'This Is Ratan Tata. Can We Meet?': How A Phone Call Changed Fortune Of This Pune Startup
¡°This is Ratan Tata here. I got your letter. Can we meet?¡± Imagine getting a phone call that started with these words, seems quite impossible right?
This is exactly what people told this Pune duo -- impossible -- when they expressed their wish to meet and speak to the country's most renowned industrialist. But, they just didn't meet him, the founders also got Tata to invest in their start-up. Let's know how.
What's their story?
Weeks after Ratan Tata-backed mobile energy distribution startup Repos Energy launched their organic waste-powered ¡®mobile electric charging vehicle¡¯ solution, the founders shared how a call from the industrialist changed their fortune.
When starting out with Repos a few years ago, co-founder Aditi Bhosale Walunj and Chetan Walunj figured out that for the company to grow, they needed a mentor--somebody who has worked towards a greater good. And the first person they could think of was Ratan Tata.
When Aditi Bhosale Walunj suggested that they meet him, Chetan Walunj was quick to remark, ¡°Aditi, he (Ratan Tata) is not my neighbour that you are saying let's go meet him.¡±?However, she did not back out.
In the LinkedIn post, Aditi wrote, "We both have had no formal business education but we learnt one thing very early in our lives--an excuse towards anything is a foundation which one builds a house of failure."??
"Everyone told us you cannot meet him (Ratan Tata) and that it's impossible. We didn't use this as an excuse. "NO" was never an option..." explained?Aditi Bhosale Walunj on Linkedin.
Unfazed, the duo made a 3D presentation of how they wanted to bring change into energy distribution and deliver fuel in different locations with technical aid.
When they got the call
While many said that meeting Ratan Tata was impossible, the founders remained determined and sent handwritten letters to him. They connected with people and waited for 12 hours outside his house. After returning to their room, they got a call from Ratan Tata at 10 pm.
¡°I was reluctant to answer but when I answered the voice on the other hand said ¡®Hi! Can I speak to Aditi? I said : ¡®Yes. May I know who is this? (somewhere my heart knew it) He said ¡®This is Ratan Tata here. I got your letter. Can we meet?¡¯ Me : *Numb* *Goosebumps* *tears rolling down* *smiling* (ALIVE)."
When they met Ratan Tata
"The next day we reached his house at 10.45 am at his house and waited for him in the living room with our presentation. And sharp at 11 am a tall, fair person with a blue shirt walked towards us. And it felt like SILENCE," she wrote.
"That meeting at 11am went up to 2 pm and those three hours were sheer mediation for us where he heard our idea, shared his experiences and guided us."
The Repos Energy co-founder said Ratan Tata asked her what she expected from him to which the couple replied, ¡°Sir, help us serve people and take our country global. Guide us.¡±
He responded with an "okay"."We stepped out of his house, like we were walking out of the temple. After that Repos is where it is today because of him," Aditi Bhosale Walunj said."
She expressed gratitude?
"From Tata Motors helping us, to conversations with Ratan Tata... to showing him our first Mobile Fuel Station to him and getting his feedback and receiving his first token investment in 2019 and another round in April 2022--this would not have been possible without his whole team."
She also thanked the deputy general manager at Ratan Tata¡¯s officepersonal manager Shantanu Naidu who she said has been "an angel in disguise for us" for the Repos founders.
For more on news and current affairs from around the world please visit?Indiatimes News.
