Her forte is to bring inspiring entrepreneurial stories to every digital household. She has till date shared more than 70,000 stories via her brainchild – YourStory, a media-tech company for achievers in the business world. She realized a need to tell these stories and so she did.
She created a mammoth of success in building a platform that has inspired and touched the lives of so many around us. However, what about her own story? Today we shall unravel the story of the CEO of YourStory herself, Shradha Sharma.
Shradha hails from Patna, a rather anti-progressive part of the country, especially at the time of her schooling. However, this never stopped her. She completed her graduation from the highly reputed St Stephens in Delhi. She went on to do her Masters from MICA in Ahmadabad.
With a great educational background in place, she worked at Media giants such as the Times Of India and CNBC. She was one of the top tier employees at CNBC, however, something prompted her to leave all that behind and start afresh. So what was it?
As we say, for all entrepreneurs, it’s that one idea or the ‘aha moment’ and everything changes. For Shradha, it was the realization that there were so many beautifully inspiring stories out there, that were going left untold. These stories were actual accounts of people she had encountered as a media reporter. While at CNBC she had the opportunity to interact with the CEOs, founders, and geniuses behind the most successful and innovative companies of the time. It was Shradha’s, these experiences that really set out the base for YourStory.
She realized that these stories had to be shared with the public at large, so she took the task on herself and thought of creating the YourStory platform in 2008. What’s more? It is important to note that Shradha realized the potential of an entrepreneurial centric media-tech company at a time when there was no buzz or mention about the start-up culture at all.
She started YourStory as a no business model. Just because she believed that everyone has a unique powerful story which could actually help others in places. People would ask her “how do you earn money?” “Your husband must be financing you off”. In fact, many told her that the initiative would not survive for more than a year or two!
However, today YourStory stands tall, funded by Ratan Tata, TV Mohandas Pai and University of Berkley itself. 12 languages, 12.5 to 15 million page views each month and 200 million people reach.
Through its textual and video content it educates about India’s entrepreneurial landscape, key industry hacks and latest business trends, superbly beneficial for those at the brink of their journey.
As for the lady behind this game-changer, she has been documented as the ‘’one who has shattered the glass ceiling” by the Hindu. She has been awarded by The NASSCOM for building an inclusive startup community. By L’Oreal Femina for online influence. In 2015 she was amongst the top 500 global LinkedIn Influencers and in 2016, amongst LinkedIn’s most viewed CEOs (Internet category).
She has also bridged the entrepreneurs in India and Germany by launching the YourStory Germany.
In a speech, Shradha talks about the importance of holding on to the hardships that have hit you in life.
She quotes her teacher telling her “Whatever you were deprived of, and whatever you think as a Bihari kid you didn’t get – will be your biggest strength”. The lackings are significant “It makes you run”.
She says she was hungry and thirsty her entire life and that’s what made her shine ‘She could be a story of a tragedy queen or a happy person but she chose the latter.’
