other-topics
Deepak Mishra, Founder of Fulcrum Ventures and longstanding entrepreneur, on how to leverage the right mindset to explore limitless possibilities
Fulcrum, as the name suggests, means a pivot, without inhibitions,” Deepak Mishra, the founder of the aptly-named Fulcrum Ventures tells me as we sit down in his Bangkok-based office for an exclusive interview in the middle of his peripatetic itinerary. “Your business can rest on our platform, and through us, do whatever you want to do: for example, if you want to do manufacturing, we will facilitate that in terms of bringing the capital. Although we are predominantly a real estate development company with interests in hospitality, and a few other areas, we continue to support businesses from a variety of industries across the board.”
Born and raised in a self-described “regular, large, middle-class family in a small town in India, where my father was a government employee and my mum was a homemaker,” Deepak is candid about the expectations for his path in life from a young age; expectations that he eventually broke free of once he’d found the right mindset. “I grew up before the liberalisation of India, so everyone used to believe that private enterprises sucked you dry, and there were no employment benefits with them,” he revealed. “My father always wanted me to study hard and get a government job. Academically, I was good but I was not the best, but the expectation at the time was also that you had to score superlatively. My parents never questioned my intelligence or my abilities, but I didn’t like studying so much, and I didn’t want to sit behind a desk from 9 to 5 every day. Fighting that mindset was one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced.”
And it is through this continuous improvement of his mindset, and with the right support and the right teams, Deepak reveals, that he is where he is today. After an undergraduate in the science stream, he took up a Master’s in finance in India. “I got the opportunity to work for Citibank in India, in the corporate banking side,” he tells me. But even then, he recalls with a laugh, his parents weren’t convinced with his corporate direction until he got his first company car. “Managing their expectations of me made me a good manager in the end,” he says ruefully.
“I moved up the curve swiftly in terms of my understanding and learning. It was good timing in India, and businesses were growing.” Soon after, he received – and took – an opportunity to move to Dubai to work for a European institution. Again, he reveals, “time and God were very kind, and I did well. That is when I got that exposure that was very multi-cultural in nature.”
And this, he reveals, was where his second biggest challenge revealed itself: leaving a secure, highly-lucrative, and senior role in a tax-free jurisdiction to taking the plunge and becoming an entrepreneur. “It was tough,” he reveals. “Going from doing what I understood and loved, which was financial services, and transitioning into a brick-and-mortar business, putting in my own capital, sitting with institutions to borrow on my balance sheet, which I used to do for other people – the entire mindset shift was a challenge. When I sat for my first loan, I remember thinking, ‘I used to write USD 150 million checks to institutions and now here I am, on my knees, for a USD 5 million loan!’ Your ego gets bruised.”
Nevertheless, after his perseverance and investing in the right people, Deepak now heads a business that has a presence around the world: from Switzerland to the UK, Dubai, India, Singapore, Thailand, and soon, Vietnam and Indonesia. “In fact, in the next month or so in Thailand alone, we will have close to 18 live housing projects,” he confides with no small amount of pride and excitement. “In the end, my biggest achievements have stemmed from my biggest challenges. They made me who I am.”
Read More
Comment
No Comment Here