Helping start-ups with funding – Devaki Sahasrabudhe, GREX

The society discouraged me from starting up! I was questioned on how I would manage the work with my responsibilities at home with the kids. It was as if I am deserting them to go for a vacation..

Devaki Sahasrabudhe has been a fighter right from her childhood. A state-level basketball player, she was used to hustling her way to win. After heading the banking and national distribution at Bharati Axa Investments, she decided to take a plunge into entrepreneurship. She joined hands with Manish Kumar and Abhijeet Bhandari in 2014 to help startups with funding. In 2 years, GREX has developed an exchange-like transaction platform for fundraising by bringing together private eligible investors and companies at one place.

GREX provides a platform for information exchange and securities transactions giving investors access to exciting startups and unlisted companies. The company facilitates a steady and seamless flow of need-based access to capital. This means companies can raise multiple rounds of capital, depending on their growth needs.

“To my pleasant surprise, my kids got comfortable with the long working hours and travel after a couple of hiccups in the beginning,” says Devaki, VP at GREX

Devaki was supported by her husband and mother through the thick and thin. “My mother taught me how to manage the household in Rs.5000. And nothing can help better than learning financial risk from childhood when starting up!” she says. She also says that family support helps in the journey. “I strongly believe that husbands have the power to make or break the woman’s professional career. And my husband made mine,” she adds.

Life isn’t easy being a homemaker. But I had the responsibility of raising an organization along with my children.

Like every other womenpreneur, every day was a challenge for Devaki. And every day was a focus to make it big! There were days when she was rushing to a meeting and got a call from her 2 year old’s school that for an emergency situation! “Being a working woman, I have made tough choices in such situations,” she says. While handling a business and children, Devaki has not been able to give time to her family and hobbies like cooking and singing.

There are MBA graduates who lack basic common sense and are not dedicated towards work!

Devaki finds challenges in hiring the right people at work. “It’s the people in a company that make work interesting and successful. And getting good manpower is difficult,” she says. Through the journey, Devaki has learnt to solve the most difficult and impossible tasks while being calm and patient. “Entrepreneurship has made me take difficult decisions faster and more accurate,” she says.

Devaki advises the future womenpreneurs to research well before they start up. “If you are sure of the idea, then work towards it. And if possible, fail fast and think of an idea again! Trust me, one day you will achieve what needs to be!”

Official Website : www.grex.in
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