YourStory launches Elevate: Where CXOs mentor future women leaders
India’s top CXOs from across the startup ecosystem, including investors, founders and operators, have come together for a mission to mentor emerging women leaders.
YourStory Media, India’s largest digital media house for entrepreneurs, is proud to announce the launch of Elevate, a private community for emerging women leaders.
An invite-only platform, Elevate will connect a shortlisted cohort of high-performing mid-career women with CXOs across the startup ecosystem, with the aim to accelerate their path to leadership roles in 2-5 years.
Mentors for the first cohort include Ankiti Bose, Founder of ; Aditya Ghosh, Board Member at and ; Varun Khaitan, Co-founder of ; Shradha Sharma, Founder of YourStory; and Priya Mohan, investor with Venture Highway.
The time is now.
“As men significantly outnumber women at the manager level, far fewer women are being hired or promoted as senior managers. The number decreases at every subsequent level,” said Aditi Shrivastava, Founding Lead at Elevate. “There are simply too few women advancing to leadership positions. Elevate is designed with a personalised mentorship path to ensure more women get to leadership roles, and stay there.”
The Elevate team spoke with more than 250 women professionals over the past few months to understand their requirements. Our key learnings:
● 98 percent of women have tried some support group but want a more focused approach;
● 88 percent of women don’t have a mentor to look up to.
Our team decided to define a personalised mentorship plan for each selected member of the community keeping in mind their professional ambitions and the best-suited mentor team to meet those goals.
Women executives from companies including , , , , and LetsVenture have been shortlisted to be a part of the cohort. The Elevate team is still accepting applications.
“Women rising up in their careers has larger societal and economic implications. They bring in different viewpoints, and have proven to be effective leaders,” said Sindhu V Kashyap, Founding Lead at Elevate. “And yet, many organisations scramble to find the right leaders in their leadership teams. Thus, we came up with Elevate to bring more women as leaders, managers, CEOs, and CTOs. With a personalised approach, Elevate will help more women rise from mid to senior leadership levels.”
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Edited by Feroze Jamal