Empowering Startups to Grow in India
Behind every successful tech startup, there is often the support of a robust ecosystem. An alumnus of HKUST MBA, Abhinav PANDEY, is at the forefront of one of the largest and most influential tech ecosystems in the world, India.
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For Pandey, this is a perfect combination of his skills and passion. Many career paths were open to Pandey, who has a software engineering background, a computer science degree, an MBA from HKUST, and the experience as a “Teach for India” fellow.
“Teach for India” is a non-profit organization that is a part of the well-known global “Teach for All” network. The “Teach for” organizations recruit college graduates and working professionals to serve as full-time teachers in low-income schools. Teach for India is working to address the problem of educational inequity in India.
“During my ‘Teach for India’ fellowship, I discovered that I had a passion for teaching,” Pandey says. “My role today as Vice President – Startup Strategy at iB Hubs allows me to combine my passion for empowering people with my knowledge and skills in business.”
Ecosystem builder in India
Headquartered in Hyderabad, India, iB Hubs is a network of incubators and innovation hubs in 45 locations across five countries, including India, the UK, Singapore, Australia and Dubai.
At iB Hubs, Pandey has a unique vantage point observing and supporting the growth of India’s tech startup ecosystem – the third largest in the world after the US and China.
The India startup ecosystem has made significant progress in recent years. This is exciting, as innovation and entrepreneurship are engines for economic growth in the future, he says.
Government initiatives such as Startup India, private organizations like iB Hubs, and programs from state government and universities have played a role in building the ecosystem.
Having been a “Teach for India” fellow and taken the Social Entrepreneurship and Venture Philanthropy course at HKUST, Pandey also enjoys to engage with some of the Indian startups that are driven by social missions.
“Many startups thriving in India help solve social problems in our country at different levels,” he notes. “These startups serve their customers by addressing a social problem and at the same time have a financially sustainable business model.”
Speaking about his work at iB Hubs, Pandey says that his success is defined in two ways – from the growth of startups and in terms of the work culture at iB Hubs globally.
“My biggest reward is two-fold,” Pandey says. “First, when startups that I have trained succeed in the industry and fulfil their goals. Second, when the unique work culture of iB Hubs prevails and supports our mission as we expand across India and the world.”
iB Hubs has a 250-strong team helping Indian startups distribute their products to foreign markets and helping suitable foreign startups enter the Indian market.
“We have all come together to make India a global leader in advanced technologies,” Pandey says.
A lasting impact
Although he completed his MBA a few years ago, Pandey’s HKUST experience has a lasting impact on his business decision-making and management approach, he says.
The experiential courses in the MBA program made his learning both memorable and practical. Pandey also credits his professors and fellow MBA students for playing a pivotal role in his learning process.
“The Social Entrepreneurship and Venture Philanthropy course under Professor Marie ROSENCRANTZ, the venture capital course under Professor Larry FRANKLIN, the strategic finance course under Professor Kasper NIELSEN, and many other courses played a key role in influencing my management approach today,” he says.
