Inside ASCENT: How Harsh Mariwala Built India's Entrepreneur Peer Network

Key takeaways:

• Born from a gap — Mr. Mariwala started ASCENT after noticing that entrepreneurs "are reluctant to talk about their issues" and often can't confide even in their own teams or families.
• Trust over competition — ASCENT's model rests on one insight: entrepreneurs open up most honestly with business owners who aren't competing with them, meeting monthly in confidential Trust Groups.
• Hands-on impact — Beyond Trust Groups, Mr. Mariwala runs personal boardroom sessions and mentors founders directly; one entrepreneur he has guided grew a business from roughly ₹10-20 crore to nearly ₹200 crore.
• A national community — Founded in 2012 on the "Power of Collective," ASCENT now connects over 1,300 entrepreneurs across 65+ industries and 45+ cities through 110+ confidential Trust Groups.

Entrepreneurship is often described as freedom — but for Mr. Harsh Mariwala, Founder and Chairman of Marico Limited, it also looked like isolation. Founders build companies, chase growth and carry risk largely alone, with few people around them who understand the weight of it. In 2012, Mr. Mariwala set out to fix that by founding ASCENT, a peer-learning platform built to turn entrepreneurship's loneliest moments into shared strength.

Why Entrepreneurs Needed a Different Kind of Support

The idea for ASCENT came from a simple but uncomfortable observation. "One of the things at the back of my mind was that most entrepreneurs are reluctant to talk about their issues," Mr. Mariwala tells EdelGive Foundation CEO Ms. Naghma Mulla on Give It A Go podcast . "Or they can't talk to anybody else because they don't want to be vulnerable with their own team." Family, the obvious fallback, often isn't equipped for it either. "The family may not understand the intricacies of managing a business," he points out. What entrepreneurs actually needed, he realized, was a different kind of relationship altogether: "you need to talk to individuals who are running a business and whom you can trust." But that trust, he found, has a precondition — it only really works between people who have nothing to compete over. "The only way you can build that trust is to talk to CEOs who are not competing with you," he says. That single insight — "that entrepreneurs can learn a lot from each other" — is what pushed him to start ASCENT.

The Power of Collective: How ASCENT Was Built

Founded in 2012, ASCENT is built on what Mr. Mariwala calls the "Power of Collective" — the idea that entrepreneurs grow faster and lead better when they have a trusted circle of peers who aren't competitors. The platform brings together business owners from diverse, non-competing industries into confidential Trust Groups, creating a safe space to openly discuss leadership, business strategy and personal challenges side by side. What started as a peer-learning initiative for a small group of founders has since grown into one of India's largest entrepreneurial communities: ASCENT now connects over 1,300 entrepreneurs across 65+ industries and more than 45 cities, through more than 110 active Trust Groups.

Inside a Trust Group: Boardroom Sessions and Hands-On Mentoring

ASCENT isn't a one-off workshop — it's a standing structure Mr. Mariwala stays personally involved in. "We help entrepreneurs scale up and learn from each other," he says, describing how members "meet every month, and they learn from each other" inside their Trust Groups. But the model goes further than peer meetings. "In addition to being a part of a trust group, I have what are known as boardroom sessions," he explains.

 "Each trust group will, in a month, have one or two boardroom sessions where the whole trust group will come to me. And they will send their challenges to me in advance... and then I'll give my views and everybody will then participate in that discussion. So through that, there is a lot of value addition." For entrepreneurs who want more, the door stays open: "there are certain entrepreneurs who reach out to me, and I have made it very clear — anybody wants some mentoring, I can help." 

He doesn't do this alone, either. Mr. Mariwala has assembled what he calls a "Power of Mentors" — a panel of about 30 retired CEOs he knows personally, whom he connects with founders facing specific challenges, sometimes pulling in Marico's own team members as well. As he puts it, "Everybody wants to give something back... it's just that people want to give something back, and I'm leveraging through this route."

From ₹20 Crore to ₹200 Crore: ASCENT's Impact in Practice

One story Mr. Mariwala points to is an entrepreneur from Kolkata in the ice cream manufacturing business. "We worked a lot with him," he says. "We led him to upgrade his quality standards by putting him in touch with my R&D team." The mentoring became a running relationship: "he comes to me every month to meet me — how should he manage sales, how should he manage... he has two brands, how should he manage his distribution." What kept Mr. Mariwala engaged was the entrepreneur's own hunger to learn: "because he's so committed and he's so hungry for learning... I also feel encouraged to help him." The results speak for themselves — the business has grown "from maybe 10-20 crores to, I think he's close to about a 200 crores business, and it will grow further, he's very confident." Mr. Mariwala is quick to note this isn't a one-off: "there are multiple stories like that... where, because of our involvement, they have seen a big impact on their business."

Why Mr. Mariwala Stays Personally Involved

For all its scale, ASCENT still runs on Mr. Mariwala's own time, not just his name. "In ASCENT, I give maybe 15 to 20 per cent of my time," he says. "I spend at least two to three days a month on this, but I have time. So I have decided to be actively involved." That commitment, he adds, "gives me a different type of satisfaction than just building a business." It reflects a broader philosophy he holds about giving back — that it can't be forced. "Compulsory things don't work out," he says. "It has to come from within." 

His advice to anyone starting that journey, entrepreneur or otherwise: "begin your journey by first of all being focused — do a few things but do them well, rather than doing too many things”. He adds, that people should follow what you're genuinely passionate about, and go in with eyes open about the commitment, "because you should be willing to give time. This requires a lot of time."

By fostering trust, hands-on mentoring and collaboration between founders who would otherwise never cross paths, ASCENT has helped entrepreneurs build stronger, more resilient businesses — while contributing meaningfully to India's wider entrepreneurial ecosystem.