Our society doesn't let women lead revolutionary ideas: Neeru Sharma, Infibeam

She is a champion of women entrepreneurship. And she has come up the hard way, carving out a place for herself with Infibeam. Meet Neeru Sharma.

“The percentage of women founders might be lower than men, but the percentage of successful entrepreneurs, in my view, will definitely be higher than men,” Sharma told SheThePeople.TV.

Infibeam is an e-commerce website that started in 2007, around the same time when India’s digital story began. Sharma credits her previous work experience at Amazon for inspiring her to come up with her own e-commerce idea.

Infibeam is all set to make investment in payment gateway company Avenues (India) (CC Avenue). And after becoming India’s first listed e-commerce company, it is now also venturing into Dubai to become the country’s first e-commerce player to take on international expansion.

"Our society does not accept women to work on revolutionary ideas"

Ask her how was she able to build the digital empire and she responds, “If you have a vision and you convert that into action and just keep going on with the hard work and not getting distracted by how the market is changing or how the client is reacting, then we can achieve whatever we want to achieve.”

The number of women entrepreneurs is rising by at least 40%, going by reports, especially after India’s startup ecosystem organised itself. Sharma articulates, “It is not just necessary for women to dream big, it is equally necessary for men as well. But women perhaps face more challenges not because a woman is an entrepreneur and corporates see her differently. But by design, our society does not accept women to work on revolutionary ideas.”

She believes women need to work according to the societal pressure and come with more force. "If we have a strong family support system, then nothing is a challenge."

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A middle-class upbringing and a hunger to grow helped Sharma fulfil her dreams. At home, she had inspiration from her mother who became a businesswoman by need when Sharma's father's business suffered losses. But both her parents ensured that she had a good education. She studied her engineering from MDU, Rohtak, then worked for five-six years in various MNCs around the globe before finally settling down in India in xxxx L

Later, her husband convinced her to pursue MBA from the Carnegie Mellon University. This brought her opportunities to work in the corporate sector and she got placed with Amazon.

Percentage of successful entrepreneurs will be much more in women than in men: Neeru Sharma

Entrepreneurship from founder of Infibeam, Neeru Sharma’s perspective

“The reason why women entrepreneurs are much more successful is that being women, we understand the market in a much better way, as even today, in the traditional setup, the household income comes to the woman. We understand relationships better, we are more trust-worthy and our perspective adds a unique richness as by nature we are bound to see more dimensions because it is our role. If we add up these three four things, then it makes it the most successful business formula,” Sharma told SheThePeople.TV.

For Sharma, Indra Nooyi is a visionary. “Nooyi has taken PepsiCo to the next level. She is representing India at the international arena and so strongly and consistently at that. She stands apart from all business professionals.”

More Stories by Poorvi Gupta