Giving wing to Dreams

As WeHub celebrates 5th anniversary in March, CE speaks to CEO Deepthi Ravula about the thrilling ride it has been, her love for travelling & more
Celebrating five years, Deepthi Ravula, CEO, WeHub, in a freewheeling chat with CE, talks about all things enterprising and more.
Celebrating five years, Deepthi Ravula, CEO, WeHub, in a freewheeling chat with CE, talks about all things enterprising and more.

HYDERABAD: India’s first and only government-led incubator for women, WE-Hub situated in Hyderabad, has so far worked with entrepreneurs across the board and has made sure that not just urban startups but even rural startups are given a platform to showcase their ideas and turn it into a lucrative business. Celebrating five years, Deepthi Ravula, CEO, WeHub, in a freewheeling chat with CE, talks about all things enterprising and more.

Five years... how has the journey been?
Five years of WeHub has been quite a thrilling ride. It’s been so much learning. One of the things I like to highlight is that after five years we’ve done a lot but we realise that with all the challenges that exist in women entrepreneurship, we are actually finally at the start line. We have done a lot of trial and error, learning, work with women entrepreneurs and outreach programmes. Now after five years we can confidently say that yes, we know what to do for the next ten years.

Deepthi Ravula: PIC: VINAY MADAPU
Deepthi Ravula: PIC: VINAY MADAPU

What was the initial inspiration behind WeHub?
A very common misconception is that I’m the one who actually started WeHub but that I’m actually the founding CEO of WeHub. But the actual idea came from Mr K T Rama Rao, IT & Industries Minister, and it was actually during the Global Entrepreneurship Summit. That year, the summit had the theme of ‘women first and prosperity for all’. Around 2,500 women entrepreneurs from almost 78 countries were in Hyderabad at that time. The minister and the entire team thought that instead of just talking about how to solve the problem, we thought to create a place which can be the solution. Being a part of something as humongous as this and as the flagship initiative of the state has been the most inspiring thing for me and obviously working for amazing bosses is always nice as well.

In the last five years, you have met so many women who had zeal in them to do something. Do you have anyone in mind in particular who had struck a chord?
One of the things about being an entrepreneur, and especially a woman entrepreneur, is that it takes a lot of courage, guts, and perseverance and determination. So in that way, I can’t name one person. But every day when I see a woman who’s saying that I want to do something on my own, I want to create something. I think I’m inspired by all of them. But there are a few entrepreneurs that actually have been role models for other women. We have a lady from Mehboob Nagar who is around 60 years old now. She found a lump in her breast one day, and she’s not even well qualified.

After finding out, she started eating healthy because she was told that there’s a potential for that benign tumour to come back as cancerous later. And one of the things she thought she should change is the oil she was using. She started making oil in the old way by using chakki and slowly when she started making, she said, why can’t I just distribute what I’m making to everybody else? So that’s how her business started. And today, I think she supplies to about 450 people in Hyderabad alone and to get any oil from her is at least a two week lead time. So now she employs about eight people in her own mandal in her own small place.

When we talk about entrepreneurship startups, we expect a woman who’s always talking about challenges, or we expect a young person or educated person holding a laptop and saying that I want to change the world. But that lady, without thinking about changing the world, started changing her community and now has become a role model and catalyst for change for so many people. I think that is the story we need to talk about.

As you mentioned that there is no stereotype for being an entrepreneur, it can happen anywhere to anyone. How do you mentor people coming from different backgrounds?
When we started out with WeHub, one of the things we noticed is that it’s nice to have an office here in Hyderabad. But we also realised that, one of the biggest barriers a lot of women face is that they do not get the support that they need as they have to come to a place. And again, when we talk about women getting into entrepreneurship, many times we always say that ‘women have this burden, that burden and all that stuff’, without realising we are adding one more burden of them coming to a place, right, like to meet somebody who has to come to a place. So what we thought is, instead of them coming to us, why not we go to where they are. So we’ve travelled more than 84,000 km in the past four and a half years in Telangana. We go every month to two to three districts.

The reason is simple — women entrepreneurs are everywhere. And most of them do not, know WeHub exists. And even if they know WeHub exists, for them to come from a small village or any place to come to Hyderabad, it is going to be financially a burden for them. So we go everywhere, we meet with everybody. And most important thing, the biggest joy that we find is when we actually go, sit and understand and work with them in their own community on how to do it.

And when it comes to mentoring, it’s a very interesting thing. Because a lot of times a mentor is seen as a giver, and a startup is seen as a taker. What we do is that we actually have partners who have some experience in the outside world. And that person can actually learn from this entrepreneur and tailor the advice for the entrepreneur. 

‘I always keep myself busy with fun stuff’

You have tailor made mentorship options available. How does one approach you?
Very simple, you can call us on our WeHub phone number, email us, WhatsApp us. You can reach us on Twitter, we have our website. And more importantly, we’ll be coming to a town or a location near you very soon. So please look out for us. It’s as simple as that.

How do you manage your personal and professional life?
I actually don’t try to manage both. Personally for me, work life balance does not exist. Because some days work is very important. Some days, my personal life is important. So I just take the day as it goes, and I plan better. And the second thing also is that I ask for help, and I hire help. The reason is, there is no point in trying to be this perfect thing, because perfection does not exist. Perfection is your state of mind. And that is perfectionism for me, being happy, being present and having fun.

Everyone knows you as the CEO of WeHub. How’s Deepthi at home?
I think my son and daughter call me boomer and my son absolutely hates me because I keep hogging his PS5 time. And my daughter absolutely hates it when her friends say I’m very cool. So I hang out a lot with my children and their friends, and I love doing activities with them. And many of the activities that we do are very grown up. That means that when we go out I pull them to travel with me. My children’s perception of travelling is glamorous and I travel with a backpack. I take my bag out, I wear my flip flops and I’m out.

Apart from travelling, what other interests do you have?
First of all, the thing is I grew up with a family where we never had an opportunity of being bored. So I learned dance for about eight years. I did music for about four or five years. I did art for seven, eight years. With all this, we were always taught to enjoy and explore all the opportunities we have. I always keep myself busy with fun stuff that is happening. But one thing which really relaxes me, is being at home and reading a book.

Any genre you like in particular?
You give me any piece of paper, I’ll read it. Because I don’t think there is one genre or one thing. I believe that, you know, writing is an art. Anybody who can put their thoughts beautifully on paper and have confidence, I will read it.

Any message for women out there?
Before we start something, we always think of what can go wrong. But interrupt trying to reason with why we should not do something. If we just get started, we’ll have enough reasons to actually have enough answers to answer all those reasons. The biggest thing is what will people at home say? So instead of trying to justify to people everywhere on why you want to do something, put your head down, do your research and get started. Because nothing speaks like success. Because once you’re successful, this interest in having to give excuses to people, you can actually say that, you know, see, I’m already doing it and it becomes a matter of fact. And last and most important thing, there are going to be challenges every single day in every job that you hold. So if you stop focusing on the challenges, I’m not saying ignore them, stop focusing on them and look at the opportunities. The world is really waiting for you to just get out there.

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