Varun Chawla - For a Person to Be Successful At Work, It's a Combination of Knowledge, Ability, and Attitude (Co-Founder - build3 and 91Springboard)

If you look at online job sites, about 50 percent of the jobs today did not exist a decade ago and that's how quickly the world is changing. If you don't have the ability to learn, cope, and pick up new skills and knowledge, then you will be left behind.

Tell us about your background, journey, and upbringing

I was born in Hyderabad as my maternal grandparents lived there and my nana worked with B. H. E. L. At the time, it was convenient and common that mothers would go over to their parents to deliver their children. While my parents at the time were living in Saudi Arabia, my mom came to Hyderabad when she was pregnant with me. 

I spent 6 months in Hyderabad and we went back to Saudi where I spent the first 5 years of my life. My mom was basically the person running the house and I saw this lady who could manage the kids, our house, guests coming in, everything so seamlessly - she was absolutely amazing! I learnt hard work and empathy right from that early age from my mom. 

Subsequently, I moved back to Delhi at the age of 5 and was there all the way through school. I lived in Saket and went to a simple school called Birla Vidya Niketan. I was mostly an average student who loved extracurriculars - whether it was sports, drama, computers, you name it - anything I could do to get out of class! 

My teachers would always say ‘He has potential but he doesn't apply himself, and I think they were right! I ended up applying overseas for college - my parents had saved me and were of a mindset that if I was willing to work hard and secure a good college, then they would support me. 

I went through the SATs and application writing process and ended up getting into Cornell University. I was super excited to go there and study electrical engineering because I loved the idea of building computers and working with computers. 

However, when I reached there, I had a realization that I don't love the building of computers but the working with computers. Three semesters in, which is 1.5 years in out of a 4-year course, I ended up switching to applied economics and management, which is a lot as you would imagine, studying economics, accounting, statistics. 

I had a brilliant journey at Cornell where I met a lot of amazing people, learned a lot of things, and recognized that coming from a middle-class Punjabi background, I did aspire to wealth at this early point in my life. 

Driven by this, I ended up taking a position with Goldman Sachs right out of college in equity research, which was basically an overpaid journalist who could do the math! I loved it, I learned a lot about maths and writing and being professional, working long hard hours to produce quality output. 

I worked with Goldman Sachs in New York and then in Bangalore for nearly 5 years, an amazing experience and probably still the foundation for many things I practice today. I continued my journey on to becoming an entrepreneur after a really insightful conversation with my dad. 

I told him about ideas, dreams and aspirations I had and that Goldman was just not doing it for me at this point. He simply told me this - You have your own savings. You have no dependents and I let you live in my house for free. So what is stopping you? I quit the following week and set off on my entrepreneurial journey. 

I set up 8 different startups ranging from an Algo trading hedge fund to a concierge business to a travel tech company and many different things. 

Today, I am building build3, a startup studio with a heart - a startup studio that wants to build a better future, a startup studio that doesn't believe in just giving advice and writing a check but working deeply with founders from an early stage. 

We build companies that matter, that are creative, that are conscientious, and that build with their communities - not at the expense of that.

When and how did you get clarity on what you wanted to do? 

I feel I had two pivotal moments in my life - one was when I was 25-26, which brought an end to my Goldman stint. I realized that I didn’t mind working hard, with smart people, doing math and writing and those sorts of things, but I was bothered by just working for money. 

I felt there needed to be a purpose towards which one was working and at Goldman Sachs, I was just helping rich people get richer, moving money from one place to another, making some in the process - that wasn’t fulfilling anymore. 

At this point, I had lots of dreams and aspirations and the only way I'd truly be fulfilled is if I worked on one of these dreams and aspirations. This took me on the entrepreneurial route where I could try out my own ideas, things I was passionate about, and convert them all into action and results. 

I started my first entrepreneurial journey with Springboard investments, a boutique investment bank helping young companies get financing and the right advice, taking a page out of Goldman Sachs’ book but doing it in a flavor that resonated with me. 

Post that, my exploration of the startup journey and ideas continued. The second time where I got clarity on what I wanted to do is more recently, during the COVID19 pandemic. 

In 2020, I had been building my last startup, 91springboard, which is basically a network of coworking spaces that is enabled and powered by its community. 

When COVID struck us, I went through a lot of introspection and realized that I really wanted to work towards building businesses that would have a positive impact on the world we live in, make the place more livable - a warmer, happier, healthier place. 

I started thinking about what I could do towards building that and hence I changed my north star towards helping build these entrepreneurs. The only thing I could do well was help with entrepreneurship and what I wanted to do was help build companies that had this positive outlook towards the future and could make an impact. 

