I founded SheBuilds in 2022 because I had seen how much one opportunity, one mentor, or one welcoming community could change a person's direction in technology.
I did not begin with a large team or a perfect community strategy. I began with a simple belief: women should have more spaces where they can learn, build, ask questions, and be taken seriously.
That idea eventually grew into a global community of more than 10,000 members. The number is exciting, but the work behind it was always about individual people.
Building the community we needed
When people talk about community building, they often focus on followers, registrations, or Discord members. Those numbers matter, but they are not the community.
A community begins when someone asks a question and receives a useful answer. It grows when people return, help each other, collaborate on a project, and feel that their progress matters to the group.
We built SheBuilds across Discord and social platforms with that idea in mind. We facilitated peer mentorship, shared opportunities, encouraged collaboration, and kept creating reasons for members to participate beyond a single event.
Growth brings people into the room. Trust gives them a reason to stay.
Taking Code & Connect into different cities
Online communities are powerful, but meeting people in their own cities creates a different kind of connection. That became the idea behind our Code & Connect meetup series.
We represented SheBuilds in cities including Delhi and Varanasi, creating spaces where people could learn together, meet builders near them, and leave with connections that continued after the event.
Every city taught us to avoid copying the same event format blindly. The speakers, audience, topics, and local ecosystem were different. Community-first events begin by listening to the community in front of you.
Designing hackathons around inclusion
We organized initiatives such as Hackemon and the SheBuilds Hackathon. The goal was not only to host another competition. We wanted women-led ideas to receive dedicated attention, support, and prize pools.
That meant thinking about the entire experience: beginner-friendly communication, mentors, tracks, judging, partnerships, and what would happen after submissions closed.
One of the most meaningful outcomes was hearing from participants who felt more confident continuing in computer science after building their first project. A hackathon lasts a few days. Confidence can change the next few years.
Giving more women the microphone
SheBuilds was also about making stories visible. Through the Code & Candid podcast, I spoke with women founders, builders, and changemakers about the real journeys behind their work.
I wanted the conversations to offer more than inspiration. We focused on decisions, mistakes, lessons, and practical insights that another woman could use in her own career.
Representation becomes more useful when people can see not only that someone succeeded, but how they kept moving through uncertainty.
What founding SheBuilds taught me
Building SheBuilds taught me that community work is a long-term responsibility. Events create moments, but systems create continuity.
You need volunteers who feel ownership, partnerships that respect the audience, clear communication, feedback loops, and the patience to keep showing up when growth is quiet.
I started SheBuilds to create opportunities for women in technology. Along the way, it taught me how to lead, listen, organize, negotiate, communicate, and build something larger than my own work.