OCC meet

this sunday, that is 30th august, i've been invited to share my thoughts at Open Coffee Club, Bangalore. this is a very interesting group of tech entrepreneurs. i came to know of OCC about a year ago, when my good friend Hemu Ramaiah (the founder of Landmark chain of book stores) told me that in Chennai, OCC is very active and vibrant. i signed up in bangalore soon after and i must say i quite enjoyed all the mail parlaying that went on (even though i must confess i did not understand all the tech stuff that were bandied about :). (i unsubscribed some time ago).

what fascinated me was the sense of what sociologists call the 'we feeling' that was prevalent in the OCC community. any problem faced by a member was taken on board by the entire community in right earnest and there was a mechanism of collective problem-solving which was not only mind-staggering but i'm sure also contributed to the sanity of the entrepreneurs. just knowing that there are a bunch of guys out there who will rally around you even if they dont have all the answers, is a huge confidence-booster, and entrepreneurs in india need more and more such lamposts that they can lean on in their eco-system.

it's a very lonely journey through a very hostile landscape and some friendly faces popping up now and then can really be a balm. keep up the good work OCC.

i plan to talk about mentors and mentorship. in a sense, in india, it's a very old term. the vedas and the upanishads talk about father and guru doubling up as mentors. but in the entrepreneurial context, it is lackadaisically used, incorrectly understood and its scope under-leveraged. so i plan to go at it with my scalpel :) you're welcome to Ta'am, in koramangala, at 10 AM on 30th august.