Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of Tata Group, not only led the salt-to-aviation conglomerate to new heights but has also served as a mentor to many and guided people in their career. One such person is Sanjiv Kaul, Partner, ChrysCapital, who recently went down the memory, revisiting how an unexpected meeting with Tata helped him setup his startup.
Kaul had started a pharmaceutical company, Advinus Therapeutics, with two US scientists who returned to India for the opportunity. The pharma firm was promoted by the Tata Group, but the story behind this is unknown to many.
The Mumbai to Delhi Jet Airways flight
The year was 2004 when Kaul was travelling on a Jet Airways flight from Mumbai to Delhi. His meeting for seeking investment for an innovative startup earlier that day with a large industrial house had not gone well and so he was a bit down and out, he recounted the story of how the 84-year-old billionaire decided to invest in his startup.
Kaul went on to share that the flight was still boarding and he was going through his PowerPoint presentation, laptop trying to figure out what could have possibly gone wrong. “I could sense a gentleman settling down on seat 2D next to me. I looked up and immediately recognised Mr Tata,” he wrote.
Well aware of the legend sitting next to him, Kaul nevertheless returned his attention to the PPT and felt a deep sense of loss with tears swelling up. His tears didn’t go unnoticed as Ratan Tata asked him what was wrong.
Advinus Therapeutics
Kaul detailed that he couldn’t help opening up to Tata and told him that his failure to secure funding could mean that “India was about to lose two top scientists” who wanted to create the country’s first pharmaceutical research and development company. “He asked me how come and I shared with him details of Advinus Therapeutics and the 2 brilliant co-founders Rashmi Barbhaiya and Kasim Mookhtiar,” Kaul penned in the note.
As he concluded saying that he was at the end of tether as he had exhausted all options and these 2 fine scientists were all set to return to the US over the weekend in spite of my best efforts, Tata tried to cheer him up by promising that someone from the Tata Group would call him.
At 9 pm the same evening, I get a call from a general manager of Tatas whether I could come along with the 2 Advinus scientists the next day to Bombay House for a discussion with the senior leadership of Tatas, Kaul stated. The rest, as they say, is history!
We made a presentation to the Tata Board and TATA Advinus was green lightest. All because one man truly believed instinctively that the 2 scientists needed to be given a break in India. The scientists stayed back for over a decade and Mr Tata, the Patriot helped stopped the brain drain, Kaul narrated.
