'One mentor isn't sufficient in today's complex world'

Gynoveda's Vishal Gupta on why books are his mentor, and doing nothing is the best way to calm the mind

- Mahalakshmi Prabhakaran

Born into a business family, it was par for the course that Vishal Gupta would also become a businessman. "For four generations, my family has been in business, so since my childhood, I was oriented towards that path," says Gupta. He's an entrepreneur who started Gynoveda in 2019 with his wife Rachna, and business partner Aarati Patil. In March, the Ayurveda-backed women's healthcare startup raised $10 million in Series A funding, led by India Alternatives Fund.

Gupta's journey into entrepreneurship began three decades ago. In 1996, when he was 19, he started his first venture: an internet company, called Webseva, which he scaled up in six years to a three-city set up with a 150-member-strong team. Then, opting for the corporate life, Gupta joined Sutherland Global, one of the world's biggest technical support companies.

"I come from a very traditional business background and realised that to build a business with scale, you needed skills. That's why I went into the corporate world to cultivate the skills that would later help me do my own stuff," he recalls. In the six years he was there, he helped open 14 offices for the company in India. This was followed by a stint with Stuart Crighton and Sandeep Murthi, the founders and investors of online travel company, Cleartrip.