We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shaleen Sheth a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Shaleen, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

I would like to share the story of my journey as a founder in the media and nonprofit space. I am one of the co-founder of Women Who Win, and look forward to sharing my learnings as a female founder.

Shaleen, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

The best ideas honestly start over coffee [and desserts too of course] I am on the founding team of Women Who Win, a new type of media platform, with a mission to amplify voices of diverse women of all races, cultures, and backgrounds. I graduated from Babson College where I studied business and entrepreneurship in 2020. One of the things I loved most about college was being around exciting ideas and a vibrant community of people chasing their goals every day. I was always inspired by the people around me. When the pandemic hit during my graduation, I really missed that environment. That prompted my interest in launching a free digital community and magazine for women to tell their stories, so they could relate to others and come together in our [rather] virtual world. We found that many women felt isolated during Covid, and often felt blocked in pursuing creative passions with all the uncertainty in the world around them. By sharing their story on our platform, they were given a medium to showcase the work they are doing, and connect with people all over the world they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to. I am proud to say we have been read in over 80 countries, and have shared over 350 stories in less than 3 years. I believe the most powerful tool for building a community is story-telling, and I am excited to be on the founding team of an organization that fosters this. As our youngest founder[[we launched when I was 22], I’ve personally learned invaluable life lessons from the stories we share, and I am excited about where we go next.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I would say that one of the best parts of working on this platform is the constant learning In fact, the amount of times I’ve said “I’m not sure but let me find out” in our meetings is quite high. But that’s what I think is the best part of having your own project/venture outside of your typical 9-5 work. You get to learn an entirely different skillset, and have something that is essentially your own.

In terms of something I had to “unlearn”, I’d say I’ve always had a “do it ourselves” mindset because I felt that if you wanted something done “perfectly”, its best to have full control over it. That mentality worked well in our early days, and was key in getting us started quickly. We just needed to build the MVP website, bring on the first set of stories, and had a smaller audience and community to manage. But as our audience grew and more women started reaching out to share their stories with us as well as other exciting growth opportunities came up, we realized that the “do it ourselves” wasn’t always going to be possible. We had to delegate, and bring on a bigger team. We had to essentially “unlearn” doing everything ourselves, and make the right calls on where to out source and teach other members of our teams. I’d say that is a lesson I can apply anywhere in my career, no matter what I do next.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I think the fact that each member of our founding team comes from an very different background is what helped us build a strong footing in the beginning. We had all been exposed to women empowerment causes and media in different ways before we launched, so I think the fact that we had some of that prior experience and our own individual networks was instrumental. For example, one of our co-founders, Dr. Deepa Jhaveri is in healthcare and is passionate about women’s health and causes so she led a lot of our Women’s Health work. Our other co-founder, Dr. Manju Sheth had been working in media for over 10 years, particularly championing South Asian media and women in media, so she brought a lot of expertise on bringing diverse stories. I had more of a business background and more of an early professional network, so I was able to support on building our website and operations strategies. I’d say that having a team of diverse backgrounds and unique interests is extremely important in building your reputation. The fact that each of us had our own strong backgrounds and reputations as individuals just made our platform that much stronger.

I’d say the second thing that drove people’s interest in our platform was our “authenticity”. Each of our stories are submission-based, and each set of questions is written and tailored specifically for that person. We review each proposal very carefully, and we strive to give an opportunity to all women for sharing their story. Our articles make you feel like you know this person, without even really having had a conversation with them. We’ve shared stories of female pilots, founders, authors, activists, artists, dancers, astronauts, athletes, fashion designers, scientists – you name it! Each story feels personalized and carefully curated, ultimately creating a feeling of ‘Women Who Win’ .

Contact Info:

• Website: womenwhowin100.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/womenwhowin100
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/587665685512626
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-who-win-100/