Her Story
About Sudeepa
After high school in India, I pursued computer science even though I initially wanted to study fashion. It took me almost a year to start liking computer science, but after that one year, I started to just love it. Within 8 to 9 months, I got recognized by Google for my academic excellence and coding skills and leadership because I started a club in association with Geeks for Geeks. I was the first woman, first girl student in India who started this club in my university. I started collaborating with different universities and bringing opportunities, workshops, and coding contests for my university students. I also became public relations head for Google Developers Group in my university, and when I took charge, the ratio between men and women students went from 90-10 to almost 50-50. The club I founded is now the most active club in my university, and I was awarded 1 lakh Indian rupees as the first student to be awarded that for the exposure I brought to my university. I came to Cornell for my master's to expand my network and gain exposure, where I worked with amazing professors who later featured my work in their course presentations. After graduating, I worked at Fast Enterprises, and my first 1 to 1.5 years was just introspection and understanding what I want and what I really enjoy. I realized I really love products and don't want to be in a full-time job going forward. After attending my sister's wedding, I realized there's a huge gap between custom fashion and customers, so I developed a product that connects customers with Indian fashion designers virtually. We take care of everything from the order request to delivery, with designers getting on video calls with clients to understand measurements and show fabrics. The first version was approved by App Store and Play Store, but I realized I needed to pivot the model, so I'm working on the new version now. I'm handling everything from designs and branding to operations.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Sudeepa
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
To just be brave and have that audacity to just go and achieve whatever they want, and to not dream so small, because there's so much the world can offer them, there's so much in the world everyone has to see and experience. I know, especially in India where the background that I come from, there's a lot of women who just think that if they dream big and if they just do the things that are unconventional, that might just make them look kind of different, but then that's what people really appreciate in the real world, because I know I did a lot of unconventional things while I was a student and at Cornell. I think that is what made me who I am. So I just tell women or young girls who are younger than me the same thing, to just have the audacity to dream big and then just go fight and get whatever you want. Your dreams, you don't have to be answerable to anyone or anything, just go and do whatever you want. Just have big dreams, be independent. I also want to tell them that language is not a barrier, or color is not a barrier. English was my third language, so I'm really not great at it, but if you are talented enough and if you have the guts to just take things and then work on them and then deliver it, that's it, that's all that matters. Nothing matters as long as you are brave enough or smart enough and get things done in the best way possible. For women of different diversities, just want to say that everything is possible.
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