Women's Day 2022: Women Startup Founders On Unique Challenges And Prejudices

On the occasion of International Women's Day, we spoke to three startup founders that have spun off successful ventures - KareXpert, Nira Finance, and Zypp Electric.

It's no secret that women have an institutionalised series of hurdles that they must overcome in order to break the glass ceiling each time they set up a venture. Nidhi Jain, founder and CEO of KareXpert, Nupur Gupta, co-founder of Nira Finance, and Rashi Agarwal, CBO and co-founder of Zypp Electric share their secret recipes for success with Indiatimes below.

The challenges

With help from Google for Startups Accelerator, these three startups are now changing the game. Even then, challenges remain all-pervading. KareXpert is building an "end-end digitisation" of hospitals "by providing 50+ pre-integrated modules as plug and play, using cloud-native, mobile-ready, AI-ready [solutions] to hospitals."

But the journey hasn't been straightforward or simple. For starters, there have been two major challenges for KareXpert - lack of standard procedures and "apprehension to adopt the technology by the healthcare professionals." Nidhi Jain, founder and CEO of KareXpert told us they're tackling this by a "configurable system" that fits the needs of all hospitals.

Nidhi Jain, Founder and CEO, KareXpert

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Nira Finance's Nupur Gupta believes as a financial services provider, their key challenge to solve is "trust". "Once the customer trusts you, other challenges such as lack of digital savviness required to complete an involved mobile transactional journey becomes more tractable," Gupta said. How do they build trust? "One of the key ways that we garner trust building is by being clear and transparent in our communication around costs, benefits and timelines across customer interfaces and interactions."

Rashi Agarwal, CBO and co-founder of Zypp Electric explained to us how Zypp is providing electric vehicles as a service. "Looking at the current pollution concerns and high petrol prices, EV is a great solution but the lack of infrastructure and fear of mileage and adoption, itĄ¯s not able to grow to its full potential... Zypp is trying to merge that gap," Agarwal told us.

The prejudices

According to KareXpert's Nidhi Jain, "irrespective of our gender, we get some prejudice at some point of time in life, but I believe whoever is on a mission of doing something big, different, impactful, all these challenges donĄ¯t seem to stop us."

Nira Finance's Nupur Gupta told us how the prejudices faced by her "helped to have a bias towards assuming positive intent."

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Gupta shed light on the evolving nature of all connections. "I've come to realise that while first impressions are important, meaningful outcomes are created over long-time horizons. As long as there is real value to be unlocked, if you are keen on a partnership or a relationship that starts in a biased way, the course correction can happen along the way."

Zypp's Rashi Agarwal had the following to say about her journey as a woman. "Sometimes, being a woman, your opinions are challenged but I think by positive outcomes you can always prove your merit."

Nupur Gupta, Co-Founder, Nira Finance

The motivation

Startup founders are driven by zeal to trigger change, and these three inspiring women entrepreneurs are no different.

As KareXpert's Nidhi Jain put it, "making a product that can be deployed and used at scale is my dream and making this dream become a reality is what keeps me going." She also wants to help generate "growth opportunities for young engineers and healthcare professionals... giving me immense satisfaction that I did justice to my education and experience."

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Nupur Gupta of Nira Finance's interest in finance "was originally sparked by the intellectual challenge of the problem." Over time, the prospect of "improving the financial lives of millions of people" motivated her to keep getting better.

For Zypp Electric's Rashi Agarwal, it's simply "the vision to make a difference in the country [that] keeps [her] going."

Rashi Agarwal, CBO & Co-founder, Zypp Electric

Message for aspiring women entrepreneurs

"Go and get it done," KareXpert's Nidhi Jain told us. "We, as women, have the inherent ability to manage things so our can-do attitude removes all the blockers that come along the way," she added.

Nira Finance's Nupur Gupta suggests new entrepreneurs "to pick a problem that plays to your strengths and has the potential to benefit from the prevailing tailwinds." She added that "by doing so, you increase your chances of success manifold."

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"You donĄ¯t need to know everything from the start. There will be a natural compounding of knowledge and capabilities along the way. You would be surprised how fast you can grow."

Rashi Agarwal from Zypp Electric believes "confidence is the key to success." "Believe in yourself and be financially independent! It will give you the power to make your own decisions which is a critical factor to be empowered."

What did you think about the journeys of these inspiring women on International Women's Day 2022? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.