Great minds meet at redBus founder Phanindra Sama's birthday

Entrepreneurs like the company of other entrepreneurs. Some like redBus founder Phanindra Sama, even spend their birthday with them. On Aug 15 — his 35th birthday — Sama was one of the panelists for the 'Art of Scaling Up' discussion organised by the Art of Living in Bengaluru. Sure, Sama was there for serious business but the hosts didn't forget his birthday. Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar surprised Sama with a cake, which he cut in front of the gathering.

Other panelists at the talk included Suresh Shanmugham of Saama Capital, R Sriram of Next Practice Retail, Bidisha Nagaraj of Coffee Day Group and 2Win founder Alok Kejriwal, who was the moderator. One highlight of the event was Nagaraj describing how it took mules to carry coffee beans to a Cafe Coffee Day outlet near the famous shrine, Vaishno Devi. Elsewhere, Sriram spoke about how he wished he had set up all his 18 stores in Mumbai first, instead of other cities. "I would have made so much money that my other stores would have been free," he said.