Pro-buddy to the next generation of Business Leaders
“India is undergoing economic growth @ 20X right now. It is the highest we have ever achieved,” tells us Amrish Krishnan. What he doesn’t reveal is that it is young leaders like him who are playing a significant role in the country’s march ahead.
I n the past few years, first as a student and now as an entrepreneur, Amrish has mentored thousands of budding entrepreneurs in building successful ventures. An award-winning IT Engineering Expert, he is the Founder of MyProBuddy; a leader at Finequs; an Investor; and Innovation Ambassador @ MOE’s Innovation Cell, Government of India.
Based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, his journey in the field began in 2017 when he was given the responsibility of setting up the Entrepreneurship Development Cell in college. He reached out to local companies and MSMEs and incubated almost 40 startups. He managed to get them 12 million INR in seed funding, and there was no looking back.
“In my 4 years at college, I participated in around 40 Hackathons, and won 38 of them. That’s when I realised there’s something there.” Amrish thus joined Zoho as an Incubation Trainee and rose up to Digital Marketing Specialist – IT Security (Global). All was well until the pandemic came calling. 2020 saw Amrish spearheading cross functional teams at his family business.
“I quit Zoho and joined my family business. Back then, we used to have 45,000 outlets. Today FINEQUS – our phygital financial services firm, has more than 1.5 million outlets across India.”
The pandemic gave Amrish ample time to attend webinars and spread his digital footprint. Owing to his innumerous initiatives, in 2022, he was appointed as the Innovation Ambassador @ Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell, Government of India, as well as Resource person @ EDI-TN.
Amrish knew it was time. “I was already training a lot of young entrepreneurs. I realised that most young people think that an innovative idea can become a business model, which is completely false.”
This led him to establish – MyProBuddy, aka ‘My Professional Buddy’. At MyProBuddy, Amrish, along with his global teams, resource persons, and industry experts, help students to transform their innovative ideas into successful and legendary ventures.
“We start from idea evaluation, and go on to pitch deck, financial viability, assist with marketing and branding, provide website and software development, and at last, funding. We carry out their business analytics so they can focus on their vision.”
Based on their expertise and resources, MyProBuddy selects companies and works with them on a timeline of 6 months. “I go by two things alone – 1. Idea, and 2. Values of the Founder. Once selected, we lead them through the process and ensure they don’t dilute all their equity. There are various government schemes to get grants from Rs 10 lakh – 7.5 crores. We specialise in these.”
Recently, MyProBuddy signed almost 200 MOUs with multiple colleges in South and West India. In India, his focus is young entrepreneurs, but in global markets such as the UK and Middle East, he caters to stable startups looking for humongous growth.
“There are many youngsters with innovative ideas, but most remain unaware of the multiple ways to raise capital. This information is available only in premium colleges like IITs. The dropout ratio in the field is as high as 97%. Most often than not, people get jobs and settle for the secure option.”
We ask Amrish about the challenges he faced. Sharing two, he says, “When I was younger, I wanted to do it all alone. It took me a year to realise the importance of delegation and that I will grow when I empower others to grow. Second, I mistakenly believed that I had adequate exposure and business acumen. But when someone came to me with an idea for soil for instance, I had no knowledge about the field. I realised I needed industry experts who could assess projects for me.”
Today, Amrish’s community of mentors are spread across the globe. An expert in Network Management, he can easily connect clients with the right people in his global network, and leverage contacts to build businesses.
Even with his clients, he prefers to foster a ‘brotherhood’ instead of a formal relationship. “The feeling you get when you talk to a youngster completely reliant on you, is what drives my passion. In addition, I myself get to invest in a lot of new ideas, trends and startups. You won’t believe the ideas people come up with. We’re easily 10-20 years behind the tech in our community. It’s an adrenaline rush to see something that will be the future.”
By giving wings to budding entrepreneurs, Amrish has emerged as an Innovation Leader. Sharing his vision, he tells us, “India is building the next generation of unicorns in the world, soon it will be a superpower. It is high time we capitalise on our strengths and build legendary ventures of tomorrow.”
