Recently, our team was honoured to be a part of the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Summit held by CIIE and Chandigarh Angel Network at SD College, Chandigarh. Invited to pitch our business story in front of an esteemed jury of eminent personalities and investors from the town, also in audience were hundreds of budding student entrepreneurs. The session was thoughtfully moderated bringing many aspects of starting-up to the fore, which in the din of raising money or chasing the unicorn dream are often side lined.

Contrary to popular opinion, starting up is the riskiest and hardest endeavour an individual can ever take up in his/her life. Running a marathon, hitting a double century or landing a promotion are all trainable and do-able tasks with the probability to succeed proportional to the efforts put in. Starting up however is unlike any of them. The closest you could draw a similarity to it is aiming for Mars, quite literary. Remember, Tesla!!

YouCare too is a similar venture which started up due to a problem the founders faced while searching for a professional yet affordable caregiver for their loved ones. Initially  a blog, Youcare has grown to now having trained over 3000 workers, landing jobs for over 100 unemployed workers, fulfilling requirement of close to 500 families and in all, touching the lives of over 4000 people so far in just 2 years.

What made us do it? What kept us going on? Two things primarily:

a. A desire to do meaningful work. Beyond the din of six figured salaries and owing high rise apartments, a genuine need to touch other lives, to do what was considered not do-able and to be a part of something larger than yourself.

b. To work with people who cared about a common cause. Making caregiving a vocation for the masses and an occupation for millions to earn a decent living out of is something that we as a team deeply care about. Ensuring families can hire a caregiver at the click of a button is what keeps us passionate and charged up.

For YouCare, bringing Women to the forefront is a goal. No nation has ever succeeded without enabling its women to take the reins. Margaret Thatcher did it for UK, Angela Merkel is still doing it for Germany and not so long ago, Indira Gandhi ensured atleast the trains were running on time :). By ensuring women are trained and provided with jobs, YouCare is ensuring caregiving is accepted as a noble profession in the future and helps millions Ensure good upbringing for their children. Educating our caregivers to ensure high self esteem and confidence in them is something we at YouCare are deeply passionate about..

How our journey unfolds is a matter of time. What we can ensure during this time is what our attitude looks like and how much fun we are having while at it. As Victor Frankl has put it: