Womenprenuers have to work for double shift; we have to fulfill our professional as well as our family duties- Ankita Jain

Ankita Jain, Co-Founder, Go Paisa  is talking about her professional and family life style

The challenges of being a woman executive in a top role

 I entered the startup world when I was 23, and most of the brands did not take us seriously and the concept of CashBack was nonexistent, everyone believed that CashBack as concept would never work and they could not believe that how could such a young girl talk about building India’s first Cashback site (a tech platform) ,but our strong belief and understanding of the Indian psyche made us invest and be patient towards growing the Cashback eco system. We have a million plus users now and this Diwali we have delivered a sales of over Rs.55 crore in December month for our 550+partner brands which include Flipkart, Dominos, Paytm ,MakeMyTrip and all the names that you can think of we have everyone on board, this figure stood at less than 1 crore 2014 diwali  and we are hoping to close this financial year with over a 600 crore of GMV for our partners

Educational Background

Completed my schooling from Lourdes convent high school, Surat from Gujarat Board

 Family Background

My father into textiles and my mother is a house wife. And in my in laws side m father in law is into Share market and my mother in law is a housewife. And my husband is my cofounder, friend, philosopher and guide.

Family is one of the important pillar which helps in building a successful entrepreneur. I would really like to give the credit of my success to my Father and mother in law, as they understand prioritizing my work over household chores. They provide me with all the support necessary so that no barrier comes in way of success. And my husband is my real hero. Most people share high level of amazement when they get to know that we are both life and business partners, but we feel that is the best part because we both have a strong mutual understanding which helps us to criticize each other, without hurting the other one because we know that it will help in our and company's overall growth. Being a start-up we have long and undefined working hours, hence having your life partner by your side is big positive because the other one understands the pressure equally and hence no time is wasted in “justifying” the long hours. There are both pros and cons of working together. The biggest positive is “The Work mode is always on” hence the productive times is always used towards bettering the business, and the biggest negative is also  “The Work mode is always on” thus leading to thinking about work all the time. But since we work together we take care of our needs by, I try to lighten him up by ordering his favorite pizza and he tries to cheer me up by his amazing sense of humor or his constant music sessions. We also get a lot of time together because staying in Delhi we have long travel times, which we optimally utilize to plan our next holiday to new features and products on the site, because when we are not working we are travelling, we love to take small small vacations in between to unexplored destinations. And as far as decision making is concerned we have clearly divided our departments.

And for all the fathers, brothers, husband I would like to tell you that you should be her strength which takes her to the next level and not her weakness which brings her down.

Working in Male-dominated field of IT

We womenprenuers have to work for double shift; we have to fulfill our professional as well as our family duties so we never have the luxury of time for ourselves. And even the world around would always try and find faults with you and your work but don’t GIVE Up and Be a learner, Learn something new every day and believe in yourself, the only person that is stopping you from achieving your dream is YOU, it is very important that you stick to your dreams and be ready to face all the hurdles coming your way

 Does a Glass ceiling exist?

There are many more taboos waiting to be broken. It is very important that these problems need to be solved from roots and for that it very necessary that you should have a high level self confidence and be sure about the fact that what you are doing is right. It’s the society's job to create hurdles in our way and it’s our job to bypass them.

 Hobbies

When you are working in startup time is a luxury which can never afford because it’s like a infant baby which needs your utmost care and dedication .But whenever I do get some free time I am mostly out for small holidays, and if i am not on a holiday i love to paint, though i am just an amateur but i am sure one day i will host my paintings exhibition in one of the best galleries of Delhi the only condition is if my painting teacher does not give on me. Plus watching movies at cinemas every other week is important as I don’t like to miss latest movies.

 Future plan

I want to see GoPaisa as the ultimate savings destination so if anyone is planning to buy anything be it online or offline the first name that should come to his mind is GoPaisa.com, because he would know that GoPaisa get him the best product at the best price. One APP will provide him with everything from coupons to comparing prices on various websites at one place to getting Cashback, he would only have to press the Buy Now button on the partner site

High-Five:

• Your Fitness Mantra: Eat healthy and exercise right
• Your De-stressing Mantra: Watch a movie and assure myself that everything at the end has a Happy ending J
• Where you like to shop? Try out online stores like notepad and many more sites selling interesting products
• Your favorite holiday destination: Las vegas
• 5 things you cannot live without: Indian home cooked food, my movies collection, my friends, painting and travelling.

@Workday

Wake up at:  7 am

Morning activities:  spending time with nature and cooking breakfast

Leaving Office at: 10

1st half in office:  meetings with employees

Lunch: 3

Post Lunch:  Analyzing the ongoing campaigns, solving HR issues

How you spend your evenings: working

Sleep time: 12.30

My normal day begins with Cycling. Post cycling, Cooking is the next thing on the Task list I love to cook, I pack my tiffin and get out to explore what new opportunity this new day has for me. Aman who is my husband and my Co-founder always tells me that I am your second love and GoPaisa your first. The best thing that motivates me is I really love my work, every morning when I get up I am excited to go to work and learn something new and achieve my next milestone. The cherry on the cake is when I see my customers saving a lot of money through GoPaisa and appreciating us for our good work.