At BrilliantRead Media, our aim is to bring to our community some of the unique and compelling stories from the entrepreneurship and the leadership world. As part of this endeavour, we invited yet another passionate entrepreneur– Aishwarya Dua for an exclusive interview with us. She is the Co-founder of Youthance. Let’s learn more about her inspiring journey, her background and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Aishwarya:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as a women entrepreneur, please;
I have always been a motivated child and an adamant one too. Since the first line of thought is doing a job for it comes with a safety net of security, I ended up being a risk-taker – an Entrepreneur.
Choosing a career path is always a tough decision. I started working at 16 years of age and worked in multiple fields of expertise.”
I’ve worked in PR, also as a theatre artist and then graphic designer until I truly found my calling – entrepreneurship with Youthance some three years back and there is absolutely no looking back!
What attracts you towards entrepreneurship instead of a corporate career?
I somehow never knew that someday I will become an entrepreneur and frankly I consider myself an unnatural entrepreneur.”
I had to develop my instinct for working without a predefined system and aim to create the evolving one, I pushed myself to learn new skills which I am still doing with each passing day. I had to learn to put myself out there no matter what situation I am facing as an entrepreneur.
I am not there yet as I am still on this journey to create an impact. This evolving career has made me realize the meaning of being a leader and I chose to be the empathetic one for sure!
‘Youthance’ is such a unique name; talk us through more about it, please. Our audience would also love to know what kind of problem you are solving with the help of your startup?
Youthance has a very deep meaning in itself. This name has come from 2 words – ‘Youth’ and ‘enhancement’. If we look deep into this name another set of nurturing words is what we see, – ‘You’ and ‘Uthan’.
India’s burgeoning youth are the world’s future but are skilled temporary resources at the right time still remains a problem in the boom of the gig economy.
Youthance is an on-demand staffing platform where one can hire or work for one-time and short-term gigs. We organize available short-term gigs and connect them to nearby low to the medium-skilled workforce with the vision of creating a world where anyone can get temporary work or workforce, whenever and wherever they want.
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
The beauty of the gig economy is that the biggest opportunity and challenge both have been human capital. We’ve seen in the past that with the help of technology, new forms in the gig economy have taken birth while recession, depression, and now this pandemic.
Our business model consists of a lean team which is not at all resource-heavy and has minimal overheads.
Every aspect of the business is once and tech-enabled to ensure automation as much as possible.
Short-term gigs will be the new normal as now the companies are outsourcing more. There has been a boom in remote working opportunities where the Firms don’t have to spend on office spaces and fixed benefits.
How do you manage yourself and keep on going despite the challenges? What drives you?
When I started my entrepreneurial journey it was obviously a bit hard for the fact that changing from a job to all the way being an independent entrepreneur is a tough task. Convincing my mom was another challenge 3 years back. It is still hard for me to keep her assured about the challenges I face coz entrepreneurship comes with its own multiple highs and lows.
Also being a woman in this male dominant society I had my own share of experiences which I think almost every woman must have faced of being taken as “available” for being independent. That is how I have grown stronger with such a strong mentality to keep going with the right mindset and right intentions. People still doubt my potential sometimes as an entrepreneur learns throughout the journey and it’s the best part about it. Sometimes people indirectly say that you may fail but I believe in a very common saying that either you learn or you win. There is no other option.
What are the three most important lessons you have learned building your startup?
There are 3 major points that I have learned from my startup journey so far:
1 – Stay motivated throughout your journey. I know it becomes hard sometimes but that’s what it is, because when you stay confident and motivated your team resonates. Believe me, it works like magic.
2 – Learn to prioritize your tasks in descending order because I know we all are multitasking every day. I am still learning it though.
3 – Last but not least, it’s okay if some things don’t work out the way you wanted them to be, there are always ups and downs. So stay patient with your goals as your team does that with you.
Please share with us – what has worked well for you so far?
It’s just one word, consistency!
In your opinion, what is more necessary: An idea or a good team for a successful startup?
I feel it’s always the team as the great idea has the power to emerge as a success only when your team aligns with it. I highly believe in the saying, if you want to go far, go together.
TO BE SUCCESSFUL, YOU SHOULD TEAM UP WITH CO-FOUNDERS WHO SHARE YOUR VISION.
And Co-founding of ‘Youthance’ with Prabhjot and Srabhjot, has been the craziest journey so far and it’s a long way to go. I would like to call it – ‘The Three Pillars of Magic Growth!
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
No, I would like to deny that. I am not always positive and motivated. I guess no one is always like that. It’s about making yourself realize in every possible way that we are born with a purpose and there is some meaning to this life we have and that’s the only thing that hits me always and helps me bounce back every time I feel low. It’s the purpose and meaningful life for me.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring women entrepreneur?
I would like to remind every budding or aspiring women entrepreneur that no journey is perfect on its own, we make it perfect with our little efforts and consistency.
Do not stop even if you fail 100 times. People might say things that you may feel like leaving everything behind or may make you feel like a failure but that’s not worth it. Possibly you couldn’t give your 100% but you were still not less.
You did whatever you could and learned throughout the process and that’s one win. Remind yourself every day – you are worth it
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
