Mentors

Dheeraj has been actively involved in numerous start-ups and has played diverse roles in getting many companies set up. Dheeraj was the head of business design, India at IDEO, where he was a part of core team of people, which helped establish IDEO presence in India. Before working for IDEO he helped Medtronic, the worlds largest independent medical technology company to design business models to would help them target the lower segments of socioeconomic pyramid.
With his experience & domain knowledge, he has co-founded his current venture, Arogya Finance, which uses innovative risk assessment process to provide loans to people in need for expensive medical treatments. DLabs is a design-led incubator launched by the Indian School of Business (ISB) to promote entrepreneurship within its student and alumni body and the general community.
Dheeraj holds an MBA from the Wharton Business School and BS degrees in both Finance and Computer Science from the University of Maryland. He lives in Hyderabad with his wife, Rishtee, and their two children

He is one of the most eminent economic columnists of India and also a regular face on several business TV channels. Mr Bhat is also regularly quoted on several business dailies and other publications covering business and economics. He has contributed several hundred articles and given many interviews in publications like Economic Times, Business Standard, Outlook Business etc.
He has worked in Jardine Fleming India and JP Morgan India as head of their Investment Management business. Mr. Bhat is an Independent Director at several companies in the financial services field including Axis Asset Management Company Limited. He is a M.Sc. from IIT, Kanpur and has undergone advanced courses in Finance at The Harvard Business School besides being a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, London.

Amol Manjrekar has more than 16 years of experience in Financial Markets. He is an MBA from IIM- Ahmedabad. Prior to founding Activitas, he has worked with Financial firms like JPMorgan and PricewaterhouseCoopers in the U.S, Europe and Asia. He has been an active institutional investor in public and private markets.
He is a Chartered Accountant, CPA from the state of New Jersey, USA, and CFA Charter holder.
Mr. Manjrekar is a visiting faculty in various management institutes in India; he delivers lectures on Corporate Valuation, Mergers & Acquisitions and Investment Banking.

Ajeet Khurana has donned many hats in the entrepreneurial world. Mr. Khurana is a well known start up mentor, an angel investor, trainer, author, digital marketer and many more. He is also a member of screening committee of Mumbai Angels, one of India's oldest angel networks. After completing his undergraduate degree program in Computer Engineering, Ajeet pursued an MBA degree from University of Texas at Austin, from one of the top 20 US business schools. He specializes in Information Systems and Finance.
Being an entrepreneur turned angel investor, he carries the essential experience and expertise required to mentor any start up. He specializes in Conceptualizing new businesses, in building teams, P&L, strategy, and direction. He also looks into managing growth, acquisition, and alliances. He is also very knowledgeable in digital strategies for content, social, and mobile. Apart from being author for a guidebook called, 'Information Technology for Retailing', he's also popular for his write ups on entrepreneurial subjects in Money control, about.com, Your Story, and many more.
Before becoming the CEO of IIT Bombay SINE, which is one of the robust and reputed business incubators of our country, he had previously founded Corpus Collosum Learning Pvt Ltd and KITS (Khurana Information and Training Systems Pvt Ltd).

Mr. Sawant is a qualified CA & CS with over 16 years of Industry experience including 11+ years experience in financial services working with major Multinational corporations. He has an elaborate experience in Financial Services Industry, including the start-ups.
His core competence lies in business finance and strategies, business planning and budgeting, cost controllership, regulatory reporting, finance processes and system integration, performance management framework, treasury operations and third party relationships, including M&A activities. He has demonstrated people management skills right from recruitment, training & career progression areas.
Over these years, he has been a member of various senior leadership teams of reputed multinational organizations such as Deloitte Consulting, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Credit Suisse Group to establish core financial and business competencies. In his current assignment, he is working as designated CFO for one of the group companies of Edelweiss Group.

Mr. Bhagwat is MBA in finance and also a company secretary. Prior to founding Activitas, he was working as a CFO at General Atlantic and Deloitte Consulting, and was a finance controller and Company secretary for Warburg Pincus.
He specializes in organizational lifecycle management. Mr Bhagwat has been a visiting faculty at management institutes for nearly a decade. He specializes in Corporate Laws, Interpretation of Financial Statements, Indirect Taxes, International Reporting, Compliance Procedures, Business Models, Analysis of Financial Statements, and Entrepreneurship Management.

A highly accomplished Finance Professional with 32 years of extensive experience in heading M&A activities, Financial Advisory, Private Equity Investments and Venture Capital Fund with in depth knowledge of and hands on experience in private equity, all investment banking products, disinvestment & restructuring, corporate finance and capital markets. He is involved in no. of strategic domestic & International Acquisitions & Equity Deals. He has already completed 40 deals in Domestic & International Level. As Executive Director, he had successfully launched SICOM Venture Capital Fund with a corpus of Rs.24 crores. The Fund has been adjudged Best Venture Fund in the State Category by IVCA. He has represented SEBI at New York Institute of Finance for courses in investment banking, derivatives and M&A. He is skilled at project financing, project appraisals& financial closures of the projects. He is also a visiting faculty at premier MBA institutes in India.

