His not-for-profit venture, Ascent, (which provides a platform to entrepreneurs for mentorship and an opportunity to learn from other platforms) is a decade old now. Ascent, which has mentored 840 entrepreneurs, has a cumulative turnover of ₹55,000 crore, claims Mariwala. He hopes that in the next 10 years, Ascent would mentor over 10,000 entrepreneurs and touch a turnover of ₹500,000 crore.

The New-Age Entrepreneur

More individuals are wanting to take risks and start a business, says Mariwala. “That is driven by successful entrepreneurs who have created unicorns, and that has brought in a lot of confidence.” Unlike earlier, most new-age entrepreneurs, says Mariwala, don’t come from legacy business families. Neither are they only from metro cities. The biggest surprise for him in the past few years has been the entrepreneurial fire of small-town entrepreneurs. “We have entrepreneurs coming from Srinagar, Cooch Behar, Dharwad, Bhuj and Guwahati. We see a substantial potential to add many more numbers to the Ascent membership.”

There are far more funding options. “If I am coming from a non-business family and I don’t have money, in the past there were not too many funding options. Today, there are multiple funding options. There are angel investors or banks or private equity or family offices. There is an ecosystem for entrepreneurship that is getting built. You also have consultants and advisors you can go to for advice.”

Mariwala expects entrepreneurship in the next 10 years to have a multiplier effect. “Unless that happens India’s growth story would remain on paper. The world demographic dividend, all that only an entrepreneur would be able to do it. The role of the government is to make policies and create infrastructure, not start businesses. The government is exiting many businesses and that’s what they should be doing.”