Success is Refusing to Fail

He is a 4X entrepreneur, in the sense, he has successfully built four businesses. He swears by trust, transparency, and collaboration, and the foundation of all his ventures are built on these principles. Meet Srikanth Iyer, CEO and Founder of HomeLane, and Venture Partner, Unitus Ventures. From assembling computers and selling them door-to-door to currently designing dream homes for thousands of people, Srikanth has come a long way. In the past seven years, HomeLane has able to create a community of 20,000 happy customers and in the coming years, he hopes to make this company the number one home interiors brand in our country. In an exclusive interview with Corporate Citizen, Srikanth talks about why he picked education over pursuing table tennis professionally, his corporate journey, his love for being an entrepreneur, how he handles setbacks and more

"I feel every sport teaches you a great deal about business and for me, Table Tennis taught me to be nimble and quick. This sport has taught me several valuable lessons which I hold close to my heart. And I strongly believe that these values have acted as a catalyst in my entrepreneurial journey"

- Srikanth Iyer

Corporate Citizen: Even during these uncertain times, we feel privileged that our work functions efficiently from home. This interview is a testament to that. That said and done, can you enlighten us about your days growing up?

Srikanth Iyer: I feel grateful that even during this lockdown and pandemic, our work continues to provide us with a living. Coming to your question, I’ve been in Bengaluru all my life. Born, raised and studied right here. As any Indian child would dream of in those days, I too pursued my graduation in Computer Science and then went on to complete my Post Graduate Diploma in Software Engineering from Harvard. Right out of college, I started working at Wipro but within three months I realised that I wanted to do something of my own. Twenty-seven years and four businesses later, here I am. And I feel that I have done fairly well.

Don’t ever tell my kids this but as a child, I was keener on sports than on studies. I played Table Tennis at a national level representing Karnataka for four years, but I also believe that’s what built the foundation of my entrepreneurial journey.

CC: How did embracing Table Tennis prepare the future entrepreneur that you have become today?

Playing countless tournaments over those four years was very defining for me. I was barely a teen then and had the opportunity to independently travel across the country to play in these tournaments and that boosted my confidence tremendously. I feel every sport teaches you a great deal about business and for me, TT taught me to be nimble and quick.

It also teaches you about team spirit and sportsmanship; I mean, you can score all you want but if your team doesn’t anchor on it then you will lose anyway. Being dependent is not wrong, and this game teaches you to help your teammates so together you can reach your collective goal. Isn’t that how we succeed in any business? This sport has taught me several valuable lessons which I hold close to my heart. And I strongly believe that these values have acted as a catalyst in my entrepreneurial journey. But having said that, there came a time when I had to pick between table tennis or moving ahead with my studies and after enough contemplation, I picked the latter.

"Bengaluru motivated me to think big. Instead of building a company with five employees, these people and my city made me question myself-why not build a company with thousands of employees?"

CC: Tell us how the city you grew up in, shaped your mindset.

To be frank, Bengaluru has played a great role in moulding me into the person that I am today. It is a city where playing sports has always been encouraged and it is also home to several IT giants. It goes without saying that the 90s were the real growth phase for Infosys, Wipro, and others. I drew a great source of inspiration from their journey. I had just started my corporate journey at the same time and got to learn a lot from these companies. To see and hear anecdotes of Narayan Murthy and Azim Premji, who grew their businesses leaps and bounds, pushed me to aspire to be like them. And then I asked myself a question, can I also build a business this big?

In essence, Bengaluru motivated me to think big. Instead of building a company with five employees, these people and my city made me question myself-why not build a company with thousands of employees? Moreover, Bengaluru provides a favourable environment for any company. This is probably why any leading retail or FMCG company wishes to launch their product here. The city is multicultural, and its people are welcoming. And I am glad to be a part of this city.

CC: Walk us through your stint with Wipro, your gateway to the corporate world.

Might I say, the tale of me entering the corporate world is a tad bit funny, yet the learning experience was out of the world. Three of my college friends wished to apply to Wipro and the company had a policy of taking an entrance exam for a minimum of four people. Upon my friends’ request, I sat for the entrance exam and it so happened that I was the only one who got in.

Overall, the experience was great but within three months, I decided to fly solo. What I learnt was, instead of working hard for another organisation, if I work hard for myself I could get multiplier returns for my effort. This learning may not be true for everyone, it was for me because I believe I always had an entrepreneurial streak.

Around 1993, with Wipro, I earned approximately 4,500 rupees. I was probably earning twice more than what my classmates were making. And to quit such a job shocked my father. It took a little convincing but when my family understood my ambition, their support poured in.

