ENTREPRENEUR PROFILES
The selected entrepreneurs are involved in fields of my interest including travel, technology, sustainable development and marketing strategy. While the entrepreneurs are involved across various disciplines, a prime common driving characteristic for interviewing them is their focus on social impact and benefit.
Franziska Iseli
Franzisca Iseli describes herself as a maverick entrepreneur, leading brand marketing and brand strategist and adventurer. She is an author, and has co-founded multiple businesses and brands. Her primary business, Basic Bananas is a marketing mentoring and education agency for small businesses based in Sydney, Australia. Through Basic Bananas, Franziska has created The Business Hood (a branding agency for entrepreneurs) and OceanLovers (a business to share sustainable products related to the ocean) among others.
She was awarded the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for her innovation and philanthropic involvement in 2013. Additionally, she is a board member at the Entrepreneurs Organization. She received a B.A. in Marketing and International Politics from the University of Geneva.
Across her interdisciplinary areas of interest, she has an extremely strong philanthropic mission. According to her, her motivation has always been to create positive impacts through her strengths. The primary highlights of our conversation revolved around the importance of idea generation, impact, problem solving, perception and mindset.
Deep Kalra
Deep Kalra is an entrepreneur, whose interests lie in travel and technology. He is the founder, Group Chairman, and Group CEO of Makemytrip, India’s leading online travel company and e-commerce business. Prior to starting MakeMyTrip, he had experience working at larger corporations such as GE Capital and ABN AMRO Bank. He started MakeMyTrip in the year 2000 after quitting his job as a banker, when he realized that the internet could offer more competitive prices. He is also the co-founder of IamGurgaon, an initiative that aims to restore the green habitat damaged by urbanization in India’s national capital region.
Additionally, he is a member of the Executive Council of NASSCOM and chairs the NASSCOM Internet Working group. He received a B.A. in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi in 2004, and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad in 1992.
The primary themes of our conversation were on different aspects of strategy, adoption challenges especially in the context of India’s technology industry, solving problems and navigating different parts of the entrepreneurial experience.
Romain Diaz
Romain Diaz is an entrepreneur who is passionate about sustainable economic development, technology and social entrepreneurship. He is the currently the founder and CEO of Satgana, a global venture builder based in Luxembourg that is on a mission to launch companies that address the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Prior to founding Satgana, he got an MBA at the Emlyon Business School in 2012. While he worked on several startup projects before, his entrepreneurial journey began in 2015 when he co-founded Far Ventures, a Startup Studio that aimed to launch several start up companies at once and foster the technological entrepreneurship environment in South Africa. Through Far Ventures, he co-founded FinChatBot, a company that creates AI-powered chatbots for the financial industry and co-founded Jumpin Rides, a ridesharing platform in South Africa.
He strongly believes that the social, economic and environmental pillars of the UN sustainable development goals are important for the world to thrive, and values using entrepreneurship as a tool for social development. The primary themes of our conversation were social entrepreneurship, challenges in the implementation of technology and strategies for addressing problems.
Pankaj Agarwal
Pankaj Agarwal is a technology entrepreneur, who is passionate about STEM and helping organizations accelerate their growth and build business models through digital transformation. He is the founder of Optimus Information, a business that provides digital solutions through various technological services such as cloud-based infrastructures, mobility and data. While he is based in Canada, his business operates across India and Canada. Additionally, he is a board member at Science World, a program that encourages youth to build science based careers.
The key insights from our conversation revolved around technology, the importance of flexibility, identifying ideas and opportunities and actually putting them in action. Our conversation also touched on the significance of mindset, perception and risk aversion. Currently, a big driver for him is that most of his profits go to charity, since “it feels good to be in a position where I am making money to help others”. He supports organizations primarily focused on educating underprivileged children in India, but his vision is to divide time and charity work by 33% in India, 33% in Canada and 33% across a global scale.
