Seven Uncommoners

Who Are the Seven?

• Pawan Jain of Safexpress Private Ltd
• Mahesh Singhi of Singhi Advisors
• Nishith Desai of Nishith Desai Associates
• Vishal Gondal of Indiagames and GOQii
• Prasad Lad of Krystal Group of Companies

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• 6. Jagdish Kumar of J Kumar Infra
• 7. Patu Keswani of Lemon Tree Hotels

Why do I call them mavericks?

• 2 of them lost all their savings PLAYING in the stock market!!
• 1 paid for school books by MODELING 
• 5 out of 7 started out in fields they had no educational background in  
• 1 ELOPED with his college sweetheart and was forced to start a co. at 20 
• 1 designed computer games at 9 and FLUNKED his college computer test

Who is Pawan?

• Founder, MD and CM of India's largest logistics company, Safexpress
• He is singlehandedly driving the 3PL revolution in India
• Honored with 150 awards in 5 years for his contribution to the industry
• Runs 610 offices, 5000 GPS enabled vehicles and 48 hubs 
• He covers 10lakh kms daily and deliver over 100mm packages annually

What did Pawan do?

• Discovered a need for transportation services when none existed 
• Sought out complex states and started a one way traffic when starting out
• Partnered with his clients deeply and grew as they did
• Mapped India's road network like the back of his hand 
• Diversified into warehousing to grow into a 3PL partner

What held him in good stead?

• Thinking of himself as Custodian First, Carrier Second
• No Questions Asked when dealing with customer grievances
• His insistence of No Assets, No Liabilities
• Sweating the details till he owned them
• Listening to customers' pain points and evolving his business accordingly

Who is Mahesh?

• Founder and Owner of India's 6th largest (by no of deals) Investment Bank
• Has closed 1000+  transactions in his career spanning over 20 yrs
• Is equal and only Indian partner in a globally ranked network of I-banks
• Rose from technical project advisory to cross border M&A 
• And is still only an engineer by qualification!

What did Mahesh do?

• Helped clients with funding needs when he realized it was a pain point
• Aligned with channel partners
• Studied big companies and hustled to get a foot in the door
• Took on bottom of the barrel deals initially to build his resume
• Set up offices nationally and internationally to spread

What held him in good stead?

• Aligning with channel partners on their terms
• Expanding during economic downturns
• Finding non obvious solutions to obvious problems
• Valuing his firm in relations
• Taking on mandates without a retainer in the beginning of his career

Who is Vishal?

• Founder of Indiagames
• Founder of GOQii
• Angel investor in several ventures 

What did Vishal do?

• Married passion for technology with love for gaming
• Took gutsy risks like approaching Marvel for IP rights
• Thought international for funding and selling
• Took the lead in India by using India centric themes
• Was bullish about Indiagames' worth and pitched to over a 100 investors

What held him in good stead?

• Invested in good bankers to get the right exposure
• Realized the value of creating a  team cautiously for a start up
• Was nimble and adapted to his customers/partners/clients
• Did not play hardball with investors when times were hard 
• Stuck to his guns with investors when times were good

Who is Prasad?

• Owner of Krystal Group of Companies
• Organized the integrated facility management sector 
• Works for social inclusion of his 25,000 employees

What did Prasad do?

• Discovered facility management as an opportunity
• Took upon himself to manage all 'non core' activities of clients and GREW
• Hit on all cylinders to expand - scope of work or geography
• Organized the space of facility management in India

What held him in good stead?

• Giving himself the right exposure
• Knowing his weaknesses and strengths well
• Taking a chance on people for senior team 
• Adding something new every year
• Social Inclusion - putting 25k people on payroll

Who is Nishith?

• Founder of Nishith Desai Associates Law Firm
• Discovered the Mauritius route of investment to India
• Rated the most innovative law firm in the APAC region
• Ranked as the best lawyer to intern for the Harvard students

What did Nishith do?

• Chose his field ahead of time even when it made no commercial sense
• Made ends meet by writing for intl journals and then a book
• Discovered the FDI route to Mauritius
• Built a law firm based on research
• Chose his preferred sectors and excelled in them

What held him in good stead?

• Using down times to gain a new direction
• Keeping an eye on the long term always
• Building a very diverse team
• Proactive business model - 'Anticipate, Prepare, Deliver'
• High end positioning of firm

What held Patu in good stead?

• Operating across the value chain when possible
• Independent financial structuring for different properties
• Creating a distinct and enabling corporate culture
• Tackling regular problems innovatively
• Monitoring performance daily based on scores of self created parameters

What did Patu do?

• Studied the budget hotel space in India and knew it was under-served
• Started with 1 ideal (on 180 parameters) mid market hotel
• Build a landline when rates were cheaper
• Diversified into premier and lower end hotels to gain customers LATER
• Diversified  - designing, managing, training for others

Who is Patu?

• Founder of Lemon Tree Hotels
• Started with 1 hotel and Lemon Tree is now the 3rd largest hotel chain
• Co Founder of Head Start, a vocational training institute
• Co Founder of Carnation Hotels, a company that manages and runs hotels
• A champion for the cause of disabled people 

Who is Jagdish?

• Founder of J Kumar Infrastructure 
• Started in the 80s as a humble plumber 

What did Jagdish do?

• Gained entry into the field of infrastructure as a plumber
• Entered the PWD and MHADA circles
• Consciously stood for speed, cost and superior technology
• Worked as a sub contractor and formed JVs to learn/gain experience
• Gradually got into very sophisticated areas of tunneling, metros, mines

What held Jagdish in good stead?

• Partnering with people/technical experts/firms he could learn from
• Belief in the value of work, no matter how 'menial'
• Relationship building yet maintaining neutrality
• Ability to create armies of men when needed but keeping fixed costs low

Why be an entrepreneur in India?

• Opportunities abound in all sectors
• Stigma to failure changing
• Entrepreneurial success celebrated 
• Access to investors/mentors easier
• And the most important reason...

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