They say learning from others mistakes is the best way to avoid those mistakes. But Vinay Kalantri, Managing Director, The Mobile Wallet (TMW), strongly believes that rather than waiting for others to make a mistake, make your own mistakes and learn from them; most importantly be capable of unlearning the old lessons to learn something new and better. “The day I stop learning would be the day I start failing,” emphasizes Vinay. Coming from a long line of businessmen, entrepreneurship runs through his veins and he has worn multiple hats throughout his journey. Vinay’s father Vijay G. Kalantri (Chairman & Managing Director, Balaji Infra Projects Ltd.) laid a fairly strong entrepreneurial cornerstone by taking along young Vinay to his office, where he was treated as an employee. He went through every department of the organization following his brother’s wise words – know what each department does, so you could replace every person in every department possible.

When Vinay wished to embark on his own entrepreneurial venture at the age of 21, his father whole heartedly gave him the green signal, since he was confident in his capability of succeeding in anything he pours his energy into – a trait that made Vinay the first writer in India on beta version of . net and C# at the age of 19. Though Vinay was perplexed regarding where to start, he figured out the dos and don’ts with incessant learning. Having signed an agreement with an he user. net, a Korean company to start the VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) business in India, he

tried to make the first device functional with his own hands to get a clear picture of the whole technology. This understanding coupled with his prowess in setting up distribution network helped him to escalate any user.net India as the country’s number one brand within nine months of its launch. Keenly observing the evolution in the vicinity of the same industry, Vinay steadily learned more and sprouted out new avenues of business until he sold the business at the age of 24 and joined his father’s venture.

Already in the business of making people’s lives easier, Vinay incepted TMW, which created a virtual world for money that could be easily accessed from diverse mediums

As DighiPort’s Director he was spearheading a humungous project, where he proficiently cut cost, increased the product’s productivity and brought Greenport award to the company for the usage of green energy. But after eight years, he eventually heeded to the entrepreneurial bug that kept biting him. His experience in building virtual IP business paved the way for QueMobile, a telecom venture that provided international sim cards. Already in the business of making people’s lives easier, Vinay incepted TMW, which created a virtual world for money that could be easily accessed from diverse mediums (prepaid card, mobile app and SMS). Born as a B2B company, TMW has grown into a renowned 360° B2C Payments Company catering to a massive user base. “I’ve learnt a lot along the way and been learning on a daily basis,” Vinay reveals the secret sauce behind his success.

Vinay, however, confers the credit to his enthusiastic team which sleeps and drink this brand and works aggressively to become number one. This passion has fuelled TMW to achieve within two years what most of the industry stalwarts have achieved overeight

years. “There’s no head or junior at TMW. We built the company from scratch and we’re ready to take on anything that comes on to our platform,” asserts Vinay.

Inspiring New Bloods

Living by yet another important lesson from his father, Vinay reaches office early,and leaves by 10PM.“Whatever time I get, I spend it with my daughter. It’s the best recreation I could ask for. I want to see her grow in front of me,” says an impassionate Vinay. Despite seeing him rarely, his family showers him with lots of love.Being an enthusiastic learner, Vinay doesn’t believe in having weaknesses and considers his daughter and family as his greatest strength. Though he is not a fitness freak, he loves to ski, play basket ball and plays chess at office. A gadget aficionado who loves to fly drones, he has to have Dal Chawal every Monday.Currently reading about how Elon Musk is shaping our future, Vinay finds relaxation in watching comedy movies at night and reading books. “As an entrepreneur if I had to gift a book and movie to an aspiring entrepreneur, it would be Stay Hungry Stay Foolish by Rashmi Bansal and the movie Guru,” replies Vinay.

He clings on to the life lessons he acquired from his mentors – his father, Vijay Mukhi (who co-wrote his book), Anshuman Ruia and his brother Vishal Kalantri. He never made a presentation or pitch to too many VCs. He just spoke to one VC about his product and his passion brought the funds into the company within two days. Besides inspiring next generation entrepreneurs with his story, Vinay also invests in startups. “Just jump into the water and you’ll learn how to swim,” advices Vinay to budding entrepreneurs. Unsurprisingly accomplishing some thing new everyday is the most exciting part of entrepreneurship for him.“I’ll always keep my eyes & ears open and mouth shut to learn from the world,” concludes Vinay.