Neelima Parasker
CEO, SnapIT Solutions
Responsibilities: Parasker is responsible for all business decisions for SnapIT, including setting goals and growth strategies, identifying client needs, engaging the appropriate technical architect to lead projects, and overseeing projects, client satisfaction and all hiring decisions.
Turning point: Parasker founded SnapIT Solutions with a vision to help develop IT-skilled individuals from diverse and underestimated communities, including women. She said the pool of individuals who understood how the opportunity could affect their futures and what resources were available to help them was small.
“There started my journey to dig deeper into identifying the sources and connecting these dots to form a faster and reliable path,” Parasker said. “Instead of competing with established small businesses and major corporations who are working to hire the same set of individuals in the existing pool of IT individuals, we are able to create our own talent pipeline and incubate these resources from a pool of communities that were not included previously.”
Toughest challenge: Parasker had no previous experience starting or operating a business and limited access to capital. Being a women and a minority didn’t make things any easier, she said.
“Doing deeper research of the market, working to find partners who understand the vision of SnapIT and forming win-win business agreements led to the trust and confidence needed to grow SnapIT. Although this is my toughest challenge, it truly gave me a great opportunity to learn more about myself and my abilities.”
Biggest accomplishment: Overcoming those challenges allowed Parasker to create job opportunities for young adults who are intelligent and hardworking but who otherwise would find it tough or financially challenging to enter the IT industry.
Lesson learned: “Failure can be converted into steppingstones for a better career/business direction if handled with positive attitude and consistent effort.”
Inspiration: Parasker said her 12-year-old daughter is her inspiration.
“I’m strongly motivated to create an ecosystem with equal opportunity for her and other girls to be the best versions of themselves without being subjected to biases from society.”
— David Mitchell
