Jhansi ki Pankhuri Shrivastava: A life well and generously lived

When a person passes away when they’re young, the shock of their death is bigger as all dreams for the future come to an abrupt end. Entrepreneur Pankhuri Shrivastava, 32, died from a cardiac arrest on Christmas eve, and when the news broke, her friends, colleagues, fellow entrepreneurs and investors who knew her tweeted their condolences, wishing peace for the departed soul.

As the news circulated on Twitter, I recalled something Keanu Reeves said two years ago at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert about what happens after we die: “I know that the ones who love us will miss us.”

People close to her shared their fondest memories about Pankhuri, and her followers shared her inspiring entrepreneurial journey. Anand Lunia, General Partner at India Quotient which has invested in both her startups Grabhouse and Pankhuri, called her “a woman with the balls to name a startup after herself” and posted a farewell tweet: 

“Miss Jhansi, got great campus jobs and topped the MICA exam, but chose to work for Teach for India, read 5000 books, was a trained classical dancer, wanted to join Bollywood and even did a commercial too.”

He also considers the unfortunate demise to also be a lesson for founders to take care of themselves. “Eat, travel, live comfortably. Take time off. spend an hour a day on yourself,” he wrote.

Pankhuri has largely stayed away from the public eye with little to no media interaction save for a few quotes when her startup raised $3.2 million in funding led by Surge, a rapid scale-up programme by Sequoia Capital India, alongside India Quotient and Taurus Ventures. 

As she had very few public appearances, when the startup community came forward to share their encounters with Pankhuri, the stories held an even deeper meaning as they gave an insight into the life of the young woman entrepreneur, and showed her passion and enthusiasm for her hustle. 

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A champion of women

A first-generation entrepreneur, Pankhuri’s father, Rajnish Shrivastava, is a retired government employee and mother, Preeti Shrivastava, is a doctor. After receiving an undergraduate degree in Computer Science Engineering from Rajiv Gandhi Technological University, Bhopal, she worked on a two-year fellowship with Teach for India in Mumbai. 

She saw an entrepreneurial opportunity when house hunting became a challenge, having to change five houses in two years and paying an exorbitant broker fee every time. At 22, she founded rental startup Grabhouse, as well as raised funds from Sequoia Capital, Kalaari Capital, and India Quotient, before selling it to Quikr in 2016. With her second startup Pankhuri, she set out to build a community for women. 

The fact that Pankhuri hailed from Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh easily stuck with investors and most people who knew her as it’s a city with a history for women empowerment. It was only fitting that Pankhuri appeared to carry forward the legacy through entrepreneurship. Through the namesake platform, the entrepreneur democratised beauty and lifestyle conversations for women consumers. Based in Bengaluru, it had also opened an office in her hometown Jhansi to offer employment opportunities to the women without having to migrate to metros for work.

“She felt that the spirit of Jhansi Ki Rani was in her blood. She was incredibly satisfied that she opened an office in Jhansi & gave opportunities to girls to work in jobs that gave them a strong identity. She was proud of these girls and how much they could do if only given an opportunity. I saw in Pankhuri a young woman who continued to inspire and give back generously,” wrote Kalaari Capital’s Vani Kola. 

During the pandemic, Pankhuri got married and shared that she had found her one certainty. Exactly six months later, she posted two stereotype-defying pictures in a single post: one from her wedding with her and her partner wearing bright yellow clothes, and a graph depicting phenomenal growth in micro-payments by women on her platform – from 1,300 in December 2020, when she got married, to 45,000 in May 2021.

Now in her passing, women from across the country felt the loss because they saw the impact of her entrepreneurship in everyday lives either as a user themselves or with their mothers-in-law being on the platform. “My mom-in-law uses ‘Pankhuri’. It has made a significant difference in empowering women by providing a platform to network, learn new skills at a nominal cost or through employment,” Mahek Sahay, a communications professional, commented on LinkedIn.

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In her last few days, Pankhuri was ruminating on the typical founder problem of hiring. Two weeks ago, she announced that the startup is hiring creative content writers, graphic designers, and marketing experts. And a day before her passing, she tweeted about the challenges of candidate evaluation.

As people remember her, it is easy to see how much Pankhuri’s larger than life personality has inspired her peers and followers, with her trailblazing story of a woman entrepreneur hailing Tier II and III cities making it big in the Indian startup ecosystem.