Vandana Suri, Founder of Taxshe
Taxshe is an all-woman cab service aiming to create jobs for thousands of women from marginalized communities in India. Founded by ex-investment banker, Vandana Suri, Taxshe trains women to drive and runs a cab service exclusively for women and children.
The business was spun out of the idea that having more women cab drivers on the road would empower women through mobility, safety, and employment opportunities. With a vision to end #MeToo for the next generation, Vandana started Taxshe as a cab service for women, by women. During the pandemic, she expanded the business to include a new vertical, Taxshe Breakfree, a new service teaching women to drive themselves.
Vandana won the World Bank’s SDGs and Her award in 2019, and is currently participating in Upaya and MIT D-Lab’s the 2021 Scale-Ups Accelerator. Taxshe is one of nine women-led businesses selected for the program because of their positive impact in creating jobs for people in India’s poorest communities. We’re honored to share our interview with Vandana in which we learned more about what inspired her to start her business, and what advice she has for other entrepreneurs.
What are the key issues your business addresses?
“The Ola Mobility Institute did a report on how many women feel unsafe on public transit. The number was a whopping 91% of women. If nearly all women are affected by this, that’s 50% of the population! It's on us today to change this. It's high time we really slap the system and shake things up!
“And another issue is that 53% of our kids in India face sexual abuse, according to Times of India. That’s either my child, or my neighbor's child—it’s as close as that. The effects of child sexual abuse go on very long, and it continues in their relationships with their partners and children. So if I nip this in the bud—right at the time when the child is the most vulnerable, on the way to school, out of the parent’s sight—somewhere along the way, I’m going to nip quite a few [situations of abuse.]"
What is your vision for the future?
“I'll put it in very simple terms. Eradicate #MeToo for the next generation. That's my vision. That’s what I want to see in my lifetime.
“And Tasxhe steps in with multiple solutions related to mobility. Earlier I was only thinking of a cab service, but today I’m thinking of multiple things! It could be women-driven cabs, it could be through training women to drive themselves. Whatever it takes to get safe mobility solutions for women and kids—this is what we are focusing on. “
What inspired you to start Taxshe?
“Rather than an inspiration, it was a trigger. Nirbhaya had really raked up all our senses of safety and security for women. A year after the Nirbhaya case, there was a rape in an Uber in Delhi. The next day, a headline came out saying that if there was a woman driving, this would not have happened.
“As women, we’ve been unsafe all our lives. Somehow we bottle it up and just accept it, but that headline that day really triggered me. That woman inside of me woke up. I thought, there should be women cabbies. Why are they not there? I can drive, I’m a woman, and I care about safety. And that was it!”
What did you do before starting your own company?
“I'm a single mom. 17 years back, I was deserted with a one-year-old child and 100 bucks in hand—that’s it! Suddenly I was totally lost. At that time, I was literally begging people for a job. I was willing to do anything, because the important factor was about getting food on the table.
“I knew people in the banking sector and I got my first banking job. After 3 months, I started growing in my career in banking, and realized that my skills were in building relationships. Soon I started taking on more clients with larger investments.”
Tell us a bit about the women you work with today.
“We work with women from marginalized communities. Most of the women we have hired and brought into the system are single moms. I'm a single mom, and I understand their constraints, and what they're facing. "We focus on this segment because many of them have faced a lot of abuse themselves in their lives. But they're helplessness is being converted into positive energy. Everyone talks to these marginalized women about money, but we talk to them about purpose in life. Their purpose with us is not to be a taxi driver—their purpose is to keep somebody safe, to be a changemaker—a hero.”
What changes does this work bring about for women?
“These women have never sat in a car in their life. So we designed our own internal courses to train them. We train the women on driving, but also on self-defense, and grooming, and confidence-building.
“This changes their attitudes in their own homes too. There was a lot of retaliation from the homes initially, because a woman who was stuck in her house earlier suddenly is empowered. She talks a different language. Her voice is louder. And when she has become empowered like this, she brings that change into her children. She makes sure that her children are proud of her.”
Are there any success stories that stand out?
“The stories that come out of the clients are heartwarming to me. We've had women who have become entrepreneurs with us, bought their own cars, invested. We've had women who put money into children's plans, saving for their college education. Some women have bought land. For a woman in that segment to buy land, it's like she's a queen!”
