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In this latest edition of TalkCXOLife Sunayana Nair, Editor CXO Life interviews Prashant Mehta, Partner at Lightbox, a venture capital firm in Mumbai. Now Prashant is also known as the endurance man. Why you ask? Imagine pedaling from Mumbai to Pune and back, that is about 330km, for 13 hours, and (no don’t run out of breath as yet) then within the same week of pulling off that feat, trekking to the Everest basecamp! Well that is Prashant Mehta for you ladies and gentlemen!  Born in Mumbai, and having spent his growing years between India and Africa, Prashant studied biotechnology in the U.S. but ended up working for a bank, pursuing an MBA from Wharton School after which he headed straight to work for Lehman Brothers which helped him understand the art of investing in emerging markets. He subsequently moved to Silicon valley to head Yahoo’s commercial operations for emerging markets. In this first segment Prashant speaks of his childhood. His parents’ bold move from Mumbai to Zambia during the copper rush with less than 1000 dollars in their pockets, how he came back to Mumbai for schooling and lived with his grandmother in a chawl which lent him his first major impressions and went on to colour his perspectives as a child. He shares how going to a boarding school in Panchgani in the fifth grade and his five years there had the single most important impact on his life. Prashant thereafter went back to Zambia and then to Texas to complete his last years of high school where he picked up American football and made some great friends. He believes these experiences across vastly different cultures ingrained within him the ability to survive anywhere and get along and understand people from all walks of life. Prashant also shares what it takes to sustain or endure and how at the behest of a friend, he took to Ironman, considered the hardest single day sport, especially when he didn’t even know how to swim and how with some much support he overcame that hurdle! BTW, Prashant recently completed his fourth Ironman 70.3 in Turkey and true to style, also biked along the Turkey Coast soon after the Ironman, along with his gang! Happy listening!