HerKey (formerly JobsForHer) founder Neha Bagaria vowed to fight the deep-rooted biases and prejudices restricting women from returning to work after a break. And she has been quite successful in empowering women to return after a gap and work. Let’s find out more about Neha Bagaria’s entrepreneurial journey.
The Start
After graduating from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Neha founded her first venture Paragon, an educational centre in Mumbai. The venture for preparing students seeking admission to US colleges lasted for two years since Neha shifted to Bengaluru in 2005 after she got married. She worked at Kemwell for the next five years.
Changing Cities
She had to take a career break to be a full-time mother. But she utilised the break to pick up and develop skills like patience, perseverance, multi-tasking, and identifying the larger perspective on everyday challenges.
Break and the Idea for New Venture
An entrepreneur at heart, Neha founded JobsForHer in 2015 to reverse the female brain drain from the Indian workforce. Having experienced a job gap herself due to the birth of her children, Neha wanted to do something for the women who had to sit at home after childbirth, marriage, or due to any other reason.
Dealing with Challenges
Neha not only worked to convince employers who believed hiring women was not a sensible solution but the prospective employees too who were low on confidence. The biggest challenge that Neha had to face was dealing with “the mental demons” facing women and changing the mindset of the employers
The pandemic changed the tide and made flexibility the new norm at workplaces, Neha points. The popularity and the benefits of the work-from-home and hybrid culture have highlighted the benefits of using women talent in our country.
Patience, perseverance, and determination have helped Neha grow her venture into a career engagement platform that not only helps women to start but restart and grow too. The platform renamed as HerKey currently caters to over 3.5 million women and 10,000 companies. HerKey reportedly recorded a revenue of Rs 8.87 crore and a profit of Rs 2.66 crore in FY22. The company also awards women leaders who have shown prowess and risen in their careers.
After years of bootstrapping, Neha has raised funds from her first institutional funding round. Investors like Kalaari Capital, 360 ONE Asset, and angels like Puneet Dalmia, Ranjan Pai, Akash Bhansali, Zia Mody, and Pramit Jhaveri too have invested in her venture.
