What Sairee Chahal teaches about privacy-first marketing

Everything we do has to benefit women directly. They have to gain from it. They either get advice or money or opportunities or just a lot of fun. So Sairi, you've built this wonderful company called Shiroz, which is the largest platform for women. Take us through your journey. Well, I've always believed that internet can be more powerful for women. And I think we are in a good time in India where I think internet has grown and women's aspirations have grown. And our company is really a product of that whole phenomena.

What we really built at Shiroz is a safe space. It's a safe space for women to find their me space, their growth journeys, and to really find a way to their dreams. So Shiroz is built as a network of communities of very, very diverse nature. And all of these communities fulfill one of the three things. Either they are what we call counseling communities, which means there's advice, there's information you can use. There's creativity, which means you can express yourself, you can build your own brand, sub-brand.

You can share your content, you can share your videos, you can talk about what you do as a professional, whether you're a yoga teacher or a travel writer. And third is you can transact. You can transact with your peers, you can find work with other companies, you can build your own business, you can do your own startup. So all things that matter to women have been built in format of, you can call it Reddit. So in some ways we started as Reddit for women. And slowly as other people started using the platform more and more, we became WeChat for women.

Right. Essentially. But at the end of the day, the thesis of the company is very, very simple. Everything we do has to benefit women directly. They have to gain from it. They either get advice or money or opportunities or just a lot of fun. So you're everything that empowers women. Yes. Right. So what are your revenue streams, I.D.? So our revenue streams are pretty early. We monetize via enterprise models today. Right. And essentially we are the gateway for companies to reach out to women, both as an audience, two as stakeholders,

and three as gig workers or as workforce. Right. A big part of what we do is we co-curate properties with brands, which are, again, at a tech level, allowing them mini program versions of what needs to be done. So for example, opening a bank account. Right. So really treating it like an ecosystem where once integrated, brands have sheroes as a channel. Right. And third is peer-to-peer, which is a new revenue stream for us. And we are just in very early stages of piloting it. And the intent is to test it before we sort of open it out at a mega scale.

So also, what has your growth strategy been? So our growth strategy been very, very simple. We are, I think, one of the few platforms that's not bought their way into growth. Okay. We are 90% organic users. Right. And what that means is the first investment we made was in trust and safety. Okay. You know, and that was a main growth trigger for us. And then giving more and more tools to our users to be able to get value out of the platform. Right. And once a user becomes what we call a power user, they actually become your biggest ambassador.

You know, a power user is equal to 500 users. Right. And that's been at core of our strategy. So that is how you add users. That's how we add users. Actually, users add users. So that is the core of your marketing strategy. That is the core of our strategy. The truth is you can't be a network if you don't have network effects. Right. And that's what we've been driving. And of course, we've been creating a lot of partnerships in process as we grow this whole ecosystem. And that's been part of the growth strategy.

Currently, you have a user base of 15 million women. Yes. How do brands collaborate with you? So brands work with us to really, you know, find some core objectives that they can fulfill via the platform. So, for example, we work with Tinder. And one of the core issues around Tinder is engagement around Tinder. To say issues, difficult issues of consent, sex, marriage, dating, which are very hard to have an audience with. A women-only audience talking about this whole story.

So, every afternoon, Tinder hosts a 3 o'clock debate on Shiroz, which is user-run. And Tinder gets to build a lot of consumer insights, which is otherwise hard to generate. And another thing, what is your advice for marketers who target women? I think one, marketers really need to get to the soul of the user. Right. You know, and once a user trusts you, they will stay with you way longer. Right. You know, retention is the new acquisition. Yeah.

And I think if for a moment, marketers thought about retention, the whole perspective of marketing would change. Right. You know, users would feel less chased and less hounded by, you know, campaigns per se. I think the real cream of great marketing lies in retention and engagement and being able to create a participative discourse. Right. You know, if a user is either creating content for you, is sharing honest feedback with you, or is part of your brand. The brand is part of their life. Right. Then you've done a good job. Yeah.

But if it continues to be this exercise where, you know, the users… Continuously chasing. Yeah. You're constantly chasing. Right. So the last question, Sairi. Running Shiro's must be a hectic business. How do you unwind? Well, yoga. Yoga, music, long walks. Right. Books. Yeah. Friends, I think. Yeah. But honestly, I think running Shiro's is not really stressful, stressful. It's part of who I am. Yeah. And I think it's totally done with a lot of love. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.