Igniting Entrepreneurship

“I felt it was my honour and duty to give back to the school.”

Chaitanya Kalipatnapu MBA’06D is passionate about entrepreneurship, and not just because he enjoys exploring new business models. He sees entrepreneurship as a powerful tool for making a difference in the world. “I strongly believe that entrepreneurship can be a force for good,” he says.

In that spirit — and in tribute to his late grandfather Kondiah Kalipatnapu — he made a generous pledge to the INSEAD Venture Competition. Kalipatnapu chose to give to the competition for three reasons: to help more INSEAD students bring their start-up ideas to fruition; to grow INSEAD’s entrepreneurial ecosystem; and to support the school’s efforts to transform business and society.

“If 10 new companies come out of the Venture Competition every year, think of the amplifying effect this would have,” Kalipatnapu explains. “I think we could see a lot more positive change.”

Kalipatnapu also gave to INSEAD for personal reasons. “I felt it was my honour and duty to give back to the school,” he says. “I owe a lot of my professional success to my time at INSEAD. The school has been a bedrock in my journey and its incredible influence cannot be emphasised enough.”

Kalipatnapu, who co-founded Eruditus Executive Education in 2010, says INSEAD was instrumental in many milestones of his entrepreneurial journey. Members of the INSEAD Alumni Association of India served as a sounding board and helped him test and validate his business idea. More importantly, a fellow alumnus introduced him to his co-founder, thus making the entrepreneurial journey possible. And INSEAD was the first partner that agreed to work with Eruditus.

In addition to his gift to the Venture Competition, Kalipatnapu has also made a pledge in support of the Indian Alumni Scholarship. “I’d like to do more,” he says, and he encourages his fellow alumni to do the same. “You don’t need to achieve a certain milestone, in terms of age or experience, to contribute to INSEAD. Any gift can make an impact.”