#SG Women Leaders Month 2019 (Panel Discussion #2)

"The journey of a female founder"

Moderated by Sneha Punwani, Head of Startup Ecosystem | Zone Startups India

Sneha brings in diverse experience across various functions in the Startup Ecosystem and Investment Banking industry (Business Development, Investments and Financial Analysis). Prior joining Zone Startups India, Sneha managed the Global Entrepreneur Dealflow at Cross Border Angels & Experts (part of Scaale Group). Sneha played a key role in partnering with ecosystem partners such as Trade Commission offices, Accelerators, Incubators, Corporates & Innovators globally. Her role also extended to Financial Advisory Services (FAS) wherein the team was involved in strategizing the future business prospects for the company from a point of view of: market penetration, product penetration, detailed financial modelling and assist companies to raise financial and strategic capital by preparing entrepreneurs in creating a quantified & defendable investment proposition.

Prior to Scaale, Sneha was working with Citigroup where she was a part of the Asia Global Markets team for Performance Measurement metrics, Annual Operating and CCAR Plan/Budget for the business (Revenue and Expense management) which included liaison with Traders, Corporate and Treasury teams.

She is an MBA Finance with over 7 years of work experience in India and Internationally. She is passionate to mentor entrepreneurs and helping them scale to global markets.

Panelists:

1) Khrisha Shah graduated from the London School of Economics with a Merit in MSc. Social Policy and Development. She completed her BA in Political Economy with a minor in Italian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

Khrisha Shah, CEO & Co-Founder at Dysco, a professional networking platform and community catering to new age entrepreneurs, agencies, startups and freelancers. A passionate writer and a social media enthusiast, communicating the brand identity via digital marketing and content creation falls favourably within her realm. Khrisha oversees all strategy, logic and rationale of the platform, and also tries to channel the causes she cares about into Dysco's initiatives - be it environmental conservation, equal rights or community building.

While working in technology consulting at Accenture UK, Khrisha explored the enormous potential of digital platforms, especially their utility in connecting people and providing distributed services. Although her subject was government and public services, she found that the same concepts were applicable to any and every platform, especially one like Dysco. She has prior work experience from Human Rights Watch SF, Democracy Now! in NYC and Guide Public Affairs in London.

Khrisha’s experiences haven’t always been coherent or linear: she has created marketing initiatives for a news channel; run fundraising campaigns for a human rights organisation; and undertaken digital revamping for a police force. Seeing the same pain points and the surprising similarities across industries and professions, she questioned the need for cross-industry conversations and collaborations.

2) Srishti Rishi is a 27 year old who has started her own company called BuzzTiger - a marketing firm that caters to your every need. She strongly believes that everyone should have a good digital presence and that is exactly what we do, despite your budget. Having completed her undergraduate degree in Business Management from Russell Square International College, an affiliate institute of the London School of Economics.

Having been a teacher to the underprivileged kids at The Candle Project, she taught them English and Confidence Building Skills. She has also been the business development head for them, by sourcing new centres and organising fund raising events along with talent exhibitions for the kids. Not only is she a fitness freak and a marathoner, she is also an enthusiastic hiker, level 2 kite surfer and prefers the midfield position when it comes to playing football. You can talk to her about Brooklyn 99 and makeup, which she has a special love for. 

3) Nilima Bhat, Founder Director: Shakti Fellowship, Co-author of Shakti Leadership: Embracing Feminine and Masculine Power in Business, Nilima Bhat is a visionary, speaker, facilitator and coach for Conscious Leadership, Diversity & Inclusion and Integral Health. She is currently focused on building The Shakti Fellowship: a global network of women change agents and social innovators who collaborate to create peace, prosperity, and beauty through the exchange of multiple forms of capital. The mission is to train 100,000 Shakti Leaders by 2030.

Nilima headed Corporate Communications for an ITC Hotel, Philips, and ESPN STAR Sports before co-founding Roots & Wings, a leadership consultancy in 2004.

An expert in Indian wisdom and wellness traditions, she is a trained dancer, certified Sivananda teacher and practitioner of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo & The Mother. Her first book is My Cancer Is Me, outlining an integrative medicine program for healing through cancer.

Nilima has delivered leadership training and facilitation for Microsoft, Whole Foods Market, Etsy, Genpact, Tata, Societe Generale Bank, Vodafone, and YPO, as well as academic institutions and developmental organizations such as Babson College, University of San Diego, and SKS Microfinance. She is an active supporter of Conscious Capitalism and Women’s International Networking (WIN), and is on the board of Peace Through Commerce and MixR.

Other Women Leader profiles:

1) Rachita Vora, co-founder, India Development Review, the country's largest nonprofit media platform for the social sector. Rachita oversees content strategy, audience growth, institutional partnerships and brand at IDR.

2) Sweta Mangal, co-founder MUrgency (Winner of 2016 Startup of the year at Startup Grind Global Conference, her startup later on went on to get investment from Ratan Tata himself) Business, Healthcare and Philanthropy run parallel with the concept of entrepreneurship in Sweta Mangal's purview. 

3) Chandni Jafri is a triple bottomline advocate, angel investor, startup evangelist, advisor, mentor, Business Head and theatre producer and actor. She is the former Chief Executive Officer of Mumbai Angels Network, India's leading angel investing & mentoring platform, and the founder of SLSV (www.soundnlight.in), which is a Sustainability Investment, Media and Ecommerce platform.

4) Mridvika Raisinghani is Managing Director for India at Shortlist, a recruiting technology platform matches growing companies in India and East Africa to the top skilled talent that they need to grow. She has 13 years of professional experience across technology services, consulting, non-profit, and ed-tech companies.

5) Dr. Swati Lodha - CEO and Co-Founder, Publishing Infinity, a boutique non-fiction publishing house launched in Mumbai. Her venture "LIFE LEMONADE" offers Corporate Training Workshops across India

6) Revathi Roy, CEO and founder of an all women logistics company HEY DEEDEE, where the riders and drivers are all women. Revathi is a celebrated social Entrepreneur having worked in the field of Women's Empowerment and Workforce Participation, since 2007. Her aim and mission is to transform the lives of women across social strata.

7) Akanksha Kaila Akashi Founder, REFASH (http://refash.in), a design student from the University of the Arts, London, hopes to create a change in the mindset of consumers by converting their trash into treasure, one piece at a time.

8) Rakhee Chhabria, Founder - TeachersHelpTeachers, started her journey as a creative and enthusiastic Educational Professional having over 18 years of experience for Pre- primary and Special Education. Being an Educator Mother, and knowing the problems faced by teaching professionals, she began pursuing her passion of getting all educators together on one common platform called TeachersHelpTeachers (THT) to evolve Education and help Educators derive support from one another. Today TeachersHelpTeachers has close to 8000 members across India and has been recognised by the C.O.O of facebook Sheryl Sandberg for its effective community work in Education.

For domestic modes of payment (Netbanking, Debit card) register here - https://helmofeight.com/events/sgwomen-leaders-month-2019/

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