Stories of Sisterhood: These Women-led Platforms are Empowering Fellow Women To Achieve Their Goals
There are several challenges that women have to deal with in their careers, and then there are some on the personal front. It is said that no one understands a woman better than another woman, and that’s why we are big advocates of sisterhood. When women form a community and help each other, they are better equipped to tackle social issues, and that’s exactly what these entrepreneurs believe in.
Here’s a look at some prominent women-led platforms that are helping their tribe achieve goals and dreams.
Swetha Subbiah and Tanvie Hans, Sisters in Sweat
The story of this duo stems from their personal interest in football. It was on a bright Sunday morning that Shweta Subbiah, a Nike-certified fitness trainer and former Tottenham and Fulham footballer Tanvie Hans, decided to teach the game to their friends, and that’s how Sisters in Sweat was born.
Today, it has turned into a community of 350 women who are passionate about the sport. The sessions are not just restricted to Sundays, but the duo offers football training during the week, as well as helps beginners master the game. Last year, it also organised its first football tournament for women. That’s not all - with the support of their community members, they’ve been able to offer training in yoga and dancing as well.
Pooja Goel, Pink Collar Professionals
Pooja worked for several years in the corporate world with the likes of Infosys and Edgeverve Systems, before deciding to pursue an MBA in Sales and Marketing from IMT Ghaziabad. While studying there, the world of startups caught her interest, and she spent more time understanding and delving deep into what goes into the making of an entrepreneur. Soon after, she began to attend various women-oriented summits, and that’s when it became clear to her that women in the startup ecosystem played a very small part in the larger picture.
To bridge this gap, she started Pink Collar Professionals, a platform that is specifically designed to help women entrepreneurs. Through this venture, Pooja helps women entrepreneurs chart successful business plans, and helps them go digital too, which is very much the need of the hour.
Pooja has assisted over 30 entrepreneurs to scale up their business, and has also helped another 12 to work on digital transformation. She is also providing a three-month mentorship to four businesses, and plans to go only higher. The young entrepreneur is working with women from various industries, including healthtech, edtech, gifting, clothing, and handmade jewellery.
Ragini Das, Leap
An ex-Zomato professional, Ragini along with Anand, her colleague at the foodtech unicorn, launched Leap that empowers women in their mid-career to reach top leadership positions. It started as a private network in the Delhi-NCR region, but is spreading its wings to other parts of India. Leap’s target audience includes women in the age group of 30-35, and most of them belong to companies like Google, Netflix, McKinsey & Co., Amazon, Uber, Zomato, BCG, and Teach for India. Their waitlist is pretty long, and that’s proof of how important it was to have such an ecosystem.
Leap offers one-on-one offline connect meets, apart from therapy sessions, and the opportunity to be part of a 15-member peer group that meets every two months. It also has a Speaker series that brings in the best of industry minds to discuss topics relevant to grow their careers.
Iti Rawat, Women Entrepreneurs for Transformation
It was in 2018 that Iti Rawat quit her corporate job to become an entrepreneur, and started her training and consultancy business, Thinkhall. Within two years, she was faced with a huge challenge of finding funds to get over a slump, but realised there was hardly any help at hand. That’s when it struck her that this is an issue that most women entrepreneurs face, and decided to do something about it.
It is with this thought that she established Woman Entrepreneurs for Transformation (WEFT) - a not-for-profit organisation to provide support and a networking platform for women entrepreneurs. WEFT has over 1,000 entrepreneurs in its network, and offers various services to help them get through challenges, or any other help that they need.
Polly Rodriguez and Lidia Bonilla, Women of Sex Tech
It was six-years-ago that Polly and Sarah Jayne co-founded Unbound, a sextech startup that breaks conventions. Sextech, as a sector, is not considered in a positive light, which is what these ladies wanted to challenge, and they’ve been successful in doing so! Both these women had to deal with unwarranted remarks from family and venture capitalists, and that’s when they realised how hard it is for women to get support. This led the duo to start Women of Sex Tech.
It is a platform that unites women entrepreneurs in the industry and provides them a platform to help tackle challenges that come their way, as part of their entrepreneurial journey.
(Edited by Megha Reddy)
