Au40 Past Winners: Where Are They Now?
Now that the 2015 Austin Under 40 Awards finalists have been announced, and tickets for the event are on sale, get to know one of the prestigious award’s past winners: Mousumi Shaw.
In 2014 you won the award for the Business & Entrepreneurship category. Briefly, how would you describe what your job entails? As founder & CEO of Sikara & Co., a modern fusion jewelry brand, I get to wear many hats. Lately my job has been more about leading a vision for the company going forward as well as working with our leadership team to help them grow our wholesale, retail and online divisions. Since our jewelry is inspired by my travels around the world, I also get to wear the creative hat, working with creating new country collections based upon my travel photography. Finally, we really care about the communities our stores are in (Austin, Boston & San Francisco) so I love developing partnerships with non-profit organizations that are empowering others and / or building global awareness around a cause. As a young professional, what do you think are some of the biggest challenges for people looking to start their own business? Actually I believe the challenges have come down over the years, due to the advances of technology, making it easier for people to launch ideas. There are more incubators, business plan competitions, and tech platforms (like Square, Hootsuite, Hubspot, Shopify, Social Media platforms, etc.) to make start-up costs much lower. The flipside is that this brings on more competition. Therefore, the winner will be the company that can execute the best and attract the best talent. The Austin community means something different to each of us, what does it mean to you? I’ve lived in many cities from NYC to San Francisco and they each offer something amazing and unique. For me, Austin is one of the most collaborative communities. I have lived here for 10 years now, and it’s been amazing to see our city develop, grow and continue to be open to new ideas and residents. Also, our company has a retail storefront downtown in the 2nd St. District. It’s been a privilege to be part of the growing downtown. In Austin, people love to help each other out. There is a general optimistic energy that surrounds this city. It’s a fabulous place to live, do business and call home. Do you have a mentor? What has been one of the more important things that you’ve learned from them, or from the mentorship experience? I recently joined EO’s (Entrepreneur Organization) Ignite program. EO brings together entrepreneurs and offers a platform for discussion, mentorship and growth. With my Ignite program, we have a dedicated formal mentor whom we meet in a group setting monthly. My mentor, Jeff Carpenter, a successful software entrepreneur (founder of PeopleAdmin & AcademicWorks), has provided both personal and professional advice from his experiences. For entrepreneurs in the Austin area, I highly recommend checking out http://www.eonetwork.org/ In addition, I make time to mentor other entrepreneurs. I find that I learn just as much from them, as they do from me! What are you working on today? Any new projects on the horizon? There’s never a boring moment at Sikara, as the challenges and opportunities are always changing. This year, we officially launch our new Indonesian and Israel inspired jewelry collections. On the wholesale front, we are trying to partner with more museums and galleries as they showcase our jewelry as art. On the online front, we are expanding our website www.sikara.com and partnering with exciting companies like www.shoptiques.com. Finally with retail, we are hoping to test a few new markets.
Join us for the 2015 awards on March 7 and find out more at austinunder40.org