⚡️ Founder Diaries Vol 1 Ch 5: Avni Barman, Founder of Gen She - Leaving a $300K Salary Behind in Big Tech to Become a Full-Time Founder

We celebrate the unfiltered BTS stories of today’s founders - from their highest highs to the lowest lows and how they powered through it all… or didn’t.

👋 Introducing Avni Barman, Founder of Gen She - Leaving a $300K Salary Behind in Big Tech to Become a Full-Time Founder

Avni built an audience of 200K+ after returning all her investors' money. She’s starting with a media company, but there’s so much more coming…

Gen She is a media platform building and leading the next generation of female talent across tech, entrepreneurship, venture, and media. They have built a community of 200,000 women across IG, TikTok, newsletter, podcast, and job board.

The inception of Gen She wasn't born out of some calculated business plan but from a simple, powerful belief I had in college: "Women are phenomenal, yet starkly underserved in resources, community, and recognition."

I didn’t have ambitions to turn any of this into a company. My only goal was to bring together amazing women to support one another, inspire one another, and build something meaningful together. With this conviction, I started organizing a conference called “She Leads” which, to my astonishment, sold out in just two weeks. The overwhelming response was only my first taste of product validation, yet little did I know, it was also the beginning of a tumultuous journey filled with both exhilarating highs and soul-searching lows.

The early triumphs of "She Leads" were quickly tempered by the harsh realities of entrepreneurship.

A few weeks into the brand new venture I was so proud to launch, we received a cease and desist letter.

Turns out, “She Leads” was already trademarked, so we were forced to rebrand. This moment ultimately led us to the name we proudly stand by today: Gen She.

When I graduated college, I took my first product manager job in big tech at Atlassian, with a shiny salary. The dream some would say. $300K out of college is a crazy amount for anyone. But, I couldn’t let go of Gen She. I drew purpose from building this community every day. So every day that I would wake up to work at my “real adult job”, I would also wake up to work on Gen She.

We have really tried every single possible business model.

Gen She started off as a non-profit, which was its own maze of trials and errors. Then, the pandemic hit. The biggest curveball any new entrepreneur could face, especially an entrepreneur who was focused on hosting in-person events!

The onset of Covid propelled Gen She into the digital realm. We hosted our first virtual makeathon that brought in 16,000 participants globally. This success was a beacon of hope, but also a reality check.

Is this what I really wanted to build? Was I ready to dedicate years of my life to building events?

Not that I had started Gen She thinking it was becoming a company, but if I’m being honest, I was spending double the time building this new company than I was at my actual job. This exciting, shiny new job was turning a bit monotonous. I finished most of my Atlassian work in about four hours a day, then would spend the rest of the day and night working on Gen She. I loved the events we were building and the community we were supporting, but I wasn’t certain that orchestrating events was the right road to building truly impactful solutions for women in tech and entrepreneurship.

I needed a change of scenery and mindset.

In the middle of the pandemic, I decided it was time to pick up from San Francisco and move to New York.

This move was a dream fueled by childhood aspirations, and it also coincided with a personal crisis. Despite a successful stint as a Product Manager at Atlassian, I grappled with an overwhelming sense of emptiness. The vibrant city life and the freedom of remote work could not mask the growing realization of my mental turmoil. I was achieving professional success, yet I felt utterly purposeless, questioning my value and contribution to society every day.

This period of introspection was my first confrontation with depression, a shadow that loomed large.

The decision to quit my job and dive headfirst into Gen She was a leap of faith — a drastic measure to reclaim my sense of purpose. Turning Gen She into a for-profit model, I raised a small round of a few hundred thousand and first experimented with developing a software platform, aiming to bridge the gap for female tech talent. We signed partnerships with the hottest up-and-coming tech startups, growing the marketplace to 4,000 users within the first month of launch.

It was exciting to see the platform’s early success and financial viability, but I didn’t feel quite right with what we were building. It felt like we were just the middle people, creating more friction to hiring top female talent into big tech companies. I also had investors pressuring my every move. I didn’t realize until this moment that, with every dollar raised, comes a level of freedom removed. The realization that I was veering away from my core values and autonomy was a bitter pill to swallow.

I needed to reset and figure out what was right for both me and the company - return to my goal of creating a real, positive impact for women in tech.

I returned all my investors’ money and disbanded our team. No doubt, this was a low.

Depression was creeping back in. I needed a break. A chance to disconnect and heal.

What better way than to go on a soul-searching trip to Japan?

Turns out Japan wasn’t the “Eat, Pray, Love journey” I thought it would be, but when I returned, the real soul-searching serendipitously came about. Out of this lack of clarity, I thought to myself, “Why not start a podcast and see where it goes?”

As a founder who had just closed up another business model, I didn’t know what to do with my time, but I knew that talking things out has always helped me. To my surprise, the podcast started taking off. This foray into content creation unveiled a new passion and pathway. Since I had only been in big tech before this, I knew nothing about building media companies. I didn’t know what that model even looked like, let alone knew it was possible.

But, the growth of our community and the resonance of our message underscored the impact Gen She could have. I realized I didn’t have to build a tech platform or a SaaS company, I could build Gen She into a media empire dedicated to empowering women in tech & entrepreneurship.

Within 6 months, we grew to 50,000 newsletter subscribers and a few hundred thousand across socials.

Cultivating this amazing community has just been the first step. I’ve gained incredible inspiration from every Gen She member. This is only the beginning.

We already have a few companies we’re working on in stealth and we can’t wait to unveil what the future of Gen She looks like.

This journey stemming from building a non-profit in college to where Gen She is today has been the craziest ride and a painful process of self-discovery, but I regret none of it. Without each and every experience, I wouldn’t be the founder I am today, nor would Gen She exist in the way it does today, supporting hundreds of thousands of women worldwide.

The battles with depression, the constant tug-of-war between societal expectations and personal aspirations, and the quest for meaningful impact have shaped not only Gen She but also my understanding of resilience, purpose, and self-worth.

As Gen She continues to evolve, the journey underscores a universal truth: the path to success is paved with challenges, but it is our response to these challenges that defines our legacy.

This is not even close to the end of this journey for me. We have something big coming out soon…What is it? I guess you’ll have to follow along to see…

-Avni Barman

Learn more about Avni Barman and Generation She below:

Avni Barman: LinkedIn | Instagram | TikTok

Gen She: Website | LinkedIn | Instagram

If you know someone with a unique founder story who would like to share their BTS journey of founder life - the highest highs and the lowest lows - please feel free to refer them at diariesfounder@gmail.com.

— Michelle Kwok & Christine Lu Hong (The Founder Diaries Team)