If the pay-it-forward philosophy had a human face — then it would be his →Ankur Lal #JeenaIsiKaNaamHain

IIT-ians have shaped this country, contributed to innovation and thought leadership, perhaps much more than any other alumni. While they’ve built, consulted and worked in great companies, greatness also sits on them rather easily.

Ankur Lal, an IIT alumnus, I have known for more than seventeen-eighteen years, is a great human being who has no airs about himself, always experimenting and willing to learn. In the last fifteen or sixteen years that I have on-boarded 500 top-tiered executives to Product Nation, there are very few who have contributed to community building as much as Ankur has — despite having a hectic work life, being the Founder CEO of Infozech. It leaves me amazed how he does it year after year with the same passion that he started with.

In 2007, I was building the SME community at NASSCOM, and I was on a spree. I would step out of the office in the morning and meet 6–7 SME founders every day, trying to convince them why this forum was required and how WE could collectively make a difference. Ankur was among the first few leaders I met, and the connection was instantaneous. Immediately it became evident to me that he was as passionate about building an SME community as I was and wanted to give back to the ecosystem. Remember this was 2007 and the idea of pay-it-forward hadn’t caught on. At least it wasn’t articulated so powerfully in as many words.

He was courteous, articulate and felt very strongly that India had the talent to be a Product Nation — a community-led approach was required, though. Instantly I knew this man would play a pivotal role in taking this cause to a different orbit altogether.

Which he did!

We started Fridays 2.0 which was a major stepping-stone towards building the community. On Fridays, we would get a speaker and 40–50 SME leaders at the NASSCOM office and after the presentation, we would open up for a lively discussion. These sessions ran on for several years and were very interactive. Often, the speakers went back saying that they learnt a lot from the exchanges. Ankur would anchor these sessions and play a major role in getting everyone to participate. He also put on his learner’s hat and while absorbing every bit of information, did a fantastic job keeping the momentum going.

Remember this went on for several years!

Those days, I used to run the NASSCOM Mentorship programme for SME members. Initially, it wasn’t easy to curate — getting the right mentee companies and mentors and most importantly having a structure (including recommendations) for free-flowing discussions. He helped me curate the programme and being experimental in nature, he would share his ideas generously. I was able to continuously improve the format and brief the two sides (mentees-mentors) on what we were trying to achieve. You could say he was my mentor while I executed on-ground, NASSCOM’s Mentorship programme which was hugely successful in its time.

We put in a lot of effort to build the SME community with many such initiatives and massively expanded our outreach in the subsequent years especially while running NASSCOM’s Product Conclave. It soon became a household name with nearly 2000 participants every year. Ankur in all those years played a very important role in driving thought leadership and shaping the content. I can go on and on about my journey in other great organizations such as iSPIRT, Accel and now SaaSBoomi — Ankur was there — always! Because he is a strong learner, he never lets opportunities go to waste. He always ensured the next time around the experience was even better.

As the years went by, naturally, a strong friendship developed, and he also became my go-to person whenever I struggled.

There’s an incident I remember, when I struggled in a different way — a splitting headache was threatening to derail me. If he could get me great speakers at a moment’s notice, why couldn’t he cure my headache — I reasoned. I don’t know whether it was serendipity — he had a huge medicine chest with God knows how many medicines inside. It looked to me that the medicine chest had an antidote for every known ailment — a headache was nothing. Like an expert he administered the right medicine and the headache was gone — poof! I think he also wears the doctor’s hat. Nowadays, I am told, he is into Naturopathy. What happened to that medicine chest I must ask him, the next time I meet him. It surely deserves a place in the Hall of Fame.

After NASSCOM, I had a brief hiatus. He most graciously offered me a senior position in his company. I will never forget his generosity in my time of need, helping me tide over a big change.

So that’s Ankur Lal for you — an IIT-ian on whom, success sits lightly; that unmistakable smile which draws you instantly and you know you are in great company — knowledge backed by a burning desire to “pay-it-forward”.

And that’s what he is been doing for several decades.

Thank you Ankur, it’s been a privilege knowing and working with you. You have been the #1 volunteer in my journey towards building the community. Here’s wishing you great health and success.