A positive change maker in the digital media platform - A Talk by Shradha Sharma
On September 25th, 2019, the DAIS Leadership Series was graced by the presence of Ms. Shradha Sharma, the founder, CEO and Chief Editor of YourStory Media, India’s most influential digital media platform for entrepreneurs and change makers. Ms Sharma started YourStory in 2008 to give a voice to aspiring entrepreneurs and innovators, and has dedicated the past decade to passionately telling their stories and enabling their success. YourStory has played a crucial role in shaping the narrative of the Indian startup ecosystem, which has placed Ms Sharma on LinkedIn’s most powerful influencer list. YourStory has millions of loyal readers and hundreds of partners who rely on its content, community, and connects for inspiration, information, and intelligent insights on the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem. Since its inception, YourStory has told over 90,000 stories in 12 local Indian languages and established an overseas operation, YourStory Germany in 2017. For her inspirational and influential work, Ms. Sharma has received many accolades including Fortune’s Best 40 under 40 entrepreneurs (2015 to 2018), GQ’s 50 Most Influential Young Indians of 2018 and CNBC Young Women Business Leader Award (2016).
Ms. Sharma gave a very unique talk to the students, beginning with a story from her childhood and giving children the lesson that it is the things that we don’t have that drive us to achieve more. The session was extremely interactive, consisting of a short but informative talk by Ms. Sharma about herself, the journey of YourStory and the power of stories. After this, she opened the session up for questions, receiving an overwhelming response of students and teachers alike with burning questions for her. She spoke about the unique perspective of YourStory and how they focussed on the positivity of the journey of entrepreneurs and change makers rather than using sensationalism and writing about dark, painful stories. Through her answers to various questions asked by the students, it was unraveled that Ms. Sharma is first and foremost a storyteller, and it is her passion to narrate the story of others that drives her to make YourStory the highly successful platform that it is today.
The students received insightful advice on how to turn passion into a successful career and the factors that go into making a successful company. She spoke about the importance of diversity of skills, and how it is the unity of this diversity that truly makes an organisation successful. She also fielded many questions about the noise in the media which is constantly full of negative, poor stories and how consumers and industry members can rise above this to create an enjoyable, informative form of media which is beneficial to all parties involved. In response to this, she replied that noise exists in every organisational sector and every aspect of life, and the only way to get rid of this would be to consistently focus on the positive and relevant stories which would make the media in question much more beneficial. The talk was an extremely informative and engaging one which was enjoyed by many students who also gained lifelong values and advice from Ms. Shradha Sharma, the founder, CEO and Chief Editor of YourStory, India’s most influential digital media platform for change makers and a voice instrumental in shaping the narrative of the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem.
- Eesha Bodapati