The bell curve of altruism
We need to look beyond our existing definitions and approaches to Funding, Talent, and Partnerships, if we are to address Social problems at Scale. One often hears the question (and you’ve probably asked this yourself): “What is the role of private enterprise in addressing social problems?” The general belief is that the moment you allow […]
Hardware Innovation is … Hard
Hardware Innovation is… Hard: How Four Entrepreneurs Overcame the Challenges So, Walmart recently agreed to buy a majority stake in Flipkart – a popular mobile app-based online retailer in India – for $16 billion. That’s roughly a billion for the founder, who started his app-based innovation with about $1,500. “Good for him!” I thought. Not too many […]
How an Incubator-Investor platform transformed a dorm startup into a successful company: The Journey of BIOSENSE
First time entrepreneurs generally lack the experience to build business models that are not only scalable, but also profitable in the long run. From the early startup boom of the silicon valley till today, this has been the pattern almost everywhere in the world. However, in the past decade, incubators and accelerators/investors across the world, […]
Striding their way to create social impact – insights from women entrepreneurs
Women entrepreneurs, for decades, have had a significant role to play in the development of local economies, which further fed into the overall development paradigm. The contemporary startup-led ecosystem has also witnessed a surge in women entrepreneurs who have successfully carved a niche for themselves. Around 14 percent of the businesses in India are currently […]
An untapped opportunity in employability
New jobs created over the next five years will be largely in the informal sector. Therein lies the opportunity to skill the informal workforce, enhance their wages and enable their transition to better jobs and micro-entrepreneurship. The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has projected a total human resource requirement of 103.4 million people between […]
Power Play: Can Energy Access Entrepreneurs Survive the Relentless March of Grid Electricity in India?
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared on April 28 that the grid had finally reached the last unelectrified village in India, he set off a wave of different reactions across the country. There was jubilation, of course, for this represented a major landmark in energy access for people of the country. There was scepticism – […]
Social action in India: Past, present, future
Looking at social action in India from 1947 onwards, and given where we are today, here’s why we need civil society as a balancing force between the state and markets. Based on Vijay Mahajan’s essay ‘A Retrospective Overview of Social Action in India: 1817-2017’, this three minute video gives you a brief history of social […]
Lonely at the top?
It sure could be … but don’t worry P. Ravi Shankar Advisor – Menterra Venture Advisors Some years ago, when I had just begun my Executive coaching journey, I met the CEO of a firm at his corner office on the 9th floor. It was 9 p.m on a Friday evening. He had just seen […]