Jobaaj Stories
Hi, I am Akarshak Maheshwari,
A qualified Company Secretary operating as the Global Company Secretary at Eruditus Executive Education & Emeritus Institute of Management, a unicorn ed-tech startup, with a valuation of $3.2 billion. It's backed by marquee investors such as Softbank, Prosus, Leeds, Accel, Sequoia, Bertelsmann, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
After qualifying as a CS and completing my 15 months of training, I worked for a few years in various reputed listed companies and thereafter took the unconventional decision to join a startup.
Here's my story of why I chose the startup route and what has been my experience in this journey!
I was born and bred in a middle-class business-driven family. Growing up, I never wanted to join my family in the business. Instead, I wanted to venture into the corporate world. Frankly, I also never thought I would be a Company Secretary (CS).
A close friend, who is now my wife, decided to pursue this profession and that influenced me to pursue it too. She and I both enrolled in the CS course from ICSI (The Institute of Company Secretary of India).
There are three stages in CS - Foundation, Executive and Professional. After clearing the Foundation and Executive as well as two groups of the Professional, she dropped out and ventured into media management and is currently working in the media sector. However, by that time, I fell in love with the CS profession and the career possibilities. Since then, I never turned back.
Trodding the Corporate Path
My Fufaji suggested to me to start training with a corporate instead of a PCS firm. So, I started my 15-month management training at Khaitan Chemicals & Fertilisers Limited - a listed manufacturer of fertilizer, chemical, and soya edible oil headquartered in Indore, India.
My training was so rigorous that I was not just limited to the secretarial stuff but had to undergo training in other departments viz. commercial, purchase, HR, Marketing, and whatnot. But definitely, during this particular phase, I learned discipline which was very important for my studies and future journey.
Fortunately, all the efforts paid off when I qualified as a CS in 2015. A 4-year journey that I will always cherish. After qualifying as a CS, I was waiting to carve my own path but then came the big question, “What Next?”.
I did not really have a clear answer to 'what next?', but was certain that I didn't want to limit myself to core CS duties. The typical duties include ensuring compliance with the Companies Act, and Stock Exchange compliances such as the SEBI LODR, Insider Trading, Substantial Acquisitions, etc. Regulations.
After obtaining my CS membership, I continued at Khaitan Chemicals & Fertilisers Limited as an Assistant Company Secretary. For about 8 to 9 months, I was overseeing all other departments such as Commercial, Purchase, HR, and IR, besides managing a team of trainees and regular secretarial duties.
Everything was going well, but I was hungry for more and that's when I realized that the scope of growth in Indore was good but not great considering it is a Tier 2 city. So, I decided to move out to a city with some better scope and career opportunities.
In January of 2017, I relocated to Mumbai and joined Videocon d2h Limited, a NASDAQ listed entity headquartered in Mumbai, forming part of the Videocon Group.
During my time in the company, I managed the merger process of Videocon d2h with DishTV to form India's largest direct-to-home broadcast service provider. For nearly two years, I learned about IBC cases, various corporate litigations, merger processes, due diligence, etc.
In Sep'2018, I moved to Sahyadri Industries Limited - a listed company, and a pioneer in building solutions. My job was limited to secretarial duties, not challenging enough.
So, I decided to look for something with a challenging role and that's when I made an unconventional decision and ventured into the startup world by joining Bewakoof.com.
Embracing the World of Startups!
Bewakoof.com is an internet-first brand of multi-category fashion products catering to both men and women and is famous amongst youngsters for its unique and attractive products.
In my short interaction with Bewakoof's Founder and its CFO, I started understanding the startup world and was fascinated to know about the upcoming challenges and learnings so I decided to get out of this boring 9-5 job and venture into more challenging roles.
Bewakoof was aiming for their Series A Round then, and prior to that, they only had angel investments. For their Series A round, private equity investors were to invest and they wanted someone who could understand the processes and the company very well. Since I had dealt with all sorts of companies, including private, public, India listed, and foreign listed, they felt I was a perfect match. So, in Jan'19, I joined the group.
My first day at Bewakoof.com was rather funny! I went to the office in formals only to see many working in shorts and t-shirts. I did feel out of place but I knew this was the right start to a crazy adventure known as startups!
