SaaS Q4 earnings; Shopify, Twilio, monday.com 🪙

Dear sisters, well-wishers & professional allies,

I was reading the book how google works and it had a topic ‘plan your career’ where they suggest the following:

Think about your ideal job, not today but 5 years from now. Where do you want to be? What do you want to do? How much do you wanna make?

What will 1place do?

Our mission is to increase return on investment per employee by 50% and decrease attrition by 30% through a sense of belonging & inclusion.

For example, an employee at an annual package of $50,000(investment) can contribute $100k or more in value to the business. By staying on top of trends, up-skilling themselves, becoming better human beings(growing as individuals) and hence feeling more positive & uplifted to contribute more than their KRA.

This cause & effect will reduce attrition within companies (compound ROI).

Our vision is to: transform organisations & people by making best use of human capital. [B2B & B2C]

India’s growth story:

India has the largest population of young people in the world. Jeff Bezos in a gathering of business leaders stated that this century belongs to India. Not just him, many others(including Wikipedia) predict that India will dominate the 21st century.

If that’s the case, how do we as women want to participate in India’s growth story? How are men of the 21st century going to support India’s development? Patriarchal culture that has prevailed for generations(courtesy the British & Mughals) & sexism promoted by bollywood has made it very hard for women to break barriers (created by self & the society).

India as a country & Hinduism as a culture has worshipped goddesses(women). Leaders of Christianity(dominate hollywood & social media) & Islam(dominate bollywood) - places where young India is currently taking inspiration from.

With 1place our aim is to:

1. Provide a first class product through the B2B model that companies can use to create belonging for their employees, support wellbeing & upskilling which in turn will improve company’s success and country’s economy(hopefully).

2. Support companies with DEI through our product. I love the work Microsoft has been doing(check it out here). It’s a great reference point to start.

3. Use the B2C model to create belonging & unity, give access to opportunities, save good parts of our culture, spread positivity & enable access to social support.

4. Use content to shape our future.

   Backdrop: In 1986 US film-makers made movies like TopGun - excellent aviation stuff in action. While Indian cinema displayed(sometimes) acts of rape & violence against women, weak & powerless women, dark women as ugly and beautiful women as goddesses or nagin. Thank god our image has come a long way from ‘the land of snake charmers’.

Backdrop:

Last march I was at the Kalaari office to meet with Keshav (then CXXO lead). Early as I was, while waiting at the lounge two books caught my attention(there were multiple copies of them). One was ‘Lady, you’re not a man!’ and the other was ‘Reinventing India’.

The meeting concluded with a suggestion for me to take away - Build something for women.

I spent many months ideating, asking questions, learning, building mvp, taking feedback, etc. from women and realised that - in the current world, women have to be at the forefront of change. However, change cannot happen without participation from men.

Before the end of last year, I looked up the book ‘lady you’re not a man’ on my kindle and gave it a read(50%). And it changed my confidence, outlook & long-term ideology.

It talks about how women are multi-taskers and men have a one-track mind. How we(women) are naturally good at a lot of things and that we should not try to be like men in order to win in the corporate world. The world needs our(women’s) talents & creativity & that men would eventually have to evolve into women for a better life.

It’s easier said than done. Currently, our organisations, educational institutions, companies, businesses, etc. are largely built, run & governed by men. Hence some women try to be like men in order to find a place for themselves in such organisations.

Disclaimer - I’m a huge supporter of men who treat women well. I’m also a huge supporter of women who treat men well. Mutual respect is the need of the hour. My professional areas of interest are human psychology & human resources. Hence I’ll be working towards a gender-neutral world where we all evolve as humans.

If women don’t want to work professionally and instead bring up their children (which is a full-time job) - they shouldn’t have to feel ashamed. At the same time if women want to work and excel in their careers, they should not have man-made barriers. Additionally, if men want to relax, manage home & childcare while their wife/partner chooses to navigate professional challenges - they should be able to do so.

Let’s talk about money:

Some of you might dislike me for not having a college degree. I wanted to study in the US, but my parents could not afford it and wouldn’t let me take a loan. Even if they could, they would not have let me go so far away on my own - like most Indian families.

I grew up in Surat and studied in a marwadi school - with a majority of marwadi & gujarati students. When time came for me to enter college, Nagpur was the only option I had. My parents had moved(due to my dad’s promotion & transfer) to Ultratech cement’s colony 150 kms away and wanted to keep me close. My mom is a teacher so she did not have much trouble moving around - she could find work anywhere(company’s private school, giving tuitions).

I did not like Nagpur & I did not like my college (we were misled into believing it to be something else at the time of admission. It was a women’s college with no campus & very poor resources - story for another time). I dropped out but did not stop my education - it will continue till the end of my life. I deeply believe in women’s education. That’s the only way to financial freedom, independence & better life. Some day I’d like to get an MBA from one of the best business schools.

Because I had lived in the western part of the country, I wanted to live in Mumbai. So I found a job there and moved. That’s where I started making money and dreamt of being rich someday. I learnt a lot of soft skills along the way - and that helped me grow in my professional life. At 23, I was promoted to lead a sales team. I enjoyed the incentives that came from sales.

About women getting paid equally:

Looking back on my career I asked myself - what could I have done in my previous jobs to get equally paid as my male counterparts?

1. Have a way to show proof of work. Resumes don’t cut it. And places where men are decision makers for hiring & appraisal, the face value for women is compromised by our society.

2. Found ways to upskill myself to deserve equal pay.

3. Become indispensable by developing professional relationships.

4. Talked about my financial responsibilities more openly - since men are perceived to have responsibilities, they get paid more, they ask for more.

We form our ideas and beliefs around money in our family of origin, and early experiences. I was lucky to have both. But as I interact with women about my business plans, I see a big gap in the way men respond to money matters as compared to women.

Talking about business plans:

We wanna raise 80 lakhs($100k) right now to build the product & get 2000+ active users with $4000 MRR - $2/user/month. We think StrongHer ventures will be the right investor for us at this stage because they 1)have global interests & connects. 2)have already added value. 3)focus on women entrepreneurs. 4)interest in sectors that can be adjacent markets for us in the future.

After the above milestone is reached, raise $2million to hire core team. Here’s a flexible business roadmap.

Here’s the product roadmap:

Who’s on this journey with me right now?

Yashaswi (mobile app developer, computer science engineer), Ankit (Yashaswi’s husband, back-end developer, team lead, computer science engineer), Gopalakrishna (ex-community manager Quora), Harsh(my husband, Saas marketeer, MBA in marketing).

On a personal note:

I’d like to try becoming a mother in 2025 or 2026. I’ll continue to live my professional life and travel for work as needed. I’ll set up the team in a way that can run on auto-pilot after 18 months. My husband will be in a leadership role to support the team as well. We’ll figure it out.

Since I started practising meditation on a regular basis, I feel I’ve had a spiritual awakening. I recommend you watch this video by Sadhguru who talks about important years in a person’s life - including 33. I’m going to turn 33 next year and if he’s right, my time has come.