Featured at the Female Founders Club

As an aspiring female entrepreneur, Harshita was featured at the Female Founders Club on LinkedIn. Female Founders Club is a community started by Ann-Mary Rajanayagam, that celebrates diverse voices and supports female founders in their entrepreneurial journeys. 

Here’s what Harshita had to say about her journey. 

💫1. Tell us about your startup and what inspired you to start it.💫

Ketch-Up is a digital platform (coming soon) that helps connect women to other women to forge friendships via their shared food preferences. What sets ketch-Up apart is that it is exclusively designed for females and matching is based on algorithms.

This is my own story. I have lived abroad for 7 years now and have felt socially isolated at some points in my life where I couldn't meet the right women, and I am just a number of the small problem that I am solving. According to research from the Australia Institute of Health and Welfare (2023), 17% of women have felt and share this sense of social isolation which is 50.7% of the female population in Australia and this feeling directly affects our decision to go out after dark hours.

Personally, I have always worked on projects which are women focussed related to empowerment, creating safe communities therefore, ketch-Up has been inspired from my own personal story.

💫2. What is the biggest challenge you've faced as a founder, and how did you overcome it?💫

The entrepreneurship journey is not a piece of cake that you can walk with your eyes closed. There are a lot of challenges and hurdles that you can face. As a founder some of my challenges have been around allocating time to different parts of the business. Sometimes I struggle to find the right balance but then I always plan my weeks and days ahead of time so I know where I should be allocating time and how much.

Another challenge has been tech. As a non-technical founder, it can be daunting to work on a tech product but there are heaps of tools that I've explored during this journey and with the help of my mentors they have always guided me in the right direction.

💫3. What advice would you give to other women just starting their entrepreneurial journey?💫

Don’t stop! If you have an idea and you truly believe in it, there’s nothing that can stop you other than yourself. Go out and speak to people in your network and you’ll be surprised how supportive they will be if there’s something you want to try. It is alright if you fail. Failure is a sign of resilience and shows how dedicated you are towards what you are doing. 

If you’d like to get in touch with Harshita to help you through your founders journey, reach out to her via LinkedIn.