How this NC Subscriber took his company public + INSEADER of the month + INK Partnership

Hi there,

I am Utkarsh, founder of Network Capital, writing to you about 3 things:

a. A small personal milestone

b. Network Capital’s partnership with INK

c. The story of one of the earliest NC subscribers who just took his company public

Let’s get started.

a. INSEADer of the month

INSEAD, the world #1 business school according to Financial Times, just featured our work.

Thank you, INSEAD. As a 24 year old who walked into the MBA classroom, I am grateful to the myriad learning opportunities and the values you instilled in me. Network Capital is what it is because of the meaningful role you played in shaping my vision. In a world obsessed with borders and boundaries it is possible to lead with kindness. The real challenges today are problems without passwords and can only be solved if we take an international outlook.

Here is to building a truly global community that empowers every person and every organization on the planet to build their category of one.

Those who know me long enough know that I met with an accident towards the end of business school. It was painful at the time but in hindsight turned out to be a gift. It became a TED talk.

If you enjoyed my TED talk, signup for the Network Capital public speaking fellowship. Classes start on Jan 15 and I look forward to welcoming you.

b. Partnership with INK

I was selected to become an INKtalks Fellow in 2019. Being part of the INK community was transformational as I got the opportunity to learn from and contribute to some of the kindest leaders around the world. I talk about my INK experience in my book “The Seductive Illusion of Hard Work” (Sage Publishing)

INK was founded by Lakshmi Pratury with the mission of democratizing the magic that occurs at the intersection of science, technology, community and culture. Over the years all of us (INK fellows) have been mesmerized by her storytelling, leadership and empathy.

Today I am happy to share that INK and Network Capital have joined hands to set up “Youth INK with Network Capital” to help school students build their category of one. It will be a yearlong immersion program where students will spend an hour every weekend learning from top CEOs, academics, artists, scientists and policy makers.

In the inaugural cohort of the program we will work closely with 100 students and help them identify their core strengths and equip them with the knowledge, network and mental models to build meaningful careers in the twenty-first century.

Our larger goal is to spark a sense of wonder and curiosity among students. They will graduate as top-notch public speakers, writers and thinkers – skills that will be invaluable for the rest of their lives. They were celebrate JOMO (joy of missing out) and abandon FOMO (fear of missing out).

Lakshmi and I will personally teach in this program and we will bring the best of INK and Network Capital for our students.

c. MapmyIndia Going Public 

This is Rohan Verma, one of NC’s earliest subscribers. He is my senior from school (DPS VK). My earliest memory of him is from a disproportionately long morning assembly when he gave a puzzle to our math teacher (Shakuntala ma’am). There was something surreal about that moment. I can’t quite articulate it but it is etched in my memory.

This picture is from Bellevue in Seattle. I had just joined Microsoft and he was wrapping up his MBA internship there. We hung out, chatted about DPS, INSEAD, LBS (Rohan did his MBA there), technology, Microsoft, life, love, food etc etc.

I am not sure if Rohan remembers but that was the first afternoon I talked about the idea of Network Capital. Time went by. I launched NC as a passion project.

This is Rohan’s first NC post.

Since this post Rohan has been one of the most engaged community members adding specific value to others and learning from them. It is because of members like Rohan that NC has been able to scale trust. NC has been built the good old fashioned way - one sincere handshake at a time.

That’s why we are so thrilled to celebrate the success of Rohan and the entire Map My India team. Their grit, humility and commitment to excellence has been awe inspiring. In a world obsessed with fast food and fast valuations, MapmyIndia has demonstrated what it takes to build a category defining organization.

The world that we are building has a special place for the likes of Rohan - givers at heart who intimately understand the power of compounding. Everything meaningful in life is a result of compounding, even the friendship that Rohan and I have now had for more than 20 years.

Join me in congratulating Rohan and the MapmyIndia team. We are so proud of you and so glad our paths crossed.

Have a wonderful day ahead.

P.S. This is a quick summary of what we did at NC in 2021

P.P.S. This holiday season, if you think of gifting a loved one something meaningful, I hope you think of Network Capital