The annual GIBA Founders Retreat is unlike any other event in our calendar. Limited to 40 founders and C-level executives, the two-day residential retreat at the luxurious Alila Diwa resort in South Goa combines deep strategic thinking with genuine community building.
The retreat opened with a fireside chat between serial entrepreneur Naveen Tewari (InMobi founder) and GIBA President Rajesh Patel, exploring the theme "Building Enduring Companies from Tier-2 Cities." Naveen shared candidly about the challenges and unexpected advantages of building outside the Bangalore-Mumbai axis.
Saturday afternoon featured rotating roundtable sessions on fundraising, talent retention, and scaling operations. The format — small groups of 8, facilitated by experienced operators — led to remarkably candid conversations and several on-the-spot introductions to investors.
The evening networking dinner on the resort's terrace, overlooking the rice paddies at sunset, produced what several attendees called "the most productive networking event I've ever attended." Three partnership deals and one acquisition conversation reportedly started that evening.
Sunday morning's optional surf session at Palolem Beach capped off the retreat, reinforcing the Goan lifestyle that makes the state increasingly attractive to tech professionals seeking work-life balance.