Planet Impact

Amit Chandra is the Chairman of Bain Capital India, a board member of Tata Sons, and a founder-trustee of Ashoka University who has committed to give away 90% of his wealth. Through the A.T.E. Chandra Foundation, he and his wife Archana have rejuvenated thousands of water bodies across drought-prone India, including in Ahmednagar, where I grew up.

Tiny lessons:

1. India is the place to be and build, if you are playing the long game.

2. Early in your career, optimize for the best apprenticeship, even if the paycheck isn’t the highest.

3. Investing is 20% theory, 80% practice and feedback.

4. Judge feedback by the intent behind it, not how it’s delivered.

5. Perseverance is the singlemost important train he would look for in a mentee.

Essay (a few personal highlights from the conversation):

If you want to become a good investor, find yourself a good mentor and seek feedback. Amit chose DSP, the lowest-paying offer he had, because building quality foundation offered mattered more to him. He describes his early bosses as ironsmiths who beat him into shape with brutal feedback. Robert Greene writes something identical in Mastery: “The goal of an apprenticeship is not money, a good position, a title, or a diploma, but rather the transformation of your mind and character.” A test of a good mentor, Amit adds, is that they stop you from making really stupid mistakes, but also push you to aspire for things you never imagined you were capable of.

Say what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. In a world driven by strongmen of questionable morals, honesty can be refreshing . Early in Amit’s career at DSP, Kumar Mangalam Birla’s group invited bankers to present for raising project capital. Every banker knew the expected answer. Amit, a junior banker at the time, ran the analysis, felt the project didn’t make sense, and was pretty direct with the answer he thought was right. That honesty laid the foundation for a relationship with the Birla group that lasted decades.

After a point, the amount of wealth matters less. In a private chat two years ago, Amit told me something that stayed, “We start our lives in pursuit of wealth, but after say 30 crore rupees, each additional crore adds far less to your life.” Chuck Feeney, the cofounder of Duty Free Shoppers who was once the 23rd richest American alive. Feeney secretly transferred his entire fortune to his foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, and gave away over $8 billion during his lifetime. Amit often references Feeney’s teachings, and the Chandras have taken that philosophy and made it their own, aiming to give away 90% of their income every year, not after death but right now.

Link to the transcripts; spotify; youtube, and everywhere else you listen to my show.

Resources and Episodes mentioned:

People:

• Hemendra Kothari (Hemendra): Veteran investment banker, founder of DSP Financial Consultants / DSP Merrill Lynch, and one of Amit Chandra’s early bosses/mentors.

• Kumar Mangalam Birla: Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, referenced during a key early DSP pitch story.

• Chuck Feeney: Renowned American billionaire, co-founder of Duty Free Shoppers (DFS), and pioneer of the “Giving While Living” movement.

• Rumi: The 13th-century Persian poet (quoted: “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I want to change myself.”).

Books:

• Sri Guru Granth Sahib (Sacred Hymns and Shabads)

• Mastery by Robert Greene

• The Billionaire Who Wasn’t: How Chuck Feeney Made and Gave Away a Fortune Without Anyone Knowing by Conor O’Clery

Kayalin Akens-Irby is an impact-driven strategist focused on building a sustainable future through her work across tech, investment, and policy. As Head of Growth at Planet FWD, she helps consumer companies measure and reduce their carbon footprint and decarbonize supply chains. Previously, she served as Head of VC and Growth Equity at Malk Partners, where she developed ESG investment strategies for top private equity funds, contributing to over $500B in AUM. A frequent speaker at global climate conferences, Kayalin co-built a 26,000-member climate tech community on Clubhouse. She is a Claremont McKenna College graduate, a Board Member of the Upcycled Food Association, and an advisor to green tech startups.

