From a techie to serial entrepreneur - How did she do it?

"The biggest hurdle that I faced was the lack of women mentors. When I was studying engineering, there were 14 girls and 300 boys. I saw this gender parity not just in education but also, in my professional career as a working woman. Men are very comfortable picking up the phone and reaching out to their network. But according to my observation, we women, regardless of our capabilities or conviction, hesitate to break the ice. We won't reach out to others. This is something that needs to be changed."

Shivani talks to THEWOOMAG, about her journey as an entrepreneur, the challenges she faced in the past, and her next ventures in the future. In her voice, she states,

I am a learner.

I call myself a learner. I believe your formal education might stop, but your learning should never end. I completed my bachelor's from IIT Delhi followed by my MBA from IIM Kolkata. I was in Infosys for 7 years in the US and UK. Even though I was working in the corporate world, I didn't see myself working for more. 

Back in India and mom of 2 kids, I felt the need of a very niche playschool for toddlers that would help bring up intelligent kids. This is how my first start-up took birth. I built it up over a decade. Bootstrapped it successfully. Now, my children were teenagers and had different needs, It was my time to move on. KLAY acquired Intelletots in 2018.  

In October 2019, I co-founded Thinkstartup - Entrepreneurship education platform for school children. 

An accidental Entrepreneur.

My journey was very accidental. I quit corporate as it didn’t stimulate me any longer. I didn’t plan to be an entrepreneur. It happened more as an offshoot of my personal life. Amidst this journey, I went through a lot of learning and unlearning. 

“In corporate, there are people telling you to do things, but as an entrepreneur, there is nobody to ask you to do anything. You are your boss. It has everything to do with discovering yourself. And be completely different from how the world has conditioned you to be if you want to be a successful one.”

Especially as a woman, entrepreneurship gives you the freedom to choose your battles, have stronger boundaries, and set your priorities straight. 

Lack of women mentors.

I felt a lack of women mentors in my life. I yearned for enough women to be represented at each level, but there weren’t many. Therefore, I always try to make myself available to women entrepreneurs whether mentoring, ideating and finding solutions together.

Bootstrap Vs Funding 

Despite many funding options available, I decided to bootstrap both of my startups as I wanted to do it my way. 

As an entrepreneur, you need to understand your requirements and goals. And then, decide your road map accordingly. Picking up a niche is the initial step that needs to be taken. Choose a niche having high demand and high need. And then, go ahead with a laser-sharp focus on its growth and expansion. 

My first startup was based on mother-toddler partnership. Nobody heard of it in Gurgaon. But, as we know Gurgaon has an expat community, so it was a niche market and the program itself was specifically catered towards parents coming in with a 6-7-month-old baby. 

You should always strive to be an early adopter because that gives a little bit of cash flow. My first start-up was highly niche with a very minimal investment where I had to do everything on my own for a few months.

Building a winning team…

You need to delegate your tasks so that you can focus on growth. So, building a phenomenal team was the next step. 

Always look to have people who are better than you. People who can add their thinking to the discussion. People who exhibit ownership. It's all about finding your tribe. People who believe in your mission. Take initiative and grow together. However, it becomes your responsibility to provide enough growth challenges to them.

The Intellitots takeover…

Entrepreneurship for me was about independence and making sure all the pieces of my life fit together. When I started, my kids were young and I was researching the early developmental years of children. So, what I wanted to do in my career and what my kids needed, interlinked. It was easier for me to decide upon. 

But soon, I outgrew the business, the preschool market was expanding and Venture Capitalists started funding in the niche. I found myself at an intersection, where one could either go for funding and grow fast or one could exit.

From the perspective of my life journey, it wasn't pulling me enough. My kids were grown up and I couldn’t connect with it anymore. So, I left everything to my phenomenal team. The team was happy as they got pan-India roles. Overall, It was a good round-up to the whole journey.  

Next Startup - Thinkstartup.

After I left, I did some self-reflection and talked to various kinds of people. A lot of advice came my way. But it was all very confusing until, one morning, 1st Jan 2020, I had picture-perfect clarity on what I wanted to do. Because I finally found something that fulfilled both my personal and professional desires. 

My children were teenagers. I saw a big gap in the education system. I wished they could get better guidance. I saw government’s intent to bring in application based learning and many schemes to make India entrepreneurial -  Make in India, Startup India, AtmaNirbhar Bharat. This was the seed for my next venture. 

And ThinkStartUp came up. 

Am I a Risk Taker?   

I take very manageable risks. I always had a bootstrapped mentality. I will always run a few experiments here and there to look at my cash flow. Afterward, I would analyse my ability to invest in new experiments. Even after all of these, some amount of risk is always possible. It's inevitable from a venture perspective. Small steps, conscious focus on cash flow and bottomline is crucial for any startup to grow steadily. 

How do we stand out in the market?

Innovation is a part of every start-up. You have to keep innovating. It's always gonna be hypercompetitive. I keep telling everyone, you can't be 10% different, you have to be 10X different to stand out. And more importantly, keep building as many modes as you can.

Life as a woman…

As a woman, you need to manage your home, husband, kids, and whatnot!  It's tiring but rewarding at the same time. I strive for efficiency in everything. I try to automate whatever is mundane & can be done by someone else. So, that I can have quality time with my kids and go to social gatherings.

My message to all the women entrepreneurs…

Everyone's on a different journey. Your journey won't be the same as mine. And that's why we should keep learning from each other to fast-track our results.

In conclusion, I wanna tell all women to be fearless in reaching out. People are happy to help. You just need to find the right ones. So network.