Starting a new enterprise with like-minded people who can walk with you through thick and thin is not always easy. If you consider your startup to be like a sports team, you will quickly realize that recruiting top talent is the key to winning. It’s often said, individuals don’t build great companies, and teams do. And as I am a big fan of Superheroes, I consider a startup team like the Avengers, a team of extraordinary Superheroes who are excellent individually but, if they have to change the world they need to partner together and take advantage of each other’s strengths.
The company with the best Superheroes will win. This will be the team which comprises of the most talented people, channel them in the most productive configuration and get the most output from their unique capabilities.
I have always been posed with questions such as how do you recruit? How did you find your co-founder? When I was starting GOQii, we were entering an unknown and unexplored sector of health, fitness and wearables, and there were no real ‘qualified’ people available. And I am not a big believer of conventional methods like LinkedIn, Consultants, Naukri, etc. especially to put together a top management team. However, over the last two years, I am proud to say that we have been able to put together an amazing team of such mavericks. I am sharing some of those methods!
Talk to strangers
Talking to strangers is an art. Seldom, you find someone interesting and end up conversing with that person. But, when you are an entrepreneur or planning to be one, then talking to strangers might just help you find someone interesting who might suit your company. I try and strike conversation with interesting people during my travels- at the airport or in a hotel lobby or in a restaurant. Sometimes these interactions have proved fruitful and at times have not worked. It’s during one such travels in 2013 that I met Luke Coutinho on an airplane. He was sitting next to me and my curious mind was telling I should get to know him. As I got talking to him I found that is an expert in health, nutrition and fitness. During our conversation I learnt and understood a lot at a time when I had nothing to do with the health sector. A year later the GOQii idea came and I immediately remembered him. Today, Luke Coutinho is the Master Coach at GOQii. He has been instrumental in guiding all the coaches on board and also in creating the coaching module. He encourages and helps people steer away from conventional medicine and uses natural foods. He believes lifestyle change helps and he coaches people to make shift in their lifestyle to achieve their health goals.
Give a real-world test
While skills are vital, a person’s attitude or mindset is more important for success. Somebody with the right attitude, according to me, is genuinely interested and can think ahead of the game, has lots of ideas, and is constantly seeking ways to improve things. I am flooded with resumes of people keen to work with me. To most, I say let’s meet at 6 am in the morning for a run on a Sunday and the obvious happens – most don’t turn up. But, one person did when I said let’s meet for a run at Juhu beach at 6am on Sunday. Krishna Kumar aka KK, who has a passion for brands, mountains and startups was there bang on time at 6 am. We ran for an hour and chatted over health, fitness etc. People with the right attitude can think ahead and take positive views of things and want to contribute. Add to that person’s experience also matters. KK has immense experience in advertising and digital marketing. Apart from being an experienced advertising and media man, KK is also an avid mountaineer who has scaled 6000+ mountains. It’s his friendly attitude that he gets his way with people. At GOQii, KK is responsible for overall marketing strategy and consumer engagement.
Always be ready to help entrepreneurs
Being an entrepreneur myself, I have other budding entrepreneurs getting in touch with me for mentoring and guidance. You never know who would be helpful and when. I met Champ aka Chirag Alreja for the first time at a TIE event in 2012. Champ was running his own company then called ‘HitPlay’ and he would often get in touch with me for guidance. He was radical in his thoughts and meticulous in execution. He was a creative engineer who had been developing and delivering tech toys since many years. When the idea of GOQii came up, I knew Champ would be the right person with whom I could take this idea forward. He had a good understanding of customer requirements and could develop products at affordable prices. He understood hardware well and what works. I called Champ when he was on a vacation and asked him if he would be interested in starting a health tech venture along with me. He came on board as the COO and is totally the man behind the hardware that GOQii launched. He is also an avid Tennis player and believes in fitness.
Reward Loyalty, Integrity and Capability
Most senior people when they move from one organization to another they generally take their brigade from their previous organization with them. But, I did not believe in doing that after I moved out of Indiagames. I have always believed take only those who seem a right fit for what you are planning to do next. Sachin Janghel was one such guy from Indiagames I knew for a long time with experience in games and interactive application development on various mobile, online, social networking platform. When I decided on GOQii, Sachin was the go to man for all technology building. Hence, he is the only person I hired from Indiagames because I saw a perfect fit with what GOQii wanted to do. Sachin, is the CTO and the man responsible for all technology behind the GOQii Ecosystem.
