Sheroes - A Tale of Woman Power

We all seek understanding and comfort from our surroundings in order to coexist in peace. There is only joy in existing when we can all support and depend on each other. Our tales become worthwhile if we have the right people to narrate them to. 

 

Imagine having the right community around us, in which we get to come in contact with people who have similar interests, dreams, and aspirations, and how it would give our lives a purpose and motivate us to head forward. Such a community would allow us to share our own tales and aspects of life with them, seek their guidance, and learn from their experience to work in harmony towards a better future. 

 

Now imagine how incredible it would be if such a platform was created especially for women where they can share their hopes, passions, struggles, and fears and become the much-needed source of strength and support for each other. 

 

One such platform is the abode this article is based on. While the nation preached about feminism and its significance, a certain entrepreneur went ahead and took the plunge to create a better life for society’s women. This was when Sheroes was founded in the year of 2013 by Sairee Chahal. 

 

“Men have built the internet and they have built it for themselves,”

- Sairee Chahal, Founder, Sheroes

 

Upon coming to the realization of the immense gaps in gender in the nation’s online sphere, as well as the workplace’s absence of diversity and the minuscule number of women in the workforce, Sairee Chahal established the Sheroes platform which began as a career-centric community for women.

 

 

About Sheroes

 

The idea behind SHEROES is simple, to partner every woman in India to stay on a career path of her choice and excel at it - be it that of a first-time intern, work at home mom or a top corporate strategist, or an entrepreneur.

- Sairee Chahal, Founder, Sheroes

 

Established in 2013, SHEROES is a women-only community. The platform emphasizes upon being a protected and trustworthy abode, where women can interact and share their varied aspects of life such as health, careers, relationships while also discovering a platform to relate their life stories, accomplishments, and moments. The platform of SHEROES also facilitates a committed helpline in which the members of the community can interact with counselors and share facets of their journeys.

 

Being a platform-centric model, SHEROES focuses on acting as a bridge between businesses and professional women. These include digital items, channel programs, hiring initiatives, employee branding, custom, as well as special projects. Alongside this, the platform is also a space for brand marketers that are on the lookout for engaging with educated urban women. The platform presently is the abode for various huge diversity initiatives, channel today's powers some of the largest diversity initiatives, channel programs, and programs for professionals who are re-entering.

 

Establishing its place as an interceding program SHEROES facilitates its enterprise users with a wide range of items that also encompasses Brand Solutions, SHE an initiative for thwarting sexual harassment in the workplace as well as a Managed Remote Solutions program. Alongside this, the platform also hosts the #SHEROES Summit which is a multi-city annual flagship event and #theshift Series which is conceived for altering the gender narrative, apace with community meets across geographies.

 

In the case of employment of women and the platforms which build and intercede them, there is a very competitive and brimming market. A couple of names of renowned platforms with which SHEROES competes include LinkedIn, TheMuse, as well as Jobs for Her. 

 

 

The Origin of Sheroes

 

“I have been an entrepreneur more than once and have also been on the corporate side story, with its own trappings of success and career ladder. However, one does realize the need to address what looks like a reducing peer group as you grow into your career. SHEROES.in was set up with the view of converting the talk about diversity into the action about diversity. We all know the figures, the data, the gender, and women at work debate but how do we bring out solutions. SHEROES.in is a step in that direction. The response has been great and we are very early into this. This can only go one way - towards more and more solution-oriented change with respect to the women at work.”

- Sairee Chahal, Founder, Sheroes

 

Although many apps existed when it came to focusing on promoting the safety of women, there were various other facets of the empowerment of women which were often overlooked. Sairee Chahal came to the realization that workplace problems were proving to be a considerable drawback preventing women from succeeding in their career ventures. They encounter a number of issues which include non-flexible working hours, sexual harassment, discrimination, as well as unequal salary raise. 

 

The primary focus of the platform is to build a safe and protected abode for women as well as for their assistance and for secure transaction of resources. The firm also introduced a career backing strategy that would allow women to gain advice as well as suggestions via the Sheroes app.

 

 

Sheroes Revenue Model

 

The revenue of SHEROES is primarily gained by businesses who pay for 3 components:

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Revenue Model of Sheroes

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• For establishing initiatives and programs centered around women.  

