A Project report submitted as a curriculum of B.Com.

LLB
(Hons.)
In the subject Entrepreneurship and Small scale business.

Shradha Sharma : An incredible

journey of an Entrepreneur and an
excellent story teller.

Submitted to:
Submitted by:
Prof. Dr.Abha

Gagandeep Kaur
B.Com. LLB (Hons.) 2nd year Section D
Roll No. – 212
Session – 2019-2020
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my sincere thanks of

gratitude to my subject Faculty, Dr.Abha, who gave
me the opportunity to undertake this research project
in the topic , which helped me in doing a lot of
research and I came to know about so many new
things. I am also grateful to her for her continuous
support and guidance and suggestion throughout the
research. I am thankful to her for encouraging me to
carry out this research. I am thankful to her for
encouraging me to carry out this research. I would
also like to convey my thanks to the librarian and my
fellow classmates for helping me in this project
report.
 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

This is to certify, that the project submitted by me is

an outcome of my independent and original work. I
have duly acknowledged all the sources from which
the ideas and extracts have been taken. The project is
free from plagiarism and has not been submitted
elsewhere.

Gagandeep kaur

B.COM L.L.B

BATCH: -2018-2023

212/18
 SHRADHA SHARMA AN EXCELLENT
STORY TELLER

There is no hiding that successful entrepreneurs get

to celebrate a lot. They are admired in functions;
they’re cited in media, and they are followed in
schools and colleges. But, and I would say BUT in
capital letters, how many of us did know them
when they started off? Or when they were
struggling to achieve what no one ever could? Or
when they were working till they get tired and even
after that?
It is easy for us to celebrate the success of
entrepreneurs when we don’t have other options to
do. But what is important for everyone is to know
and understand the long and winding road and the
journey that comes with it, when an entrepreneur
makes his way through the dense forest of
uncertainty. Their success may seem glorious and
splendid to us, but the tale behind their journey is
what makes every one of them, an entrepreneur.

Every entrepreneur has a tale to tell, but the

absence of common platform makes it impossible to
happen. Founded with a vision to tell the tales of
thousands of entrepreneurs, YourStory has told
more than 15000 stories to the nation through their
platform. This is a tale of that entrepreneur who
saw the need to tell the stories of other
entrepreneurs like her to the world, Shradha
Sharma, Founder of YourStory.

She is hardly someone who needs an introduction.

She did her BA and then went to study
communications in MICA, Ahmedabad. If we are to
tell a story of someone breaking the social
prejudices, it has to be hers. She started working at
the Times of India and later joined CNBC, Mumbai.
That job exposed her to plenty of untold stories that
were great enough to be inspirational
epitomes.There came a time in her job when few of
her entrepreneurs’ success story ideas that were
rejected by the channels. And since she was
interacting more often with plenty of
entrepreneurs, she had her thing figured out –
there were plenty of entrepreneurs waiting to get
heard. But then, there was no one ready to take
their stories to the world. And, that’s when she
saw a common strand connecting all of them –
they all had a story to tell, but nobody was keen to
take their story to the world. This ignited here
independence to cover stories of such people and
this led to the start of something brilliant –
YourStory. And this was back in 2008 when online
publishing portals were surely not the lucrative of
options to pursue for.And thus, five years ago, she
quit her luxurious, high paying job, to startup her
own venture, as a storyteller. From the profound
dark days to their first glimmer of hope and their
voyage thereon to triumph, she started sharing
each of those. It was about the entrepreneur’s
story and thus, it was rightly named, YourStory.
Five years gone, YourStory is a domestic name in
the entrepreneurial community and has earned the
status as the go-to portal for everything a startup
founder would ever need. It has provided great
significance for its attendees and those who’ve
been allied with it, through its events and
engagements. However, behind this feat lies the
persistence and hard work of a woman from what
was perhaps India’s most politically suppressed
and negatively professed state – Bihar.

When the Bihar was perhaps at its lowest point –

socially, economically and politically, Shradha was
growing up. The time back then was hard for girls,
as going to school for a girl child was a big deal. But,
the situation didn’t affect her, instead, her hunger
for achievement grew and she chose to perform to
the best of her ability. It is probably from this desire
of outperforming every task, her entrepreneurial
nature was born.

Her strong thrust got her into one of India’s most

prestigious colleges – St Stephen’s in Delhi. But it
didn’t change anything for her. Here too, she’d
keep herself busy through volunteering to do as
many things as she could.

