My 5 years journey with YourStory as it hits the 10 years milestone

My brother passed away last month. I am in tears as I write this because he was the only family I had since my dad and my mom passed away when I was young. It was not his time to go and it was sudden. And I am left with questions, to the universe; for which I hope one day I will have some answer. And, I was not alone when I said bye to my heart -my brother, so many of my colleagues from YourStory (I think of as family) were there with me. Not just standing by but actually helping me through the process of telling his mortal remains goodbye. He will live with me till my last breath. But this article is not about him, it is about the family in YourStory that stood with me in my pain. I am blessed to have a family in my workplace too.

As I sit to jot down this article, I knew I have to come out of my pain even if momentarily to write because this week we celebrated the tenth anniversary of YourStory. Yes, we survived, we have lived for ten years,

Ten years is not a long time. But if you look from the lens of startups it is a long time. Ten years of telling stories, ten years of not giving up, ten years of taking in all the ridicule and ten years of loving and living with conviction. We created magic in our own way (while many, many people saw us as nothing but fluff and a doomed failure from start), loved every story we told, and championed startups when it was not the buzzword it is today .

We have seen the rise and falls of startups, the failures, the tears, the hard work, toil, sweat and the power of belief in an idea. It’s much like walking down with people on different journeys and experiencing their emotions, challenges and feelings but in this case, like it’s your own.

In the last five years I have had women tell me that I understood them so much better than most people they knew. On 16th September, YourStory completes ten years. When Shradha started YourStory after leaving behind big tags and titles and a hefty salary, she was told that YourStory would not survive beyond six months. And, she was mad and sunk in her drive to do it. (she is still a very crazy as a person ;-) and that's what makes her endearing for me as a leader.

It’s been a decade. Need I say more? But today I will not talk about entrepreneurs and stories but give you a view into what is the YourStory DNA.

Ten years of YourStory! My heart and eyes well up as I write this piece; for getting here has been no small feat. For this is not just about YourStory, it is about startups and entrepreneurship. It is about the woman who, to support her family after her husband’s paralysis, started a business by borrowing a sewing machine and eventually built a profitable venture. It is also about Ola’s growth from its first pitch to its entrance in international markets outside India. It is about believing in an idea and not giving up on it, about falling down and brushing off oneself and getting up again to chase the “dream”. It is about meeting VCs in five star coffee shops when you don’t have money to walk in and buy a 250 bucks worth coffee. It is about saving money by not printing business cards and while at an event saying you ran out of it. It is about putting all your savings at stake to chase that one dream. Find me someone who has embraced and chronicled as many young dreams as YourStory has!

We have loved to see startups rise, grow, scale and become bigger. We have cheered when we have seen more women get funding. We have also tapped on a few knuckles when we knew people were not on the right track. But we have always been there and embraced each of these dreams as ours and continue to do it today as well.

Meaning of Love

"I love every day. I mean, I tap dance in here and work with nothing but people I like. There is no job in the world that is more fun than running Berkshire, and I count myself lucky to be where I am." -Warren Buffett

Well it’s the attitude Shradha Sharma brings in to work everyday ( yes, I am an unapologetic admirer of the human being she is, definitely not perfect but very real person). Sometimes she sashays in singing and humming a new song. And of course, she is happy to share the YouTube link with you when you say I haven’t heard this song. She will hug you tight and wish you a Happy Birthday, sometimes even whisk out a nice gift for you from her bag. When she is travelling outside India she comes back with chocolates for the team, is never stingy to take someone out for a drink or a coffee, and she has been doing it with her own money. She has never been in it to be rich and that’s what’s so amazing about a leader. It’s not about the money but about the love and the thought. Anyone can buy you a cup of coffee but can they help you solve the problem that is bothering you? Can someone take your story and tell it to the world like it’s their very own, everyday? The love you can give to the company, to customers, to audience and to your team and to the entire ecosystem can’t be bought by money. It has to come from the heart.

Love is what YourStory has always received and given; love and goodwill keep all of us going. It is the crux of everything in life. We all will go some day but we won’t be remembered for the money we earned or the money we spent, but we will be remembered for the impact we created, the hearts we touched and the people we supported.

Being emotional and vulnerable is not for the faint hearted

Love is about being emotional and you can’t give love without emotions. And, yes, I am proud to be emotional. What the heck, aren’t startups about emotions ? The pain, the falls, the hard work, the determination, the grit to not give up and the daily self-pep talks to achieve small milestones. These are all about emotions. Every little milestone on the way has made us emotional, and I am sure every startup can associate with this feeling.

Give

It is in giving that you receive. And that is one thing inherent in the DNA of YourStory. We have seen Shradha give generously from the very beginning, inspite of all the ridicule and judgements. It’s a maxim we have seen come true at YourStory - the more you give the more you get. Seems very simple, but think about it. How many people do you know that truly give? Not just things but emotions, love and friendship.

From giving to each other to giving to startups –

YourStory’s previous office was 4 bedroom compact apartment in Indiranagar. It wasn’t fancy but we loved it. I am still nostalgic and emotional about the time we spent there. Well the doors were never shut, startups walked in uninvited to share their stories, and say hello to the team. If it was lunchtime, Shradha would make sure we served them lunch- not something fancy but simple or what Prema (our lunch catering lady who still provides us lunch in the new office) had brought that day. Whether it was time, food, smiles or a patient listening ear...we give it all.

