Economic Times profiles Parentree

The Economic Times (Delhi and Ahmedabad) profiled Parentree on October 13 2008. We are still looking for the online link but here is the text of the article.

HAPPY HOMECOMING

THE MOOD may not be upbeat for those headed home today, but it has been a happy homecoming for many foreign graduates and first generation entrepreneurs who returned to India six to seven years back. They are smiling that they did. When Shashank Verma graduated from Oxford in 2005, he decided it was time for him to give his experience of working on clean projects a practical shape. “Our research on India showed there is a huge potential for clean energy,” he recalls. “We had started when oil was $40-50 per barrel and we knew it was going to go up in a big way and we have been proved right, so has our business decision.” He returned back to India the same year and was joined by two of his colleagues on the project. They launched Regena Star which makes bio-fuel conversion kits to help diesel engines run directly on plant oil. Today, Shashank is visibly happy at what he has achieved. His company has already tied-up with 1,000 farmers who will cultivate oil plants and reached out to companies who are interested in clean technology. It plans to produce oil for captive needs of companies till the time outlets are set up for general consumption.

There are many like Shashank, who have made a quiet success of their homecoming. Nandan Kamath, a Harvard law School Graduate came back and set up a sports management company, GoSports, in 2006 to connect high promising but needy sportsmen and the sponsors.

Similarly, Sathya Narayanaswamy, a Chicago Business School alumni, whose own need helped raise a company catering to young and inexperienced parents — Parentree — provides a platform to share experiences of each other and know everything about parenting.

Increasing numbers of those who chose to return to their motherland are setting up ventures to pursue their dreams of meaningful engagement and helping the society at large. “The need and trigger for such efforts could be varied but one thing is for sure, youngsters today don’t hesitate to take that chance and with better funding scenario, they will surely be better off.” says Laura Parkin, executive director, NEN.

Nandan Kamath’s, always rued the missing connect between sportsmen and sponsors that led many youngsters to quit their sporting careers. And that gave birth to his firm, GoSports. Says Kamath, “As youngsters all of us have played serious sports and we knew the challenges talented athletes face in securing access to funding and highquality services, hence we hoped an initiative in this direction would be a great success.” GoSports helps promising athletes by securing access to training, advisory, monitoring and representation services, sponsorships and other personal development opportunities. The sporting and consequent financial success of the athlete becomes the financial success of the company as the company retains a stake in their future earnings from various sources. GoSport already has a dozen players as its clients and aims to be 3-4 times its own size by the next Olympic.

Similarly, Parentree was also the outcome of a lesson learnt the hard way. Sathya Narayanaswamy, struggled to source the right and authentic information as an young parent. That gave him an idea and he launched Parentree, a site devoted to the practical aspects of parenting in India like reviews of schools and pre-schools, good books, reliable coaching classes and sports camps, good parenting practices, child development focusing on intelligence and parent to parent interaction et al. “It’s an organised approach to tackle those problems,” says Narayanaswamy. “I have gone through it myself and could well understand the need for such a venture.”

Originally posted at:
Economic Times profiles Parentree