Meet YourStory Media Founder Shradha Sharma: The Wonder Lady

Introduction:

Even in emerging nations like India, where the employment rate hovers around 37%, just 3% of business investments are made by women. They manage less than 13% of India’s small enterprises. The challenges faced by women who own their enterprises are various. Regretfully, there are currently very few examples of successful women launching their enterprises. However, given that the Indian authorities appear to be taking the issue seriously, we anticipate that things will change quickly.

As the Indian startup scene develops, more women aim to launch their businesses independently. One such captivating title is YourStory’s CEO and author, Shradha Sharma. She somehow managed to offer all these unheard voices a massive platform like YourStory, hoping to have someone listen to her story. She helped all women with a voice realize how important it was to be heard.

YourStory is a digital media platform specifically for startups and entrepreneurs. She works for YourStory, the company founded in 2008, as its CEO and Founder. “India’s biggest and definitive platform for startups and entrepreneurs-related stories, resources, news, and research reports” is how her company has been referred to. She was an assistant vice president at CNBC TV18 before starting her own company. She worked with The Times of India as a Brand Advisor as well. Cut the Crap and Jargon: Lessons from the Start-up Trenches is the book she wrote.

Shradha Sharma – Highlights:

The Journey & Path to Success:

Shradha Sharma established YourStory—an advanced media stage for new businesses and entrepreneurs—to consider the underreported stories of Indian trade. She founded her company and currently serves as its CEO. Before starting her company, Shradha was employed as an associate vice president at CNBC TV18, an Indian pay television business and financial news channel owned by NBCUniversal and TV18.

While working for CNBC, she discovered that she had a great affinity for startup companies and profiles. She used to spend her time writing incredible stories and articles about wealthy people and telling tales of entrepreneurs who eventually found success in her blogs. She thought that although amazing things are being done by people worldwide, they are not very well-known.

Her motivation to assist these folks was sparked by this. She then decided to feature more of these individuals in her writings, and finally, she converted her blog into a website. At that time, pursuing online publishing portals was not a profitable alternative. Her website did not attract much notice at first, and because of its little notoriety, she was occasionally requested to cancel already set interviews.

She eventually secured funding for her project in 2015 and made her first fortune. Her Company has produced over 40,000 entrepreneur narratives, and prominent businesspeople like Ratan Tata, Karthee Madasamy, Vani Kola, and T.V. Mohandas Pai have invested in the platform. As we all know, Shradha is scarcely a woman who needs an introduction to the modern world.

The Team Behind the Success:

Born in a tiny village in Bihar, Shradha grew up in Patna. Her mother worked as a housewife, and Shradha’s father was a merchant in the Indian Navy. From Delhi University’s renowned St. Stephen’s College, she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in history. Subsequently, in 2004, she studied Design Management (DCM) at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Ahmedabad. Along with founding, editing, and leading YourStory, Shradha also worked as a brand advisor for The Times of India from January 2006 to June 2007. Eventually, she launched a company that made a fundamental impact, having continued gathering knowledge and experience from every field she explored.

History of YourStory:

In 2008, YourStory was introduced as a digital media platform for emerging enterprises and entrepreneurs. It is the most well-known media platform for entrepreneurs in Asia and India, committed to ardently preserving and advancing the Indian entrepreneurship ecosystem. Studies show that YourStory has a $678K net worth and a $4000 monthly net income. The stories shared on YourStory feature representations from twelve Indian languages.

More than 40,000 entrepreneurial stories have been published on YourStory.com, reaching over 10 million Indian and global niche readers monthly. Shraddha wants to create a platform on YourStory where people may honestly and passionately tell every story that needs to be said.

Taking place on YourStory’s platform are TechSparks, MobiSparks, eSparks, Sociopreneurship, Cloud Conclave, and numerous other meetups, workshops, and boot camps. It also has a startup employment platform called YourStory Startup Employment Board, facilitating the most curated connection between professionals and companies. The company’s inquire-about division, YS Investigate, showcases inquiries about, insights, and counseling inside India’s startup community.

She did an MBA at Maryland Organized College of Craftsmanship and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from St. Stephen’s College in Delhi. She may be a shining and dedicated lady. She studied mass media and communications at MICA in Ahmedabad. She began her career as a Brand Advisor at The Times of India. Later, she was promoted to Assistant Vice President at CNBC, Mumbai. Her professional experiences have introduced her to a wealth of unseen and unspoken tales that could serve as thought-provoking parables for various audiences.

Along the journey, she came across endless vistas of incredible stories and realized how many success stories go unnoticed, untold, and unbelieved. This gave her an idea, and she built a website where business owners could discuss their failures and inspire others. To highlight the variety of business rib-ticklers, she progressively introduced YourStory, a media technology platform for entrepreneurs, in 2008. Like every startup, she experienced some nightmares. Her mother passed away, her relatives spoke bitterly to her, and she felt pressured to leave YourStory and carry on with her work. However, her unwavering resolve to share a fresh success story with every business drove YourStory forward.

Yourstory.com’s estimated net worth in 2018 is USD 437K. The website is a very promising effort because it consistently receives over 1.1 million monthly users. In January of this year, 4.5 million people visited YourStory.com. YourStory has over 140 clients who joined because of its excellent delivery, rich content, and compelling articles and stories. Nearly 72,000 pieces have been published on YourStory since its 2008 start, engaging over 10 million people from around the globe.

