"Leaders create identities unique to them and live by it through their actions, decisions, and perception of future."
Gaurav Shah Tweet
Gaurav Shah is a Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur with more than 15 years of leadership experience in building dynamic startups with planned exit strategies.
Apart from startups and business strategy consulting firms, Gaurav has worked with a buy-side private equity firm for more than a decade undertaking M&A transactions and business turnaround of distressed assets in the US leading to higher enterprise values. As a founding member, Gaurav successfully raised investment capital driving them to success through value creation.
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Table of Contents
Let’s start with a brief introduction first. Introduce yourself to our readers.
Gaurav Shah: I am a techpreneur turned investor focused on commercializing next-gen technologies in biofuels, nanotech, life sciences, 3D printing, and deep techs like AI, Quantum Computing, and Supercomputing. Credited with a few patented technologies in US PTO & PCT and later commercialized them by raising capital. Was born in Mumbai (India) and moved to California in 2003 to pursue graduate studies in chemical engineering at USC, Los Angeles. Served on the advisory board for a few companies and currently am on the jury board of investment firms and accelerators in the US & APAC.
Our audience is interested to know about how you got started in the first place. Did you always want to become a CEO or was it something you were led to? Our readers would love to know your story!
Gaurav Shah: Research and innovation continue to be an active area of interest for me which I am passionate about. Pursuing a master’s degree in chemical engineering at USC, Los Angeles bolstered my determination in addressing real-world problems through tech innovation. During my academic career in India & US, I was exposed to nanotechnology, biofuels, and renewable energy which were in their infancy back then. During those days, their potential seemed promising to me in years to come as their applications (once commercialized) could possibly change the way we live and think. I was fascinated and pursued quite deep research in nanoparticles, biodiesel, and other clean technologies with some early success.
Working with accomplished scientists and industry veterans through various internships and research projects made me realize that demonstrating and validating technology in the lab doesn’t necessarily equate to commercial success. It needs a broader understanding of business strategies, creating or developing the market for it, intellectual property, and the corporate world. It intrigued me but overall, I was still inclined towards making a career in research & technology commercialization. Being a CEO or an entrepreneur wasn’t on my radar at all.
“Selfmade” is a myth. We all received help, no doubt you love to show appreciation to those who supported you when the going got tough, who has been your most important professional inspiration?
Gaurav Shah: Agreed.
Leaders create identities unique to them and live by it through their actions, decisions, and perception of future. From what I have seen and experienced, this seldom happens without early stage guidance, inspiration or reflecting upon other leaders and their leadership styles.
The success I achieved in growing and rising to entrepreneurial or CEO position, would not have been possible without people who put the trust in my abilities as well as mentored me well in the toughest circumstances. Think of the CEO who thought a 23-year-old aspiring professional (me) could excel as a successful leader of a multimillion-dollar business. Or a principal at an investment firm that felt my niche experience is well aligned for the next level of entrepreneurial journey in managing and driving investments to success. Opportunities that came my way would not have seen favorable outcomes without their timely inputs, mentoring, and guidance. During the early years of my career, there always have been either unknowns or uncertainties that would pop up in spite of my best efforts in proactively trying to identify or prevent them. All the decision-makers, investors and leaders who gave me an opportunity to demonstrate my skills and interests have been influential in shaping who I am today, and can’t thank them enough. At times when it is deemed necessary, they let me fail and learn it the hard way but that is also an essential part of your leadership learning. Failures and hardships teach you a lesson that success sometimes can’t.
How did your journey lead you to become a CEO? What difficulties did you face along the way and what did you learn from them?
Gaurav Shah: Graduating fresh from the school with a chemical engineering degree, I began my career as a plant manager for a biofuel refinery in the bay area, California. In theory, it was exciting to take a managerial position as your first full-time job. Hiring, managing employees, payrolls, setting goals, creating budgets, financial analysis, inventory management, regulatory compliances & customer success strategy awakened me to the leadership paradigm that was beyond my limited comprehension of technical skills & expertise in research, engineering & manufacturing that I was planning to compete on.
Not having a clearly defined leadership as well as a management strategy to drive organizational growth higher had become a major stumbling block within the first few weeks of joining in. Getting exposed to a leadership position early in my career without prior experience or organic career growth had now become an Achilles heel (so to speak) for me.
Clarity presents itself while moving through the chaos if one is receptive enough. As challenges surmounted, I remained steadfast in solving them. I delved deeper into leadership styles and management practices that other successful CEOs or C Level executives have done well. Execution matters as much as ideas do and what works for someone, may or may not necessarily work for others.
