Entrepreneurial Journeys Of Female Founders.

On the eve of International Women’s Day, Arthayan’s team had a candid chat with the female founders in their network.

Being a woman in business is no easy task. From unfair biases to unwarranted judgments, women have to constantly prove their mettle in order to be taken seriously and succeed. We live in a world where usually women's achievements are first questioned, then celebrated.? However, in recent years things have begun to change. We’ve witnessed a wave of entrepreneurship that has brought more female founders into the spotlight.?

In 2021, women in India were reported to own 20% of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), whereas men own 80% of MSMEs. According to this data, women accounted for 13.76% percent of Indian entrepreneurs in 2021, compared to 7.69% in 1993. This number is projected to have considerable growth in the next ten years. Arthayan, an online platform that connects founders with potential investors, hopes to be a pivotal part of this journey. On March 8, International Women’s Day, the team at Arthayan got in touch with six entrepreneurs to find out more about what it's like to be a woman in business. They spoke about their businesses, hopes and dreams, challenges, and the future they want to build for themselves and the generations of women to come.?

"I have a dream."

The journey of every entrepreneur begins with a dream. Sometimes, these dreams take the shape of aspiring to be like someone we admire. “As a 5-year-old, I used to look at my father and dream of building my own company someday. At FreeStand, I get to live that childhood dream every day, and I cherish every moment of it," says Sneh Soni, Co-founder of FreeStand Sampling Solutions Private Limited. Sneh and her Co-founder Konark initially wanted to start a cold-pressed juice company and decided that the best way to market such a product would be by sampling. “When we went out to explore the market for sampling, we realised that the problem was unsolved, large, and needed innovation. So, we launched FreeStand,?a platform that enables FMCG brands to execute targeted and data-driven sampling campaigns,” she says, talking about how she arrived at her business idea.

For some, the dream of entrepreneurship is intertwined to make this world a better place. "After getting diagnosed with PCOD in 2017, I felt that there was a strong need to reimagine women's reproductive healthcare in India. I decided to start the Virago Initiative to empower every woman with the right knowledge, access to authentic healthcare, and innovative technology on their path to?femininity and menstrual wellbeing,” says Anushka Bhave, Founder of Virago Women's Health.

And then some dream of change. "I realised that I was being stifled and not fulfilling my potential. As a result, I wasn’t able to help students grow to their full potential. I wasn't satisfied with being a textbook-oriented teacher, so I started thinking about how I could make education more fun, interactive, and take it out of the four walls of a classroom. After 23 years of teaching in traditional schools, I embarked on a journey to make education the way I wanted it to look like,” says Jennifer Gadgil, who has been a teacher for over 45 years.

In order to turn their dreams into reality, every entrepreneur must know how to seize the right opportunity at the right time. In order to strike while the iron is hot, it’s crucial to realise when it’s heating up. “The idea to launch my own thrift store was completely spontaneous. I had a ton of barely worn clothes lying in my closet. In the lockdown, I took up a challenge to sell these clothes for money,” says Aishwarya Barve, Founder of @aeebeewears, an Instagram-based thrift shop. For her, starting a business was never a planned endeavour, and yet, she took the leap of faith and gave it a shot.?

Caution: Women at work

From arriving at a business idea to building a company from the ground up, the road of entrepreneurship is not without its obstacles. “Whenever I tell someone about my thrift store, they always wonder why I would want to sell second-hand clothes,” says Aishwarya Barve. She works towards a more sustainable way of life and hopes to replace fast fashion with a more conscious approach.?

For Sneh Soni, the challenges were a mix of her own insecurities as well as society’s ignorance. “I used to be insecure about being the youngest in the room, afraid of not being taken seriously. Apart from this, I’d occasionally receive emails where people would address me as ‘Mr. Sneh’. It was a bummer,” she recalls.?

If being mistaken for a man was a bummer, making one’s voice heard in a world dominated by men was laborious. “Sometimes, male panelists would shun us because they were simply unaware of how largely prevalent these diseases were. They had very low levels of empathy and awareness for women's reproductive health,” says Anushka Bhave. But despite the struggles, she refused to be swayed from her path. “On an individual level, I conducted a survey interviewing and talking to 417+ women across different cities in India, who were suffering silently under the fog of PCOS/Endometriosis. This topic was – and still is – highly stigmatised,” she says.?

Jennifer Gadgil faced a challenge many other entrepreneurs face while starting out – lack of workspace. Without a dedicated space for her classroom, it was difficult to create the experiential learning environment she wanted to build for her students. But she was patient and albeit with some limitations, started teaching from her home. “When I finally found a space for a classroom, I was able to think of many other activities I could engage my students in," she says.?

It’s a universal rule that good things take time. As society evolves and progresses, so do the opportunities for female entrepreneurs. “Times are changing and I believe it is a good time for a woman in India to start her own business,” says Sini Mukundan, Co-founder of i47 Innovation Labs LLP. She founded her company because the subjects of conservation of natural resources and sustainability were close to her heart. Through innovation and problem solving, she and her team finalised on metering and analysing water and energy for its quantity and quality.?

Celebrating the wins – big and small

As women, we often deprive ourselves of celebrating our triumphs. It's our right to be proud and loud about our achievements without worrying about whose toes we might step on. "Our products impact more than 5000 houses in Bangalore today with an estimated saving of 0.5 million litres of water daily. This translates to 225+ tons of negative carbon a year. It was a really proud moment to reach that milestone within 18 months of our first product,” says Sini Mukundan.

For Anushka Bhave, her most significant achievement was winning the 2nd runner-up position at the prestigious Global Student Entrepreneur Awards India, conducted by Entrepreneurs Organisation, USA. “One of the panellists, Mr. Rahul Narvekar, who is also the founder of The India Network, then offered an angel funding of USD 130K for scaling our initiative. At the age of 21, I was among the youngest women student entrepreneurs to secure funding in the women's reproductive health space,” she says.?

Vaidehi Kulkarni, Co-founder of Rama Life Science, talks about the proudest moments in her career. “I’ve established three brands in the market and have successfully filed for a patent, shifted from importing from China to making our own products in India,” she says. She started gathering data on hygiene gaps while working with a pharmaceutical company at the start of her career, which helped her understand the market requirements for hygiene products.

A word of advice

For all the aspiring women entrepreneurs out there, here’s some advice straight from the horses’ mouths. “No idea is too small. You can turn anything into an exciting venture. But don’t hope for immediate success – growth doesn’t happen overnight,” says Aishwarya Barve.?

Sini Mukundan talks about how entrepreneurs are not born but made. "If you are focused on a real problem space and set out to provide real value in solving that problem, financial success will surely follow,” she says.?

On a parting note, we’d like to leave you with this powerful piece of advice from Anushka Bhave. “I highly encourage all the women entrepreneurs to stop self-rejecting. Just go out there, be bold, try things, and know that it's okay to fail. It's better than being perfect all the time and afraid of trying new things,” she says.?

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