Recently, I stepped into uncharted territory: my first-ever conversation with a billionaire.
It happened through The Foundery, the bold new 90-day residential launchpad founded by retail legend Kishore Biyani and Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath. Their vision is refreshingly direct: they have high-impact business ideas ready to build and are hunting for exceptional co-founders to bring them to life: no traditional MBA polish, no generic accelerator fluff, just raw, real building alongside proven titans.
I applied on a whim. Survived the AI interviews. Then came the email: book your slot for the panel. When I joined the call, I was excited to see that Kishore Biyani was on it too! A simple application had bridged the gap to someone who reshaped Indian retail and left an indelible mark on millions of lives. Humbling doesn’t even begin to cover it.
The conversation cut straight to the core. He didn’t grill me on valuations or pitch decks. Instead, he asked about my roots, my family, what I’m building right now, how I’m building it, and, most importantly, what the actual output looks like.
Somewhere in the flow, my pattern surfaced:
I chase shiny new ideas, get obsessed, build fast, then spot the next horizon. He called it out gently. I owned it fully. Truth is, I love that about myself, the restless spark that lets me breathe life into whatever problem or fascination grips me next.
Then came the curveball.
He asked if I’m spiritual and what my name, Srijan, means. “Creation,” I said. “That’s exactly who I am, I create.” Without missing a beat, he grinned and shot back: “Then get married and create kids. They’re creations too.”
Was it a playful jab? A light-hearted nudge toward stability? Or both? It landed somewhere between joke and wisdom, and it’s still echoing in my head. Does marriage (or family) anchor the wanderer? Does having children satisfy that primal drive to create something enduring? Or is it just the universe’s way of saying, “Hey, diversify your portfolio of creations”?
Either way, the founder of Future Group taking a genuine interest in my future is fun to think of and oddly motivating. 😄
We also touched on focus versus breadth. Most advice screams: “Pick one thing. Master it. Go all in.” But I see traders who build fortunes by hedging bets across assets. Why should time be any different from capital? We have finite hours, sure, but infinite ways to compound knowledge and experience.
Isn’t the ultimate hedge on time learning everything, sampling wildly, failing forward across domains? Aren’t true entrepreneurs polymath operators—people who can drop into chaos and alchemize value no matter the terrain? Or is that romantic nonsense, and the real winners are the ones who laser-focus, build one massive thing, detach ruthlessly when it falters, and repeat?
The funded-startup game demands passion at its core—you’re supposed to bet your life on something that sets your soul on fire, scaling it to impossible heights. Yet the most legendary builders often juggle multiple bets until one ignites.
I’m still wrestling with it. Maybe both paths are valid. Maybe the answer depends on the season of life.
What hit me hardest, though, was this realisation: for years, I’ve dodged real mentorship. I’ve avoided elders who could channel my scattered energy into something truly epic. I admitted that to Kishore ji outright.
This one conversation cracked something open.
I love building. I will always build, relentlessly, joyfully, obsessively. But now I’m finally open to guidance, to borrowing wisdom from those who’ve walked the path before me, to letting someone wiser help shape the raw fire into a directed blaze.
The world isn’t waiting for permission.
I’m done wandering in circles.
I’m going to forge my own empire, one creation at a time.
Watch this space.
The builder era begins now. 🚀