An Agony Aunt For Entrepreneurs

Life is tough for budding entrepreneurs in India where tolerance for failure is low. TiE Bangalore’s Entrepreneurs Anonymous aims to help them cope with the pressures of business.

- Debojyoti Ghosh

It wasn’t a typical board meeting on August 8 for The IndUS Entrepreneurs (TiE) Bangalore. The mood in the room at its Divyasree Chambers office in the city’s central business district was sombre and reflective. A group of 18—including board and charter members of the not-for-profit global community and networking platform for entrepreneurs—were gathered to discuss an important aspect of entrepreneurship: the pressures of leading a business.

A week earlier, on July 31, the body of V.G. Siddhartha, chairman and managing director of Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd (CDEL), was fished out from the Nethravathi river—36 hours after he was reported missing. He had allegedly committed suicide; a letter purportedly written by him suggested he was under immense financial stress from creditors and tax authorities. The whole business community in India was in shock. Many could not believe Siddhartha, who was lauded as a visionary for building India’s largest cafe chain Café Coffee Day, took the extreme step.

The question before the board was this: If someone like Siddhartha, an India Inc. heavyweight who was known in business circles as an optimist, could not take the pressure, how would younger, less-networked startup founders cope?

TiE Bangalore’s answer to that was Entrepreneurs Anonymous: a support platform for entrepreneurs to help figure out solutions to problems they may face in their entrepreneurial journey. “The commitment of the TiE members who took part in the discussion was palpable. The agenda of the [support] platform was drawn from the experiences of the participating members,” says Priya Chetty-Rajagopal, board member, TiE Bangalore, and managing partner at CXO search and advisory firm Multiversal Advisory. The 12-member board team largely comprises entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. TiE Bangalore has over 600 members. Globally, TiE has a network of about 15,000 members.