Here's Why Sairee Chahal Set Up India's First Women-Only Job Portal...

Sairee Chahal, Founder, Sheroes.in

An idea so idiosyncratic, yet so obviously called for (creating the country's first ever women-only job portal), Sairee Chahal wins for getting there first. The core concept? "To help women across various stages of life to find careers that work for them, whether it's being on the corporate fast-track, turning entrepreneurial or workflex," she says, but adds that it took a while doing myriad things before she realised this was her calling.

"My professional life has been laced with start-ups. I set up Newslink Services in 1999—it was the world's first ever newspaper for mariners! Post that, I did a stint at CII and Heidrick & Struggles—I'm just always open to new ideas, I suppose."

Sairee says being a part of the first dot-com wave when she was 22 made all the difference—it made her go digital and never look back. "It took following my gut to invest in the digital space at a time where it was still fledgling. But it definitely paid off."

(This interview is part of a larger feature story on the Digital Power Players of India)