I Came Upon a Lighthouse : A Short Memoir of Life with Ratan Tata

Shantanu Naidu

From composing music videos for social causes during his engineering days, Shantanu Naidu went on to establish himself in animal welfare with his video 'Paws for a cause', which was his entry into the space. During his time as automotive design engineer at Tata Elxsi, he founded a start-up, Motopaws, to put reflective collars on India's stray dogs to prevent night-time road accidents. Mr Ratan Tata became a primary investor in the venture. After Shantanu's return to India from his MBA at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he spent time diving deep into entrepreneurship, he joined Mr Tata's office as Deputy General Manager, assisting him with day-to-day activities, including philanthropic initiatives, start-up proposals and social media. During his time at Mr Tata's office, Shantanu found a huge gap in young students' understanding and fear of entrepreneurship and founded 'On Your Sparks', an online entrepreneurship course teaching fundamentals through stories, the proceeds of which are used for animal welfare. He has also founded the 'Cyber Aid Army', which helps victims of cybercrime technologically and through counselling, free of charge. Shantanu spends most of his time with dogs and engaging students online, coming up with the next best idea or talking about his love for pina coladas and Mumbai.