CC: The epiphany of working for a corporation vs. working for yourself, how did that happen? Was it a piece of advice or something that you picked for yourself?

As I’ve mentioned, entrepreneurship has always interested me and kept me on my toes. I work better without boundaries, constraints and hierarchies. My goal has always been to build organisations that have a foundation of collaboration, trust and transparency. Through continuous hard work, I have been fairly successful in that endeavour. These virtues, values are all the more relevant in today’s day and age. Large organisations need a strong foundation that the founders need to build. I have been fortunate enough to build multiple successful businesses and I have truly enjoyed doing it for the last 27 years.

CC: You have a great experience of handling leadership roles. So, tell us what makes a good leader and how difficult or easy it is to manage such a challenging role?

I believe one can make for a good leader as long as their grounding principles are right. And the best leaders lead by example. Leadership roles come with responsibilities and the onus of the team falls on the leader. If you practice what you preach, the team can learn a lot from you. You cannot have a different set of rules for yourself and a different set for your team. One can easily see through that. And more than anything else, it is not ethical. I think you need to create an environment of collaboration, and then step back while the teams manage their work. Micro-managing is a complete no-no. That is something that I learnt quite early on in my life. And you hire someone for a reason, so let them perform. I think transparency, openness, and collaboration creates a lot of impact than selfishness.

"Every business of mine is very close to my heart. Unless you are emotionally involved with your business, you cannot make it successful. So, you need to be in love with your business"

CC: HomeLane is your fourth venture. Walk us through your entrepreneurial journey.

Soon after I left Wipro, I started Total Solutions. We used to assemble computers and sell them door-to-door. Back then, computers were fairly new, and branded computers were very expensive. I saw an opportunity and wanted to tap into that segment. I did that for seven years. In 2000, along with two partners, I started a venture in the education technology sector called Edurite. We built and scaled the business which was later acquired by Pearson. Post the acquisition, I served as Pearson’s CEO for a year and then moved out. I started my fourth venture-HomeLane, in the year 2014. Combined with our experience and expertise, the ideas and aspirations for first-time homebuyers get transformed into their dream home. And we deliver these dream home interiors in a personalised, pocket-friendly, and predictable manner; we make home interiors easy. Above all is our promise to our customers, home interiors delivered in 45 days or we pay you the rent.

CC: A project or an idea that had a profound effect?

Every business of mine is very close to my heart. Unless you are emotionally involved with your business, you cannot make it successful. So, you need to be in love with your business. It’s also important to understand when to pivot if the business is not going in the right direction. In my years of experience, I have learnt that the ability to convince people of your idea is a critical skill that one should acquire along with being consistent.

As far as I remember, I think I have a soft corner towards education. It is an emotional subject for most of us. The time when I thought of merging technology and education was a life-changing event for me. The idea to use technology to make education more accessible to students had a profound effect on me.

CC: These days, a lot of youngsters choose to start their venture before completing their education. What is your take on that?

Firstly, I am not an educationalist, I just run a business. I am more of a generalist and not a practitioner of the business. I am not sure if formal education can shape too many things, especially in entrepreneurship. As I limit my opinion to entrepreneurship, I do believe some sort of formal education is required. Unfortunately, our education system boxes us all in the same group irrespective of our skillset. We all are different, and we should be encouraged to be so. Identifying what the student is good at and inspiring them to become the best at that, is something that our system fails to do. To be a generalist, you do not need to be a subject matter expert, you should simply know how to scale the business, have the humility to admit what you do not know and be open to new ideas. Grounding is particularly important. But I think beyond a specific grounding unless you are in a technical job, you can learn from your mistakes as long as you are humble and empathetic.

CC: As you said you are a generalist, someone who knows how to scale their business. So far, you have ventured into education and IT. How did you get into interior design?

A while back when I was with Edurite/Pearson, I had just purchased a house and decided to design the house myself. I had a bad experience, as the workmanship wasn’t up to the mark. At that point in time, I had no idea that I would be starting a business along the same lines. I felt bad because I had spent a lot, and the outcome wasn’t pleasing. I thought to myself, why is there no brand where I can just close my eyes, sign up, and the rest will be taken care of? It sounded like a real concern. That got me thinking of what else I want to do. And coming with a business plan in the interior designing sector seemed viable. Customers find it difficult to find the right kind of vendor who can create interiors to suit their taste. They wish to find a trustworthy brand that can give them their dream house. That thought gave birth to HomeLane. We can design your dream home interiors with good craftsmanship that is pocket-friendly and has predictable timelines.

