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"Our apps are designed to teach kids how to read, learn vocabulary, imbibe social emotional skills and more,” says New York based Shaan Kandawalla of her two-year-old enterprise PlayDate Digital (PDD) that creates high quality, interactive, mobile educational software for children allowing them "to explore, interact and have fun in a digital world.”
Citing PDD’s collaboration with one of their major clients, Hasbro, Kandawalla explains in her email responses to Parsiana how their toy brands like My Little Pony, Transformers, Play-Doh, Mr Potato Head are converted into digital apps. After studying the fictional characters and the story lines that appeal to kids, PDD’s educational experts and technical team spends five to six months to finalize an app that would indirectly teach children whilst they are interacting with  their favorite characters. They market the apps in conjunction with their partners, depending on word of mouth publicity and competitive pricing. Whilst some of their products "have far exceeded goals and expectations, some haven’t.” What has been particularly rewarding is "the reception that our apps have received from parents, teachers and kids,” she exults.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Her co-founder Steve Grieder who invested $350,000 (Rs 23,100,000) in PDD "was the person who encouraged me to start PlayDate Digital and has partnered and supported me in this venture since the beginning,” appreciates Kandawalla, having earlier worked with Grieder when she was vice president of Digital and Consumer Products at Nickelodeon. Her husband Shaun Mirza she considers her "constant sounding board for everything we do” and attributes her success to him. Functioning as CEO of this venture as also a mother to two-and-a-half- year-old Riah and three-month old Zane, Kandawalla feels she is holding onto two "full-time jobs… trying to do it all.” Riah, serving as her mother’s "little app tester at home makes sure I know what works and what doesn’t.”
"Only three percent of tech start-ups are founded by women… Nearly a third of female tech entrepreneurs reported facing ‘dismissive attitudes’ from their colleagues,” noted a write-up on Kandawalla by Colleen DeBaise in The New York Times. The article further quotes Kandawalla as stating that PDD’s growth has averaged 70% a quarter and is on track to produce one million dollars in revenue this year. Kandawalla commented to Parsiana, "We are a small startup. We are playing in the same sandbox as some of the largest media companies and publishers… We have to be really disciplined to ensure that we are spending every dollar effectively and finding innovative ways to reach our audience.”
Having grown up in Karachi and studied at the Karachi Grammar School, Kandawalla subsequently graduated from Wellesley College in Massachusetts, USA and earned her MBA from Harvard Business School. Before Nickelodeon she had worked in brand management for Hasbro and in the Investment Management and Capital Markets Group at Goldman Sachs. "I had always worked for large corporations so becoming an entrepreneur (in her mid-30s) was new for me,” she admits. Along the way she has learnt to be resourceful and the importance of finding the right partners – "people who will support you through ups and downs and who share the same vision.”
It is from her grandmother Frainy Captain who recently passed away at the age of 95 that Kandawalla "learnt the value of hard work, perseverance and the courage to pursue something you believe in,” says Kandawalla, adding, "She was my role model and an entrepreneur in every sense of the word. With a degree in chemistry and no formal business training she set up a chemical manufacturing business in Pakistan. More than 60 years later she was still involved in the strategic direction of the company. Not only did she defy all gender and social norms but did it with grace which won her the respect of everyone around her.” Daughter of Darius and Spenta Kandawalla, Shaan has a sister Tushna Kandawalla Mirza and is appreciative that her father has four sisters and "we are nine cousins (all women) all of whom grew up together and are very close.” A former national level swimmer she qualified for the 1996 Olympics but was not permitted to compete because Pakistani officials then objected to a woman appearing in public wearing a swimsuit.
"My community and religion have been an important part of my upbringing and I am very proud to be a Zoroastrian,” affirms Shaan. Considering herself a liberal who believes that children of interfaith marriages should be accepted into the faith, she specifies, "I think religion is a personal matter so I don’t like to judge anyone for their beliefs.”  She views the Parsi Zoroastrian community as "one of the most entrepreneurial communities in the world and I have, since an early age, been so amazed by its achievements. It has shown me that it is possible to shine even when one is in such a minority.”