found out that menstrual cramps were the story of every girl next door. Thus, she decided to create a website on menstruation to educate women. Menstrupedia is a friendly guide to periods that help girls and women to stay healthy and active during their menstrual cycle. It aims at delivering informative and entertaining content through different media. Menstrupedia successfully challenged a lot of stereotypes which did cost her several uncertainties and hesitations in the beginning. However, today the platform has become extremely popular amongst the girls and women gaining awareness about menstruation. The platform has reached more than 14 lakhs users.
“Menstruating women are impure. This taboo has nothing to do with where you are from. From the interiors of India to big cities, if there was a myth I could do away with, it would be this.” – Aditi Gupta, Founder of Menstrupedia
Do you remember many people asking you when you were a child – “Who you want to become when you grow old.” The most common answers girls give are – dancer, teacher, singer. Ashwini also wanted to become a creative person. But, she suddenly changed her plans and went abroad to study product designing. She is a brave entrepreneur who called it quits to the job at Silicon Valley and thought of establishing MAD. MAD is an artificial intelligence and computer vision company. It is building the AI Architecture of the future. They use Artificial Intelligence to get any smartphone with a camera to identify faces, detect facial expressions and emotions, and react to facial gestures. It was established with a mission to build models of generalizable intelligence that can be used by billions of people from various industries across the globe. So far, they have generated 600 million product tags, 1,000+ digital models, and curated over three billion outfits. The start-up has helped generate 65 percent higher revenue per visitor and saved time of up to 30 hours per week per person.
“I was almost certain that I was going to be a professional dancer, a singer, or a musician. But, something changed, something snapped.” – Ashwini Asokan, Co-founder, Mad Street Den (MAD)
There are a lot of struggles we all face when it comes to our careers. But, these stories can serve as an inspiration to upcoming entrepreneurs to not give up. Whenever you fall, it is important to pick yourself up, dust off, and restart everything again. Always have faith in yourself, have the ability to take chances, and most importantly, be persistent!
