MUMBAI: Serial entrepreneur and entertainment guru Shailendra Singh has spent the pandemic not just incubating new business ideas but thinking about how he can guide and mentor India's youth. He says, "COVID-19 has challenged us all but I am most worried that the youth of India have forgotten how to dream. With the raging global pandemic and an unprecedented lockdown this year, and in an environment of fear that our political systems create to keep us divided, our future generations are not dreaming big."

This realisation impelled Singh to think of a game changing initiative and he says, "It was necessary for me to not just express my distress at the situation but to do something about it. As 2021 begins on a fresh note of hope, I invite any and all dreamers to share their start up ideas with me. Be they connected to entertainment, sports, music, events, films, advertising or media.  I will examine each idea carefully and then invest in those that make the most sense. I want to give India's young the wings they need to soar.”

Who better to do this than Singh who has spent over  23 years,  launching as many  disruptive and highly profitable startups, starting with Percept Ltd in 1984, which under his leadership became India’s first and largest entertainment, media and communications conglomerate. He was also the force behind  Sunburn, which went on to become the third largest dance music festival in the world. He backed initiatives like Guestlist4Good, the world’s largest entertainment-for-good social enterprise;  P9, India’s first entertainment experiential marketing agency; Boss Entertainment, India’s largest youth activation company among many others.

As he says, "As a dreamer and an entrepreneur, my first instinct is to spot a need in the market and to fill it. It is a great high to predict  consumer trends, set industry benchmarks and build the brands and careers of some of India’s biggest celebrities. And now I want to do the same with those who have no backing. I want to bring my skill sets, experience of over three decades and networking acumen to fund the dreams of  young India."

He believes that  empowering the youth by funding their startup ventures, will lead to an exponential growth in idea generation – turning India into a vibrant and thriving land of creators.

He  concludes, “We have the youngest population in the world – 600 million under the age of 25. It’s the responsibility of people like me, who have been there, done that and seen it all, to support them, mentor them and give them the chance to change the Indian business landscape with their ideas, innovations and disruptive companies. I want them to dream big, chase those dreams and make history in India, for India.  I am willing to invest a sum of Rs 5 crore in ideas that deserve to be backed." He invites startup ideas  for review at shailendra@theinceptor.com.