Company: ContextMedia
Company Description: ContextMedia, founded by Shradha Agarwal & Rishi Shah in 2006, is a rapidly growing Chicago based company that helps more than 40 million patients better mangage their chronic conditions each year through interactive media networks deployed in more than 2,400 hospitals and physician practices across all 50 states. The company is a recognized leader in Chicago's startup and media ecosystem.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Young Female Entrepreneur of the Year

Nomination Title: Shradha Agarwal, President & Chief Strategy Officer

Describe for the judges the activities and accomplishments of the nominated entrepreneur since the beginning of July last year (up to 500 words):

I’m delighted to nominate my co-founder, Shradha Agarwal, for this prestigious recognition.

She amazes all of us who work with her daily with her capacity to move mountains each hour and spontaneously create a culture that improves the work of everyone around her.

Today, at 27, Shradha runs ContextMedia (a company she co-founded in 2006), is very engaged philanthropically as an advisor to numerous non-profits, and in December of 2011, she co-founded Jumpstart Capital, a seed stage venture capital firm, which has already made investments in more than a dozen Chicago-based start-ups such as Buzz Referrals, StyleSeek and BucketFeet. In 2012, she also became the youngest investor in Chicago’s newest angel fund, FireStarter!

Simultaneously, since July of 2011, Shradha founded ContextMedia’s New York City office to build a new media sales organization from the ground up. In its first year, this group has already sold into more than 16 of the top 20 global medical and pharmaceutical manufacturers and produced over $20 million in revenue.

But Shradha’s been a founder since she was born. In fourth grade, she started an “underground library” by using her allowance to purchase new books the school library didn’t have and loaning them out at a nickel a day. Ever the entrepreneur, she built an inventory of more than 300 books all before she turned ten! In eighth grade, she started a science club that would install complex electricity grids into their younger peers dollhouses for a small fee.

She came to Northwestern to study journalism but soon co-founded the Northwestern Business Review, a print publication distributed to more than sixty college campuses globally focusing on businesses that did well financially by doing good socially, and where she managed a staff of more than 60 writers and designers. But not before founding a dance troupe doing contemporary Indian dance, during the first quarter of her freshman year!

At ContextMedia, a company that raced to more than $10MM in annual EBITDA in its first six years, Shradha has built the unique culture and hiring processes which are the backbone of the company. In 2011, she launched a new mobile media division with the award-winning Nutrition Tip of the Day Program, a custom daily tip delivered to people living with conditions requiring lifestyle change.

Shradha is an advisor to the Illinois Institute of Entrepreneurship Education and a frequent speaker at Northwestern University, the SBA Small Business & Entrepreneurship Program and at entrepreneurship, marketing and technology events nationwide.

Having coined the term “for-benefit” in 2006 at NBR, Shradha is exactly the kind of leader we need in today’s world – able to marry positive social impact and profit, without compromise, at every turn and corner of her life.

She’s most deserving of this recognition and I know she’ll inspire thousands of other young women and men to move their mountains, too.

Provide a brief biography of the nominated entrepreneur (up to 100 words):

Shradha Agarwal serves as President & Chief Strategy Officer of ContextMedia. Having co-founded the company in 2006, she now spends her time leading the company’s product development, commercialization & organizational growth. Shradha also serves as Managing Director of JumpStart Capital, a seed stage venture capital firm she co-founded in late 2011, and participates on numerous civic, non-profit and emerging company boards. She often speaks to students at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management & the University of Chicago.