What motivates you to do this work everyday?
“The smiling faces of the kids we drive and knowing that they are safe... The woman cabbie who has done so much to keep these children safe... And the smiles from her kids when Mommy comes home driving her car, beaming with pride.
“The women clients we train at Breakfree—the twinkle in their eyes when they take a difficult U turn, the giggling girly conversations when we are training, the awesome winning stories they share in the client group—each day brings more motivation.
“When I realize that—although we are a small company—we've changed lives... that's what makes me go to work all the time and not give up on this.”
What challenges have you faced in the industry being a woman yourself?
“Loads of them. When women do entrepreneurship, especially of a social nature, then you’re seen as a charity case. That cutting-edge business acumen is not something people will give you due credit for. People only think, ‘ah, very good, she’s empowering women, she’s taking care of kids.’
“Secondly, funding was a very big issue, still to date. I don't think I've ever found a funder who's not impressed with what I do. But the money hasn't come yet. So that “wow” comes, but the ‘charity case’ comes along with it.
“I think being a woman entrepreneur, as far as business is concerned, is a benefit. While women are scared to get into entrepreneurship, trust me that the clients have greater trust in you as a woman. It gives us an edge. “
Did you always know you’d be an entrepreneur some day?
“I used to watch this program called Rajni on TV when I was small. Rajni was this woman who was trying to change society—it was all about women empowerment. I used to get very triggered when I would watch that program. My mom, on the other hand, would worry seeing me so super charged up. She knew society didn’t really like women who are full of fire. But inside me, I wanted to be in Rajani’s shoes—this woman who has the guts to change the world. So very early in life, I really wanted to be Rajani.”
How has Covid-19 impacted your business?
“I find opportunity in everything, you know? The pandemic actually threw another opportunity to us because people didn't want to use a cab service. They were scared about it. So women were stuck at home during the pandemic, and dependent on their husbands to take them out to drive. So we thought of this new vertical of training women to drive themselves. It's the next level of women empowerment, which we call Taxshe Breakfree.
“Interestingly, this also made a different career opportunity for women. There are a lot of women that lost their jobs during the pandemic. And at the age of 40 or 50, it's very difficult to get back into the work life. So some women started talking about setting up their own businesses. We converted these women into franchise partners with us, and then they would go and train our clients.”
What keeps you up at night
“Money… or no money. During the pandemic we borrowed a lot of money to pay our staff. Some loans that were given to us by incubators were supposed to be for technology but ended up paying salary as well. It kept the team alive for as long as it could—six to eight months—after which we had to close down our Delhi center. We had to let go of a lot of staff because of lack of work. Hopefully we will revive it again in time.
“As an entrepreneur, I am the main stakeholder of the company, and I'm in major debt right now. That really keeps me awake at night. So many lives have been positively impacted, but if the pandemic goes on much longer, how am I going to feed my own family? So this is a time about self-survival.”
What has been your biggest personal takeaway as an entrepreneur
“Entrepreneurs—while we are so excited about what we do, and our passion levels are high—also face very high levels of depression because we know we are facing this alone. It's a lonely journey. As entrepreneurs, we need to really stick together through this. We need a really honest ecosystem of entrepreneurs who really share their hearts. Because nobody else is going to understand this journey better than another entrepreneur.
“Entrepreneurs need to create that safe ecosystem. It's not always about looking good. You will have your breakdowns and it's important to accept that.”
Were there any big aha moments that you could share?
“I could write an entire book of them! The biggest “oh wow” moment for me was getting the World Bank award in Washington. I can still feel the blood rushing when I talk about this! I was running operations from a 50-ft office—a hole. And from there, I simply applied because some well-wisher sent me the link to the SDGs and Her World Bank awards. And I got selected from 1,200 applications from around the world. For me, walking into the Washington office of the World Bank was like, this is where the presidents of countries go. And there I was representing India for keeping children safe. It was a game changing experience for me.”
What would be your advice to another woman entrepreneur?
“I saw something recently that I must share. It goes, ‘if you think you're too small to create an impact, try sleeping with a mosquito at night.’
“As women I think we really shine. And it's time for women to know that they shine. Hog the limelight. I think this is the best time in India to be a woman, so stop discounting yourself. Everybody will tell you what not to do. So take all the inputs, throw out most of the trash, and do what you need to do.”
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