How does it feel to work with TIME 30 Under 30?

The world was naturally surprised when last year Snapchat rejected a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook and then reportedly a $4 billion acquisition offer from Google. Like everyone, I was intrigued why Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, the twenty-something co-founders of Snapchat courageously turned down the offers. Publicly, they declared, “There are very few people in the world who get to build a business like this.  Trading that for some short term gain isn’t very interesting.”.

Ah ! that was courageous and inspiring. I knew that, very few people in the world can take such decisions, and I badly wanted to meet them.  During January this year, I flew to Snapchat office just to ask the CEO what makes them fearless, and mission-driven? I didn’t have an appointment, but I was naive to believe in my guts.

Guess what happened then! The security officer said, “You cannot meet the CEO since nobody is expecting you. Can you call on this number between 10-11 AM next week?”. I did exactly the same, and invited them to come to MIT Sloan through the Entrepreneurship and Innovation club. Thanks to Gerrit Hall, and Tom Lindma (great mentors and earlier co-presidents). Snapchat was kind enough to consider my proposal and on February 4, an eureka moment happened when Bobby Murphy delivered a talk that was very notable in the history of the year 2014 at MIT Sloan.

Later, I was able to meet Bobby over dinner (he was kind to consider me for this, and another blog can be written on how it happened). It was a month long chase, but my classmates Yanfeng Liu and David Zhu, Rishi Khaitan (Sloan Alum), and Setu Saurabh (a close friend from IIMA) stood for me even though we knew, “we may fail”. The team prepared over 200 hours leaving no stones unturned for over a month just for this 40 minutes dinner, which later lasted for 70 minutes. I felt that I was able to put through my point during the dinner, and Bobby was kind to approve my academic study with his company. He mentioned that, he would be personally mentoring me on this project. It was personal and humbling experience when a TIME 30 Under 30 person tells you this! Dena Gallucci, another mentor at Snapchat, has been super helpful considering me with number of requests, and I fully understand, it has not been easy for her.

Because of MIT, I have been able to meet over 25 CEO’s who are changing the world, but Bobby Murphy has inspired me the most.  He leads without authority – he is intelligent, humble and mission-driven, which is akin to what MIT leadership is about.  I believe that the world needs more people like him and more companies like Snapchat!

And, yes, thank you, Rod Garcia, Senior Admissions Director of MIT Sloan, for accepting me to our MBA Class.  This journey is an inflection point in my life and I know I will never be able to thank you enough for your belief in me and giving me admission to MIT Sloan.

Thanks again.

Warm Regards,

Pawan Gupta

With love to MIT and Snapchat – These 2 are wonderful inventions of the world !

Thank you Gerrit and Tom – E&I Club at MIT Sloan

Gerrit Hall and Tom Lindma ( September 2012 – March 2014: Earlier Co-presidents for their leadership on running Entrepreneurship and Innovation Club at MIT Sloan, and executing such a tough task)

These were the silent fighters (unsung heroes) who stood out for people and entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan, and broader MIT community. I have seen them working till 4 AM almost everyday to ensure the club does well, and positively impact Sloanies. I failed so many times under their leadership yet they never said, “I failed”. They took ownership of my failures, and helped transform some of my works into great successes. This is the definition of true leadership.

Entire club for more than a year ran under their leadership, and had they not been there, I can’t think of other people who could have done a better job. They impacted literally everybody at Sloan with their thoughts on entrepreneurship. This is huge, and such responsibilities are not easy to cary. They never wanted limelight, but I believe, they should get recognition.

Today, they have given me ownership to lead E&I club which is the largest and the most influential club on campus, and this makes me excited to promote their definition of leadership. They have been kind to keep mentoring me. This is the time to pay it forward.

How Jagriti Yatra, a 8000 km train journey across India, transforms people

From the core of my heart, I am touched with what Jagriti Yatra has given to all the Yatris, including me. To be true, I think we have taken much more than what JY has given to us. The after effect is that now people are emotionally connected to some strong and future potential leaders in almost all the states of the country. To add, Yatris have made connections to the pool of people from 23 different countries, majority of them working in social organizations.

 

I am deeply indebted to all the JY team for giving an opportunity to me, a failed entrepreneur, to share his views to 450+ filtered like minded audiences (not easy to find)- Thanks to Vibha Ma’am. Additionally, I would like to cherish forever the change – The change in myself to become agreeable to other’s idea- Believing that yes! Not 1 or 2 but may be all 450 people can be right and justified in their approach- I am sure no other institution can do this job. This change can sometimes help people to understand people – their socio economic problems – much better, eventually transforming them to become empathetic people and charismatic leaders.

 

I feel good to share that the Yatra has brought people’s ego level, a very minute thing but the most important character of somebody’s persona, down to the level that from thinking to lead a lavish and selfish life they now want to do something different – Some want to start an social enterprise, Some want to twist their business model to cut down profit but pass on benefits to the employed people, Some want to quit their jobs and spend their lives transforming their villages, Some want to never indulge in corruption thereafter while there are some who have a feeling of guilt now (May be I was not the right candidate for JY as I don’t feel like doing something for country)– The positive point is that some people regret their fault and embrace the idea of humility. I’m sure today or tomorrow they are going to bring a development in the country – The only Yatra that can bring behavioral change in people.

