Misconception!

 Imagine the investors from a private equity group visiting you. The boss is responsible for a large portfolio worth $30bn in the services industry😈. From Vietnam and moved to Swiss as a kid, studied mechanicals, worked in mechanicals, moved to equity as a complete novice, and worked his way to a portfolio head. The general notion is that a cocky, cutthroat, money-driven, showing-off, asshole who doesn't care. Not that bad but I definitely thought they will be very judging and arm's length away. 😈 I was not sure what to expect from the investing board member's visit to India.

What actually happened was completely different. 3 young fresh looking guys walked in with genuine smiles. They looked 30 kinds, especially the big boss, and later found that he is 47.🤪 They were chatty, asking so many questions, keenly listening, and making notes. Not once confronting or disinterested. They shared stories and listened to us. Ate everything we offered and happily enjoyed it🙏. And at the same time very clever questions to highlight things we need to focus on. They remembered everything we said and brought it up in other conversations just to show they heard us and influence our thoughts😅.

They were unlike other investors who don't get involved with employees and only deal with the board. These guys operate differently, unlike other firms. Normal ones give a 100-day plan to start with and then 6 months and so on. They have quarterly reviews to check progress. These guys deep dive into the company and compare reality to what was sold. In parallel, they also do workshops with leadership to brainstorm ideas. Then they give leadership time to reflect on the ideas and choose the ones to implement. Then help the leaders to progress and review monthly to see if anything needs to change. A supervisory board is created to work with the actual board🙏. They have specialist super people in there like CTOs, CEOs, etc from other companies to assist in specific areas. We have a CTO for tech, CEO for sales, and CPO for operation. A very partnership approach to working together.🤗

I was so impressed with how they gelled with all and absolutely made it easy for us. They were personable, jovial, curious, and paid full attention to detail. The boss was incredible. I'm a fan. He gave some simple insights on how he runs his team and what works better. He works a lot but is fully empathetic to his team. He has empowered them well to decide😈. Felt like a super-efficient team and really want to be with them. And the way they ate everything we offered was impressive. Not many can do a banana leaf South Indian meal and they were all over it and finished it with their hands 🤪

Overall a really good couple of days. It was not tense and I learned a lot I can do quickly to bring in efficiency.🤪 One biggest learning was how to look at numbers and partner with teams instead of just reporting later. I think they liked me too, I was efficient, jovial, knew my shit well, confident, helpful, etc🤪. Really good experience. And yes, help clear any misconception about investors😅. Most of them are as human as others, ashte🤷‍♂️ But these guys were better in many aspects, they connected, they learned our ways of working, they inspired!!!