The Individual Journeys of Entrepreneurs Through the Lens of Failure
In a candid and deeply reflective panel, entrepreneurs Wilma Rodrigues, Arjun Arunachalam, Anand Sivaram, and Piya Bahadur share their personal journeys of building impact-driven ventures in India. Moderated by Anand Ganesh, the session offers insights into the often untold stories behind startup resilience – facing funding bottlenecks, navigating failure, pivoting business models, and building grit within teams. The conversation revolves around how failures aren’t setbacks but learning curves that shape better leadership, design stronger products, and encourage deeper social impact.
Wilma discusses the evolution from an NGO model to a for-profit enterprise at Saahas Zero Waste and the challenge of integrating informal sector workers into the formal economy. Arjun recounts the solitary, high-risk development of a deep-tech MRI scanner from scratch, while Anand shares how Remidio reimagined eye screening by decentralizing diagnostic care, learning to adapt product deployment models across geographies. Piya narrates her unconventional journey from long-distance biking to creating MeraBills, a fintech solution tailored for women micro-entrepreneurs in rural India, emphasizing the importance of measuring impact beyond monetization.
Each speaker explores themes of failure as a rite of passage, of being people-focused over product-obsessed, and of how a clear mission sustains them through volatility. The conversation goes beyond technicalities to highlight the human aspects such as self-doubt, decision fatigue, resilience, and the emotional labor of entrepreneurship – leaving the audience with a renewed understanding that success is not just about scale, but staying power and social relevance.
