My first interaction with Vipul Vadhiya was when he was in his final year of engineering at VIT. He joined the Bulls Eye CAT program. I soon realised that our Gujarati friend was probably earning more than I was. After college got over, Vipul, and his friends, Amit and Shiv, would take Science classes in their Chinchwad neighbourhood. He learnt more from this business than an MBA could have taught him. After college, he spent a few years trying to build his education business – and I became his partner in crime. We started a Bulls Eye center in Nigdi. One of the good marks of a businessman is knowing when to pivot. Within two years of getting full time into the education business, Vipul realised that this sector was not the one for him.
He moved into the corporate world – joined HDFC bank as a relationship manager. In a few years time, he was promoted to head the Chakan branch of HDFC Bank. He built his relations over the years – his banking journey continued with a longish stint at Kotak Bank, Mumbai. He shifted from banking to NBFCs – where within 2 years he was given an intrapreneurial role at Altum Credo Home Finance Ltd. Vipul’s part time entrepreneurship continued – as he dabbled in diverse fields like real estate, packaging. I was again a partner-in-crime. I nudged my brother-in-law to join Vipul’s packaging business. Like with education, in 2 years time, Vipul did not see the business scaling up – and exited this business too.
After his NBFC stints, Vipul found his real calling in business – finance. He took the leap into setting up his own NBFC – Finaleap. The first 2 years were spent getting the legal formalities in place. Team building was always important for Vipul. Vipul’s old education partners, Amit and Shiv, came on board. The last 3 years saw a major ramp up at Finaleap – with team size growing to more than a hundred. Another forte was fundraising – Finaleap was in the top 10 percentile of its peer group. There was a well thought out new product development process. Changes happening based on customer experiences. Quite a few of their products got discontinued, leading to a better focus on fewer products.Today Finaleap has a razor sharp focus on MSMEs, and that too mostly in Tier 2 / 3 cities.
Vipul realised that attracting and retaining talent is what leads to sustainable growth. And he was aware of the need for getting younger people onboard and empowering them. One of the problems of scaling up fast is that your internal systems don’t catch up as fast as sales does. With their IT backgrounds, Amit and Shiv, were drivers of developing systems. In spite of all these investments in IT, there was still a lot of firefighting that was happening. And as HR policy evolved, probably a lot of firing too.
Vipul – was the strong binding factor – who glued the entire company together. But, the main strength was also the main weakness. In nis talks with large investors, Vipul got asked a lot about his second line of leadership. Unlike funding, an organisational DNA takes time to develop. And till that time, a lot of operational decisions were still being taken by Vipul.
Vipul was my role model in a lot of ways – one of them was his abstinence from tea. So when I heard news about Vipul passing away because of a cardiac arrest, I was shaken up. Was he another of the Covid vaccine victims? Or did elevated adrenaline / cortisol levels lead to internal clots that blocked an artery? Does it really matter?
Death teaches us as many lessons as life does. If you are above 40 and you are reading this, do think about what you need to do to prepare for it. What happens to your family if one fine day you just disappear? What happens to your business? Another learning is managing stress. Adrenaline is the “fight or flight” hormone, which increases mental alertness during stressful situations. But to quote Wikipedia: Myocardial infarction is associated with high levels of circulating adrenaline. In my mind, lack of delegation is directly correlated to stress.The next few months are going to be quite challenging for the Finaleap family. Amit and Shiv have to now carry the baton forward. The foundation is strong – it is important now for the duo to make the right decisions. About who to trust. About delegation. And as Vipul told me in the last chat I had with him: Work on not repeating the same mistakes!