Meet Shantanu Naidu, A Close Companion and Young Assistant of Ratan Tata, Founder of Goodfellows
Shantanu Naidu: An engineer, entrepreneur, and author Shantanu Naidu is popularly known for his close bond with the late Ratan Tata. A close companion of Tata, Shantanu was his young manager and the youngest person in a managerial position at the Tata company. At the loss of his ‘lighthouse,’ he penned a melancholic note mourning the loss of an irreplaceable friend and friendship. But who is Shantanu Naidu beyond Ratan Tata’s sworn companion and how did he meet Ratan Tata? Know all about him in his biography.
Who is Shantanu Naidu?
Born and brought up in Mumbai, Shantanu Naidu is the son of an employee of Tata Company. He is a brilliant young mind with dynamic innovative ideas brimming with creativity. Shantanu pursued his passion for engineering at Savitribai Phule Pune University in 2014 and later went to Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management in 2016 for his Master’s in Business Administration.
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How did Shantanu and Ratan Tata meet?
Shantanu’s talent and skills landed him his first job with Tata Elxsi as an automobile design engineer in Pune. It was during his time at Tata Elxsi that he witnessed the raging cases of dog road accidents due to low visibility on the roads at night. A solution to the problem was Shantanu’s first entrepreneurial idea, to create reflective dog collars so that the car drivers can see them from afar.
Little did he know that his innovative thinking would land him in a meeting with Ratan Tata. He wrote a letter to Tata describing his plan, intent, and innovation. After two months, Tata called him to his office, as an avid dog-lover and supporter of new ideas and young minds.
Meeting with Tata gave birth to Motopaws, a manufacturer of reflective dog collars with Ratan Tata as the primary investor on board.
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Soon Shantanu became a close friend to Tata, moving beyond the barriers of age and generation. He later also published a short memoir of his life with Ratan Tata called “I Found A Lighthouse”.
Shantanu Naidu is also the founder of Goodfellows, a volunteer-led organization that connects solitary elderly people with compassionate, empathetic, and kind young assistants to spend their final years with. Goodfellows was also funded by Ratan Tata, who himself chose to be unmarried for the 86 years of his life.
