ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Amit Kumar Agarwal: PGP 2004 (Co-Founder & CEO – NoBroker.com)
Amit Kumar Agarwal is the Co-founder and CEO of NoBroker.com, India’s largest property technology platform. NoBroker.com is the only property tech unicorn in India and has raised Rs.3000 crores from capital raised from Google, Tiger Global, General Atlantic and others and angel investment by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, CEO of Paytm.
Through NoBroker, Amit has created a thriving platform that connects property owners and tenants directly, eliminating the need for brokers and has saved Rs 16,000 crore in brokerage in the past 10 years for its users. The platform offers a wide range of services, including property search, rental agreements and maintenance and payments; making the process of renting or buying a property more efficient and cost-effective for consumers. The platform has grown exponentially, with a presence in over 11 cities and a user base of over 30 million.
Amit has been a mentor and investor to more than 30 other startups. He is a first generation entrepreneur who believes in mentoring the next generation on entrepreneurship. He is a regular speaker at startup events and forums including at IITs and IIMs. He is an active speaker in forums including TiE, CII, TEDx etc. to promote entrepreneurship.
Congratulations on winning the award. What does this award mean to you?
Amit: Thank you. This award is very special. I think I have been looking forward to it for many years; sometimes I feel that the judging panel may not truly know the happiness with which the other people feel to get their award which is disproportionately high. Especially because even after 20 years of passing out of IIM Ahmedabad, I still have that feeling of awe and, to some extent, fear. When the same Institute says that you are among the top alumni, it is very special and very emotional.
Nobroker.com has been a disrupter in the real estate industry. What were the crucial factors you think that led to your success?
The crucial factors which led to our success, could have been the exact factors which could have led to our failure. So let me just explain, many people say that you need to be a part of the industry to really do something disruptive in the industry. In our case, we had zero idea. So three of us founders have zero experience in real estate. And now all three of us are first generation entrepreneurs. Maybe that is why we could question something very, very simply and from a first principle [perspective]. Asking why do we have to pay brokerage to this broker in this internet era? No one else in the world has done this. No company in the US has done no-brokerage. No company in China has done no-brokerage. When we asked a very simple question, “Why can’t we do this?” and there was no obvious answer, we said, “okay, let’s explore this”. So with a very naive attitude, we went on exploring it. And sometimes, when you have this irrational optimism about something, the world basically conspires to make it happen. And hence we believed in it, rightly or wrongly, and then it started becoming more true.
When you are trying to do something which no one has done before, if you talk to a very, very rational mind, he would say that, “Of course, it can’t be done because ABCD reasons are there, right?” So the only thing which can basically push you through to do something which has never been done before is– to just believe.
What advice do you have for future entrepreneurs who want to walk in a similar path as yours?
I know that many of the IIM Ahmedabad graduates have an education loan to pay, and there are some financial constraints which should surely be taken care of. But I would strongly say that if you are from IIMA, you have to take risks. You are at the best suited scenario to take risks. I think what has happened is that in an attempt to chase Day Zero job, Day one job, we forget the fact that we can opt out of this placement. IIMA has amazing programmes in which you can opt out and then you can come back and participate again after two years, in case things don’t work out. So it breaks my heart to see that lots of IITs are doing it [entrepreneurship], but not so IIMA graduates. Now, thanks to IIMA Ventures I hope that in the coming years, more and more people will take risks. So I would say that people from IIMA are top and if anyone has basically an idea and wants to pursue it as a passion, I think the next two, three decades are of India. The daily problems that we face are basically an opportunity which are hidden, and it is a huge market to be captured. So my advice to young entrepreneurs would be to not overthink, make sure their finances are in order, and give it a try, because we are not just made to serve others and basically, but we are also there to create jobs.
Being a CEO of this company, as much as it is tech driven, it’s also people driven, and you have been leading it. So what are the lessons in leadership that you can share with us?
This is an amazing question and one of my favorite topics. When we were in IIM Ahmedabad, organizational behavior was something that people were not that interested in but that is what almost every IIMAgraduate says later in life, that is a subject which is basically most useful.
What I discovered was that it is a self-discovery journey. When you are running a startup with thousands of employees, I am very comfortable with people making mistakes, and I am very comfortable delegating. I don’t like being micromanaged, and hence I don’t want to micromanage others. So the way in which I have built a team, there are 1000s of customer-facing people that report indirectly to me, and I have some 40-50 business leaders who manage these 1000 plus people, and I give them a huge amount of accountability. So each one of them handles different functions. So for example, one business head will handle Packers and Movers, another will handle painting, cleaning, home interiors, commercial real estate and so on. Each one of those leaders have to decide the vision of their own function. They decide whom they are going to hire, whom they are going to fire, what salary they are going to pay, everything they decide, I basically oversee, just on a monthly basis, and from a culture point of view basis, but I just I give them huge accountability, which basically, in a way, makes 50 entrepreneurs get blooming within Nobroker. And that’s the reason why many men, many investors, ask us as to how we can do so many multiple businesses. And the secret sauce is our culture, that’s why people stay and out of these 40-50 business leaders that I work directly with, this team has been built over the past 10 years, and there has been almost zero attrition. People basically achieving a lot of things for their function also gives me a huge amount of vicarious happiness. And I think that culture is something which I have learned is super, super important for making anything big.
And as a recipient of young alumni, achievers award, what do you hope to accomplish in the future? Personally and professionally?
I think the award gives us responsibility that you have to behave in a specific way in future. So that also gives that responsibility that you live up to IIMA values. And I intend to basically do it, continue to do it. I hope I have lived up to them till now. The objective is basically two fold. One is financial, another is emotional. So the financial[goal] is all business related that would like the business to grow. We would want to do an IPO in the next four years, we would want to give the returns to our shareholders who have invested in us and trusted us for 10 years. So we would want to make some money for our employees who have been with us and worked so hard. So these are the financial metrics and business metrics. On an emotional side, I would want Nobroker to be across the country. Right now, we are in the top cities. I would like our presence to be across the country. I hope that five years from today, Nobroker is across the country, and people will have a positive feeling when they think about it.
Personally, now my kids are basically growing up, and the elder one is going to college. So I just hope that the way in which I have had a great relationship with my father, almost as a friend-like, I hope that I have the same relationship with my son.