Acknowledging these realities, I chalked out a strategic plan converting my managerial weaknesses into strengths that help my teams as well as the company in having a leader that they can be proud of. By incorporating a feedback loop to measure real-world performance, I started implementing subtle but impactful management practices. The initial phase was tough as I had to transition my mindset alongside deploying strategies that streamline daily workflow and processes. As time progressed, within 8-10 weeks results finally started emerging in the right direction. Employee productivity was robust, hiring practices were creative and clearly defined, operational efficiencies led to excellent quality products, higher profit margins, and happy customers.
We were on innovation and profitable growth trajectory which industry executives and bodies took notice of ultimately leading to awards and recognitions. Those 6-9 months of an unexpected journey taught me lessons of a lifetime and kept propelling me to senior positions with unprecedented success at a young age.
It’s been an interesting journey!
Tell us about your company. What does your business do and what are your responsibilities as a CEO?
Gaurav Shah: I currently am a founder & managing partner at Arete Ventures which is a boutique strategy consulting firm catering to investment banks, private equity & venture capital firms in US, UK & Europe. We provide niche consulting & advisory services in M&A, Venture Fund Strategy & Performance Improvement to decision-makers & leaders in financial roles.
I serve on the jury board of venture capital consulting firms and accelerators in the US & Asia Pacific as well. Leveraging upon our institutional consulting & advisory expertise, we assist small businesses & startups in growth, transformation & business strategies.
Apart from consulting, we are active in investments focusing on startups or next-gen technologies that address real-world challenges or aim to improve climate, agriculture & environment i.e air, water, soil & food quality. We manage and operate the investments profitably by capitalizing on our global expertise in growth, finance, technology & operations. Our recent investment is an eCommerce startup focusing on farm to table concept that will serve global markets and soon we plan on investing in an opportunity in the EdTech space.
What does CEO stand for? Beyond the dictionary definition, how would you define it?
Gaurav Shah: A master strategist with a higher degree of self-awareness. Someone who can potentially envision the future, create a unifying vision, accepts constructive criticism, and demonstrate an inspiring character during tough times.
Whether you are a CEO of a startup, small business, or corporation, your leadership and management skills are often going to be tested either by markets, competition, internal teams/employees, customers, shareholders, board members, investors, and others. Coming from different walks of life, everyone has an expectation from you as CEO, and balancing it is essential if not critical. Weathering the storms or transitions and successfully emerging out of them cements your identity as a leader. Change is constant and diligently adapting to the change/transformation in an era of globalization is an essential quality to have.
When you first became a CEO, how was it different from what you expected? What surprised you?
Gaurav Shah: Expectations – is what surprised me. Knowing your organization and leading the same organization to have different sets of nuances. One has to transition from managerial thinking confined to teams or a division you are accountable for to leadership thought process that is inclusive of all business divisions, geographies, customer base, and key goals that you set up for yourself and your employees as well as departments.
Beginnings are always the toughest- resilience and determination eventually help you settle down and march further.
There are many schools of thought as to what a CEO’s core roles and responsibilities are. Based on your experience, what are the main things a CEO should focus on? Explain and please share examples or stories to illustrate your vision.
Gaurav Shah: I fairly believe the post-pandemic era is redefining the very role of a CEO. The key focus should be on investors and shareholders who prefer seeing continual growth in value creation- take a moment to understand and prioritize it. This further leads to the next key focus which is defining organizational growth & strategy which will create a roadmap for your employees & management teams. Being agile and nimble to evolving technology or market trends is an emerging nuance that we all CEOs need to focus upon consistently. The business landscape is no longer static or even moderately sustainable – we cannot afford to prolong the transformation that otherwise competition is quick to implement.
To put some perspective – traditional automobile manufacturers were slow to electric vehicle transition. Leaders here anticipated trend might not last long and consumer demand can be anemic. As it turns out consumer demand increased exponentially, investors pumped heavily into startups building EV-based trucks, cars, buses, and other vehicles to meet the rising demand of consumers, businesses, fleet operators, and agencies. Conventional automakers had to catch up by quickly ramping EV production which increased Capex cost or end up investing at high valuations on EV startups and businesses that are ahead of them. A similar trend is emerging in the cleantech sector with the rise of environmentally friendly bioplastics and green hydrogen which are a substitute to crude oil/fossil fuel derived regular plastics and hydrogen. If businesses don’t step up quickly, they will have a price to pay either through accelerated investments or market share.
Share with us one of the most difficult decisions you had to make for your company that benefited your employees or customers. What made this decision so difficult and what were the positive impacts?
Gaurav Shah: An innovative company that I was a part of had once been recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in America. This rapid growth brought in a new set of challenges which to some extent we as a company were responsible for. Our service & deliverables couldn’t keep up to customers’ expectations leading to all kinds of issues including legal recourses and damage to brand value. Too quick of growth can sometimes act like a double-edged sword that can hurt if you don’t handle it with care.
