Josh Talks’ Manish Pandey talks about his journey as a startup mentor and consultant
Startup mentor Manish Pandey has always liked helping young people who have the zeal to do beyond others. He has helped several entrepreneurs as a consultant for years for free-of-cost, and has recently started taking up commercial projects.
An entrepreneur’s journey is not an easy one, and having an understanding mentor to help them in the early stages is a gift. Manish Pandey from has played a very important role as a mentor and a support for numerous entrepreneurs and content creators over the years.
Manish used to head the research team at Josh Talks and is now responsible for operations and culture. Along with his full time job, he has also helped many entrepreneurs, including Ranveer Allahbadia aka Beer Biceps, as a mentor and consultant.
Representational Image
“I really like helping people. Until recently, I didn’t know how to quantify what I do. First of all, I was a full-time member of the Josh Talks team. So, in my books, it was unethical to draw money from anywhere else. I never took money from any of the entrepreneurs or content creators whom I worked with, but then Supriya (Co-founder of Josh Talks) walked up to me one day and said what you do is great, but you should charge a little bit of money so that people value your time,” he says.
With encouragement from the Josh Talks team, Manish now commercially works with some startups and content creators as a consultant and mentor.
“Till 2020, I was not taking any money. I used to think that what I do is I just meet them and talk to them and something beautiful comes out. So, my spiritual being in me used to say that it has come out of you and is not yours. So why take money for that? Now I am involved in more than talking. I am involved in their day-to-day stuff and now I have commercial engagements with a few startups. But all said and done, there are hundreds of people who talk to me and I don’t draw money from them because some of them are growing and some are trying to make their mark.”
“I really like helping youngsters who have the zeal to do beyond what normal people are doing. So, I think that is my contribution towards making a stronger nation,” he adds.
Manish, who comes from Silvassa, headquarters of the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, had very humble beginnings. He reveals that he likes to help people become independent. This idea pushes him to support those who wish to go beyond.
Importance of being disciplined and consistent
Sharing learnings from his journey, Manish says that it is very important to be disciplined and consistent. He adds that it is also important to believe in what one is doing and study the niche that one is working in.
He advises young content creators to stay up-to-date with the recent trends and collaborate more to grow. Manish also believes that storytelling is going to be a big thing.
According to Manish, the next trillion-dollar company -- maybe in a decade’s time -- is going to be a storytelling company or a company that supports storytelling.
Speaking about how people reached out to him for mentorship, Manish reveals that networking has always been very close to his heart.
“Somehow, I developed this art of networking by myself. I used to read a lot of books, and whenever I used to go and talk to people, I knew what to talk about. That is how people knew me and that is how people referred me to others for any help as well,” he says.
In this episode of 100X Entrepreneur Podcast, Manish Pandey talks about his journey as a mentor for entrepreneurs.
To know more, listen to the podcast here
Notes –
02:50 – Helping Entrepreneurs and Content Creators
07:49 – Introspecting life backwards to 5th standard
16:04 – Meeting Ranveer Allahbadia
21:12 – Advice to 100xEntrepreneur to build its Social Media Brand
23:44 – Putting out one’s vulnerability
26:08 – Manish on Spirituality
YourStory’s flagship startup-tech and leadership conference will return virtually for its 13th edition on October 25-30, 2021. Sign up for updates on TechSparks or to express your interest in partnerships and speaker opportunities here.
For more on TechSparks 2021, click here.
Edited by Megha Reddy