Viral through birthday video
Ratan Tata’s birthday video is still viral on social media. There’s a young man who went viral through that clip. Shantanu Naidu holding the hand of Ratan Tata, the business tycoon in India. People are still searching the internet to find more about Shantanu. This young man is the Deputy General Manager of the Tata Trust.
Who is Shantanu Naidu?
Shantanu Naidu was born in 1993 in Pune, Maharashtra. Shantanu has a long list of titles, including engineer, junior assistant, DGM, social media influencer, writer and entrepreneur. An MBA graduate from Cornell University, Shantanu Naidu is a fifth-generation member of his family who works for the Tata Group. According to the LinkedIn profile, Shantanu has been part of the Tata Trust since June 2017. He has also worked as a Design Engineer at Tata Elxsi.
Love for dogs brought the two closer
But it was their love for dogs that brought Shantanu and Ratan Tata together. The manufacture of dog collars with reflectors for stray dogs was the turning point. Shantanu and his friends started a company called Motopaws, which makes glow-in-the-dark collars for stray dogs to avoid the dangers at night. The company made 500 reflective collars by collecting denim pants from homes in Pune. At night, dogs wearing these collars can be spotted even at places with no street lights. The idea became an instant hit, saving a lot of dogs. But, due to the lack of funding, Shantanu’s company was unable to produce many collars. Shantanu wrote a letter to Ratan Tata, who is also a dog lover, following the advice of his father, an employee of the Tata Group. Two months later, Shantanu received a reply from Ratan Tata inviting him to Mumbai for a meeting. During the meeting, Ratan Tata became a fan of Shantanu’s idea and changed the life of the entrepreneur. The two became close friends and Ratan Tata funded the project. Today, Motopaws is an enterprise that spreads across more than 20 cities and 4 countries.
The decision to serve Tata
Shantanu had promised Ratan Tata that when he returns from the US after his master’s degree, his service would be for the Tata Trust. When he returned, Ratan Tata asked Shantanu, “I have a lot of work in my office. Do you want to be my assistant?” That was the stepping stone for the Shantanu Naidu we see today. Like Shantanu, Ratan Tata is a fan of good ideas and has invested in some of the best startups in the country. Shantanu Naidu helps Ratan Tata select startups for investment.
Shantanu inspires youth
Shantanu Naidu launched a webinar on Instagram called “On Your Sparks” during the Covid-19 lockdown to inspire young people who are afraid to enter entrepreneurship. At a very young age, this young man has earned his place in the business world. Probably the enviable position anyone would want. Shantanu Naidu also wrote a book titled ‘I came upon a lighthouse’. He says the book is a small mirror that reflects his life with Ratan Tata.