We now had tough decisions to make – own up to the mistakes which could lead to possible repercussions or keep settling it through legal means and negotiations. As hard as it was, we ended up owning our mistakes to our clients and chartered an unprecedented roadmap in creating a customer-centric strategy. We met the decision-makers and management teams of our clients and parallelly started working with their business and operations team in getting started again with clear focus and commitment. We hired new staff quickly brought them up to speed and took several other initiatives – going all-in in ensuring that customers can count on us to be there for them as long as they would like.
It wasn’t without its pains but taught us a few lessons. First, plan your growth strategy keep resources at your disposal, and try not to think “Will deal with it later”. Second, if you sincerely accept your mistakes and offer a recourse, customers might come back to work with you as long as you don’t repeat the errors and support them steadily.
How would you define success? Does it mean generating a certain amount of wealth, gaining a certain level of popularity, or helping a certain number of people?
Gaurav Shah: Success to me is personal satisfaction. Set quality goals in achieving professional endeavors and if you end up accomplishing them, that’s great. Success should be equated to addressing real world challenges and building a company, product or service that can be part of the economy for years to come while delivering tangible as well as intangible benefits. If you can accomplish it, nothing like it. It could perhaps leave an indelible mark in society for years if not decades to come.
Wealth creation is an intrinsic part of the success. If you succeed, wealth is likely to follow along. Money can be a good taskmaster or motivator but not sure if focusing solely on wealth creation is a good idea.
Helping others or giving back to the people – our society needs it more than before. Wealth disparity in developing and developed nations is somewhat concerning which is and will continue to have long term impacts on our social fabric. This void cannot be filled with wealth distribution by itself. Teaching relevant modern-day skills can bring them into a competing workforce that works well, but instilling knowledge that inculcates wisdom can go long way in helping them excel in whatever they wish to do or pursue. Empower people with knowledge and wisdom.
Some leadership skills are innate while others can be learned. What leadership skills do you possess innately and what skills have you cultivated over the years as a CEO?
Gaurav Shah: I enjoy commercializing innovative technologies or scaling businesses that can have a meaningful impact on society or the economy. Back in 2002-2003, I was researching on nanoparticles and renewable energy which were in its infancy. They are integral to our economies and influence how we think or live today. People management & communications I guess are other intrinsic skills that comes natural to me.
Being a CEO has truly helped in building my patience and determination levels. There are several other valuable skills it continues to inculcate but one that I particularly would like to point out is- Navigating the odds. I cherish this skill and forms a key part of my leadership arsenal. Ups and downs happen with best of the leaders, entrepreneurs, and CEO’s as you attempt to do something that’s never been done before. Challenges are bound to test your character and perseverance. How you navigate the teams and company in these crucial moments, will define its future.
How did your role as a CEO help your business overcome challenges caused by the pandemic? Explain with practical examples.
Gaurav Shah: At the height of lockdown beginning March 2020, pandemic created an unprecedented crisis once it emerged that this could last longer and have a severe impact on the economy. While mobility globally had come to a screeching halt, people continued to thrive in limited confinements from their homes. This led us to regather our focus and ended up developing a two-pronged strategy – one we assisted investment firms that were looking to buy or invest in assets during the pandemic to help businesses sustain and second, we focused on business opportunities in eCommerce, fintech, and edtech sectors that we anticipated could potentially benefit from the lockdown and beyond.
It was a difficult decision to make as we could only make an educated guess but along with health care and FMCG, they emerged as bigger beneficiaries during the downturn. Our assessment paid off well and the pandemic turned out to be a blessing in disguise for us.
Do you have any advice for aspiring CEOs and future leaders? What advice would you give a CEO that is just starting out on their journey?
Gaurav Shah: Lead with empathy, be agile, and nimble.
Business dynamics in a post pandemic era dictate these essentials in staying competitive and ahead of the curve. Embarking a road less travelled undoubtedly has pros and cons but don’t let that deter your spirits. Perseverance will get you there. And last but not the least, determination is greater than aggression.
Thank you for sharing some of your knowledge with our readers! They would also like to know, what is one skill that you’ve always wanted to acquire but never really could?
Gaurav Shah: Self-awareness.
While I have come a long way in introspecting my inner self and improvising upon it, I think there is still some more room for me to do better. Perhaps its going to be a never ending exercise and that might be equally good. For now, it’s a skill I want to continue focusing on.
Before we finish things off, we have one final question for you. If you wrote a book about your life today, what would the title be?
Gaurav Shah: “Life Musings!”
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Gaurav Shah for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Gaurav Shah or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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