Q: This is the first day of HBS. Introduce yourself to your section mates. 6 days to go.
A: I'm not giving details around my background because it's the first day at HBS and I want to know if this is interesting and if you'd want to sit beside this person in class.
I had just landed in Berlin, alone and unprepared. It had been raining and I didn't have a map or a working phone. I took off from the airport, mistakenly in the wrong direction, on a wrong bus. A few minutes later, I smiled. In being lost in a new city, I found comfort in the realization that the prospect of possibilities can be exciting if I decided not to be intimidated by it. Recently our 7 member team had been told that the Debt business that we had built over the last few years - one relationship at a time, was no longer going to be funded by (XX), our parent company at the time. The news came at a time when growth was accelerating; we were finalizing plans to deploy additional capital as fast as we prudently could.
Through the next 15 months, the team successfully executed a management buyout and brought in (big investor) as the majority investor. In this journey from (Company 1) to (New company), from being part of a large global organization with a 30 year legacy to a new brand whose reputation relied only on the individuals in the team, I found my inspiration - to embody the spirit of a startup - humble in glory, agile when momentum is solid and pragmatic yet unwavering when the going gets tough.
Startups often have no assets or success track record which is what makes lending to these early stage ventures counter-intuitive and challenging. This etched in me an important lesson - to look beyond past performance or the lack of it when assessing potential and to give credence to vision. Enabling entrepreneurship has also been a gratifying experience for its eventual impact on the society. When new products, services or organized markets are created by these startups, it results in jobs, commerce and prosperity too and I am thrilled to have made a contribution, in my own way.
My reverence for entrepreneurship took form when alongside college I assisted my father at his niche advisory firm that specializes in rehabilitating sick industries. It is the best formative training I could have had on business realities for it exposed me to the troughs a business could find itself in and how one bounces back from failure.
I have spent the last four years working alongside entrepreneurs and investors who are disrupting the way we do everyday things in India - in how we shop or pay or learn or commute. I have had a great ringside seat at the startup gala in India but I am now keen to get involved more closely and strategically with innovation across the world as an early stage equity investor. I see Harvard Business School as the accelerator that will launch me into the next phase of my career and growth, and the eminent faculty here as my mentors. I am excited about the prospect of undergoing this stimulating intellectual journey with all of you, learning from your brilliant and diverse experiences in class and outside, and sharing my perspective along the way.
A: I'm not giving details around my background because it's the first day at HBS and I want to know if this is interesting and if you'd want to sit beside this person in class.
I had just landed in Berlin, alone and unprepared. It had been raining and I didn't have a map or a working phone. I took off from the airport, mistakenly in the wrong direction, on a wrong bus. A few minutes later, I smiled. In being lost in a new city, I found comfort in the realization that the prospect of possibilities can be exciting if I decided not to be intimidated by it. Recently our 7 member team had been told that the Debt business that we had built over the last few years - one relationship at a time, was no longer going to be funded by (XX), our parent company at the time. The news came at a time when growth was accelerating; we were finalizing plans to deploy additional capital as fast as we prudently could.
Through the next 15 months, the team successfully executed a management buyout and brought in (big investor) as the majority investor. In this journey from (Company 1) to (New company), from being part of a large global organization with a 30 year legacy to a new brand whose reputation relied only on the individuals in the team, I found my inspiration - to embody the spirit of a startup - humble in glory, agile when momentum is solid and pragmatic yet unwavering when the going gets tough.
Startups often have no assets or success track record which is what makes lending to these early stage ventures counter-intuitive and challenging. This etched in me an important lesson - to look beyond past performance or the lack of it when assessing potential and to give credence to vision. Enabling entrepreneurship has also been a gratifying experience for its eventual impact on the society. When new products, services or organized markets are created by these startups, it results in jobs, commerce and prosperity too and I am thrilled to have made a contribution, in my own way.
My reverence for entrepreneurship took form when alongside college I assisted my father at his niche advisory firm that specializes in rehabilitating sick industries. It is the best formative training I could have had on business realities for it exposed me to the troughs a business could find itself in and how one bounces back from failure.
I have spent the last four years working alongside entrepreneurs and investors who are disrupting the way we do everyday things in India - in how we shop or pay or learn or commute. I have had a great ringside seat at the startup gala in India but I am now keen to get involved more closely and strategically with innovation across the world as an early stage equity investor. I see Harvard Business School as the accelerator that will launch me into the next phase of my career and growth, and the eminent faculty here as my mentors. I am excited about the prospect of undergoing this stimulating intellectual journey with all of you, learning from your brilliant and diverse experiences in class and outside, and sharing my perspective along the way.