I decided to set up a startup studio called build3 - actively working with young founders trying to build amazing companies that will create impact and deliver positive outcomes - not ignoring profits but primarily optimizing for people and the planet.

                       

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What does your typical workday look like? 

I have a pretty tight routine - making sure I distribute my time in building build3, our startups, connecting with family, and my inner self. 

My entire day is work - and I thoroughly enjoy it - be it working on my physical fitness through yoga, eating a vegan meal, working on my mental wellness through meditation and spending time with the family, or working on building startups and communities with my team at build3. 

My view of work is holistic - taking away the negative connotations from ‘work’ and viewing it as a way to live life to its fullest potential.


Several global companies have come out and thrown their support behind not needing a formal education. What is your opinion about this? 

This is a good question - I think for a person to be successful at work, it's a combination of knowledge, ability, and attitude. I had a unique and privileged opportunity to experience the US education system when it was less common and quite expensive. 

For me, it contributed to gaining a certain level of knowledge and helping develop my attitude or culture towards work and achievement. What I mean by that is - I learned important abilities and skills like communication, excel, problem-solving, thinking about the big picture. 

My environment there also inculcated a culture of being hard-working, being detail-oriented, always being frugal, trying to always make sure I have a north star and there is a greater good to what I am doing. 

Knowledge wise of course, I learned several things as I took wide-ranging classes - from accounts, statistics, economics, and finance to philosophy, architecture, and even biology - that's one of the amazing things about the U. S. education system which I benefited from. 

Parallely, what has truly happened in the workplace is that it is evolving extremely quickly, and what you need in terms of knowledge and skills is changing at a rapid pace. 

The critical thing you need to have really gained from your educational system is the ability to be a lifelong learner, which my formal education and environment inculcated in me. And that's what's really going to help every individual. 

If you look at online job sites, about 50 percent of the jobs today did not exist a decade ago and that's how quickly the world is changing. If you don't have the ability to learn, cope, and pick up new skills and knowledge, then you will be left behind. 

I also believe another important thing within this paradigm is that the new workplace should look for skills, not necessarily leading indicators of skills, which is where you were educated. We need to check and test for what abilities and knowledge the individual has today and hire on the basis of that. 

The software world has been working like that for a long long time. They don't care where you were educated, they see if you can write a piece of code or solve a certain problem and that should become more and more common in all areas. 

This is true at build3 when we hire team members. We understand the role and then we look to have people produce outcomes that are required in that role, through a series of conversations or projects. 

We are of the mindset that education is important, but not in the way I think it has traditionally been seen. Broadly, it is important to analyze what your organization needs and see people for who they are and what they can do today.


How do you handle someone who has lied on their resume? 

To be honest, we've got a fairly tight hiring process - it lasts several weeks and we go into a lot of detail. I feel if you were superficial and quick about it and trying to hire fast, there are bound to be some of these errors of lying on the resume - so I would say our prevention systems are really really good. 

Right from doing double checks about what's been written, with Linkedin or other sources or through conversations, talking through resume items. The level of depth and detail the individual can go into tells you what's true and what's not. 

We also have them do some project work which shows their actual skills through which we are able to validate what they have written and more importantly, their ability to do the job. 

Multiple team members interact with the individual about resume items and other things - this way, we have multiple points of view and people's abilities to pick up what might be fabricated or fudged information. 

Finally, we do reference checks with 2 or 3 past managers of this person to try and get a feel for how they were, their performance, what kind of projects they worked on and through this entire journey, I would imagine it is fairly tough for somebody to have fudged something. 

Having said that, we do have a strong set of values in our company. Being honest and clear in your intentions, being transparent is fundamental to how we operate as a company and if it is found that you're not being so, then that could be grounds for parting ways.

What are some of your typical challenges and how have they evolved over time?  

Reflecting on my startup journey would highlight many of my challenges! I started in 2007 and have been through 8 startup journeys and on my ninth one. If you were to google me and my startups, you might only find a couple. 

At some level, that tells you that I've had a few challenges along the way!! Ranging from how you find product-market fit, basically, do customers want to pay for your product or service, to how do you build co-founding teams, to how do you raise capital, to how do you build motivated teams. 

All of these are challenges I have faced and grown with. I consider myself privileged to have had the ability to go through these experiences and still come out on the other side, to use that learning and further some of my aspirations. 

Each challenge has been a humbling and teaching experience and while that might get you down at the moment, the clear thought is that these are not long-term failures but long-term improvements to one’s abilities. 

I am thankful and grateful for having had such a variety of highs and lows in my life which I can make a part of me, improve life, and my further actions because of it.

                     

What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs or those eyeing the top job?  

Currently, due to a lot of online and offline publications, there's a lot of fame and glory attached to entrepreneurship - it attaches aspiration, but not of the positive kind, with becoming an entrepreneur and starting an enterprise. 