Do good Karma
I have always believed that when you do good towards others it sooner or later pays you back well. In general, what goes around comes around. One such story is that of how I met and got on board Abhishek Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer at GOQii. The story dates back to 2012 London Olympics. I had two tickets for the Opening Ceremony and I wasn’t sure what I would do with one spare ticket that I had. I could have sold it, but instead I had other plans. On FB, I found a distant cousin Meghna who I hadn’t met in almost two decades and asked her if she would be interested in watching the game with me. She was delighted to come but during the event mentioned her husband is a big fan of basketball and so wished he could see the same. So later that week I did some juggling and got a ticket to the basketball game and met Abhishek to give him the ticket over coffee. During that meeting I learned, Abhishek is a fitness product expert with several years of experience with leading global brands such as Nike in India, US and UK, where he led diverse products. Also, he is a strong believer in the principle of sustainability and social development and has collaborated with various global non-profits organizations on key social projects. He was just the right person for a company like GOQii that was entering into health and fitness space. Moreover, thanks to his experience with NGOs we came up with the concept of karma points. At GOQii, Abhishek is in charge of all marketing and Karma initiatives.
Love thy Neighbour
CFO is of prime importance to any organisation. I knew Srini aka Srinivasan Sawamy as my neighbour and my building secretary for the longest time. We met during our society functions and society meetings. One day, I got talking to him and he consulted me regarding his finance startup. Srini was the numbers man armed with a CA degree and was launching a company that would outsource CFO functions to the SME sector. He had in-depth understanding of profitability and growth drivers and has extensively worked on financial planning and data analysis. When GOQii was in its launch phase, I contacted him and we talked business for a bit and about his next role. I asked him whether he would like to handle the finance operations of GOQii. He was the ideal man who had good control of the cash flow. I could not have found a better man than him to handle a startup like ours.
Interview those who interview you
Sometimes it helps to be good friends with a journalist. Anusha Subramanian is an award winning journalist and I have known for many years. We met professionally many a times and she has interviewed or quoted me in her stories related to technology, startups, gaming, etc. Over a period of time, I realised she is an avid outdoor sports enthusiast and learnt she is a trained mountaineer. When GOQii idea was being worked upon, I also wanted a repository of blogs to build a strong content base related to health, fitness and nutrition. Anusha had just quit her long stint in mainstream journalism and that is when I called and asked her what she thought of the idea of GOQii and would she be interested in writing and building the blog site. I saw a good connect with her skills for writing and additionally her interest in fitness and outdoor sports. Anusha is the Senior Content Editor at GOQii Blog and has built a large repository of content across the areas of health, fitness, nutrition, player stories and the list now includes medical blogs as well.
Be realistic and believe in the power of serendipity
Painting a rosy picture about your company just when you are starting off is a natural thing to do. One does that so that the company attracts the best of talent. But, I always thought otherwise and have always portrayed the real picture about our company. Window dressing your company can eventually prove disastrous. So when the time came to hire a people’s person (HR head), it set me thinking what do I say. The situation at GOQii was chaotic, so I posted on a social media site – looking for someone who can handle chaos. Suzaina Basheer replied back ‘I am the person who can handle chaos’. We met and she was totally a people’s person. I only told her ‘you need to put a method to all the madness here’.
Similarly, Connie D’souza who handles market research and consumer insights at GOQii came on board by chance. Her brother used to follow me on Twitter and I met him of all the places during the Amsterdam marathon. We got talking and I mentioned to him about GOQii. He heard me out and mentioned he has a sister who is into market research. I met Connie. She had limited experience and we were a startup so realised it’s a good fit as we could all walk the learning curve together. Connie came on board for a month as intern and her first task was to go on foot with a piece of paper and gather consumer insights, what they thought of the product etc. She came up with some interesting insights and thereafter she came on board as our lead researcher for delivering better consumer experience.
These are my superheroes who I have brought together. Their powers vary widely; but their ability to fly, enhanced capabilities and their projection of energy bolts are all common. Together we are working towards disruptive ideas to change the whole health and wellness game. Apart from these superheroes, I would like to point out how unconventional methods of hiring people sometimes just gets you the right mix of people across varied backgrounds. Many of my other hires at GOQii have also been in very unconventional ways. I have thrown challenges based on what they have said in their resume. If someone said they are a very good chess player, I have thrown a challenge of playing a game with the best chess player in office. Someone had said he does 50 pushups in 30 sec so made him do push-ups. The idea was to gauge the attitude and the diligence of a person during such processes.
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