Celebrating the contribution of women entrepreneurs: Women’s Entrepreneurship Day

If there is a mountain to climb, a channel to swim, a road to traverse, a world to conquer and a business to run, ‘I dare to’ says the woman of today.

More and more women are stepping out of their comfort zones into powerful roles. One such role is that of an entrepreneur. These women entrepreneurs are leaders, change makers and influencers.

On Women’s Entrepreneurship Day as the world celebrates and acknowledges the contribution of women entrepreneurs to the economy, we look back at some of the inspiring women YourStory has met over the years:

On being a woman and an entrepreneur

“The entrepreneur hat is a tough one to don. One must give up a lot of personal time and many other things to drive a business up from scratch. I think it’s about social conditioning, too much prudence and caution are relics of many hundreds of years of patriarchy but that is changing now. Studies also state that women owned businesses tend to grow at a steady pace and give back more to society.” –Ambika Sharma, Founder, Pulp Strategy Communication

Making dreams come true

“Women in India are coming out and doing a lot of interesting things. Whatever be the case, they should never let their dreams be suppressed – whether they have a child to take care of or they have other responsibilities. All these things fall in place if you have the desire and conviction to stick to your dreams. Somehow everything aligns for success and falls into place if you have strong conviction. I would suggest that women should not play small but play real big, and just be strong.” Dr Vandana Jain, a Doctor & Co-founder, AEHI

“Never ever give up your dreams just because you’re a girl and that you don’t have any support from anyone. As an individual, each person has an aura of their own, we just need to discover it and explore ourselves,” she says. Deena Venugopal, Founder, Anabytes

Never underestimate your power. I read somewhere that ‘women are the emerging market of the emerging market.’ Sachuna Chauhan, CEO, Parle Agro

Challenges

“Women have a tendency of donning too many roles and trying to balance all these different roles in their personal and professional lives. In a startup, the rate of failure is so much more compared to other fields and that makes life even more daunting sometimes. I firmly believe that a woman can overcome all impediments in her path and do all that she wants. There already are and soon there will be more super women in the world.” –Nazaneen Jalaudheen, CTO, Applied Robotics

“I don’t remember a time I’ve ever done anything with a fear of failure. Even if I have a bad idea, I say to myself, ‘What’s the worst that could come out of it?”- Masoom Minawala, Founder, Style Fiesta

“Cancer made me a strong person ready to face any challenge; and most importantly, to never give in. So when we began work on JetSetGo and things didn’t go my way – I didn’t get upset, but just focused on what we could do next. I don’t give in. I don’t get demotivated; I look for more customers. I look for solutions to make these planes cheaper for my customers, and I go to sleep thinking very soon I am going to be on the list of 100 most powerful women in the world.” – Kanika Tekriwal, Founder, JetSetGo.

Breaking stereotypes

“In a traditional advertising firm things are never at par especially with a woman entrepreneur. The response that I received from the market was also bitter. Every corporate house seemed to have an in-house team or they were not ready to give a chance to a startup.” – Deena Venugopal, Founder, Anabytes

“You women entrepreneurs out there, blaze new paths and don’t allow yourself to be restricted by outdated traditions. I believe I was born to be in this business. I love the challenge of being the only woman having created a spirits business from scratch in a very male dominated, monopolistic and cut-throat industry. Even though this industry was something that I had not always intended to get into, it is something I feel I thrive in today.” – Lisa Srao, Founder and MD, I Brands Beverages Ltd.

“The world is male dominated, and the venture space is no different. Gender does not matter. Life is no different for men and women. Everyone gets a chance sooner or later. How prepared you are and what you make of it makes all the difference.”– Ashpi Gupta, AVP, Mumbai Angels

Hats off to women entrepreneurs for striving incessantly, innovating continuously and inspiring immensely.