Mentored By Ratan Tata

As the man who manages the former Tata Group chairman's office and his startup investment portfolio, 29-year-old Shantanu Naidu is Ratan Tata's bridge to the world of young people. He speaks to us about how it is working with the legendary industrialist

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Last month, Ratan Tata announced an investment in Goodfellows, a senior citizen companionship startup founded by Shantanu Naidu. The slightly built Naidu, who is 29, manages the former Tata Group chairman's office and his startup investment portfolio in his role as a general manager.

Goodfellows, which connects the elderly with handpicked empathetic and emotionally intelligent youngsters or 'Grandpals', has been shaped both by Naidu's personal experiences and his intergenerational friendship with Tata.

The subscription-based service, which was launched after a six-month beta phase in Mumbai, has 20 'Grandpals' at present and aims to increase its staff count, and expand its geographical presence by the end of the year to Pune, and eventually to Chennai and Bengaluru.

Startups covet an endorsement from Ratan Tata who has invested in some 50 of them since he retired as chairman of the group in 2017. The ticket size of each of his investments may be modest, but his presence on the cap table usually opens doors to more investors and customers. The startups he has backed include eyewear retailer Lenskart, EV startup Ola Electric Mobility, Repos Energy, an energy distribution startup that offers doorstep delivery of fuels through mobile petrol pumps, and pet care portal Dogspot. Naidu, who grew up in Pune, comes from a family that has, over the last four generations, served the Tata Group in various capacities. He first drew Tata's attention in 2015 with his social initiative, Motopaws, that made glow-in-the-dark collars for stray dogs to prevent them from getting hit by motorists at night. Tata, who famously loves dogs himself, invited Naidu, then a design engineer with Tata Elxsi in Pune, to Mumbai for a chat.