Entrepreneurs are often regarded as ‘the lucky ones’. Although, not many understand that launching a new business takes vital skills that extend far beyond the ability to launch a venture. After all, it takes great strength to deal with an ambiguous and uncertain future.
One such strong personality is Arpith Shah, who is currently a part of our coworking space in Hyderabad. Here’s his story:
 
Born and brought up in Hyderabad, Arpith perused engineering here and moved to the U.S. soon after, to finish his masters. His first job was in a company called Red Prairie as a software engineer, where his work demanded him to deal in the supply chain industry.
 
Having worked there for 4 years, he then joined a startup called Tryon Solutions, in the same industry.
“The reason I joined that company was that I needed to move back to India soon and since I knew most of the employees there from my previous job, there was more scope for me to be flexible.”
 
After living in the US for close to 9 years, he moved back to India in 2014 with his wife, mainly for his mother, who lived here alone after his father passed away that year.
“It was a good understanding of Tryon solutions, which allowed me to work 6 months in The US and the rest of the time, I worked from home, back in India.”
 
Since it was working out well for them, they soon decided to build a team in India with Arpith, managing the team in Hyderabad.
In Jan 2014, they registered the company with just one more person and Arpithin the team. That’s when they decided to take on ikeva’scoworking service.
“This was undoubtedly the best decision we made in terms of having an office space. We absolutely love it here as is super convenient, easy to maintain, cost-effective and fancy- exactly what we’re looking for. It’s only then that we started hiring and ending up having a team of 9 i.e. 6 people in Hyderabad, 2 in Bangalore and 1 in Chennai.”
 
Work vice the biggest challenge they faced in India was hiring people.
As the supply chain industry is a very specialized field, it limits the scope of external training. In fact, only the people with a certain experience could understand the services they offered. In this case, with more demand and less resource, the resources ended up having the upper hand. Since there are only a few companies that do what they do, the new hires ended up hopping around to find better opportunities somewhere else. This had become a struggle for him.
“It was quite frustrating to spend the time and energy to hire someone suitable, only to find out that they would back out at the last minute. Also, as a team leads, it was stressful and de-motivating. Now we are definitely in a much better place. ”
 
On the other hand, the journey of starting up does teach one a lot. It’s these bad times that helps one learn and grow. Arpith is someone who absorbs these learning and keeps moving ahead.
Looking back at his experience, he considers having had a major learning in terms of polishing his skills to manage a team.
Coming from an engineering background, his way of working, thinking and managing was different. This is where his work experience helped him get a direction.
“I did have an advantage in terms of understanding the reasons, issues or technicalities of the work produced by my team. If a deadline was missed, a client was upset or internal disconnects- I could recognize the issue and explain it to the higher authority better, as I had the insights.”
 
Having worked for a decade, Arpith’s mantra to keep going is to maintain the work-life balance. “Being passionate about your work is one thing but it is important to have a life outside the office. Work on your hobbies, find some time for yourself, your family and your friends.In my case, I make it a point to play cricket or football every day, to carry on my childhood love for spots, and more importantly to keep my calm.”
 
He also suggests on being very careful while hiring a team in the initial stages of a business as that is what paves the path of your company’s glory!
 
We at iKeva,  are happy to be associated with Arpith and his company, while he continues sharing his experiences, his learning and his guidance with the aspirant startups.