Mensa Brands is India’s fastest unicorn. It took them only six months to zoom past the one-billion-dollar valuation mark. Having raised over US$300 million in debt and equity so far, Ananth Narayanan, the founder and CEO of Mensa Brands and the former CEO of Myntra, seems to be on to something.

In this episode, we tap into all of it. From his time at McKinsey as a consultant and his stint as Myntra’s CEO, to leading MedLife and its sale to PharmEasy, and eventually founding Mensa Brands, Ananth shares everything good and some things that weren’t. We touch upon his thoughts on ploughing through the tough times, the ability to bounce back after major lows, and the value of learnability and curiosity.

As always, we’re happy to hear your feedback. Please share it with us at [email protected]. You can write to us with feedback, questions you want us to ask future guests, or even guests you would like to see on the show!

The free story mentioned in the episode can still be found here albeit behind a paywall: Mensa, Evenflow pitch e-comm brand aggregation to rigid Indian sellers

Full Episode Transcript:

Full Episode Transcript:

 

04:24 – How Ananth is introducing his kids to entrepreneurship 

Rohin Dharmakumar

Ananth, you’ve got three kids…and all three of them are spies for you, which you just admitted to while we were chatting before recording this. Do you want to tell us more about why that is so?

Ananth Narayanan  

Absolutely. It has something to do with actually not just….

Rohin Dharmakumar 

Sorry, what are their names?

Ananth Narayanan  

So the names are Nayantara, Shreya and Aarya. I have three daughters. They’re 17, 14 and 11. You know, the startup life is hard. You work a lot.

So my belief is you know, get them in and get them involved. And that way they know what you’re going through.  And it’s easier for everybody and they learn something. So what they do for me is they actually go…they’re Instagram fiens.

So they go and identify brands that eventually, potentially Mensa could invest in. It’s a great way for them to know a little bit about what we do, not all of what we do. 

But it’s a good way to get the family involved. And that’s why I do it. And I think they have fun doing it.

Rohin Dharmakumar  

You also said that you set up an incentive structure for them. 

Ananth Narayanan  

I have. I’m a big believer in incentives.