A Bengaluru entrepreneur, Udayan Walvekar, had a surprising and memorable experience on a flight from Delhi to Bengaluru. He met a fellow passenger who turned out to be a pilot. During their conversation, the pilot unexpectedly recognised his startup, GrowthX—a platform that helps people learn how to grow businesses. Mr. Walvekar shared this story on X (formerly Twitter), calling it a "small world" moment because he never expected a stranger to know about his work.

Mr. Walvekar said that during his flight, a pilot sat next to him. Midway through the journey, she noticed he wasn’t reading a book he had with him and asked if she could borrow it. This simple request led to a friendly conversation between the two.

As they talked, Mr. Walvekar discovered that the pilot had an interesting background. Before becoming a pilot, she had worked at hedge fund DE Shaw. This caught his attention, and he began explaining what GrowthX does. To his surprise, she interrupted him, saying, "I don't know why, but I've heard of something like this before."

She then asked, "Do you folks do some kind of retreat?"

When Mr. Walvekar confirmed that GrowthX holds an annual offsite, the pilot took it a step further. She asked, "Was it in Goa? Like 200 people? Two months ago?"

Mr. Walvekar was amazed. He replied, "Yes... how do you know?"

The pilot then revealed that she had met some GrowthX members at an airport, where they spoke about the retreat.

"She smiled and said she had met some of our members at the airport. They were headed to the offsite. She spoke to them and got curious about what we do; that's when the members explained what GrowthX is," Mr. Walvekar wrote.

He ended his post with, "What a small world."

A conversation beyond startups

The conversation didn’t stop there. The pilot gave Mr. Walvekar an insider’s view of aviation. She explained how flying a 200-tonne aircraft at 40,000 feet (ca. 12 km) works, described the safety systems in place, and discussed the continuous training pilots go through, even when they’re not flying.

Mr. Walvekar was impressed by her knowledge and "quiet confidence." He admired the energy she had—a quality he felt came from being dedicated to her work.

He ended his post with a hopeful message: "First Officer 'A—if you're reading this, I hope you get that fourth stripe soon. Rooting for you!"

GrowthX: Building India’s startup leaders

Founded in 2019 by Udayan Walvekar and Abhishek Patil, GrowthX is a platform that helps professionals and founders learn how to grow and scale businesses in India. It offers structured learning programs, frameworks, and insights to guide entrepreneurs.

The startup began to fill a gap in India’s growing startup ecosystem. Recently, in February, GrowthX partnered with Zero1, Zerodha's media network, to expand its reach and help more people learn how to build and scale businesses effectively.

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