#GirlsWhoSailed: Meet Sairee Chahal, creating SHEROES worldwide!

How often do you see people spot a societal glitch and fix it? Not debate, not vent, not propagate! But pick up the tools at hand and get to work to fix an issue faced by nearly half the population of the world. Not often!

Sairee Chahal, CEO, SHEROES, came, saw, and fixed one of the biggest issues looming over women across the world in all walks of life.

Chahal had been witnessing casual sexism in the corporate world; a huge gap faced by the fairer sex as their stories, issues, and challenges were conveniently left to catch up as the world focused on a majorly patriarchal narrative. Hailing from a middle-class background from Muzaffarpur, she always understood the importance of a women’s community that would function on mutual trust, respect, and will to help.

Enter – SHEROES. “I always wanted to build something for women, which wasn't selling shoes or clothes to them," Chahal was famously quoted by a publication.

“Putting together a solid product team, shaping the vision, creating space for failure - this has all been part of the journey, and it has taken a lot of experiments, thinking beyond existing boxes to reach this place,” Chahal told Social Samosa.

What began as a job and career community for women, today is a multi-lingual social community app housing over 15 million subscribers globally and from nooks and crannies of the country.

But it wasn’t all hunky dory. Chahal and team were on the road to building something revolutionary, a kind of product with which potential talent and investors might or might not agree. But the team kept moving and carved a creative niche for themselves.

“When you're creating a new product - something that's never been attempted before - and where there are no existing models as reference, there's always skepticism from consumers, clients, investors, and peers,” she explains.

What inspires the most? Chahal not only shattered the glass ceiling for herself but for every Shero out there awaiting the right opportunity and guidance. SHEROES as a platform has over 62 communities such as career guidance, health and relationships, entrepreneurship, Math and English Learning, and more.

“The real validation comes from the stories our users share on the SHEROES platform, of how they are benefiting and also as executing their feedback/ suggestions in real-time. They have experienced the value we're creating, and this keeps me going, especially in the toughest phases of my journey,” Chahal adds.

The social community is focused on liberating women with knowledge and education, the lack of which is more often than not the root of all problems. To keep it real and accessible, SHEROES app has a secure chat helpline where users can have one-on-one conversations with counselors and gets over 600 women using it every day.

“If you need help, reach out. There’s always someone ready to work with you to get the answers,” Chahal once said.

Use of technology to address the issue of gender disparity – Chahal catalyzed a solution that literally changed millions of lives. The funny thing is, had she stuck to her original plan, Chahal would have been an academic. Well, aren’t we glad her plans didn’t work out!

“I'm happy to share that Google App store has just included us in their list of "apps that help you thrive". This is a great win for the women's Internet, and it comes from ensuring that on the SHEROES platform, every day is women's day,” she concludes.