The network effect, reimagined, for women

NETFLIX’S THE BOLD TYPE follows the journey of three friends — Jane Sloan, Sutton Brady, and Kat Edison — at a women’s magazine, exploring career, love, and life in NYC. Their careers are often propelled not by formal processes but by relationships. A mentor takes a chance on them. A colleague makes an introduction. A difficult problem is solved through a conversation rather than an application. The show portrays a truth many women recognise: talent matters, but access matters, too. For long, access has been unevenly distributed. Informal networks — dinner conversations, lunch meetings, golf outings — have mostly been a boys’ club, less accessible to women. As more women take on leadership roles and venture into entrepreneurship, dedicated networks are emerging to bridge that gap. The most successful women’s networking platforms today are no longer merely helping women exchange business cards. They are creating talent ecosystems, entrepreneurial communities, and even access to policymakers and investors. “I believe every entrepreneur needs to network, especially women,” says Charlotte Keenan, global head of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women programme. Her remark reflects a challenge many women leaders identify with. Despite recognising the value of networks, women often struggle to find time to build them. “Women are often balancing familial and societal responsibilities, which can come at the expense of building their professional networks,” Keenan adds. That reality sounds familiar to Madhura DasGupta Sinha, founder and CEO of Aspire For Her, which has built around 29 communities spanning women in technology, AI, fintech, banking, e-commerce, leadership, and entrepreneurship. The objective, she says, is not only to create support groups but also to facilitate accessibility and fuel aspirations. “Our interest in building women’s communities is to make industries and careers more aspirational for women.” The emphasis on aspiration is significant. Women cannot pursue opportunities they cannot see. That’s why Aspire For Her brings together early-career professionals, returning women professionals, and senior leaders within a common ecosystem. The idea is to expose women to role models, mentors, and opportunities at every stage of their careers. Network becomes imperative as it ensures one has access to opportunities, growth, and partnerships, says Hitesh Gossain, former CEO, Percept. “In the case of women, there are two-three specific cases. One is the return to career scenario. Then there’s a sheer disparity in the gender ratio in the competitive ecosystem... always skewed in favour of men. Hence, women have a basic challenge of access in the case of outreach,” he says. The importance of visibility is echoed by Himanshu Nivsarkar, head of CSR and ESG at Kotak Mahindra Bank. The bank’s Kotak Bizlabs supports the Women Startup Program at NSRCEL, the startup incubator hub at IIM Bangalore. “When you see people in positions of power, it automatically gives you confidence,” says Nivsarkar. “It is creating a community of people you are interacting with, people you are seeing — confident women working there.” For many aspiring founders, seeing other women build and scale businesses can be as important as access to capital itself. Perhaps the most powerful evidence of how networks change lives lies in the stories of individual women. Nivsarkar recalls meeting a participant in a Kotak-backed entrepreneurship programme. Before entering the programme, her family did not take her seriously. “After I got into the programme, people started looking at me differently,” she told him. Later, when she secured grant funding through the programme, family support followed. They felt that if she’s been able to raise money, she must be doing something right. The experience, says Nivsarkar, showed how credibility gained through a trusted network can sometimes transform perceptions at home before it does at the business level. Women Inspiring Network (WIN), founded by Stuti Jalan, approaches the challenge differently. Over the years, WIN has built a community of roughly 10,000 women leaders across sectors and geographies. But scale, Jalan argues, is only one part of the equation. “The network effect is growing. It is about the right network effect, and not just networking. It needs to be deeper.” That distinction is defining the evolution of women’s networks. Traditional networking has often been measured by the number of contacts formed. But today, communities are focussed on outcomes. For Goldman Sachs, those outcomes are visible in the numbers. “Around 58% of 10,000 Women graduates go on to do business with other women they meet through the programme,” says Keenan. Networking is an economic multiplier, statistics show. Women are not merely exchanging notes. They are becoming customers, suppliers, collaborators, and strategic partners. “We are seeing more 10,000 Women graduates take on roles on each other’s boards and help one another in more formal business roles,” Keenan says. The support extends to hiring recommendations, business referrals, and even discussions around AI adoption. At Aspire For Her, similar outcomes are visible through industry-focussed communities. One of the most successful examples is a partnership with Myntra to build an e-commerce community. “When Myntra told me that they wanted to create a