Trilok Malhotra carries an extensive amount of experience in understanding both the creative and business processes in feature film production. After working in the directorial side of the movie business, Mr. Malhotra swiftly shifted his focus and ventured into the production side of the business. He worked as an executive producer for SK Productions (Boney Kapoor's Production House) for 14 long years, before becoming the Head of Production at Fox Star Studios India Pvt Ltd.
Being well connected in the film industry has been a key to his management success. He brings a good mix of professionalism and personal relationships, combined with intelligence and a drive to keep moving forward. He has single handedly, with the support of an efficient team, managed completion of over 34 films. The total budget handled for all the films so far would amount to nearly Rs. 1200 crores. His international work experience has given him in-depth knowledge of best practices in both Hollywood and Bollywood.

Started off as just a Management Trainee, Mr Harish's journey exemplify's true passion, and inspitaional success story. After working for three years as a Divisonal Financial Controller in ITC, he jumped to Star TV when Satellite TV was a new terrain. Within three years Mr. Harish became the Deputy CFO from a Senior Finance Manager. Post that there was no looking back. Before becoming the head of business & CFO for Lightforms India Pvt Ltd, which famously produced various TV series with Anurag Kashyap and Viacom 18 motion pictures, he worked as CFO of Asia Pacific for WorldSpace India & Data Access India Ltd.
He is a finance professional with degree in Chartered Accountancy and Cost Accountancy. He specializes in Start-ups, and has extensive experience in Satellite Televison, Radio, and Motion Pictures. Currently working as a CFO & Co Founder of India Stories Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, and thanks to his intricate knowledge and understanding in finance section of Media Industry, Mr. Harish is omniscient in optimizing profitability and strategic capital expansion.

Rajiv is a chronic entreprenuer, turned early stage investor. He is also an advisor on international market entry implementation & M&A negotiations. He has advised leading mid-market and rapidly emerging businesses across Brazil, US, EU & India.
Apart than founding Rain Bridge Ventures, Rajiv is currently in operating roles with current ventures which includes - Co-founder & venture partner at DBS Consultant & GECO Sistema India, an environmental engineering services venture; venture partner at & Early Investor in Areysun Private Limited, a mobile platform for expressing yourself.
Previously, Rajiv worked at McKinsey & Co., Citigroup and The Jai Group, a boutique M&A and international growth strategy firm focussing on Latin America, Africa and India.
He conducts several bootcamps & workshops on entrepreneurship at IIT Bombay, NMIMS, & other leading engineering and business schools. Rajiv is also a mentor to the E-Cell of the IIT Bombay. Recently at the 2014 E-Summit, which gained the UNESCO patronage, Rajiv was the panelist to judge national events on crowd funding.
His core strenghts are Sales, Growth Strategy, Venture Investing, Creative Problem Solving, Business Analytics, Internationalization and Revenue Management.

An internet retail industry veteran with over 15+ years of experience in direct to consumer businesses, Samar is currently the founder and CEO of Iksula- an E-commerce company with a workforce of 650 people. Prior to this, Samar was part of the leadership team of Baazee.com- which was later purchased by Ebay Inc. Post the acquisition- Samar joined Ebay as the Head of Seller Marekting and Categories for 5 years. He was also the Dean of Ebay University which has influenced more than 10,000 businesses to start e-businesses. He is also on the founding advisory board of E-Tailing India- India's No 1 forum for Internet retail and was recently awarded by Franchise India for his "Outstanding Contribution to E-Retail" at the Indian Retail and E-Retail Awards"

"Business Leader with a growth mindset and 23 years of diverse, multi industry experience across Financial Services, FMCG, Retail, Telecom, Media, Business Consulting and Education. Proven track record across B2B and B2C with a blend of strategic agility, execution prowess and the ability to effectively “join the dots”. Complex problem solving capabilities with strong entrepreneurial management style. Built businesses from scratch and driven scale and growth. Expertise in P&L management, Brand building, Strategic Business development, Digital & cultural transformation. Led cross functional and multi-cultural teams across India and various International markets. Passionate about technology driven emerging businesses and the start-up ecosystem."

