It was at Koramangala, that the two Bansal partners started the iconic Flipkart. Since then, known variously as the “Bandra of Bengaluru” or the startup hub, the locality has been reshaped by its chic pubs, swank restaurants, and organic food stores that service the entrepreneurial swish set. It’s rather apt then that I met Prabhat Kumar Tiwary, founder of YourOwnROOM, who kindly agreed to share his story with me, inside a warmly-lit café. Amidst the hiss of the steaming espresso machines and murmurs about “B to C” and “seed funds” that wafted above other napkin-doodling dreamers, Prabhat talked about his decision to quit a senior leadership position and create his own venture.
I was specifically seeking someone who had started his or her enterprise “mid-career” since I’m still fascinated by the extent to which brains, and even lives, are more plastic than originally envisioned by scientists in earlier eras. In her book, Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential, author Barbara Oakley believes such late-life transitions tap into latent energies, capacities that mid-lifers might not be cognizant of even in themselves: “Much like wizards who think they’re Muggles, they often remain unaware of their power,” she says. Oakley is particularly invested in this topic as she herself is a “second chancer” who morphed from a career in the Humanities into an Engineering Professor.
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