Mr Tim Dunn is the co-founder and CIO of Terra Alpha Investments, a firm offering sustainable public equity investment strategies to accredited investors, combines decades of investment experience with a science-based understanding of environmental risks and opportunities. Terra Alpha uses two proprietary research frameworks—Enduring Business Models and Environmental Productivity—to identify companies that can deliver strong financial returns while contributing to a sustainable economy. With over 30 years in professional investing, including 19 years at Capital Research as a lead manager of major global equity funds, Mr Dunn draws on experience with environmental organizations, emphasizing the importance of aligning capital markets with sustainable resource use and societal needs.

Sophie invests in and supports early-stage climate tech founders & their companies via Planeteer Capital, and writes CTVC for 75,000+ subscribers. Prior, she launched an ESG fund at a major endowment. Formerly, she worked at Bain & Co., published a book on sustainable investing, and helped found carbon-negative fertilizer co (raised +$65m).

Ron is the CEO of Closed Loop Partners, a New York-based investment firm focused on building a circular economy through venture capital, growth equity, private equity, and project finance, with investors including major retailers and family offices. He authored Waste Free World and previously served as Deputy Commissioner of Sanitation in NYC, overseeing recycling and waste management. Ron is also an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School and has received numerous accolades, including being named a United Nations "Champion of the Earth." He co-founded RecycleBank and holds patents in recycling technology. He earned his MBA from Columbia Business School

Louise Emmanuelle Mabulo is a 22-year-old chef, farmer, and entrepreneur. She is the Founder of The Cacao Project, which cultivates resilient and Climate-smart livelihoods, positioning farmers for sustainable success in San Fernando, Camarines Sur, Philippines.

Satyajeet Tambe is an educationalist, an entrepreneur, and a young Politician from Maharashtra, India. He attended Pune University and John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. 

Ara is the founder of the Aha! Project (www.ahaproject.id | @aha.projectid ). It is a social initiative that provides quality and fun learning tools for young students at home. Within less than 12 months since its inception, her initiative has already impacted ~2,400 children across 13 provinces and 35 villages in Indonesia. 

"We need every one of us to take action and solve the problems we face around us, instead of waiting for a hero and demanding the change from other people we all must reflect and understand what can we do to make the world a better place".

Background: 

Ara is a serial social entrepreneur and she began her social entrepreneurial journey at 10 years of age with the Moo's project 🐄. Ara was quickly recognized as a Changemaker of the future, and she became an Ashoka Youth Venturer at the age of 11. 

Growing up, Ara experienced a range of schooling systems. In her elementary years, she was home-schooled, then she went to a local school, followed by a stint as an international undergraduate student living in a new country. Following her studies in marketing and management in Singapore, she returned to Indonesia and at the age of 21, and started a travel-learning project URTravelearner to help others envision changemaker lives by seeing social entrepreneurs in action. 

In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic stuck, she launched Aha! Project, a scheme to improve the access of study resources for children during the pandemic.

A Changemaker in every sense, in this podcast episode Ara shares her journey of correcting the problems she sees in the world, keeping her eyes open to new ways of making an impact and paying it forward. 

Recommendations: 

Book: Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

Get in touch with Ara:

Mesut is an Ashoka Fellow, and founder-CEO of E-Bursum. E-Bursum is the biggest educational finance platform in Turkey that digitizes and democratizes financial opportunities for students.

Background: 

Mesut established E-bursum to build a democratization and digitization movement aiming to make student scholarships and loans more transparent, fair, and impactful in Turkey. Mesut is turning a dysfunctional financial instrument in education into an empowerment tool and fundamentally changing the ways scholarship givers and recipients interact with one another.

Mesut grew up in a large family in Eastern Turkey. When a devastating earthquake hit their city and his father’s business went into bankruptcy in 2011, Mesut came across financial hardship for the first time in his life. Having spent his youth years away from home, in boarding schools, Mesut mentioned his first year at the university as the hardest one of his life due to many other problems following the earthquake incidence.

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Layusa Isa-Odidi is an Associate Partner, leading Dalberg’s presence in Melbourne, Australia. She focuses on strategic planning and financing across the areas of education, employment, agriculture, and gender. 

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