Jamshedpur: In a city with a fiercely competitive academic environment, Mehul Agarwal, now 32, grew up hearing he "was not good in studies".

With a successful corporate career, Agarwal, now based in Newark in the US, holds out hope for many adolescents whose confidence is shaken by their report card.

Agarwal, who mentors international start-ups, now aims to advise Jharkhand entrepreneurs to build sustainable businesses for which he has also written to the state government expressing interest to mentor tribal entrepreneurs.

"I would want to help businesses in Jharkhand grow," Agarwal, who is now with US-based company WinWire Technologies as director, strategic accounts, said from Newark.

"I am especially interested in nonprofits and innovative ideas," he said, referring to Jeevan, a social organisation in Jamshedpur that helps people fight depression and suicide. "I feel really bad to hear about the large number of suicides in my city, especially when students kill themselves over academic pressure."

His experiences have taught him that finance was always a problem for nonprofits, and hence his interest in offbeat initiatives in Jharkhand, he explained.

Sharing his experiences, he said he was part of a team that mentored start-up Scooterino, a mobile app that connects commuters who want to hitch scooter rides in Rome to reduce fuel consumption. The scooter-pooling business idea is also a part of the Laudato Si' Challenge, inspired by Pope Francis' global call for innovative start-ups to solve climate change and involuntary migration.

Agarwal added he was also currently involved in building a community called GrowthRun, which is his individual project, where he put content on Instagram and launched a podcast.

Some of the guests that have confirmed their podcasts are Ankur Warikoo, angel investor and owner of Nearbuy; Deepak Ravindran, CEO of Innoz Technologies; and Markus Lampinen of Crowd Valley, also an internationally acclaimed digital finance entrepreneur.

But, Agarwal has not forgotten his struggles in his younger days. "I wasn't good in studies, so I had to shift from DBMS English School to Andhra Association and DBMS Career Academy," he said. Since his family based in Sonari, Jamshedpur, had a financial problem, he also worked in a call centre. His turning point, if it can be called that, was modest, finding "some interest in economics" in Pune University.

Jeevan founder member M. Ram said they were happy to be connected to Agarwal and believed he would share his ideas to sustain a social organisation.