• For the premium items which the platform provides such as Ad Space, Microsites, postings, and so on. 

• For aiding businesses in establishing diversity programs for firms, carry out benchmark studies, and so on.

 

 

Sheroes Founder

 

“I never sought permission. If it felt right, I just went ahead and did it.”

- Sairee Chahal, Founder, Sheroes

 

Sheroes was founded by Sairee Chahal, who was brought up in a little town in Uttar Pradesh termed Muzzaffarnagar. An avid reader as a young girl, she had a firm belief in the idea of being independent and making rules for oneself.  She began Fleximoms.com in order to aid the women of the Indian nation in exploring new ventures and opportunities. She has been largely praised for developing and carrying out women at work and the future of work interactions in the Indian nation. She is also widely known for developing a robust technology play for resolving the gender disparity issues in the Indian nation. Alongside this, she is also the organizer of The SHEROES Summit which is the nation’s biggest women’s forum.

 

She possesses a degree M.Phil through JNU as well as a PGDM from IMT Ghaziabad. She began her professional career while still being a college student before becoming the co-founder of her very first startup. She has also worked at various corporate firms Heidrick and Struggles as well as CII. 

 

 

Recent Partnerships

 

In the year of 2019, Sheroes ventured into a partnership with the renowned Indian digital payment platform Paytm. This had been an attempt by Paytm to facilitate a women’s community via their platform. The partnership was an integral attempt to promote women empowerment.

 

The Sheroes platform’s team believed that the partnership would aid them in taking their services on to a wider audience. They held the vision of reaching more women and sharing their aspects of life as well as their stories of will and courage. This was aided by their partnership with Paytm which was a step towards making their dreams come true as it allowed their platform’s various communities to be more effective for women across the nation through Paytm’s platform. 

 

As reported by Your Story, recently in the month of July of this year, Otipy, a social commerce platform of farm-to-retail agritech startup Crofarm partnered with SHEROES as an initiative to empower women.

 

This partnership will be based on a revenue-sharing model, with strong synergies between both the app-based platforms. The initiative is looking to partner with 1000+ women in becoming Otipy resellers

 

 

Sheroes Funding

 

During their first angel round of funding in the year of 2015,  the platform received around five crores, as confirmed by Business Today. The vital investors of the platform were Google’s Rajan Anandan, Flipkart’s CEO Binny, PayTM’s founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Freshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham as well as Capillary Technologies’s co-founder and CTO Krishna Mehra. This round had been headed by 500 startups as well as Quintillion Media. 

 

Later in the year 2016, as reported by the Economic Times, the platform executed a series A round in which it hoisted around 12 crore rupees. This round involved the participation of visiting investor Quintillion Media, Lumis Partners, The HR Fund as well as Leo Capital's Rajul Garg. 

 

Amidst this transaction, the platform’s financial advisor had been Dexter Capital, its legal advisors being Vertices Partners. The startup’s comprehensive vision calls for a significant level of investment, and the series A round aided them in widening their services. The funding was also adopted for strengthening their technology, resources as well as strategies for marketing.

 

As reported by Inc42, in its Series B round in the year 2018, the platform raised an undisclosed amount through funding from Leo Capital, and Facebook executive Anand Chandrasekaran.

 

 

Conclusion

 

“SHEROES has built an entire digital ecosystem for women in India, helping them experience the internet in a safe, high-trust environment, become entrepreneurs, find work, access community support, counseling, express themselves, leverage our social commerce marketplace, and access over 300 partners via the SHEROES platform. Our network has unparalleled reach and depth with women users across India. SHEROES is also helping enhance women’s social, economic, and digital footprint, and part of this mission has always been to support more women building and owning the technology that runs the world.

- Sairee Chahal, Founder, Sheroes, on the occasion of its partnership with Women in Cloud

 

Allowing women to achieve independence financially is an integral stride for attaining gender balance, both in the case of the workplace as well as for society.  This is the reason why connector platforms like the SHEROES Summit that bring women leaders from the different sectors under a common roof, essay such a considerable role in these times. As we head forwards towards a world where the emphasis on the power and position of women becomes more prominent, this platform shows a great degree of promise when it comes to establishing a successful and dominant place in the nation.