Dr. Adarkar holds immeasurable experience of approximately more than 28 years of product development, architecture, solutioning, technology consulting, and outsourcing and off shoring.
After working as a chief architect for Datamatics which created the blue print of IT infrastructure for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, he joined as a VP Technology for JP Morgan Chase. He has contributed immensely to mSign and OASIS technical committees, and is also a member of prestigious system and technology committee of the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX).
Dr Adarkar has been a principal consultant for technology and architecture at Whitebox business Solutions Ltd, which satisfactorily completed IT strategy and Transformation for North London Hospital. He specializes in various areas like Enterprise Architecture, Application Integration, Enterprise Applications, Information Security, Performance Engineering, Cloud computing, Treasury and Security Services, Retail and Investment Banking, Cooperative banks and credit societies, Payment Systems, e-Broking, Publishing and ICT for International Development and Civil Society Organizations.

Guneet believes “The true power of technology lies in improving people’s lives, in ways they never imagined.”
He’s had the opportunity to be ‘delighting consumers’ at the heart of technology brands like - Google, Microsoft, and Samsung. Guneet’s strengths lie in identifying consumer insights and mapping them with technology innovations to build massively impactful business strategies. Over the last 15 years, he has powered the presence of many global superbrands in India and has won over 30 awards in prestigious festivals like The Cannes, The PMAA, The Goafest, The APPIES, The Clio awards, The Mobby’s and the IDMA. Guneet was recently recognized as the “APAC Digital Marketer of the Year” and before that “Marketing Professional of The Year”.

Vikas Chadha is a qualified Charted Accountant from the Institute of Charted Accountants of India and Cost Accountant from ICWAI. He has 20 years experience in Finance, Fundraise, Private equity, Banking, Debt, business planning and strategy and has worked extensively with the largest and most established corporate houses as well as start-up ventures, focussing on their turnaround and profitability enhancement. He has worked extensively on Debt and private equity funding and Mergers and acquisition opportunities. He has a keen sense of business and in depth knowledge of all areas of operations. He also heads the Information technology strategy for the group as well as all Legal and compliance initiatives. He has been able to build robust business processes and profitable business models by working closely on all fronts including operations, sales and business development. He has been able to develop and add new lines of business and verticals by leveraging existing resources at the company which has brought forward his entrepreneurial side of personality in all ventures he has been associated with. Vikas's strength lies in financial planning and business strategy along with fund raising, evaluating acquisition opportunities, implementing robust financial systems and controls and optimizing stakeholder value. His networking strengths keep him in touch with new strategies and solutions. Vikas's previous assignments have seen him work at Tata Tea, Thomas Cook and Marico wherein he has been in the Execom and in Chief Financial Officer role for the last 10 years.

Mr. Gandhi holds an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur and B.Com (Hons.) from Shri Ram College of Commerce, New Delhi. A strategy & business incubation professional with 16 years experience in Development Finance, Corporate Strategy, Investment Banking & Consulting. Domain expertise of serving low income markets in emerging economies. Major assignments include setting up of a greenfield bank & transformation of an existing bank to a contemporary financial institution. At YES BANK, he heads the YES Accelerator team which significantly contributes in incubating new ideas and provides high velocity impetus to consummate them from conceptualisation to implementation. He is responsible for driving innovation, ensuring speedy ideation and agile execution of all functions of the bank including retail & corporate banking, knowledge banking, transaction banking, digital banking and human capital management.

Based out of Bangalore-Silicon Valley of Asia Pacific, India and has 22 Years Of Experience. He was the head of USA, Europe & APAC Direct Sales at KTwo & MindTree Consulting & Global Inside Sales and Lead Generation. He was a part of the initial Co-Founding Team for Indian Electronics and Semiconductor Association www.iesaonline.org. MindTree Consulting. He led the sales team for Siemens Nixdorf for Asia Pacific in 1998 and started of as a Technical Marketing Engineering for Reuters in Mumbai, India in 1992. He has Enabled Business & Sales In North America, India MEA ( Middle East & Africa)&Asia Pacific. He has done extensive sales for companies on Product Engineering offshore services model, can leverage his presence in North America, Europe & Asia Pacific Region and is a strong Strategy Planner & Networker.
His Vision, Mission- • is to attain global recognition as a Sales & Digital Marketing Strategy Leader by making startups successful • is to mentor & nurture CEOs-Leaders of startup/fast growth potential companies, develop business for them and help them grow globally by positioning them innovatively • Global Head of Sales, Inside Sales-Lead Generation, Digital Marketing & Strategy Pain Areas Addressed and Value Preposition • International Sales, Inside Sales, Lead Generation, Digital Marketing & Strategy • All Startups are fatigued & thirsty for a well-qualified healthy sales leads pipeline • Enable the companies to address their key challenges by the implementing the following • Enable proper branding, messaging, tweaking existing & building new sales collateral • Qualifying existing sales pipeline & build a new & healthy sales pipeline • Setting up a well-disciplined continuous cranked lead generation & sales closing process • Building & implementing strategies to harness the power of social media, new analytical tools & technologies • Attracting prospective large customers, investors, partners & alliances