Writing her own Story

She led bootstrapped journey with YourStory for
close to a decade until she was finally successful in
raising funds for her venture in 2015. Currently,
YourStory stands tall with a database of over 70,000
stories where she leads the team of over 100
people who offer the content in 11 local languages
with a reader-base of over million.Shradha’s
stories started with an aim to tell India’s untold
stories of entrepreneurship. Like every other
startup, Shradha’s YourStory too experienced a
roller-coaster ride – full of ups and downs leaving a
sweet taste of success and bitter taste of failures.
But what kept YouStory going strong was her will to
tell a new story for every entrepreneur.

And after gradually setting up the portal, she had a

decision to make. Calling a quit at her high paying
job that offered her almost all the luxury she could
ask for. This was her leap of faith to become what
she strived to be- a storyteller. She started telling
the untold story of entrepreneurs that speaks of
everything; from their reflective dark days and even
experiencing the first taste of success. Perhaps, this
is the reason why she named her portal as
YourStory. It indeed offered a space for every
entrepreneur to tell their story.

The Glitch in the Narrative

She too, like other entrepreneurs faced a herculean

task to start with. Somewhere down the line, she
was aware of what she was signing up for. The
major challenge was to get a few entrepreneurs she
knew on board for getting them on her portal. But
quite shockingly, it turned out a nightmare for her.
The same people who supported her while she was
at CNBC started treating her differently. There were
no big names that would go out and acknowledge
her efforts. But no big names acknowledged what
she was trying to do. Had it been someone else, this
would have shaken him or her. But, we are talking
of Shradha Sharma, the one who knows perfectly
how to handle her morale in such times. She
remained persistent. And soon after, she had a few
entrepreneurs by her side who would love their
story to come out on YourStory
Overcoming the Glitch

For her, each phase of difficulty just made here

stronger day by day. The prevailing patriarchal

culture of India has the society look down on
women. A rebel in her always wanted to counter
such thoughts and she did so, with her work. As an
entrepreneur, certain lack of funds may push you in
a no-escape zone but for Shradha, this was the
opportunity. Such a situation forced her to create a
highly profitable business structure.

If the professional hardships were not enough, on a

personal front she lost her mother in 2010. She was
her constant force and losing someone for whom
you do everything is devastating. She has also
confessed that quitting the job and then while
building YourStory losing a mother had put her in
depression. To come out, she got into a busy work
schedule and every story she came across healed
her. This made her go on strong and come out of
the dark phase.In the end, it was really the stories
that featured on YourStory that transformed and
inspired her by connecting with plenty of positive
entrepreneurs. Shradha has her mind set on the
stories not the people tell but the ones they live.
Not the stories that are beautiful, not the fairytales,
but those where people open up their scars,
mistakes, and failures. As she believes that such
stories bring out the real character from a person.
And to tell such stories in a way that it matters the
most is something that she is inclined to.

A Winner is Born

Shradha’s efforts with YourStory have yielded her

over 40,000 entrepreneurs’ narratives since its
inception. She made the most out of her earned
experience with CNBC and Times of India. This gave
her the fundamental understanding of how to run a
media businesses.

And now with over half decades since its existence

YourStory stand as a highly reputed domestic name
within the entrepreneurs’ fraternity. A dream
realized by Shradha Sharma and her perseverance is
certainly paying off in style.

It was her hunger, constant efforts and the “never

give up” attitude that took YourStory to where it is
now. It just seems that she was born for it, fighting
against the all odds, personal, professional and
socio-cultural problems to withstand her vision.
Shradha Sharma leads YourStory from the front as a
story in herself. A journey of a small girl from Bihar
who dreamt big and fought against all odds to be a
founder of India’s highly interactive and reputable
platform for entrepreneurs’ stories.

If this was not enough, she was awarded the

L’Oreal Paris Femina Award and was included in
the list of worlds’ top 500 LinkedIn influences.
YourStory stands for what Shradha describes it as
“India’s biggest and definitive platform for start-
ups and entrepreneurs-related stories, news,
resources and research reports.”

The investments kept flowing from various sources

from prominent figures like Ratan Tata himself.
Shradha is also inducted in the list of Fortune 40
under 40 while nabbed the Economic Times
promising entrepreneurs of India Award.
 REFERENCES

 https://www.legalwiz.in/blog/an-inspiring-
story-of-shradha-sharma-of-yourstory
 https://www.insightssuccess.in/shradha-
sharma-an-incredible-journey-of-an-excellent-
storyteller/
 https://yourstory.com/author/shradha-sharma