text: UNITED STATES: Indian-born Swathi Nelabhatla shattered the male dominated technology industry by leaving for the US and starting her own tech company.
  Loss of father at early age inspired her
  Nelabhatla is from a small town in Andhra Pradesh. Her father had a great influence on her life, but unfortunately, she lost him at a young age. The sudden demise of her father shook her completely.
  In an interview with Transcontinental Times she said, “My father made me explore everything in life and encouraged me to step out of my comfort zone. He always showed my mother as an example of how a woman can handle family responsibilities efficiently and be a career-oriented person at the same time.”
  Struggling to make ends meet in US
  After completing her school education, Nelabhatla joined a college in Chennai. After completing college, she decided to pursue her Master’s Degree in the U.S. Unfortunately, her Student visa got rejected 4 times and she had to take up a job in India. Everything was going well in her life when she suddenly had to quit her sales job in India and move to the U.S.
  She had a hard time finding a well-paying job. To make ends meet, Nelabhatla settled for multiple low paying jobs although these jobs were not satisfying and didn’t bring her joy.
  While she always dreamed of being an entrepreneur since her childhood, she decided to work on her own startup. A few years back, Nelabhatla started a small IT company named LiveMindz, which began flourishing. LiveMindz has employees working both in India and the U.S.
  Inspired by her life struggle, she decided to recruit women employees in her team. Currently, around 90% of the staff at LiveMindz is female.
  “I have seen many women who leave their career for their family. Even in a family, the mother always sacrifices her job for the welfare of her family. Women have to go through many challenges in their lives. That’s when I thought of having my own startup,” Nelabhatla said.
  Nelabhatla is extremely proud of her team. She believes without her team’s support she would have achieved nothing. Talking about her team she said, “They understand me, my passion, my tantrums, and everything. I’m proud of them.”
  After LiveMindz, Nelabhatla decided to start a job portal for women. Thus, the Shejobs portal was launched. It is a job portal which is entirely dedicated to women from around the world seeking employment. Her team has years of experience in staffing services and is backed by a partner network for quicker turnarounds.
  The company focuses on delivering its services in keeping with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of gender equality. Nelabhatla wishes to have more and more women on board with her. She believes that in a male-dominated society, it is very difficult to find a woman in a leadership position.
  Giving a strong message to organizations she said, “Women aren’t just women. Some of us need to deal with issues like caring for children with special needs, domestic harassment, being single mothers, being transgender. We need special quotas for women. Our company is going to work with a few training companies to guide these women to develop their skills which will help them to get back to work.”
  Nelabhatla said, “Only around 8% of women lead a company. However, organizations are now aiming to have more and more women on board to reach the 50-50 gender neutrality ratio. Our company is helping them achieve it. We aim to help and support women who have taken a break from their careers with the help of skill development. We want to concentrate on minority groups, including LGBTQ and women with Latina background.”
  Work toward achieving your purpose
  Nelabhatla always takes inspiration from women around her who do home-based businesses. She wishes to motivate and inspire a considerable number of women to chase their dreams.
  “It is very important to find out the purpose of your life and work towards achieving that. I always have small goals in mind and visualize that I have achieved them. To be honest, small milestones will help anyone achieve their dreams. In my view, every woman can become an entrepreneur if she chooses to be one,” she concluded.