Challenges of Working in a Startup
I took a month to settle and understand the process as well as the culture here. Upon joining, I was informed that I need to create the legal and compliance department and structure various ongoing processes. I formulated various SOPs for vendor creation, onboarding, and contract management, to associate ourselves with various brands and advertising agencies.
As everything was scattered, I had to chase various external CS offices and external legal counsels, who were providing services, prior to my joining. The company's due diligence process was fun and I initiated a plan that got us a clean Due Diligence report (with a few red marks, obviously). The process of formalizing informal processes was amazing as my role was 80% legal and 20% secretarial, for a change.
Once private-equity investors are on board, even though you are a private company, you technically function like a listed entity (mostly) as you have to follow all the norms laid by investors. Conducting Board/Committee meetings, recording minutes, and working out an actionable plan post-meeting, were among the few secretarial activities like any other listed company. Listed entities have independent directors, funded start-ups have investor nominee directors.
Each meeting we had at least 2-3 actionable items about the company, it could be for the marketing department, tech department, or some other departments. However, I was playing a key role in coordinating, with all these departments and getting things done so that in the next board meeting we could get a clean comment from investors. Another area where my training helped me as I need to understand about working of other departments as well.
In short, I was involved with getting private equity funding, planning out actionable items, managing board, and committee meetings, creating and maintaining of ESOP pool, and registering for trademarks in various classes. The legal functions did include drafting, vetting, and finalizing various legal agreements required for the Company's day-to-day working.
When I joined, the company sold its products through its own website. After complying with regulatory requirements and obtaining approval to operate our factory during COVID-19, we then ventured into the marketplace model and I was involved in SOP creation for onboarding sellers, creating the seller portal, contract for sellers, etc. Now, Bewakoof also sells other brands under a marketplace model.
Beginning my Journey with Eruditus
In 2021, after all these achievements at Bewakoof.com and two great years of learning, unlearning, and relearning, I asked myself, “What Next?”
I wanted to venture into either a fintech or an Edtech company. Between January and August, Edtech had been among the top three funded sectors, inviting over $1.9 billion in capital across 80 deals. That number was steadily growing and it fascinated me.
Luckily, I received a call from Eruditus and started the interview process during the pandemic. Now, I work with Eruditus, an ed-tech startup that offers professional courses and executive programs in partnership with leading universities. It has 2.5 lakh+ users across 80+ countries. The company has a global footprint and I joined it to manage all its global compliances.
They have been in business for over 10 years and we just closed our Series E, a $650 million round at a valuation of $3.2 billion. It has been a year since I joined them and I am learning a lot! As Global Company Secretary, I am responsible for compliance with the laws and regulations for all our companies based in APAC, MENA, North America, Europe, LATAM.
The various assignments I have done include, legal due diligence, closing $650 million Series E Funding with marquee investors, conducting Board Meetings with cross-geographical Board, closing a $350 million debt round, acquisition of 2 entities, setting up new entities in different geographies, and what not….
An Insight into my Startup Culture Experience
I clearly remember when I decided to join Bewakoof.com, many of my well-wishers and seniors were against my decision and said, “There are Company Secretaries dying to join listed entities, but you are leaving a listed company to join a start-up.”
Fortunately, my wife whom I married last year, was by my side during this difficult decision and finally, I made the move and the unusual choice of joining a start-up, which really paid off. Working with start-ups, I have learned that the sky is the limit, if we decide where we want to fly.
Moreover, I learned that the start-up world is actually so much fun and it was a wise decision to join one. The start-up world did not confine me to the “old way” of doing things.
Unlike the listed companies, start-ups offered me the opportunity to learn by formulating my own playbook. In my career so far, I learned to realize my mistakes and work on them. I don't cry over mistakes. Instead, I have learned to figure out a way to fix them. I have also learned to take risks and learn from them instead of a boring 9-5 job that does not challenge enough.
Interestingly, there are added perks working with a startup like remote working, flexible timing, ESOPs, open environment, casual lunch/dinners, etc.
A lot of people keep asking me, whether startups pay well as compared to listed entities. I always answer them that the payscale always varies person-to-person, and to answer in simple terms:
Yes! startups pay really well.
Thanks for Reading!
This CS story is brought to you in association with jobaaj.com
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