Innovation and Revolution of YourStory:

Blood, sweat, and tears may be the central theme of your story, but do you know of any other medium you might use to inspire a whole new generation of breeders and share with onlookers? Shradha suggests Telling a captivating story of an entrepreneur who can pull off a surprise or two, and our corporate structure will take notice. YourStory isn’t the typical news and media site you might think of. It covers the hardworking tales of an entrepreneur with rich, colorful, and upbeat content.

Making an effort to approach, engage with, and communicate with entrepreneurs was genuinely enormous. Everyone was eager to share their success stories when they worked at CNBC, but the roles were reversed after they left. The reason the same business owners decided not to join was that there was no well-known title attached. Her unwavering tenacity brought a few business owners too eager to be a part of YourStory moment back to her side. They gave their entire voice, which resulted in a brand-new YourStory success story.

YourStory, a Bengaluru-based startup, tells stories of empire-building and engages with seed funders and notable investors to secure substantial financial backing for expanding its reach. The following funders and their areas of interest are listed: since 2015, about $8.5 million in funding for YourStory has come from Qualcomm Venture, UC-RNT, 3one4 Capital, and Kalaari Capital combined. Her employment at Network18 has aided her in comprehending the company plan and obtaining funding accordingly. They endorsed her skills and her insightful narrative framework.

Shraddha has been committed to creating meaningful startups and stories for the past ten years. She is fully committed to expanding YourStory’s reach internationally. She debuted in Germany last year and now has her sights set on Israel. Returning home, YourStory is bolstering its foundation by recommending Hindi-language content and supporting 11 more languages.

How Shradha Sharma Gave Impact by YourStory:

During her tenure as a journalist at CBNC TV18, she became aware of her fascination with startup businesses and their stories. She enjoyed devoting her time to crafting compelling narratives about accomplished individuals worldwide, which she shared via her blog. She enjoyed writing about start-ups that eventually achieved great success.

She thought that although amazing things were being done by people worldwide, the media rarely reported on them because they weren’t well-known. She rapidly gained popularity after transforming her blog into a website. Although she had no prior business plan, her excellent material gradually attracted notice. She was even asked to leave a prearranged interview occasionally because her website was not well-known enough.

Renowned businessmen like Ratan Tata, Vani Kola, Karthee Madasamy, and T.V. Mohandas Pai have recently invested in YourStory. One of India’s top online media companies for startups and entrepreneurs, YourStory boasts three significant properties: YourStory.com, SocialStory, and HerStory. On YourStory.com, over 40,000 tales of entrepreneurs are read by over 10 million active users each month.

With its platform for companies and entrepreneurs to tell their stories, YourStory has completely changed the Indian startup scene. Shradha has promoted cooperation and creativity by elevating the voices of startup companies through YourStory. The platform’s impact goes past the computerized circle; it has formed the business story in India and quickened the advancement of numerous endeavors. Because of her motivational authority and immovable devotion to empowering business people, YourStory has become a crucial component of the startup biological system, empowering individuals to take after their interests and have a noteworthy effect.

Lessons from Shradha Sharma:

The story of Shradha Sharma has priceless lessons for would-be business owners. Her ability to bounce back from hardship serves as an example of the value of tenacity. She showed the value of resilience in conquering hurdles by being steadfast in the pursuit of her mission despite early setbacks. The capacity to identify untold experiences and use YourStory to amplify them highlights the ability of storytelling to uplift and unite people. Her commitment to enabling business owners—especially women—also emphasizes how critical it is to promote diversity and inclusivity within the startup community. Her path teaches lessons about resiliency, tenacity, and the power of storytelling to effect positive change.

Shradha Sharma – Milestones, Awards and Achievements:

• NASSCOM Ecosystem Evangelist Award recognizes her work creating a welcoming startup environment.
• 2010 witnessed her win the Villgro Journalist of the Year Award for her coverage of startups.
• Listed as one of the 500 global LinkedIn Influencers in 2015; recipient of the L’Oreal Paris Femina Award for online influence
• 2016: PAT Memorial Outstanding Alumnus Award;
• 2016: LinkedIn’s CEOs with the highest number of views in the Internet category
• were awarded the Economic Times Promising Entrepreneurs of India Award and included in the Fortune 40 list.
• In September 2010, she was honored with the NASSCOM Ecosystem Evangelist Award for her unwavering dedication to creating an inclusive startup ecosystem.
• She was honored with the Villgro Journalist of the Year Award in September 2010 for her persistent coverage of startups.
• She was listed as one of the top 500 global LinkedIn influencers in 2015.
• She was given the L’Oreal Paris Femina Online Influence Award in January 2015.
• The Economic Times presented her with the ET Promising Entrepreneurs of India Award in December 2015.
• She was included in Fortune Magazine’s list of the 40 under 40 in February of 2016.
• In the Internet category, she was LinkedIn’s CEO, who received the most views in 2016.

Conclusion:

Like many other stories, Shradha’s had its ups and downs, but her unwavering dedication to her work helped her to persevere. All women have the same potential within them; they need to recognize it. Women always emerge from attempts to put them in a box stronger, more resilient, and more self-assured than before. Thus, the story revolves around a young woman from a tiny village who overcame all obstacles set by the so-called society to build a prominent platform in India.

Aditya Gurung

Digital Marketing Executive at Scoopearth