Ashwin Gulati moved to Mill Valley from India in his early teens. He has 30 years of experience guiding startup businesses through complex transitions, and his drive to get new businesses off the ground has taken him to the United Kingdom, Spain and eventually back to the United States. In his new book, Soul Venture: A True Life and Death Journey Into The Startup Culture, Gulati delivers an inside look into the complexities of entrepreneurship.
Soul Venture gives readers insight into startup culture, but it’s also a memoir. Has there been anyone in your life that particularly influenced your journey into entrepreneurship?
When I was 13, I moved from New Delhi to Mill Valley. The shift was a shock on many levels. To survive here, I had to start working multiple jobs early on. That’s when I met one of the most important mentors in my life — Helen Ewing Nelson. I simply called her “Mrs. Nelson.” I was her paperboy and gardener when I started high school.
Even though she wasn’t a businessperson in the traditional sense, she was the first person who groomed me for business. She was my mentor for 35 years. Her influence shaped not just my career but the way I view the world.
You refer to the United States as “the land of entrepreneurship and ownership.” How did moving to the United States from India at a young age encourage this perception?
Moving to the U.S. as a teenager was a jarring experience. In India, my family was middle class and comfortable; in the U.S., we were suddenly poor. In addition to working for others, I could see how one could get creative doing their own side projects.
After college, I lived in the U.K. and Spain and tried to start businesses there. It became clear to me that America, despite all its flaws, is still one of the most fertile grounds for entrepreneurship. The system here understands entrepreneurs. There’s less red tape, more access to resources and a culture of incubators, accelerators and mentorship. This country, more than any other, still offers the promise of building something from nothing.
In Soul Venture, you talk about how many startups fail. Knowing the odds, what was your main motivator to take on startup ventures — and keep going?
Soul Venture is a very different book on entrepreneurship. It’s an unfiltered look at what drives entrepreneurs beneath the surface. We often start companies because we’re chasing a feeling, not a formula. Statistically, it’s irrational. But if you dig deep enough, there’s always something else, something visceral. Looking back now, I think startups were my way of searching for meaning, of trying to piece together a world that once felt broken.
Soul Venture: A True Life and Death Journey Into the Startup Culture
Ashwin Gulati pulls back the curtain on entrepreneurship, reflecting on his 30 years of experience working with businesses trying to get off the ground. Gulati offers nontraditional business advice, reveals the hidden emotional and spiritual costs of startups and shares his key motivations.
Gulati will have an event at Book Passage, San Francisco, on Thursday, June 12 at 5:30 p.m.
Book Reviews
Moving Day
Based on a true story of moving a 139-year-old Victorian six blocks, Teri Roche Drobnick’s new children’s book follows an unhappy house as it moves to a new San Francisco neighborhood, giving a fresh take on a common childhood experience: moving.
Drobnick will be at Book Passage, Corte Madera, on Sunday, June 8 at 1:00 p.m.
Shadows of Justice
In this crime thriller, investigative reporter Topher Davis joins forces with his sister, a homicide detective, to look into the disappearance of a woman from an upscale Bay Area neighborhood.
Copeland will be at Book Passage, San Francisco, on Sunday, June 1 at 2:00 p.m.