I would say don't get caught up in that. Be clear about a problem that you have and that you're passionate about solving, and that you are clear on how you will solve and who it will serve. 

When you have that clear line of sight and understanding, it is going to be the fuel for the passion. Your reason for success is going to be this clarity of the problem and its solution that you have deeply felt yourself. 

I would define these as the ingredients that I have found that lead to a successful startup. Don't just get in for the sake of it, don't get in for the money, don't get it for the fame, get in because you felt the problem and you're passionate about solving for it. 

It's that passion that's going to power you through and it's the quality of insight that's going to ensure that you have something meaningful to contribute to the world.

Which is your favourite book and why? 

I'm a voracious reader or actually listener - I like to listen to 2 or sometimes I can even get to 3 books in a month. I've flipped from topic to topic and realized a broad range is extremely critical to give yourself the ability to think laterally. 

Books I have really enjoyed which have helped me in terms of culture - Principles by Ray Dalio and Reinventing Organizations by Frederick Laloux. Any company that you build needs to have a strong culture and these are folks that have inspired me. 

Another book that deeply impacted me is The World of Three Zeros by Muhammad Yunus. About building companies - one of the most amazing books I have read recently is Working Backwards by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr - 2 ex-Amazon employees. 

It talks about the systems that Amazon uses, a perfect blueprint of how you build the guts of an organization. 

Then, there are a whole bunch of entrepreneurial books, biographies, autobiographies written by entrepreneurs, that just show how you set a purpose, and with grit and passion, you can actually achieve them. From Elon Musk to Jack Ma, about Google, I have read all of these and many many many many more. 

This set of books inspires me, that anything is possible with passion and a higher goal. 

You can find an entire playbook of how to set up organizations in these - books like Working Backwards have taught me about the systems you need to put in place to achieve your goals, I learnt that a great culture is critical, because people power all organizations, and if you don't have the right culture you're gonna be in trouble. Ray Dalio and Frederick Laloux have been instrumental in shaping my thoughts there.

Bio - 

Varun is the Co-founder and Head of Real Estate of 91springboard, one of the biggest coworking communities in India. He is responsible for creating fun and living spaces that have supported over 3,000 businesses in their growth journey. 

He is also the founder of build3, a startup studio which incubates early stage businesses creating positive impact - taking them from idea to implementation by providing a founding team, access to collective wisdom and funds/systems to build dreams mindfully in Goa. build3 is the Sherpa who will accompany Founders on their journey to create a thriving and impact focused startup - not just as advisors/mentors/funders, but as co-builders!

Through 91springboard, Varun has built a vibrant community for startups, freelancers, and business owners that enables networking, growth, and upskilling.
Varun conceptualized 91springboard in 2013, a time when the term ço-working was alien to India.

Currently, Varun plays a key role in identifying the right markets and real estate partners to ensure that 91springboard stays true to its key value proposition of offering a lively and hassle-free environment to its members so that they can focus on building their business.

Varun also holds a Director position with Pennar Industries limited and was instrumental in diversifying Pennar’s business interests from basic steel products to pre-engineered buildings, water treatment solutions, engineering services, building solar power plants. 

In the past five years, the Pennar group has grown to over INR 2000 crore in revenue and has successfully maintained strong financials while exhibiting the qualities of growth and diversification and has expanded presence from India to the US among others Prior to this, Varun played a key role in setting up the Goldman Sachs equity research operations in Bangalore. 

Under his leadership, the team grew to 120 employees in a span of 18 months. 

He also set up Goldman’s Mumbai Office when Goldman’s joint venture with Kotak ended in 2006 He was a part of the team deputed to help set up the Goldman front office in Mumbai, this included SEBI and RBI related negotiations/discussions and also setup of physical infrastructure and internal Goldman Sachs recruiting.

Varun has spent over five years with Goldman Sachs between their New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Bangalore offices. 

He is the ambassador of the World Startup Report and has significantly contributed information for the Indian startup market for the inaugural World Startup Report Varun graduated in B.S. Applied Economics & Management from Cornell University. 

He also holds a Project Management certification for executives from XLRI and an Honorary Doctorate for Excellence in the field of Management from the Young Scientist University.

Professional Awards and Recognition:

➔  2014-Best new incubator from the Technopolicy Network in the Netherlands
➔  2015-Best emerging technology business incubator - President of India on behalf of the Department of Science & Technology
➔  2015-Chosen by Barclays as the sole India partner for their fintech partnership Rise
➔  2016-Recognized as one of 6 world-class incubators of India under Niti Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission
➔  2018-Chosen by Google as the only Indian partner for their Google for Entrepreneurs (GFE) program