“What is your motivation?” That was one of the first questions Mohit Garg asked me in a brightly lit cafe in Pune. Mohit had a few hours before he had to board a flight that would take him to the US permanently. The familiar adage goes, “This could have been an email.” Similarly, this could have been a phone call, but Mohit obliged and met me.
Looking back, unknown to Mohit, this was a pivotal moment in my life. In 2013, while I was sitting across the table from a young man who was probably the best at B2B sales in the country, he asked me about my motivations. I needed to have an answer. Because there was one thing I knew: I needed Mohit’s buy-in.
A few months before this meeting at the coffee shop, iSPIRT had organised a founder roundtable, and Mohit was one of the dozen entrepreneurs at the event. And despite the crowd, Mohit stood out. It was not just his deep knowledge but his disarmingly frank demeanour that enamoured me. Mohit didn’t mince words; he spoke his mind.
So when he leaned across the table, gently nudging the half-finished cup of coffee out of the way, I wasn’t surprised. I expected it. I launched into our shared mission of building a founder-first community to create a product nation.
And with that pitch, Mohit was in.
I met him several times after that meeting. Notable among them was when he flew down to India exclusively for an Accel-organised roundtable on GTM sales in the US. I was amazed that he flew just to talk at a roundtable. Sure, Mindtickle, a company he founded, was funded by Accel, but often, founders use the virtual route to attend these meetings. Not Mohit.
Once again in 2018, he volunteered to fly to India for an enterprise sales session so he could support our founders and help them discover ways to sell in markets outside India. His commitment to pay it forward was unquestioned.
During this time, Mohit was quiet but affable, silent but present. However, life has crests and troughs. Mohit had hit a trough. He was quieter than usual.
I noticed it when I would write to him. His replies usually were understated, but now they were clipped. I knew we needed to have a conversation. Soon after, I flew to the US for a series of meetings. However, I took an evening out to spend with Mohit. We met at a coffee shop near his apartment. This time, I leaned in, nudged the coffee mug out of the way, and asked him the simplest question: “How are you?”
What followed changed our relationship. A professional, though informal, relationship transformed into a deep friendship. He poured his heart out, leaving nothing behind. It was as if a dam broke, unleashing a flood of feelings on the table.
A few hours later, when we decided to head home, we hugged with the affection of long-lost friends.
I was to fly back to India the next day, but the conversation with Mohit weighed on my mind. To distract myself, I decided to watch a film on the flight back from the US. As luck would have it, I watched the very popular Dear Zindagi with Shah Rukh Khan and Alia Bhatt. During this exchange, I was thrown right back to the coffee table with Mohit.
Mohit, you and I will forever be friends. We meet over coffee and talk about our lives. I would have loved to have written about your insights on enterprise sales and building customer relationships, but our community knows you for it. I think it’s time they see another version of you.
Here’s to many more coffees.
