24 Power of Ideas THE ECONOMIC TIMES | MUMBAI | FRIDAY | 26 FEBRUARY 2016 The Hero Mentors Social-impact startups are witnessing heightened interest from successful entrepreneurs and CXOs of large corporations, who are happy to participate as mentors trading their experience and wisdom for the joy of ‘giving,’ finds Shonali Advani hen Atul Satija, ex- WHY Net worth and the country COMMON CHALLENGES FOR assets in excess of chief revenue officer at HEALTHCARE CXOS ARE Genuine belief SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS mobile marketing firm TOP requirements that social impact WInMobi, discussed his AREAS EMPLOYABILITY/ ENGAGING Desire to help the can happen Support system to Thinking scale WHAT MENTEES plans to start a social- LIVELIHOODS underprivileged Talent churn: research viability and growth with LOOK FOR IN impact venture with a former Google MENTORS ARE WITH SOCIAL of idea is under impact or those not as Younger entrepre- colleague, Hugo Barra, the response SANITATION developed A MENTOR VENTURES fortunate as them neurs launching Reaching a net- took him by surprise. “You are actu- STEPPING Skills and experience ally allowing me to live my giving life IN TO DRIVE EDUCATION Keenness to social ventures Limited talent pool work outside of vicariously through you,” Barra, who address real requiring because of lower the social impact Active contribution and is now vice president-international at CHANGE CLEAN ENERGY problems plaguing mentoring paying capacity ecosystem association with the Chinese phone-maker Xiaomi, told enterprise¬ advice or Satija. opening new doors As Satija shared plans for his ven- good, you need to scale and grow to in- Cofounder of bus-ticketing platform redBus dived into Personal support ture, The/Nudge Foundation, with crease impact,” said Sama. others in his network he found the One of Satija’s mentors—the India the social arena after he sold his company to Subject matter expertise theme recurring. “I realised everyone CEO of a global consultancy who is Naspers Group in 2013. Inspired by the Sandbox Empathy for the cause has a side to them that wants to con- to join The/Nudge’s advisory board model adopted by Hubli-based Deshpande tribute and give back but they don’t (Satija declined to identify him)— Foundation, Sama set up Kakatiya Sandbox in have the right avenue,” said Satija. helped him think of employee compen- Nizamabad about 2 years ago. The model brings The/Nudge focuses on poverty aliena- sation differently. “You need 10 people principles of entrepreneurship to social causes, tion through skill development. for your central and core team. If you thereby fostering innovation. Nizamabad’s Sand- Satija employed Barra’s experience start taking market salaries you don’t box has implemented 850 projects in the past year, have a filter for passion and connectiv- in technology, scale and brand-build- with about 1,050 leaders involved ing to see “how we can build The/ ity with your cause,” Satija quotes this Nudge as a consumer brand and create person as saying. Taking his advice, Founder of Kakatiya Sandbox an ecosystem around it.” Satija hired people who were willing PHANINDRA SAMA, The/Nudge has attracted several to forgo salaries for months. “They are illustrious folks from the business so passionate,” he said. world—Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar In many ways, it’s the changing Sharma; InMobi founder Naveen face of the social entrepreneur that’s Tewari; InMobi chief financial officer creating the need for expert mentors. Manish Dugar; Arun Seth, ex-chair- “Today, there are entrepreneurs from man of British Telecom; Pramath technology or banking backgrounds Sinha, founding dean of Indian School trying to solve a social problem, unlike of Business; and Neeraj Arora, vice earlier where they came from NGOs president at WhatsApp—to its advi- and social backgrounds,” said Vineet sory board. Rai, CEO of Aavishkaar Ventures, an An increasing number of successful early-stage venture fund that invests entrepreneurs and corporate CXOs in social businesses. are engaging with change-makers, Mentors with startup or other spe- either as individuals or through cialized backgrounds also help these structured programmes such as ventures raise money from investors. those at popular such incubators “We don’t have our ‘Facebook’ or our Founder of ecommerce company The founder of mobile marketing company and networks—Villgro, National ‘Uber’—we’re still not mainstream,” Paytm and investor in early stage InMobi had a long association with philan- Entrepreneurship Network, Ashoka, Warrier said. Such mentors help ex- mobile startups through One97 Mo- thropy and social causes before he was hit Ennovent, Intellecap and Dasra— pand a social-impact entrepreneur’s bility Fund, now also serves on the by entrepreneurial acclaim. Tewari is also the bringing a new participative aspect to horizons, establish the big picture, ‘giving.’ bring technical and industry exper- advisory board of The/Nudge founder of India School Fund, a US¬based Pooja Warrier, director of UnLtd tise, and, importantly, “provide fun- Foundation. Sharma brings with non¬profit he started with Harvard Business India, an incubator for social-impact damental business skills needed to him the experience of building star- School Alumni to set up schools in rural India entrepreneurs, says, “There are more build their organisations on a strong tups, talent, culture, thinking scale, in 2015. The organisation has set up two senior entrepreneurs (now), even re- sustainable path,” said Ajay Shankar, as well as building aspirations schools in Uttar Pradesh educating about ally high-profile individuals, who are ex-managing director of Caterpillar around the organisations at the 350 children so far. Tewari also mentored willing to give their time as part of a Engineering Design Center. Shankar non¬profit that seeks to alienate former colleague Atul Satija from InMobi more structured engagement, like is a mentor to the founders of poverty through skill development. with his NGO The/Nudge Foundation and through Villgro’s Nirgandh, a Delhi-based firm that’s serves on the advisory board. mentorship pro- building bio-digester toilets for areas In many gramme. Earlier, where municipal water, sewage and VIJAY SHEKHAR SHARMA, NAVEEN TEWARI, ways, it’s the it used to be a lot electricity are absent. Founder of Paytm Founder of InMobi changing face more ad hoc, for Not to forget that the challenges for of the social instance through social ventures are vastly unique. “In entrepreneur organisations social enterprises the need is clear, the that’s creating like TiE.” Generic demand is not,” said K L Mukesh, who After a two-decade career in the investment management busi- the need mentors, Warrier is a part of social incubator Villgro’s ness and at the helm of affairs at private equity firm Chrysalis for expert said, have given mentoring panel after selling his Capital, Dhawan setup CSF in 2012, a philanthropic funding and mentors way to sectoral or healthcare company Akeso to Apollo capacity-building organisation, making early and growth stage functional experts. Group. investments in education-focused social enterprises. Apart “There’s everyone from marketing ex- “Social problems, like infant mortali- from this he serves on the board of several non-profits includ- perts to honey production experts (as ty, are (much bigger than) the ones you ing Akanksha Foundation, 3.2.1 Education Foundation, Teach mentors),” she said. have in commercial startups,” said For India, Centre for Civil Society, Janaagraha, India School Phanindra Sama, founder of red- Mukesh. “They are seriously more Leadership Institute and Bharti Foundation. As part of his role, Bus, is now active in the social-impact difficult, which inherently makes it a space after selling his bus aggrega- lot more interesting as well.”. he advises these organisations on strategic visions for growth tor startup to South Africa’s Naspers and scaling the impact of their work. Group three years ago. “I was always fascinated by how people dedicate [email protected] ASHISH DHAWAN, their lives to non-profits, as at end of Founder of Central Square Foundation (CSF) it there’s no wealth-creation, unlike for us,” Sama said. “How do they do it ILLUSTRATION: ANIRBAN BORA without thinking of families, educa- GRAPHIC: YOGEESH MH tion.” So, along with Raju Reddy, founder of IT services firm Sierra Atlantic, Sama set up Kakatiya Sandbox in Telangana’s Nizamabad, their home- town, to build an ecosystem for long- term social impact. It was inspired by the Hubli Sandbox, an innova- tion hub to find scalable solutions to real-world problems and part of the Deshpande Foundation, a non-profit founded by venture capitalist Gururaj Deshpande. Sama also actively men- tors companies such as agri-tech star- tup CropEx Technology and NextGen PMS, which advises companies on managing their carbon footprint. Richa Bajpai, cofounder of NextGen, said having someone like Sama in- volved, also as an investor, helped her firm focus better on scaling up. “Phanindra always talked about be- ing a market leader. He said scale yourself so much so that if there is a second competition the gap is more than 80%,” she said. Bajpai said Sama helped the com- pany streamline its pricing and hire senior executives by highlighting NextGen’s big picture vision. The com- pany was also able to hire people from premier institutions such as Stanford and INSEAD. “Even if you are doing In Brief EduBridge A Smart Manufacturing Unit, Made in India Learning Raises one along with Raghu Shenoy, a friend per, including instructions to (ma- After India Entry, of his brother-in-law. Thus began the chine) operators and inspectors. The $2.5 million Hot Startup journey of Think7, a shop-floor man- intention was to go paperless. When agement solutions startup. Think7 came up, it was something like Duolingo Eyes Our Bureau Think7 “I didn’t find anything when I was connecting design office to shop floor looking for a solution.