Mukesh Bansal is a renowned name in the Indian startup ecosystem, for he built the fashion platform Myntra from scratch and sold it to Flipkart for a whopping $300 million. He then quit the company he founded last year and started working on his second enterpreneurial outfit in the healthcare segment. Thus, one could say that he has garnered the skill and experience of running a billion-dollar business in India.
Now, he has decided to put the same to use and help other burgeoning Indian startups to achieve stability and make firm decisions for the future of their businesses, reports ET. He recently met with a multitude of mid-growth-stage startups before deciding to join the advisory boards of food delivery startup Swiggy and logitics firm Rivigo as an independent director.
Besides building CureFit, I wanted to work with a few entrepreneurs who are building large business that could be billion-dollar companies in a few years.
Swiggy is the fastest company in India to scale to 50,000 orders a day, which demonstrates its ability to execute really fast.
says Mukesh Bansal about his decision.
Most early to mid-growth stage startups are known to seek external help to join their boards when they’ve reached high growth phase. But, the onboarding of an external expert on the boards of smaller startups like Swiggy and Rivigo is a reflection of their rapid growth, and (maybe) mild incapacity to steer the business in the right direction. That’s where Bansal steps in.
As part of his directorial responsibilities, he has committed to spend half-a-day on average every month with these startups, to advise them on product and growth strategy, organisation building and fundraising(something growth-stage companies in India are currently struggling with).
Commenting on the addition of Bansal to company’s board, Rivigo CEO Deepak Garg says,
When companies like Flipkart and Myntra were being built there were not many people in the ecosystem who had seen the movie play once. People like Bansal can help us not make mistakes they might have and help with broader decision-making.
While Swiggy co-founder Sriharsha Majety adds,
We now have Mukesh Bansal on board as we navigate the complexities of a rapidly growing business and build the foundation of a very valuable company. He brings an intricate familiarity with the e-commerce business, metrics, goals and complexities. His guidance shall help the leadership team achieve the goal of changing the way India eats and drive Swiggy’s next phase of growth.
This process of seeking out guidance from independent techpreneuers isn’t a new practice. Most of today’s Indian unicorns have also sought out help from external influencers. Flipkart roped in Dropbox’s vice president Aditya Agarwal as an independent director in 2014; Ola added former Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin to their board in 2015; and even the largest payments platform Paytm has brought in three new high profile members to its board.
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