No Time To Meet Investors, Focusing On Revenue and Profits Takes 15 Hours A Day--Amit B Wadhwani
Amit B Wadhwani, 37, is the founder of Proptech brand IamSai and mediatech venture Buffering which caters to data amplification for bollywood, sports and politics.
Pre 2009, he worked with Jet Airways as a flight steward. In 2018 - 19, he hired 134 employees when 9W shut operations. Wadhwani is married to Swati Rakesh Nanda & they have a son named Shawnak, who turned 3 in Jan 2022.
Amit B Wadhwani's valuation, net assets including equity in his businesses and tangible assets stand at Rs.1890 crores as on Jan 2022.
Here are some excerpts from an exclusive interview with Wadhwani.
It seems Indian start-ups on a fund raising spree and everyone is queuing up for one more round of it, how do you read this trend?
I think raising money against your company shares is like giving a part of something away you truly believe in. Unless I really need the money to fuel real growth, I don't think it's wise to keep raising monies. Sai and Buffering are both hugely profitable, even more profitable than top 10 unicorns declared in 2021. We don't wish to be a unicorn, we dream of giving the world something it doesn't have. We don't want to be a passing cloud. We wish to raise businesses to last a minimum of 150 years.
Some critics' say that most businesses under your group are hugely dependent on your involvement, what is your take on this?
This is really unfair for my team, a team which has been with me for over 12 years now. Right from head of HR, to CTO, to every team member, they toil everyday to help us grow. Remember we don't choose free money pumped in by investors, we majorly work with our own capital. Our job is way toucher! But we love what we do & as I said, the team in incredibly talented and me being around or no really makes little difference in well established businesses like Sai and buffering media and chartered services.
Another often remarked point is that Amit B Wadhwani is known to disturb and disrupt pricing in sectors he enters?
Yes I agree. I have always been consumer centric. I love end users, real beneficiaries. Not fake ones. I failed at luring investors to real estate, because I never believed in the returns my peers were promising back then in 2015. I held my ground and focused on end users. Similarly, today when I simply sell media assets, technology and chartered planes, I look at how a small start up can use outdoor Hoardings to look like a big one. I tried to reduce pricing for aircraft operations for our chartered business. India is price sensitive. Because my pricing is so unbelievable and unbeatable, I don't need to burn cash on advertising. Clients know our numbers.
How is the real estate technology business doing today - Brand Sai?
Last 2 years were challenging for us too like many others but we adapted well to move to a lead based - walk in generating technology which has huge traffic to our portal www.iamsai.in. We have over 135 crores receivable from our real estate clients, I am sure as the industry heals cash flows for the sector will become better provided focus remains on selling unsold inventory.
You are like the OYO of Indian real estate speaking about SAI. Explain the model a little bit.
We have data of almost every Indian on the internet. That makes us a huge player in the data mining space. There is 9 lac crore of unsold inventory, which needs buyers and real ones. We at SAI, rebrand the project with our brand, get in our data technology to generate sales and recover old dues. We are very effective in tier 2 to 5 cities where ticket size is 50 lacs or less and developer category is B or B+. The A & A+ players have huge problems, which we don't wish to touch at this point in time!
We have seen you as a creative thinker, your style is also unique, straight talker, now what's next on the cards, are you investing in start ups, are you coming up with newer ventures?
See, I don't believe in betting on a horse, if I am not the jokey. I like control. I can't feel like a spectator. I love the thrill, the game. Hence I haven’t invested in many start ups, maybe I am not good at spotting talent ( smiles ).
Yes, I am eyeing the predictive healthcare space, the aggregator - mediatech space, pet wellness has been on my mind, technology for bollywood to attract viewers to theatres, covert unutilised real estate into theatres, making land available at nearly zero cost, providing homes cheaper than cars, application to detect, heal mental health are few ideas on my mind apart from auto tech, Bharat bazaar, SEMSI which are in the pipeline.
