About Us - GAME

Our Story

Unlike many countries (e.g., USA, China, Bangladesh, etc.), mass entrepreneurship (ME) is an underleveraged job creator in India. GAME – The Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship founded by Ravi Venkatesan, Madan Padaki and Mekin Maheshwari, was officially launched in August 2018, to unlock ME’s potential and as a convening body that brings alignment within the ecosystem and mobilises action to address systemic challenges.

Why Mass Entrepreneurship

The 'Missing Middle'

Self-Employed

Government schemes, MFIs, and livelihood programs have helped create 75 million individual entrepreneurs (set to double in 20 years)

Experts regard the majority of these entrepreneurs to be underemployed, effectively forming the ‘hidden unemployed’

Mass
Entrepreneurs

who hire or improve the incomes of 5 plus people, use local inputs or solve local problems

11% ME in India compared to a global average of 30–40%

Fast Growth Start-Ups

40%

Increase in the number of active incubators and accelerators in 2016 with impetus from government and corporates

30

New academic incubators established under ‘Start-up India Stand-up India’ initiative in 2016

350

Start-ups founded by young students in 2016

650

Total number of start-ups funded in 2016 by dedicated institutions

$40 Billion

Flow of funding to start-ups in 2016

Secretariat and Advisors

The team that’s making it possible

Ravi Venkatesan

Founder

Ravi Venkatesan is the founder of the Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME).

Madan Padaki

Co-Founder

Madan is the co-founder of (GAME). He is an entrepreneur & angel investor working at the intersection of youth transformation, creating entrepreneurs, driving rural growth & empowering social changemakers.

Mekin Maheshwari

Co-Founder

Mekin is a co-founder of GAME. He is extremely passionate about discovering & unleashing human potential and entrepreneurship.

Suresh Gundappa

Chief Executive Officer

Suresh Gundappa is CEO of GAME. Suresh is passionate about Mind and Meditation. He is the founder of Breathwork India, a mental well-being services organization.

Kanchana KV

Vice President

Kanchana KV leads Ecosystem Engagement at GAME primarily fostering strategic alliances that aid in both local and national interventions in Mass Entrepreneurship.

Sajan PK

Vice President

Sajan leads Communications at GAME. Sajan is an outcome-focused Communications professional with over two decades of practice and learning across media, academia and Fortune 100 technology companies.

Gurudutt Ashwath

Vice President

Gurudutt is responsible for setting up the Finance and Compliance infrastructure for GAME

Shiv Dewan

Vice President

OSU is unfortunately a victim of what we at GAME call Ease of Doing Business and at GAME he finds his three passions coming to life - students finding their passions, start-ups & social justice!

Archita Mal

Manager

At GAME, Archita is responsible for seamlessly aligning all programs of the organization for social impact, through various marketing and communication activities

Sweekruthi Kaveripatnam

Manager

I am Sweekruthi Kaveripatnam, an education enthusiast. I have spent most of my adult years learning, exploring and trying to decipher the vast arena of education in our country.

Shristi

Manager

As part of GAME, Shristi manages Access to Finance & Ease of Doing Business which focuses on improving access to cheap, on-time, formal finance and easing the regulatory burden for MSMEs in India.

Anushka Thachil

Manager

At GAME, Anushka is working as Manager for the Women Entrepreneurship workstream.

Sanjana Govindan

Vice President GAME

Sanjana leads Women Entrepreneurship at Game, driving ideation, innovation, and implementation of interventions that create and unlock pathways for women entrepreneurs to grow, thrive, and flourish.

Ramesh Dharmaji

CGM SIDBI (Retd.) Advisor

With 38 years of experience in IDBI/SIDBI, Ramesh Dharmaji has worked extensively in the promotion, development, and financing of MSMEs across various geographies and clusters.

Ambuj Kumar

Advisor

Ambuj is an Advisor at GAME with primary focus 'Access to Finance' where the goal is to bring diverse stakeholders together to stitch a viable and scalable lending solution for the MSME ecosystem.

Sudhendu Bali

Consultant

Sudhendu is a Consultant for the GAME’s bold experiment with the Govt. of Punjab to Punjab revitalize entrepreneurship in the State to regain its pre-eminent reputation as the most entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country.

Advisory Board

Anjuly Chib Duggal

Advisory Board Member

Bhairavi Jani

Advisory Board Member

Gyanendra Badgaiyan

Advisory Board Member

Debasish Mitter

Advisory Board Member

Deepali Khanna

Advisory Board Member

Anjani Bansal

Advisory Board Member

Murli Ramachandran

Advisory Board Member

PG Raghuraman

Advisory Board Member

Our Alliance

Partners committed to catalysing mass entrepreneurship

Volunteer with us

Be a part of the mass entrepreneurship movement

Organizational Culture & Values

Be Entrepreneurial	Diversity & Inclusion	Constant Learning	Agility & Change	Transparency & Trust
Live their Dreams & Aspirations	Mix of Gender & Experience in Hiring	Task Forces to be cross functional	Build Time bound programs	Share Plans , Objectives and Results with Teams
Address,Challenges,& Develop Risk Taking Ability	Spread operations across the Country and Sectors	Collaborate with Institutions & Universities	Tweak , Remodel and revise Strategies on the Go.	Drive all Task Forces in tandem and holistically.
Spend Frugally	50% of ME should be women	Build Pilots, Test , Replicate.. Playbooks	Core Team is Lean and Speed to Action	Create,environment of feedback and coaching
Encourage Creativity,and Innovation	Target nano and small entrepreneurs	Events, Workshops , Conferences and Seminars	Set Milestone checks to test results and change directions	ONE GAME.. Several players ..

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