4Ps B&M: You have been an inspiration for a lot of people. Is there anybody who has inspired you? Is there someone who motivates you to face everyday with fresh enthusiasm?

KG: I have been motivated and learnt a lot from a lot of people. Specially for me, on a personal level, my motivation has been my mother. On a professional level, my first job was working with Shiv Nadar in HCL, and  between by first and second venture I worked with Sunil Bharti Mittal. So both of them had a strong influence on me. I had just two jobs in between my ventures and both were under these people and they have been my biggest inspiration.

Are Prime Minister Modi’s initiatives like ‘Make in India’ and ‘Startup India, Standup India’ going to change things in the future?

It is nice to see the government recognizing the importance of the startup sector as a key one for creating growth and employment opportunities. The policies announced, the focus and centre-stage attention given to entrepreneurship, steps to remove bottlenecks and bureaucratic formalities are all welcome. The steps are very encouraging and in the right direction. But before we open the champagne, we need to see the implementation.

Some concerns are still unaddressed and open ended. The issue of angel tax , the need to get a fair market value estimate, not being able to give stock options to consultants, advisors, trying to get certified as an approved “startup” by agencies to avail of the benefits... are all grey areas and need to be addressed.

The allocation of Rs. 10,000 crores for startup funding is a great move and will provide much needed impetus to a lot of sectors that are starved of risk capital. Again, the smooth implementation without red tape, channelizing this without leakages and corruption, ensuring it reaches the under-served sectors and regions instead of going to technology-only startups – which anyway get considerable VC funding – is important.

You and Meena are a great team. What are the unique perspectives she brings into the business?

Meena brings lot of unique and complementary strengths to our ventures and especially GrowthStory. She is very good at execution and scaling. She can go from a macro view at 10,000 feet to micro details at the ground level very quickly. She has a great EQ and builds professionals around her very well. She is very good in developing leaders and building a strong “A” team. She is an inspirational role model to professionals.