From solopreneurs, to young boys from Gujarat to students and startups coming from anywhere in India, we had visitors in the YourStory office every day. No one went back without a hearing. Even now people walk in unannounced and though we have a guard now, we do spend time with whoever walks in to meet us, whether it is an aunty and her daughter wondering if she can publish her urdu poetry with us (well, yes, I told you people walk in) or entrepreneurs looking to meet someone in the edit team to share their story.

The more you give, the more you get and in the last so many years I have made wonderful friends. From telling stories about women entrepreneurs, leaders and role models, I have learnt to embrace these people, connect with their life, their ups and downs but each moment has been precious and continues to be so. 

Attitude

We have a new office, a lot more people, a coffee machine but we still book the cheapest flights and hotels and proudly use discount coupons. In over so many years the one thing that I have learned is that if you truly love the organisation and value it then you ought to value not just the people but also the furniture; keeping the white boards wiped clean, noticing any kind of water leak during heavy rains, popping in to meeting rooms to see if there are people in there or if the lights need to be switched off, clearing your desk every evening before you leave are just a few gestures that comes naturally because it is your office and your responsibility. Some of my colleagues and me go tch tch, when we feel that someone is not being mindful of the expenses because we still work with the initial frugal mentality. Our lead cameraman, H. Raja who many of you would have met over the years was reminiscing about the 2014 TechSparks and how we traveled to 7-8 cities, always took the train with standees and boxes with giveaways in tow but also how it was one of the most crazy and memorable things we did. I couldn’t agree with him more.

TechSparks

Well TechSparks 2018, is around the corner and for me it generates the same kind of excitement that a festival like Diwali, Eid or Christmas does. I love people, lights, conversations, gatherings and festivals offer all of that. It is much the same with TechSparks every year, the hard work behind the scenes, the coming together of the who’s who of the industry and some of the best startups in our Tech 30 to the top panel discussions. The energy, the vibe and the feel of TechSparks never fails to put a smile on my face. It is our flagship event and I have seen 6 editions of it and each year we keep getting bigger and bigger. What’s not to love about TechSparks...yes we kill ourselves, sometimes a few attendees may not be happy, a few team members may lose their cool, name tags may get messed up, a speaker decides to cancel last moment-it’s stressful! But when you put up one of the best shows in the country, that’s to be expected isn’t it?.

As a team we have fun too. With most of the team outside Bangalore arriving for the show and discussion about who is wearing what to who is doing what, there is magic in the air and I love being in the midst of it (last night one of my colleagues was on WhatsApp as we worked on how to accessorise her TechSparks outfit). I had hoped that MSD would say yes to the invite but since his calendar is packed, I am a little disappointed he won’t make it. But there is next year! I am counting the days and also looking into my wardrobe to see what will make the cut this year for TechSparks. Hope you are joining us for the 9th edition this year.

I hate you like I love you. Family!

If you work with a startup you know it means long hours, sometimes a bit of stress and lots of work, as there are less people and so much to achieve in less time in the initial years. Being bootstrapped means you gotta hustle, juggle and make magic happen everyday. And while you are it you end up spending a lot of time with the team so much so that they become family. From having a Maggi party to celebrate the lifting of the ban on Maggi to playing cricket in the old YourStory office with a tennis ball and a small plastic bat, purchased by my colleague Ezhilan Bhaskar while returning from a meeting made evenings fun. 20 minutes of cricket in office in a small space during evening tea time was the best thing that happened to us. Some of us still talk about it. Well, now we have a TT table and a lot of champions in the making. Over healthy fruits and tea, the Table Tennis matches have gotten more exciting as players have gotten better.

Imagine an investor coming to office in the early days and the rat that had been scaring us out of our wits for a few days and evading the office boys attempts to capture it suddenly decides to run around the office! We are still thankful that the investor did not see it. But I did upset a few people when I told them not to lean on the white walls we had gotten whitewashed for another investor visit. I wanted it to stay white for at least a few months. Well, since the office was small, one couldn’t get rooms to disagree, so sometimes the fights and arguments and disagreements went to the Honey bakery opposite the office. But with a small team, how long could you be angry or hold a grudge? We had too much to do. So, by 8.30 someone would suggest to head out for biryani for dinner and then get back to work or head home. Well, that would be the end of disagreements back then.

Some days we used to go giddy with happiness when we got appreciated by the VCs and other big leaders on twitter, while other days we would be celebrating the purchase of a new camera equipment or new office chairs. Now, we have HR and functions and a lot more processes, but we still have views on wall colours, wallpapers and quality of chairs as much as we have a say in town halls and the liberty to agree, disagree or just fight. We have grown bigger, but the old office, much to the chargin of the new family members, will always be special. It was the time when we were bootstrapped, small and trying to make a mark. We learnt by shadowing Shradha, seeing her struggle for small things and big, but always giving, loving and making sure that we never ever forgot to do one thing that we were supposed to do- champion startups.

Today I feel that (most humbly and most romantically) that YourStory is like, Heimdall the Gatekeeper of Asgard. I am not sure what my YouStory family and Shradha will make of this comparison but I feel that anyone who wants to do anything with the startup world has to recognise (now with the 10 years milestone) that we are the gatekeepers and guardians always welcoming everyone with a loving heart. To 10 years. And to the next 10.