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Shradha Sharma

Shradha Sharma

From Patna to Bengaluru: the former media executive who gave India's startup founders a voice.

Country
India
Known for
Founding YourStory
Industry
Media, startup ecosystem
Education
St. Stephen's College, Delhi; MICA, Ahmedabad

Early life and education

Shradha Sharma was born in Patna, Bihar, into a lower-middle-class family where money was tight but education was encouraged. Her father ran a small business. In 1997 she moved to Delhi to study at St. Stephen's College, where she studied history, and later completed her studies at MICA in Ahmedabad, specialising in design management and digital creative management. She has often said that a humiliating moment in third grade, when a teacher embarrassed her over her clothes during a school competition, shaped her determination to give a voice to people who are overlooked.

Career in media

Her first jobs were in branding and media. She worked at The Times of India as a brand advisor from 2006 to 2007, then at CNBC-TV18 as an assistant vice president from 2007 to 2009. Covering business, she noticed that mainstream media celebrated large corporations while small entrepreneurs, whose stories of struggle and innovation were just as compelling, were largely ignored.

Starting YourStory

In 2008 Shradha started YourStory, a platform for entrepreneurs and changemakers. It began as a mission and not a business, built with help from two IIT students. In 2009 she quit her secure job to work on it full time, a decision that worried her family. The early years were hard: with almost no traffic, many entrepreneurs refused interviews, and there was no business model. She kept publishing the stories of anyone willing to share theirs. An early turning point came when entrepreneur Bakshish Dutta asked how she planned to sustain herself, and invested ₹1 lakh. Her mother died in 2010, and she has said she poured her grief into building the company.

Growth into an ecosystem

By around 2015 YourStory began attracting funding and recognition, with investors including Ratan Tata, Kalaari Capital and UC-RNT Fund. Today it says it has published more than 100,000 stories, reaches millions of readers every month and operates in 11 Indian languages. It also runs TechSparks, one of India's best-known startup conferences. Shradha has said that, apart from a short expansion phase between 2015 and 2017, the company has stayed operationally lean and remained profitable even during the pandemic.

Vision for 2028

Her current stated mission is to help inspire and enable 5 million job creators in India by 2028, shifting the national conversation from job-seeking to job-creation. She is based in Bengaluru, where YourStory is headquartered, and travels extensively to meet founders.

Timeline

Recognition

The takeaway: serve a community's story and you earn its trust, and in media, trust is the business. Shradha started YourStory with no business model but a clear gap in the market, and she stayed with it through years of rejection until the world caught up.

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Sources

Written from public information, including YourStory, CEO VINE, shradha.me and Leader Biography. Where sources disagreed, such as on her education, YourStory's own profile was preferred. Audience figures are self-reported.