CC: What sort of role does technology play in this sector?

It truly is playing a great role. First and foremost, you can use technology to stitch the whole project together. At HomeLane, we use this technology to give a visual representation to the customer and they get a view of the status of their project at any given time. In terms of designing and visualisation, our SpaceCraft software is where customers and designers collaborate virtually to put a pin on their final design. This software is also connected to a pricing engine. So, as a block gets added to their house, they can see the price increasing. Giving them an idea of what they are paying for. So, we decided to use technology to make the process more transparent and convenient. It was clear that we wanted to solve specific customer problems. We want customers to have a transparent journey because we serve the middle class and understand they are price sensitive.

CC: Things don’t always go our way. How do you handle setbacks?

I feel that I am quite open to accepting setbacks. Problems arise when you refuse to accept that you are in a bad situation. I somehow feel acceptance of being in a bad situation is the first step towards revival. And in most situations, that is what I have done. The second step is to act quickly. Courtesy of my love for table tennis, I see myself reacting quickly in such situations. That game has taught me to be on my toes.

For instance, on March 22, 2020, when our Prime Minister announced the lockdown, we were all taken aback. There was no point cribbing over it. We decided to act quickly and by April 4th, we had cleared out all our office space across the country in eight locations. We knew we were not going to use that space for a long time and saved a lot on rent; we were saving about 25 lakhs on rent per month alone. So, what matters is how you react to the situation and how you make the most of it.

CC: Tell us about your role with Unitus Ventures.

Unitus Ventures is the leading seed fund in India that supports early-stage tech startups with India scale and global emerging market potential. I am a venture partner with them and help them select companies that they can invest in, especially in the education space. I also mentor some of those companies.

"There are no shortcuts to success. Work hard, be consistent and patient, and never give up. I define success as refusing to fail. Perseverance will take you a long way and that is what will separate you from the rest"

CC: It is easy to get motivated and quite difficult to stay the same. Who do you look up to when you are stuck in life?

Oh, the list is endless. It depends on the situation that we are in. Currently, our country is going through a rough time. I am completely humbled by the sense of duty and responsibility that our medical fraternity has shown during this pandemic. We have the choice and privilege of working from home. They can’t afford to do that. They are willingly risking their lives each day to save our country. And it’s not that they are making a fortune doing it. That has taught me that your mission is greater than anything. And hats off to every doctor, nurse, crematorium, helpers, and staff. These people truly inspire me.

Other than that, in the business segment, a lot of entrepreneurs across the world inspire me. Narayana Murthy and Azim Premji are the flag bearers of entrepreneurship. Steve Jobs has also been a big inspiration. He has consistently built a great product company. Bill Gates too.

I look up to companies like TCS, Tata Group, and others for the values that they uphold and what they bring to the table. Even disruptive companies like Facebook, Instagram, Coinbase, etc., each have had inspirational founders to take so much away from. I take a leaf out of their anecdotes whenever I am looking for inspiration.

CC: Personally, what all changes did you go through during the pandemic?

I have realised that I ought to be as independent as possible. During the first lockdown and even now, we do not have any house help. My eldest son is studying abroad and so it is just the three of us, my wife, my younger son, and me. Teamwork solves a lot of problems at work, and at home, we apply the same theory. Over the past year, I have tried my hand in cooking and turns out my family loves the biryani that I make. We help each other out and we have defined roles. For instance, I take care of the garden, laundry and lend a helping hand in the kitchen as well. To be frank, I am trying to apply the learnings from my startup at home. I try to work responsibly, if not hard.

With that, we have learnt to be near, yet so far. We give each other the much-needed space. I have also realised that we as humans are much more resilient than we think. This pandemic has taught me that we can manage any situation. I never thought we would be working so comfortably from home. Even though we worked just 10 months last year, the business grew by 20 per cent. This situation has taught me to ‘never say never’.

CC: Any word of advice for the youngsters who wish to make it big?

There are no shortcuts to success. Work hard, be consistent and patient, and never give up. Some of them get into this for quick success. Unfortunately, or fortunately, there is nothing called a shortcut. Even if someone gets easy success, that happens to one in a million. I define success as refusing to fail. Perseverance will take you a long way and that is what will separate you from the rest.

CC: What’s next on your plate?

I take one startup at a time. Right now, I am very focused on HomeLane. I feel humbled and elated to know that we have been able to create a community of 20,000 happy customers in the last seven years. Now, I wish to make Home- Lane the largest home interiors brand in the space over the next 2-3 years.