Nabomita Mazumdar

Nabomita, you are influential and motivating. You are a TEDx Speaker and you have been to Rashtrapati Bhavan too. We all know about the phenomenal work you have done in various fields. It is amazing to see how you have added value to women and child development, technology, HR and much more. You are an Alumna of XLRI Jamshedpur.

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Tell us about your journey from XLRI Jamshedpur till here.

Xlri was a dream come true and then started the fairytale I never I thought I would live! During the final term at XL, we were introduced to HR communities during a presentation. I didn’t like what I saw, so I spoke about it to Dr Madhukar Shukla, a faculty. She asked me to create an HR community that would be omnipresent and free-to-use. All the discussions and documents were to be available for free too. I was inspired by it and started looking for ways to build such a community. I eventually found
one and started the offline chapter that grew to many offline chapters across the country and even abroad. I executed the growth strategy and led the product to the top-three HR communities worldwide from 2010 to 2016 as per Alexa, serving nearly 3 million professionals, worldwide.

In 2016, I moved on to start Nabomita.com, a platform for evangelism. We create communities for brands, corporates, startups and educational institutions. We proselytize the cause, product and practice. We are a Media-tech firm with people working from different geographies. We have served business, finance, retail, investor and health care companies. We help companies scale up their business along with mentoring CEOs, CXOs and startup founders.

Our journey has been eventful, with starting in India where the market was not even ready, to being celebrated by Silicon Valley. I am grateful to have received the Top 100 Women Achievers Award by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, President of India and numerous Industry awards for the work I have delivered so far.

We have read and heard you address many forums on diverse topics. Which one is the closest to your heart and why?

Everywhere I have been, has been a part of my journey. I am grateful for being able to deliver talks and gather some wonderful experiences. I have grown with what I have learned from each place. It’s impossible to name anyone in particular. Right from Hubli to speak at TIE Healthcon, to Pune, Delhi, Meerut, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Goa, Tirupati, Kolkata to Silicon Valley, I have met some wonderful and talented people along the way and made some heartwarming connects. The experience and the knowledge gained is something I will always be grateful for. I have been invited across the length and breadth of the country and internationally and it’s been a memorable journey all along.

A lot of people draw inspiration from you. The world is battling a situation that no one foresaw. What are your words of hope and optimism for everyone?

Crisis and change are the only constants in life. They do not define the constraints. As a kid, my Grandma taught us “you will never need what you do not have”. That has worked like a miracle for us during the testing times. Building business to survive the volatile times can only ensure that you will be able to run it no matter what. Nature has its own cycle to take them away from us, right when we are least expecting it. The better we are prepared, the less we have to worry. Change is a constant thing and we must learn to adapt to it.

The quarantine has given some of us time to get back to reading. We also know that you are ranked amongst the Top 25 Influential Women on Twitter, alongside J.K. Rowling. I love reading J.K Rowling, who has been your favourite author. Is there any book you resonate with?

There are plenty of them that have changed my life. Books, tweets, quotes and everything by Tom Peters is my oxygen! When I love a book, I read it repeatedly. ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ tops the chart too. Anything by Rumi keeps me happily awake every night!

You have spoken and educated people about technology. How do you suggest one can optimize it during these times?

Identify the dependencies to your work delivery and figure out a solution to every bottleneck. You are here today to be better prepared for tomorrow. As long as you train yourself to deal with every unforeseen challenge you are optimizing yourself to the most! Keep building on your capabilities.

What would be your word of advice to the budding entrepreneurs and today’s youth?

I say this as it guided me on my path, hope it will guide you too. Start up only when you find your 2:00 AM problem. Build only when you find that problem that keeps you awake at 2:00 AM. That is the problem, which will push you beyond every limit and you will happily stretch. It will ask you for every sacrifice that you will proudly make, only to solve the problem!

Talking about entrepreneurship, we have more women entrepreneurs than before. As a woman I am elated however I still feel we lack the right kind of support. What are your thoughts?

As long as we remain numbered, we know we have a very long way to go! Our needs are entirely different. So is our mode of operations, most of the time. The solutions we commonly find were not designed with women in mind. However, the Pandemic have shifted this paradigm where geographies have become irrelevant and talent non-gendered. It took such a natural calamity to shift such an important culture that could have created a level playing field for women Hopefully, we will see more paradigm shifts
soon, with the right reason for sure! Once we truly have such non-gendered systems and processes, support in real sense will arrive for women as well.

Lastly, we all know that your plate is full. While your plate looks beautiful, I am sure you need to unwind too. How do you do that?

I love to cook. Be it a Wheat pizza without yeast and soda or variations of sweets that we can cook with Soy milk! I love healthier variations. It’s a happy adventure for me. Travelling will, however, remain my favourite.

Your message to the Women Shine Readers?

Shine and glow,
Help everyone grow.
Be it a moment or a new place you go,
You make it better as you flow!
May every victory be your goldmine,
The world is waiting for you to shine!