Ganesh K
Ganesh is a seasoned entrepreneur with a proven track record of launching and exiting four successful ventures. He is the founder and partner at GrowthStory.in, a leading venture builder platform that incubates and promotes new ventures and entrepreneurs.
GrowthStory has been instrumental in the growth of several leading companies, including BigBasket.com - India’s largest e-grocery company (majority-owned by the Tata Group), Portea Medical - India’s largest and fastest-growing home healthcare company with over 4000 employees across 37 cities, Bluestone.com - a top online jewelry company, and HomeLane - India’s leading end-to-end interior design and manufacturing provider.
Ganesh’s previous ventures have also seen great success. TutorVista, his last venture, was acquired by education leader Pearson in 2011 for $213 MM. He was also the founder and chairman of Marketics, a data analytics BPO firm, which was acquired by WNS in 2007 for $63 MM. Additionally, he founded CustomerAsset, a BPO/Call center pioneer, which was acquired by ICICI Bank and is now publicly listed as First Source Solutions. Ganesh’s first venture, IT&T, was one of India’s top multi-vendor IT service and support companies and was acquired by iGate in 2003.
Ganesh is an active angel investor and has invested in several startups, including LittleEyeLabs (acquired by Facebook in 2014), delyver.com (acquired by BigBasket in 2015), DealShare, Oto Capital, HackerEarth, CredR, Pokkt, SilverPush, DogSpot, Euler Motors, and more. He is also a mentor and incubator to startups and has held senior management positions at Wipro/Bharti British Telecom and HCL Ltd.
Ganesh holds a postgraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Delhi University. He has received the Distinguished Alumnus award from both institutions and has served as a Member of the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and as the Founder Director of the IIM Calcutta Innovation Park & Incubation cell.
As an Adjunct Professor at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, he teaches an MBA class on “New Age Business Models” and as a Visiting Faculty at the Indian School of Business Hyderabad, he teaches a course on “Launching Software Startups” to postgraduate management students. Ganesh is also a well-known speaker at entrepreneurship, startup, and technology events and has been recognized as one of the "Iconic Entrepreneurs of India" by the National Knowledge Commission and was a nominee for The Economic Times ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ award in 2015.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ganesh co-founded a social initiative to provide 65 lakh meals to migrant and daily wage workers across five cities during March 2020. During the second wave of the pandemic, he worked to provide free oxygen support to COVID patients and collaborated with state governments to upgrade healthcare infrastructure facilities. His non-profit Bahaar Foundation, focuses on creating micro entrepreneurs in Healthcare and Agriculture sectors.