She s a traveling teacher who teaches entrepreneurship in several ivy-league busin ess schools around the world including

Princeton, London School of Economics and National University of Singapore, overseas and in India in IIMA, IIMB, IIML and ISB. Her moment of epiphany happened six years ago when she realized that in In dia not too many people became entrepreneurs simply because they didn t know how. Thus began her journey of mentoring entrepreneurs. After having mentored 700+ e ntrepreneurs, Prof. Nandini Vaidyanathan shares her passion with us. Here are the excerpts of the interview. Welcome to Twenty19! It s an honour to have you as our mentor today. Tell us about the finest moments of your schooling, college life and family After completing my schooling and graduation in Bangalore, I went to Delhi schoo l of economics to do my Masters. I did my pre- doctoral in London School of Econ omics. My family comprised of my mom, dad, younger sister and me. I used to be a n introvert and book worm. I ve undergone a drastic change over a period of time! Until pre doctoral, I was only interested in teaching and research. I was a goo d student so it was fairly clear, that s the path I would choose. How has your corporate life and the transformation as a mentor been? My path diverged in 1983 when I came to IIM Bangalore on a short break. It was campus recruitment season. One of my friends who got recruited in Nagarjuna Sign ode asked me to apply for the same. I met the MD of the company and he said tha t he was looking for a person with background like mine. I joined the company fo r Rs1800 salary and began my corporate career. I ve spent 20 years in corporate se ctor and have worked in many MNCs across continents in very challenging leadersh ip roles. I came back to Bangalore 6 years ago for personal reasons. Since I had a passion for teaching and when IIM offered me to teach entrepreneurship, I gladly accept ed. But in my second class I figured, entrepreneurship can t be taught unless one is inspired by the same. That inspiration has to come by being an entrepreneur y ourself or by thinking like an entrepreneur. Even though I ve never been an entrep reneur during my long stint in the corporate world, I associated myself with man y startups and got the name Start-Up Specialist . When you are a start-up specialis t, even without knowing it you start to think like an entrepreneur. This thought gave me an idea to mentor entrepreneurs and I got into this fascinating world o f teaching entrepreneurship and mentoring. You are instrumental in so many startups in India and abroad. What are the basic differences you have noticed among the young entrepreneurs of India and abroad towards their B- plan? The Americans are so obsessed with their own country that their awareness about other countries is abysmally low. India is not a self-obsessed nation and hence, when an Indian comes up with a plan, he sees its market at a global level and o pportunities at a macro level. Indians are far more intelligent and better expos ed than people abroad. We also have a great ability to put things in better pers pective. Hence, our capacity to come up with a good concept is much better. But we fall short in our ability to implement and think it through because in In dia we don t validate the concept in the market before taking it there. We don t go to the prospective customer to understand the acceptability and marketability of the product. In US if I come up with an idea, I can talk to 10 different people and these people will give me 25 different suggestions. I can evaluate all of t hem before I take it to the market. Here in India, we bring the product to marke t and when customer doesn t buy it we do market research and it becomes like a pos tmortem. We are an insecure nation and we are petrified of sharing our ideas wit

h anybody because we assume that the other person will steal it. I always tell m y mentees, if the idea is so commonplace that you are scared people might steal it, it s not worth pursuing! What has been your experiences as a mentor? I m very passionate about entrepreneurship. I have mentored more than 700 entrepre neurs in 100+ domains. Mentoring is not about advising It s about showing a person different options that exist and allowing the mentee to pick up the option. Whe n you have just graduated from a college, you may not be aware of all the option s that exist in front of you. The mentor brings two things viz. better perspecti ve because of his/her experience and the network which is very important for ent repreneurship. I am the Director of CARMa, an organization that mentors start- ups, mature ente rprises, family businesses etc. We have developed virtual mentoring by leveragin g technologies. We mentor start-ups from concept to going to the market. We beli eve that the biggest pain point for entrepreneurs (at any stage) is access to re sources and markets. CARMa offers entrepreneurs an opportunity to learn, find th eir inner potential and transform not just their lives but others lives as well. CARMA s whole ambition is about making every Indian an entrepreneur. I don t mean t hat everybody should go and start off a new business. What I mean is everybody w ill think, feel and behave like an entrepreneur. Your book Entrepedia is a perfect road map to many who would like to be a successf ul entrepreneur. Could you share some of the glimpses of the book? Over the course of mentoring, I realized that a lot of people in India don t come for mentoring. I thought, the best way to reach out to that population is to cre ate a guide / navigation map for them which elucidate step by step all the proce sses to become an entrepreneur in India. It is a book to guide one from concept to going to market. The books presently available in the market tells how to inc orporate a company in America while Entrepedia is a simple book with lots of exa mples, real time case studies based in India so that you understand and register the facts. In the past 8 months, so many people have reached across to me after reading the book and asked me if I could mentor them. It makes me feel so good. Before we sign off, What advice would you like to give the current generation on building a strong entrepreneurial India? It doesn t matter whether you start off your own company or you work for somebody else! Nothing stops you from thinking like an entrepreneur. If you are working f or a company you can take ownership. To become an entrepreneurial thinker you ne ed not start your own company. If you look across the world today, one place whe re there is maximum number of opportunities available is India. India is the mos t exciting place to be in. So focus on India, focus on what you can do for your country to make it a better country. Focus on India and say I can t find a more vi brant place than this! The Expert Speak series features successful individuals who have made ding impact in their respective professions. Powered by Twenty19.com, s aims to bring out their influences and insights which can be shared tudents to guide them towards making the right career choice. You can n expert who you want to be featured here. an outstan this serie with the s nominate a