community of women interested in e-commerce, we knew how to create that community via our model,” says DasGupta Sinha. The need emerged from a simple problem. “People don’t understand what e-commerce careers are all about,” she adds. The solution was to create a structured ecosystem where women could hear from company leaders, entrepreneurs, and mentors, while also gaining access to opportunities. Eventually, the initiative expanded beyond employment to entrepreneurship. Through Myntra’s MynShakti programme, women entrepreneurs receive guidance on compliance, onboarding requirements, and business processes required to sell on the platform. “Myntra itself mentors these women entrepreneurs to get them onboarded,” says DasGupta Sinha. The example highlights a broader shift in the purpose of women’s networks. They are not just creating conversations. They are creating pathways. For Jalan, some of the most powerful examples involve access. At a WIN event attended by Jayant Chaudhary, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur Monica Shukla was able to connect with policymakers whose support could help her scale her beekeeping enterprise. The encounter reinforced Jalan’s belief that successful networks often create value through introductions. “Someone who has a specific need just wants to be connected to the right person, and if I have the ability to provide that, why not?” The same principle has helped executives and founders access opportunities that may have remained out of reach otherwise. For instance, a senior executive who attended a WIN event as a participant was later invited to moderate a high-profile leadership discussion, increasing her visibility and professional connections. While access, visibility, and credibility are becoming as important as mentorship, technology is beginning to reshape how these connections are made. “The idea is to develop this into a network effect, and I have not heard about anyone doing this for women through AI,” says Jalan. WIN is developing an AI-enabled platform designed to help women identify mentors, investors, policymakers, and industry experts from within the network. The ambition reflects a wider trend. Networking is becoming less about coincidence and more about planning. “If you want to know what’s happening in the women’s space, and the network is giving you access to someone to write to or email, you would want to use it,” adds Jalan. But perhaps, the most important contribution of women’s networks lies beyond business outcomes — creating communities of support. Keenan often sees women entrepreneurs arrive at Goldman Sachs’ programmes anxious about leaving their businesses behind. Many discover that stepping away creates space for strategic thinking and relationship building. The results endure long after the programme ends. “They celebrate each other’s successes, and serve as that voice to champion one another,” she says. The same mindset emerged among members of Aspire For Her’s Not Alone community, launched for women who lost primary caregivers during the pandemic. There, mentorship became something much deeper than career guidance. “The mentors almost became like extended family members,” says DasGupta Sinha. But Percept's Gossain has a slightly different take. “Some cohorts make a lot of sense... You can actually talk, and people will understand your challenges. But that’s not a real-world network. That’s a high-quality support group,” he says. Women-only networks also serve another purpose. They help founders navigate challenges that are often unique to women. “Women are balancing multiple things,” says Nivsarkar. “Having a cohort helps them learn from each other on those aspects.” Beyond business advice, communities also become spaces where women exchange solutions on balancing caregiving responsibilities, entrepreneurship, and professional growth. This support often creates a ripple effect. “About 80% of graduates go on to mentor other female entrepreneurs and pay it forward,” says Keenan. The statistic captures the most important characteristic of women’s networks. Unlike traditional networking, which often focusses on individual advancement, these communities operate through collective growth. A founder becomes a mentor. A mentor becomes an investor. One entrepreneur opens doors for another. The result: a cycle of opportunity creation. Nivsarkar says he is already seeing this dynamic emerge among women entrepreneurs supported through NSRCEL. “We now have 600-plus women entrepreneurs,” he says. “I’m already seeing a situation where the older cohort of women is helping out the new people who are joining.” The long-term ambition, he adds, is for successful founders from the programme to turn mentors, creating a self-sustaining ecosystem. Women’s networking platforms are, therefore, evolving into talent pipelines for companies, marketplaces for entrepreneurs, mentoring ecosystems for professionals, and support systems for women navigating complex careers. Or, as DasGupta Sinha puts it while describing the architecture behind Aspire For Her’s communities: “This is how we build communities.” The phrase sounds simple, but behind it lies a larger transformation — one in which women’s networks are no longer secondary to professional success. They are a part of the infrastructure that makes that success possible.

The network effect, reimagined, for women

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