Always remember you don't need VCs, they need you. The world has abundant funds but not enough entrepreneurs.
Tell us about your background, journey, and upbringing.
I am from Kashmir, where I had a really happy childhood with 2 older sisters. Trouble in the valley forced us to leave our homes and start life all over again. That difficult period helped us toughen mentally and brought the family even closer to each other.
We were not allowed to crib or feel bad about ourselves. That has been the way I operate even now when things don't work out. I did my college from Delhi Univ and then went to MICA to do my master's.
When I passed out of MICA in 1998 the sensible thing given the situation at home would have been to take a stable paying job and become economically sound. I did that but after 3 years of working in advertising I got bored and teamed up with Rahul, another batchmate from Mica to set up Happily Unmarried in 2003.
We bootstrapped for a long time, had a lot of fun, and were almost on the verge of settling in Goa when a chance encounter led us to our first institutional funding. We raised our first round in 2013 and today we are one of the fastest men's grooming brands in the country.
When and how did you get clarity on what you wanted to do?
I tend to go with the flow and let things unravel themselves. For a long time, our only aim was to be able to survive somehow, Eventually if you stick around a path always emerges. That is how we moved from Happily Unmarried the gifting business to Ustraa the grooming business.
The one thing that I have learned is that one should always be ready to accept change, adapt, and not worry or brood too much if things go wrong. So to answer your question there was no one point in my life when I woke up and said this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.
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What does your typical workday look like?
The usual meetings., fire fighting, discussions on way forward, more fire fighting. repeat.
Several global companies have come out and thrown their support behind not needing a formal education. What is your opinion about this?
I agree. Studying to get a degree is vastly overrated. However there is no substitute for knowledge, you need to be the master of your domain. Most successful people that I know ended up excelling in a sphere very different from what they studied for.
How do you handle someone who has lied on their resume?
We almost never hire based on a resume, we either give an assignment or take interns and then only offer them jobs if we feel they can deliver. For senior positions, we depend on a lot of long interviews and discussions.
What are some of your typical challenges and how have they evolved over time?
Have faced multiple challenges mostly around how to scale the business, raise enough capital, etc but nothing compared to Demonitisation and the Covid pandemic. Pandemic has changed the way people want to lead their lives going ahead.
What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs looking for funding or those eyeing the top job?
Always remember you don't need VCs, they need you. The world has abundant funds but not enough entrepreneurs.
Which is your favorite book and why?
The books I call favorite keep changing. The 3 books that I really enjoyed reading last year were Shoedog by Phil Knight, Open by Andre Agassi, and Ali a life by Jonathan EIG.
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