Baby @ 40: Sukirti Gupta Talks Balancing Having Children Late in Life with a Full-Time Media Career
“What is success .. for me it is to make a difference to the millions of women that we reach.” Today’s woman dreamer, Sukirti Gupta, has been in the digital world for over 25 years; she is the co-founder of Sipping Thoughts, and former CEO of one of India’s top media companies, Jagran New Media. With mother’s day coming up, Sukirti shares her journey of having children in her 40s and her exciting life as a woman in media. Enjoy her story below!
1. You grew up in Rhode Island and then moved to India over 10 years ago. What was that experience like? What were some challenges you confronted?
The experience was unbelievable. But you must prepare yourself for such a move. If you are expecting things to be smooth and streamlined .. then you will be in for a rude shock. For me it was like an adventure and I did not have a set expectation of what life would be.
I moved to set up a new business and that was exciting. Most of the challenges that I faced were typical of a new founder, and learning my way around.
While you have been in India, you have worked in the media as well. What has that experience been like? What are some lessons that being in the media has taught you.
I have loved being in media. I transitioned from being business development and M&A - so this was big change. My venture started small but we took it to the top 3 players in the industry and reaching more than 100M readers on a monthly basis
2. What were some lessons you learned in your media career?
Fact checking
The speed race
Keeping and creating a cohesive team when the norm is for millennials to move every 18 -24 months
Experimenting and continue to experiment
Relying on data
3. You are the creator of 'Sipping Thoughts', a chat show for women. What was the need you saw to create this show. How do you seek to empower women?
We saw that Women consume information very differently from Men .. but most content targeted to women is around ABCD .. Astrology .. Bollywood / Beauty .. Cooking .. and Devotional. When we did a survey ..we realized that women wanted more meaningful, more relatable and more inspiring content.
This was why we created Sipping Thoughts .. so real women could share their real experiences .. and uplift each other.
4.And of course, you decided to have children while in your 40’s. What are some problems and challenges that you faced and how did you overcome them?
The biggest pressure is what will people think that we are deciding to become parents at such a late age. The other challenge - of course - since we were in India (no offence) is ensuring that we found the right doctor, right surrogate and followed all the legal and ethical aspects.
In terms of overcoming challenges - you have to really sure that this is what you want. And you realise that most of the fear is in your mind. I found friends and family to be highly supportive. What is more challenging - is to ensure that you keep fit and have high energy - cause that is what will be needed.
Also, we created a WhatsApp group of Late Age Moms .. of course our group name was much cooler .. so that we could also support and share with each other.
5.As a dreamcatcher's platform we have to ask, what is your next big personal or professional dream?
My big dream is to make Sipping Thoughts into a success .. and enjoy time with my girls. What is success .. for me it is to make a difference to the millions of women that we reach .. and make a small difference towards changing the mindset to equality.
Thank You Sukirti for sharing your inspiring story with us! We are excited to have you in our global women’s network!
Bio; Prior to Sipping Thoughts, Sukirti led Jagran New Media to become a top digital media company in India ranking #18 in the mobile space and top 50 in the web domain., growing the audience to 100 million monthly actives (MAUs) and created three market leaders: Jagran.Com ( #1 in HIndi News), JagranJosh.Com (#1 in Education) and OnlymyHealth.Com (#1 Indian Site in Health).
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