Being an Yatri, It’s my core responsibility to give back ! 

 

CCE Work: What the startup team did

A quote on social change

“Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.” – Cesar Chavez

Entrepreneur MBA

It is true that for most of human history, entrepreneurs have most likely not been the proud holders of an MBA degree. However, many new businesses fail within the first five years. Why do these businesses fail? First and foremost is lack of experience. But other reasons are insufficient capital, poor inventory management, bad credit arrangements, and surprisingly enough – unexpected growth. To avoid these rookie mistakes and keep from launching a new business without the knowledge to cope with these issues, you might want to consider earning a Masters of Business Administration in entrepreneurship.

What is the entrepreneurship MBA? This graduate level degree offers the best of both worlds: extensive study in both management and entrepreneurship. This degree can be completed in a variety of ways, either as a traditional master’s degree or in the evenings and weekends or even online. You can earn this degree in as little as a year or take longer earning the degree part-time. But no matter how you do it, the entrepreneurship MBA will strive to instill you with the skills you need to successfully launch your own business.

The entrepreneurship MBA not only aims to teach you how to guide a business toward success and how to cope with failures, it can also focus on how to manage explosive success. Small businesses that experience rapid growth can fail nearly as often as those that get off to a slow start. Without the foundational knowledge that an MBA works towards providing, a business might derail.

It is not only knowledge that is gained from the entrepreneurship MBA. The MBA can lend you a certain level of credibility to investors. Some people find that an MBAA provides them with the confidence to overcome impossible odds and to face down adversity with stamina, persistence, and endurance – all the skills needed to guide a venture toward success.

The entrepreneurship MBA often involves coursework discussing the important concepts of value and negotiation. The tools required to assess value and persuade others to give you what you want are critical skills for a business owner. As a new business owner, if you have the financial know-how, as well as the ability to quickly assess value and then argue from a position of strength, you have a serious leg-up on the competition.

As you can see, the entrepreneurship MBA can be a component of success. If you are ready to be your own boss, start earning your entrepreneurship MBA. Do not delay. Enroll in a program today!

 

28,000 Km Adventure

A must read. The next forrest gump

http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/2009/09/man-bikes-around-the-world-wit.html

My grave- Mary Elizabeth Frye

Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am in a thousand winds that blow,

I am the softly falling snow.

I am the gentle showers of rain,

I am the fields of ripening grain.

I am in the morning hush,

I am in the graceful rush

Of beautiful birds in circling flight,

I am the starshine of the night.

I am in the flowers that bloom,

I am in a quiet room.

I am in the birds that sing,

I am in each lovely thing.

Do not stand at my grave bereft

I am not there. I have not left.

Hello Duniya

Its been long time when I have last updated my blog in blogspot. For long I thought I would not even require a blog for myself. But I was wrong and I want to correct myself now. I now feel that a platform is very much needed to make myself enthusiastic to speak my heart out to the masses. Although I was in search of a micro-blogging site but I think wordpress would work serve my purpose.

My world ! My business partner was planning to watch a movie for quite time. So we thought to see movie which has got much hyped keywords “3 D, James Cameroon, English Movie” and “lowest price” tag. Ahh ! What else we have needed. Mc Chicken Burger at McDonald’s, Pizza-Finger Chips-Cold Drink at Cinemax in addition to excite you enough to make a memorable moment.

With much excitement, we entered the auditorium after whooping 10 min from the start time. Hey ! Don’t feel bad. We never felt bad after all we have so many things to eat. 3D Glasses on, with complete concentration we began to watch this movie “Sanctum”. What else – From the Director of “Titanic and Avatar” James Cameroon. Enough words to make any damn movie a Superhit.So with this thought we continued to watch the much awaited cinema.

Yeh kya ! 30 minute ho gaye aur kuch mazaa nahin aaya. So I thought to watch for another 30 minute. Yeh kya ! another 30 minutes and no excitement and 3D effect complete bakwaas. Kya majaak hai bhai ! Interval came so did my pizza and CD(Cold Drink) began to shrunk to its end. I thought next 1 hr would kill everybody for sure with the performance of the actors but but..as thought nothing happened. Wohi ghisa pita story, wahi bakwaas performance, a well predicted story line. What were we doing then !

One thing did turn out well It did kill everybody with performance. the only fight was not with the good performance, well you know what I am trying to say. The famous tagline “The only way out is down” turned out to be hilarious, new tagline being “The only way people can come with cinema halls is with their faces down” lol. Chalo Koi nahin! Lets do some worth reading, enjoy some party, do some real picnic.

After the movie I came back to my office with a responsibility to read “Moodle” and see if there is an opportunity to offer some services to colleges. Trying to do the same now but with a little twist via offering some contribution to: Facebook, Gmail, WordPress at the same time