Anish is Head of Operations and Professional Services at Corecentra. 

Anish joined the SVP Denver Board in November 2022.

 

How did you come to be the facilitator for the pitch cohort for SVP Denver? 

I’ve been in the startup and entrepreneurship community and ecosystem for the majority of my career. When I started pitching, like most people, I didn’t really have any idea what I was doing. So I received a ton of help. 

One great part of being not only an entrepreneur but a social entrepreneur is you have a lot of resources there to support you.  People are willing to go out of their way to help. Because I had received a lot of help, I saw this as an opportunity to help others with their pitches through working with SVP Denver.

I teach the cohort members how to story tell, which is something I had already been doing for a couple of years. In my conversations with Dave at SVP Denver, we started talking about this idea of storytelling pitching because I think that’s something not only good for for-profit social enterprises to do, but also nonprofits.

What’s the best part of facilitating the pitch cohort?

I think that there’s two pieces here. I greatly appreciate being able to interact with so many great organizations both on the nonprofit and social enterprise side. There have been a handful of organizations that I’ve continued to stay in touch with past the session as well which is really great.

Secondly, the pitch workshop lets you directly see the value you’re able to bring to organizations because you see where they start off and where they end up.  Then, you get to hear how they’ve used what they’ve learned to pitch to a specific foundation – and received funding as a result. 

But I think the coolest part is being able to see them take their passion for their project and their organization and learn how to communicate it in a very clear and structured way. They can then leverage their story to do even greater things. 

What would you say is one of your core values and what does it mean to you? 

Every success I’ve had has not been solely because of the work I’ve done by myself. I’ve had other individuals on a team, mentors or previous employers who have helped me out along the way.

So I think a big core value for me is a sense of community. I’m a huge fan of paying it forward. I know countless people have done that for me.  

I’ve been drawn to the social enterprise world partly due to where I’ve come from. I’ve been in technology most of my career. I come from oil and gas and it’s very cutthroat there. You don’t see a lot of people going out of their way to help you for nothing in return. So, community is a core value that I hold pretty close to my heart. 

What is one of your favorite childhood memories?

People often ask me, what was your first entrepreneurial experience?

Well, I grew up in a suburb of Houston and we had the great opportunity to have our school district engage with a nonprofit called Junior Achievement. When I was in fourth or fifth grade, Junior Achievement had this program called BizTown. You go to a facility they have set up and everyone gets a job in the community. You have a mayor, bank managers – you have people that are working in different roles within the community.

I was cast as the manager of McDonald’s.  I remember it was really cool and it was pretty intense for an elementary school kid. It was a micro scale P&L – calculating our expenses, paying employees – and I remember it being a really great moment for me because I liked the sense of business.  They also had a component where you could go and donate to a charitable organization within the community as well.

So, this was my introduction to the world of entrepreneurship and philanthropy which has been a memory that has stuck with me for a really long time. 

What is a simple thing that still blows your mind? 

When I was in Houston, we would hold events around entrepreneurship and startup burnout, specifically in the areas of mental health and wellness. I think that’s a journey that a lot of entrepreneurs and folks in startups go through where we don’t have a ton of resources and support. It is not openly talked about.

So, one simple thing that blows my mind is the power of retrospection – specifically through journaling. It is very simple – and you may think “I don’t want to write this down or what is writing things down in a notebook going to do”.  But, once you get in the habit of doing it, it blows my mind how doing something so small can have such an impact on your overall wellbeing.  You write things down and you feel a lot better. 

Anything else you would like to share? 

I’ve always been involved in the community, but it never intersected with my professional career path.  But when I started Corecentra a few years ago, it was a great opportunity to do this.  At Corecentra we help organizations use data to maximize their outcomes. So, I’ve now had great opportunities to work with nonprofits and social enterprises to help them scale their operations while keeping impact core to their mission.

I’m always looking for ways to help and support organizations. I have office hours usually every week, but if I’m not traveling and there’s anything I can do to continue to help, whether through SVP Denver or otherwise, do reach out. I’m always here to help.