The Gentle Genius Lives on in our Hearts
It’s hard to believe that our Naren Gupta is no more. The Gentle Genius who profoundly touched, inspired and changed countless lives for the better.
After ace academic achievements at IIT, Caltech, and Stanford, Naren’s tryst with entrepreneurship began in the early days of technology entrepreneurship in silicon valley. He was one of the first founding CEOs of Indian origin to take his company, Integrated Systems, public in the US. Then as an angel investor, he leveraged his company-building acumen to help promising technology founders realize their dreams. After writing many first checks to technology entrepreneurs, Naren co-founded Nexus Venture Partners, with a vision to bring company building expertise and risk capital to the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem and helped build Nexus into a leading venture capital firm in India and globally, where he got to touch the lives of thousands.
Naren was the quintessential champion of entrepreneurs. He was naturally inclined to identify and back first-time entrepreneurs who are not afraid to traverse uncharted territory, who are not afraid to fail. He would push them to dream big, think beyond the obvious, and remind them that the ‘company building journey is a marathon, not a sprint’ and would stand behind the companies through thick and thin. He would counsel them on how a company could be killed by overfunding and that it is important to focus on the fundamentals. Every interaction had to add value even if he did not back them. He genuinely cared for every entrepreneur he met and truly wanted them to succeed. He was always available and generous with his time. He would always welcome differing opinions and treat everyone with utmost respect, be it an engineer or the CEO of a company, with never a sense of entitlement.
Naren had an insatiable intellectual curiosity and passion for life. An avid reader and listener of audio books, he was willing to engage in an intellectual conversation on almost any topic under the sun from quantum physics to Indian politics, from wine making to child rearing. He wanted to experience as much of the world as he could with a travel bucket list ranging from Jerusalem to Jodhpur, from Patagonia to Paris, from Alaska to Antarctica. He enjoyed his morning hikes or whipping up scrambled eggs for breakfast as much as he did his playing competitive Bridge. His childlike laughter, bright wit and fun-loving nature endeared himself to everyone he engaged with, including children.
We have lost a visionary, mentor, and a dear friend. The gentle Genius lives on in our hearts.
Team Nexus
