Mentor: Mr. Ranjan Chandiramani

Profession: Senior Manager at Ernst & Young

Location: Virtual Zoom Call

Date: January 29th, 2020

Time: 5:00 PM – 5:45 PM

Assessment:

This week, I was able to return to studying my fundamental topic of impact investing. As Mr. Ranjan Chandiramani has been a long-time mentor of mine, I was able to contact him for a quick meeting to present my new financial technology startup that ties in the concepts of impact investing, entrepreneurship, and social innovation. Through this meeting, not only was I able to demonstrate my understanding of impact investing and how I was able to tie in impact investing into innovation. Moreover, I demonstrated how I was able to apply my financial skillset to my previous passions. Moreover, he was able to critique my company through which I could receive constructive criticism and refine my company based on his suggestions. I was also able to further discuss career options within the various fields of finance and investments.

With this interview meeting, I was primarily able to gain critiques on my financial technology startup idea. I helped Mr. Chandiramani explain how “Kismet is an innovative online and mobile platform that drives sustainable development and positive social impact by providing social entrepreneurs dedicated to accomplishing the UN Sustainable Development Goals with the opportunity to receive seed funding and mentorship opportunities from impact investors. As Kismet’s mission is to champion the digitization and democratization of the private entrepreneurial ecosystem by redefining the investor-entrepreneur relationship, Kismet provides a multitude of innovative features to social entrepreneurs and investors alike.” I also moved to explain how “Kismet’s inclusive, user-friendly, and transparent platform is unique as it is the only market offering that connects social entrepreneurs to private investors to spur social innovation. By doing so, Kismet drives targeted social innovation focused on the 17 interlinked global sustainability goals. Moreover, by connecting the private business ecosystem, Kismet digitizes and funds this ever-important sector of the global economy to bolster the growth of private social startups. For investors, Kismet is able to promote responsible impact investing while facilitating direct mentorship between the entrepreneurs and investors, all while providing investors with a personalized dashboard to track finances, impact made, and make future investments.” Upon hearing my pitch, which Mr. Chandiramani was very impressed with, he was able to provide me with constructive criticism. He mentioned how “you want to provide everything in a small, comprehendible package.” This was an amazing critique as I was able to understand how to present everything in a small package so that it seems valuable to the consumer rather than listing numerous incomprehensible qualities.

In conclusion, the biggest takeaways from this meeting were that I was able to better comprehend the shortcomings and advantages of my company to then work on them to better improve my Final Product. Moreover, I was able to briefly discuss career opportunities as Mr. Chandiramani provided me with a general overview of his career path. I was also able to express my interested career path, which lie in entrepreneurship, impact investing, or the convergence of public policy and finance. Ultimately, I look forward to continuing working on my startup, presenting it to my mentors, and tweaking my idea, as well as exploring career paths.