Dr. Anand Deshpande on mentorship
How can entrepreneurs choose their mentors? Dr. Anand Deshpande, founder of the $12B Persistent Systems, delivers a masterclass on mentorship.
29 November 2024, IIT-Bombay
“How many customers do you have?” Dr. Anand Deshpande asked us.
“We have one for now — Acko Insurance — our service went live only a couple of months back,” one of us responded.
He went on, “Forget everything and focus on getting customers. That’s the only thing that matters at your stage.”
Purely by chance, I got an opportunity to visit the IIT-Bombay campus with the founders of Subverse AI — a conversational AI company. They are incubated in SINE, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary.
We reached the venue where there was an exhibition of the many startups incubated within SINE on the sidelines of the various talks. We were talking with the founders in one of the stalls when I noticed Dr. Anand Deshpande near the tea spot.
He had a couple of people around him trying to interest him into selling whatever they were building. I told the boys that we should try talking to him. Luckily for us, I had briefly met him once before, so it was easy to recognize him — he happens to be a chess fan too and consistently follows Chessbase India — a company I had helped start in 2015.
This was the first time in our lives that we were speaking directly with him. Already, in the very first minute, he told us the only thing he thought we needed to hear.
Focus on getting customers.
Persistent Systems
The jump in market cap is on the back of a stunning revenue growth from $308 million in 2014-15 to $1.186 billion in 2023-24. It is incredible to see how Persistent’s market cap has compounded over the years.
It is a good question to ask, then — how did he and his team at Persistent do it?
For starters, here is a very nice interview by the good folks at Blume where Dr. Deshpande narrated the Persistent story.
He says in this Linkedin post, “Business growth is not linear but it is a sequence of “S-Curves,” and unfortunately, what works well in one S-Curve does not work in the next one. You must reinvent new ways as you move from one S-Curve to the next.”
We now know that we must bell the cat. But who will bell it and how will we go about it?
For his speech at IIT-B, Dr. Deshpande focused on the how part — mentorship. As he explained in his speech, there are four types of mentors.
Drona<>Ekalavya
Narasimha
Krishna<>Arjuna
Devghar
Drona<>Ekalavya
We live in the age of parasocial interaction.
Dr. Deshpande suggests that we can find personalities in our specific domains who have developed deep technical expertise. For eg., if you are an investor, it is only natural that you pay close attention to everything that Mr. Warren Buffet talks about.
Dr. Deshpande likens these parasocial relationships to the bond Eklavya had with Dronacharya, where guidance and learning occur indirectly rather than through direct mentorship.
As the Wikipedia entry on Ekalavya describes:
Ekalavya leaves, and then watches from the forest when guru Drona teaches the princes. After they had left for the ashram, Ekalavya collected the mud on which his guru walked, as a symbolic gesture of reverence for his guru's knowledge and footsteps. He went into the forest and fashioned a statue of Drona under a large banyan tree. He began a disciplined program of self-study over many years. Accepting the statue as his guru, he practised before his guru every single day.
The concept revolves around the idea that by identifying and following the right mentors, we can gain access to their valuable insights and experiences through the content they create and share. Whether it’s through books, articles, podcasts, or videos, consuming their published work allows us to absorb their expertise and wisdom.
This approach empowers us to engage in self-learning, enabling us to master the nuances of a field or craft without relying solely on formal instruction. Over time, this consistent exposure to their knowledge can help us refine our skills, make better decisions, and navigate challenges with greater confidence.
Narasimha
Entrepreneurship and investing inherently demand the ability to synthesize knowledge across diverse subjects. Therefore, decision-makers in both the domains tend to be generalists.
When faced with specific problems, having a specialist by your side to address these challenges and provide targeted solutions can make all the difference.
If you have a nasty fistula in your colon, you do not want a surgeon who is good at political science.
— Charlie Munger
Dr. Deshpande equates them to Narasimha. "Narasimha" is derived from the Sanskrit words nara (man) and simha (lion), reflecting his form: a being with a human torso and the head and claws of a lion.
As per the narrative in Bhagavata Purana, Hiranyakashipu asked of Brahma, "Grant me that I not die within any residence or outside any residence, during the daytime or at nighttime, nor in the ground or in the sky. Grant me that my death not be brought about by any weapons or hands, nor by any human or animal. Grant me that I not meet death from any entity, living or nonliving created by you. Grant me, further, that I not be killed by any deity or demon or by any other organisms and divinities."
Hiranyakashipu’s son, Prahlada, a devout follower of Vishnu, endures persecution from his father for his unwavering faith. When Hiranyakashipu demands that Prahlada’s Vishnu appear from a pillar, Narasimha emerges dramatically from within it. By killing the demon king in a way that circumvented all his protective boons—neither man nor beast, inside nor outside, day nor night, and on neither earth nor sky—Narasimha demonstrated divine will triumphing over cunning evil.
Dr. Deshpande pointed out that having a mentor in your circle who can help you tackle specific problems is invaluable, much like how Vishnu addressed the challenge of defeating an unassailable asura (demon).
Krishna<>Arjuna
Dr. Deshpande described the third type of mentor as a practical advisor, similar to how Krishna guided Arjuna during the battle of Kurukshetra in the epic Mahabharata.
Ideally, this mentor is someone who emotionally invests in your growth and also understands the subject matter well enough.
Krishna and Arjuna share a profound relationship rooted in friendship, kinship, guidance, and spiritual camaraderie. In the Mahabharata, Arjuna is a Pandava prince and a peerless archer, while Krishna, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, serves as his confidant, charioteer, and spiritual teacher.
Krishna understands Arjuna’s inner strengths, weaknesses, and doubts, guiding him with compassion and patience. Arjuna, in turn, reveres Krishna as an embodiment of the divine, trusting his wisdom and insight.
This mentorship reaches its pinnacle in the Bhagavad Gita, where, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, a hesitant and morally conflicted Arjuna receives Krishna’s timeless counsel on duty, righteousness, and the nature of the soul.
In this transformative dialogue and the subsequent battle, Krishna serves as a companion and a guide, inspiring Arjuna to progress with courage and clarity.
Devghar
Dr. Deshpande believes that building a squad of reliable mentors is akin to building your ‘devghar’. Basically, Devghar is a mini-temple that Hindu families keep in their homes — sort of like a prayer room.
“The highest form which civilization can reach is a seamless web of deserved trust. Not much procedure, just totally reliable people correctly trusting one another.”
— Charlie Munger
Dr. Anand Deshpande’s basic lesson was: to build a ‘devghar’ of reliable and trustworthy mentors who are a mix of Krishna(s)<>Arjuna, Drona<>Eklavyas, and Narasimhas.
Often, having access to the judgment of the right mentors is far more valuable than simply the time they spend with you.
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