Changing lives of hundreds of people - Mr. Varun Sheth

On the 26th of August, 2021, The DAIS Leadership Series was graced by the presence of Mr. Varun Sheth. Mr. Sheth is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ketto.org, Asia’s largest online crowdfunding platform which fuels a wide variety of sustainable causes, right from fundraising for start-ups to fundraising for medical purposes. Over the years, Ketto has helped more than 2 lakh people start fundraisers and raised over Rs. 1100 crores of funds for their causes.

Mr. Sheth’s journey in the social impact sector began early in his college days. He volunteered with NGOs such as ‘The Akshara Foundation’ and ‘Care India’, and he is also an alumnus of Dasra Social Impact. These cumulative experiences led him to have a deep understanding of the functioning of NGOs as well as the structural and operational challenges they face on a day to day basis.

During his stints with the NGOs, he soon realized that technology and the transparency gap between the donor and the recipient were the major roadblocks in the funding process. With an aim to address that gap, Mr. Sheth launched Ketto, short for ‘Key to Tomorrow’, on August 15, 2012, and the platform has since become a carrier of change for many. He was chosen in the 2017 Forbes '30 Under 30 List', 2018 Fortune magazine's '40 Under 40 List' & 2019 Economic Times 40 Under 40 List'. He has also been invited as speaker at several coveted speaking events by the Harvard Business School, TEDx, IAS university, IITs and TISS.

Mr. Sheth’s talk was one that filled students with hope. His focus on his failures before finally succeeding was extremely inspiring. His speech focused on the statement “Only the fortunate fail” - This statement led students to think about the various different aspects that helped Mr. Sheth succeed and how his days volunteering with various NGOs helped make Ketto a roaring success. Furthermore, the recount of instances where he ‘failed’ as recent as within the last decade truly was eye opening to hear about in regards to how he overcame them yet still.

Mr. Sheth answered numerous questions DAIS students had about both the business model of Ketto, as well as the experiences he has learnt from over the years. Mr. Sheth went on to talk about how Ketto has continued to change lives of hundreds of people, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. The talk was extremely inspiring and helped students look at failure from a new angle.