01:23:33 · Akshay Chaturvedi, Anirudh A Damani
[01:23:33] S1: Manager is not... It's like being the fucking player on the play, man. Like, be a player. Don't log in. [01:23:38] S0: And be ready to take a... Know, you gotta take a few punches, right, before you can throw some. So, you you know. Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh, good. I think now I shouldn't stop because you're just taking the levels even higher. But I have to give you about three more questions. Let's see. What is one business principle that you live by? [01:24:00] S1: This is a life principle of sorts and everybody who you are working with and everybody you're dealing with, you need to do good by them in your head. So I think I'm I'm a big karmic believer of sorts. So whoever you're working with, just ensure that they are better off than where they were before they met you in your... In their journey and in your journey as well. So I think that is something that I just sold by. And I think being very transparent about it, being very honest and communicating that kind of also helps you attract the best talent in the company. So I'm I'm... Like like I said, I'm I'm I'm damn fortunate to be working with the sort of people that I'm working with at Leverage today and these are the people who kind of taking the company to the next level. So I think having those principles in place super important so that you end up also having fun on the entire journey. [01:24:54] S0: Yeah, and that's the that's the point like having a bunch of people go across that finishing line together. [01:24:58] S1: Absolutely.
01:24:58 · Akshay Chaturvedi, Anirudh A Damani
[01:24:58] S1: Absolutely. [01:25:00] S0: What is the worst piece of advice you ever you have ever received? [01:25:05] S1: What's the worst advice One [01:25:09] S0: that stands out or maybe? [01:25:13] S1: I think Just give me like two seconds to think. I think one that stands out is... I think one that I have received around hiring for pedigree, and... Which I think does not stand true. So I think you need to hire for people who have got the basic fundamentals in place and who have the ability to kind of problem solve and give them a long rope and get them to kind of do great things. I am by definition and I like to think like that and I hope others see me in this way as well. I don't think of myself as a fundraiser entrepreneur. I think of myself as an operator entrepreneur. So, the the joy is my joy is essentially the time I spend with my team. Sometimes those are long hours in the team. Photolol control toxic culture company but ah I think ah ah there is a lot of ah over emphasis on ah hiring people who come with a certain background ah even in the startup ecosystem right now And I think I take a lot of pride in kind of doing away with it and just bringing in people with the right fundamentals in place and taking helping [01:26:34] S0: them Experience and execution versus where they came from.
01:26:34 · Anirudh A Damani, Akshay Chaturvedi
[01:26:34] S0: them Experience and execution versus where they came from. [01:26:38] S1: Absolutely. And even the... If if you look at a larger consumer base as well, 99% of all our students. So a a typical student is not somebody who says that mom, dad, I wanna go to Harvard. Wanna go to water. A typical student is somebody who says that mommy papa, new graduate Canada Australia job and job one of those things. So somebody who comes from this background is going to do everything that they are capable of despite going to a non top college to be successful in life. And I, in my limited time, have had the fortune of working with a lot of rock stars like these and I hold them in very, very high regard. And I make sure, in fact, it's very... What's the right way to... I'm trying to find a slightly more negative word than what I would like to call it. But anyway, I make it a point to prove out that people who came from a not so illustrious background are doing better than people who came from a slightly more illustrious pedigree background. I make it a point to prove that out. And I try... I I want to kind of create more rock stars and super stars super stars like that who essentially said that, okay. I did not check any of those boxes and yet here I am still winning.
01:27:57 · Anirudh A Damani, Akshay Chaturvedi
[01:27:57] S0: Oh, wow. And I and I think that... I I think there's gonna be more and more opportunity to do that because many companies are not like yours, are actually now saying let's not look at which university, what degree do you hold, let's look at what you've done. And I think that evidence based hiring, right? Like, prove to me you can do it. It's really gonna take off, right? And I think, I mean, you're really starting at the cusp of something really, really big that's coming up. So that's pretty awesome. Let's see. My second last question to you, if not Leverage Edu, what is one other business you wish you would have founded? [01:28:37] S1: It's very funny because largely you put leverage in the education bracket. Right? And I've always thought that it wasn't leveraged, I would have been running a bar. [01:28:48] S0: Wow. I... If I wasn't sending people abroad, I would have been getting them drunk. [01:28:54] S1: Crazy, right? It's crazy. So, course, the business is not that misaligned as well. We can always open a bar for students before they come in during the process and after they land up abroad as well. We can open a bar in UK and Australia and all of the business. It's not completely not connected per se. But I've always been a big fan of businesses. I've always been a fan of experience driven businesses in some sense. And, yeah, it would have been a bar. [01:29:21] S0: Wow. And I I I hope you still do it. Right? I I think I think with all the energy you have, it it could still be a side hustle.
01:29:21 · Anirudh A Damani, Akshay Chaturvedi
[01:29:21] S0: Wow. And I I I hope you still do it. Right? I I think I think with all the energy you have, it it could still be a side hustle. [01:29:30] S1: I I I hope my board members and everybody else who's looking to invest in Leverage is not listening to this. Last part, and I wanna tell them that Akshay is completely focused 24 into seven only on Leverage. He does not do anything else. Everything else happens in just two hours on a Sunday. I'm absolutely focused on [01:29:47] S0: focused, except for on a Thursday night at 10:30PM on that, I'm thinking about opening bars. Great. My last question bar? Yeah. [01:29:56] S1: It's a bar that is going to be like In N Out then. If you've read about In N Out, how they went about and there was a lot of thought put towards the right value prop. There was a lot of thought put towards who's the consumer, and there was a lot of thought put towards scaling. And Mhmm. So it's going to be something like that if it ever happens. I'll make sure you're the first person I dial in to raise money. I I... [01:30:17] S0: You... I might I might be there before the ribbon gets cut. [01:30:22] S1: Perfect, sir. Perfect. I'm gonna I'm gonna hold [01:30:24] S0: you there. I... I'll... Definitely, you should. You should. And then the last question for the night, what are three books you recommend every founder should read?
01:30:24 · Anirudh A Damani, Akshay Chaturvedi
[01:30:24] S0: you there. I... I'll... Definitely, you should. You should. And then the last question for the night, what are three books you recommend every founder should read? [01:30:34] S1: Well, so the first one from a founder perspective, I think something I'm a big fan of biographies. My all time favorite book is Shoe Dog, which is written by Phil Knight, who's a creator of Nike. And I think that book just shows what extraordinary hustle can do. Phil Knight kind of taking a juta in his hand and going to stadiums and asking people to, can you please wear my juta? Can you please wear my juta? And essentially being a distributor for Tiger and then essentially putting his own brand on top of it and kind of creating one of the most historic companies that has ever been created in this world, I think. So I'm a huge fan of the book Shoe Dog. Also, a it's a great book in terms of team building, which which I kind of kind of am a big fan of that. The the most important aspect of startup, I think, to me is team building. And I think looking at the everyday ops, matrices, solving these problems has really come second and fundraising, and everything else comes some... Come somewhere in the fifth or sixth pecking order. So that is one book. [01:31:38] S0: I also like the fact that, you know, where that book ends, it doesn't sort of take you all the way to 2000. Right? It just sort of ends in, you know, like, and it's a very interesting book.