How I Began My Career In CS?
I was not very bright academically and hence wasn’t allowed
to pursue the science stream by both my mark sheet (scores were too low to get
into a good college) and my parents!
Also growing up we were not very well off financially and
most of the courses in the science stream are quite expensive! So, my low average marks in the 10th board
exams and the financial constraints we had, made me choose the Commerce stream.
Honestly, I found the Commerce stream too simple and aced it. I topped my class
in college (for the first time in my life) and excelled in extracurricular
activities as well…looks like I was a late bloomer!
When it was time to pursue a professional qualification, it
was a no brainer to opt either for Chartered Accountancy or Company Secretary.
I decided to enroll in both CA and CS!
However, I quickly realized that I had a liking for
secretarial practice which also led me to pursue CS vehemently. I cleared CS at
the age of 21 a few months before my Commerce graduation and started my
internship with City Corporation Ltd (a listed company in India). I loved the
work so much that I decided to drop CA at the Intermediate level.
Around the same time, I also enrolled for a bachelor in Law!
In short, I took it as it came, and (luckily) things work
out pretty well!
Extra Tip: I do feel now, we shouldn’t unnecessarily choose
difficult stuff. Easy is smart. Always!
Starting my journey as an entrepreneur at the age of 23
I was a licentiate Company Secretary in 2013 and a member of
ICSI (The Institute of Company Secretaries of India) by 2014, – all at the age
of 23!
I did my articles training with ‘City group where I got a
lot of freedom and exposure. I became quite good at corporate law and that gave
me a big confidence boost. All credit goes to Dr. Kamaljeet Kaur, my first (and
awesome) boss.
Once my training was over, It was time to decide what next,
either get into employment or start my own practice and I chose the latter!
Since I did not have the luxury to experiment for a long
time (finance was a concern), I was willing to try out on my own for only 2
years. If it did not work out, I would have no hesitation or shame in going
back to employment. That was my plan.
With this in mind, I founded White Collar Legal LLP in 2014.
Early Days as an Entrepreneur
Starting early is also super stress-free. No major
responsibilities as such, also one can take risks and bounce back easily!
We were lucky to be riding the startup wave where many
wanted to be entrepreneurs…so there was never a dearth of assignments.
I started in a super small office (<150 Sq. Feet) where
only 2 of us used to sit and work and one extra chair for the client! The rent
for our office was USD $100 a month…so not too expensive!
Clients typically came from my referrals initially. I did
conduct many workshops on the legal aspects of the business which brought in
fresh clients. I still do it now, mostly from habit and because I love it.
Mr. Kailash Biyani of AMSEC and Mr. Srinivas Kamath of
Natural Ice Creams were the first big-ticket clients to actually take a bet on
us and trust us. We are proud to serve them, even today.
I simultaneously taught as a visiting faculty at various
financial institutions. These teaching assignments kept me occupied for 2-3
hours on a few days, every week. This also helped me keep my concepts clear and
of course it also helped me ‘get some marquee clients’. That’s the beauty of
the practice, it gives you immense freedom and flexibility!
The best part was, I always got job offers while in practice
(and still do). That’s again amazing as it’s always easy to get back into
service from practice but never the other way.
Growing the Business: The Complete Timeline (2014 — Present)
2014 (Year of inception)
Very little work. Lots of writing and speaking
opportunities!
Somehow, being known as a good student helped me get my
first few clients. I used to speak and write well so it did help me build a
good brand and presence. I was never out of work even for a day and to date,
the record has been maintained.
We started with incorporations and filings and
certifications and trademark registrations (and we still do all of those!).
2015
Slightly stable. Moderate work. Writing and speaking
continued. The team increased to 3.
Work started flowing in really well. It was a byproduct of
delivery, naturally. No business or practice is rocket science and it
ultimately comes down to keeping your word. Nothing is better than word of
mouth when growing a robust client base. Speaking and writing articles on
trending topics helped too.
Only when it started getting a bit too much for me to manage
on my own did I start hiring partners and staff.
2016
Big clients started coming in and even retainers. The team
jumped to 7. I started teaching as well. Bigger office. New partners came in.
We started a branch at Mumbai.
Once our firm started getting a good reputation, our
proposals started getting accepted from larger companies which gave us our
first break into monthly retainers.
To serve the growing clientele, I had to proportionately
increase the staff.
And to manage all of this, I needed more partners too.
Partners did not bring any business into the firm but were primarily in charge
of management and delivery.
To date, I take care of business development and growth,
among other things.
2017
Stable growth. No drastic changes. So, we added IP and we
get into PE deals. We started yet another branch in Delhi. We started
leveraging QuickBooks, CRM systems, tech, etc.
