Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra made an unique pitch to Indian startups for their success, he wants the founders to drop him a message so that ‘he can invest in them and make money’.
The industrialist made the interesting pitch while addressing a session of the ‘Viksit Bharat Young Leaders Dialogue 2025’ in New Delhi on January 11. Mahindra’s pitch was applauded by all amid huge cheers from the attendees.
The Mahindra Group chief was answering a query on how the group can help young innovators bring their ideas to life and and scale them for impact.
In his reply, Mahindra said, “I’m going to flip that it’s not how can we help we won’t rise unless they help.”
Explaining further he said, “Please remember this would you when you ultimately start do your startups please give me a message allow me to invest in you that’s how I’m going to make money.”
Acknowledging the energy among the attendees, Mahindra said that he wishes to tap into all the energy. “If you look at these there are probably about out of these 3,000 there must be thousands of unicorns that are going to happen right here,” he added.
Mahindra also highlighted that he has been encouraging such innovators through platforms which allow grassroots innovation. “I started something on social media couple of years ago called Enterprise Bharat, in which I just asked for small ideas and grassroots innovators to come up. I said I would invest in them personally and shortlist them and I did it,” he said.
The prolific industrialist also addressed the ongoing debate over work-hour expectations, advocating for quality of work as the cornerstone for achieving a developed India, or ‘Viksit Bharat.’
Referring to recent comments by industry leaders about extended work hours, Mahindra expressed his disagreement, saying, “I have huge respect for Narayana Murthy and other corporate leaders. My point is that we have to focus on the quality of work, not on the quantity of work. So it’s not about 70 or 90 hours at work.”
Mahindra emphasised the importance of output over the number of hours logged. “You can change the world in 10 hours,” he noted, reiterating that productivity and innovation stem from effective use of time rather than sheer duration.