In 2017 alone, we helped startups raise 15 million USD in
equity and debt funding out of which 1.2 million USD was for social
enterprises.
In every business there comes a time ‘when you just can’t
track the KRAs manually and have to get IT in’. We started with accounts and
then gradually proceeded to track projects, revert times, and so on. It’s
basically automating learning so that only new errors are made.
When I discuss and share this with my colleagues, they gasp
and are appalled. Honestly, less than 10% of the professional firms are this
organized, with folks still not moving beyond excel.
2018 (A special year, indeed)
IPR kicks off with a bang. Team Size increased. Revenue grew
significantly.
Once we had a sizable number of clients for the ‘Company
law-related work’ and we knew how to serve them, it did start to get a little
monotonous.
Just then, a lot of repeated IP queries started to come in
and we realized, this is a competency we have to build, as the next generation
of entrepreneurs would be asset-light and IP heavy. Today, it accounts for over
55% of the firm’s revenue.
I did choose IP, as I saw a trend and wanted to capitalize
on it and wanted to be in an area that has high-value low volume projects. IP
would not have been possible without my corporate law practice. And IP is just
a beautiful area of practice.
2019
Loads of PE deals. New practice area, investment
documentation, and compliance. FEMA too. Teaching continued.
As the IPR practice was setting in, we noticed that these
clients were those ‘who either needed funds or wanted help with the compliance
once they raised it themselves’.
Repeated requests on these fronts nudged us into building
competency in this area and foreign inflow and outflow in these companies made
us learn and build a practice around FEMA as well.
Extra Tip: Those aspiring to be PCS should understand that
‘building a specialist practice from day 1 is difficult’. First, start a
generic practice and then specialize as you go.
At every stage, we had to learn, spend a lot of time
reading, and be extra careful with the first few projects in any new area we
were exploring. A complacent attitude has stunted and killed more firms than an
actual problem.
Questions I get asked most often.
“Why I decided to be an entrepreneur?”
I honestly believed that the main difference between
practice and employment is the ability to generate business i.e. to get
clients.
When I was at college, I was involved in arranging
sponsorships for college fests and donations for NGOs, and later during my
articles, I was involved in getting approvals from top management. So
convincing people or being the rainmaker was never an issue.
The other plus of being in practice is freedom and
flexibility. Teaching, consulting, advising, writing…so many streams can be
pursued. Some of these would serve as not just a creative vent but as a
commercial revenue stream as well.
My mother, Dr. Sangeeta Kamath also offered a lot of support
initially and that mattered the most then. More than money or infrastructure,
it is important that you have that morale boost from the people that matter!
Now that I look back, I treasured freedom and independence
over a high fixed salary, security, or those other things that society expects
us to look for, more than anything.
“What is the advantage of being a young entrepreneur?”
Being a youthful firm, we connect with our clients,
especially startups, on a real-life basis, not just on an intellectual level.
We understand tech, data, and privacy issues not just from a
legal standpoint but also from a consumer standpoint.
We’re absolutely agile and have no ego. We are super-fast in
reverts and delivery time. Clients absolutely love this.
Lastly, our fee is much lower than many top tier firms,
giving the same level of service.
“How did you go from having no employees to a whole
team?”
We added staff to manage the extra work and it was never
like a goal set. I just tag a staff to a client project and tell him/her, “Your
salary comes from here so you better take care of it”. As simple as that!
Each of my teammates is as good as or better than us
partners. They have their skin in the game and are working proactively and with
exceptional excellence.
Branches increased due to Mumbai clients repeatedly asking
us to be closer to them. Delhi’s office was brought in by the partner who
joined us. Very helpful to deal with IP cases that go to the Delhi HC and to
handle work from the North and North Eastern belt of India.
So basically, both staff and branches came from clients
pressurizing us to come closer to them and staff numbers increased gradually
due to increasing assignments.
However, there was downtime in 2014-15 when we did have to
let some of our staff go. It was bad. I vowed to never let that happen again.
Now that I think of it, you can’t really scale without a
good team. We were very lucky to have amazing people join us.
We are planning to hit 50+ staff by 2021.
“Challenges faced as a Founder and how I overcame them?”
The major challenge initially was getting the big clients
and high-value projects, as they didn’t want to work with kids. Yes, we were
just kids to them.
Retainers were also tough.
We did face a lot of rejections, especially for big-ticket
projects. I never understood why. That’s the sadness of rejections without a
reason. No opportunity to explain or clarify or rework the proposal…nothing!
We followed a policy of “moving on”. It was more productive.
We still subscribe to that policy.
Extra Tip: Patience and being active in the events in your
space is needed for a consistent period of time. The best projects will come
from reputable folks referring you to the companies.
