"Build your confidence – put yourself in uncomfortable situations."
Prashant Srivastava is the co-founder, president, and CEO of Evive, the leader in digital engagement and communication technology for HR and benefits. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Michigan State University and my MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His passion for transforming lives is embodied in Evive’s mission: to support the employer-employee relationship through the powerful combination of rich data sets, predictive analytics, and behavioral economics.
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Table of Contents
Thank you for joining us today. Please introduce yourself to our readers. They want to know you, some of the background story to bring some context to your interview.
Prashant Srivastava: I co-founded Evive in 2007 after recognizing healthcare was moving toward a consumer model, but there wasn’t anything consumer-friendly about the healthcare benefits industry. After founding the company, I served as a chief operating officer (COO). I was responsible for all operational aspects of the business, ensuring company operations ran efficiently and functioned successfully. In 2016, I took on the role of Evive’s president. One year later, in 2017, I also took over as chief executive officer (CEO). As president and CEO, I led the development of the company’s predictive analytics platform, provided leadership, and established high-performing teams. Today, I develop business strategies that align with short- and long-term objectives and ensure all operations produce the desired results and are consistent with the company’s mission. Before founding Evive, I directed clinical operations for Focused Health Solutions and led a product and process technology group at Pfizer.
You are a successful entrepreneur, so we’d like your viewpoint, do you believe entrepreneurs are born or made? Explain.
Prashant Srivastava: This is a nature vs. nurture type of question. The nature part – just like some people love adventure sports and others do not, you start with a genetic predisposition to getting a rush taking risks. Now the nurture – that predisposition is nurtured by the environment where you take small risks and feel the thrill, than take larger ones, getting better at risk-taking over time. While I am not a downhill skier or bungee jumper, I was a goalie on a soccer team. The buck stops at a goalie, and there was a thrill when you made a big save, and, of course, the risk of looking silly if you let in an easy goal. So being predisposed to wanting to feel that thrill, and unafraid of failing, is something you are probably born with. Then you nurture that with training and practice taking small chances, and eventually bigger ones like starting a company.
If you were asked to describe yourself as an entrepreneur in a few words, what would you say?
Prashant Srivastava: With my background, I would describe myself as committed, passionate, and creative.
Tell us about what your company does and how did it change over the years?
Prashant Srivastava: As the market leader in data-driven, personalized engagement, Evive has extensive experience helping large and midsize companies contain costs and optimize the employee experience across diverse populations. Integrating richly layered data sets that represent the whole person, Evive uses predictive analytics and behavioral economics to drive curated campaigns to users promoting programs in their benefits package. These campaigns inspire awareness, motivate intelligent decision-making and obtain demonstrable outcomes for HR leaders. Over the years, Evive has grown from a small startup to a company with over 200 employees worldwide, including in the United States and India. We initially delivered these messages by mail, but throughout the past five years, we have transformed into a completely digital business.
Thank you for all that. Now for the main focus of this interview. With close to 11.000 new businesses registered daily in the US, what must an entrepreneur assume when starting a business?
Prashant Srivastava: My co-founder, Peter Saravis, has a few nuggets of wisdom that I have lived by and given to others.
1) Do something you know. If you want to start an HVAC business, spend time learning that business, how money flows, how people buy, etc. The likelihood of success is much greater if you understand the business you are getting into.
2) Commit yourself fully. Once you commit yourself fully, good things happen and you find a path to success. So, do something you know and go fully all in.
Did you make any wrong assumptions before starting a business that you ended up paying dearly for?
Prashant Srivastava: The fundamental problem that we identified to solve is still what we are solving today. The customers we started solving it for, employers, are still buying our services. Our services themselves have expanded and changed mediums (paper to apps) with the times, but we were right about our initial premise when starting Evive. That said, we didn’t know that the ‘Great Recession of 2008 would hit almost right after we started, so that prolonged the timeline and our assumption on when we would get paid for the first time. We were wrong and it took a lot longer. Luckily, we outlasted that recession to the next business cycle and are still here today. We also finally got paid.
If you could go back in time to when you first started your business, what advice would you give yourself and why? Explain.
Prashant Srivastava: Define success more broadly and enjoy the journey. Fifteen years into Evive, I value today the community and culture that Evive has, far more than the revenues we achieve. Real success has been building this place that people come and feel a sense of belonging rather than just a place of work, people building careers, buying homes, and starting families over the years with us.
What is the worst advice you received regarding running a business and what lesson would you like others to learn from your experience?
Prashant Srivastava: Rapid growth means success. My experience has been that often setting high growth goals leads to chasing bad customers, including those who may not be the best fit. Today, we emphasize selling to the right customers because it’s way more important and leads to much more sustainable growth in the longer term.
In your opinion, how has COVID-19 changed what entrepreneurs should assume before starting a business? What hasn’t changed?
Prashant Srivastava: Pre-pandemic, an entrepreneur was go-go-go and very mission-focused. Innovation and pursuit of success usually came first, and startups placed a premium on people who were all A-type – hard-driving and competitive. Popular media glorified people like Adam Naumann and Steve Jobs. They were about success at all costs. The pandemic has brought that personal element into play. We have all felt vulnerable in our lives – due to the pandemic and its uncertainty – both in our life and business. We learned to live and share in the frailty of our lives. The remote or hybrid nature of work has put social connection and the need to authentically connect at a premium. Today, an entrepreneur needs to be willing to express vulnerability, especially in times of crisis and distress, speak with compassion and emotion, inspire resilience and demonstrate concern and caring in their communications and discussions with employees.
Many organizations are not just training leaders on how to care, trust and support their team members but also helping their team’s colleagues recognize the role others’ thoughts, feelings, and beliefs play in the workplace. Some are training their management teams to identify employees’ mental health issues and direct them to the right resources and benefits in a safe, judgment-free environment. With so many changes in the workplace and a new culture with new rules, entrepreneurs need to embrace the people side of the business. Those that do, will soon reap the benefits.
What is a common myth about entrepreneurship that aspiring entrepreneurs and would-be business owners believe in? What advice would you give them?
Prashant Srivastava: That a great idea is a key to success. Most people think successful businesses are built on great visionary ideas. Building a business is a lot more than the idea alone – it’s about taking the idea and executing it methodically. The brightest ideas don’t always win, and the best businesses most times are just incrementally good ideas or better executions of preexisting ideas. Surrounding yourself with people who can execute in each aspect of a business – particularly sales and service of customers, is critical.
What traits, qualities, and assumptions do you believe are most important to have before starting a business?
Prashant Srivastava: When starting a business, the most important traits include relentless optimism, persistence, and creativity. These traits are important because starting a business is challenging and you need to realize it will be long hours, many roadblocks, and lots of hard work – the odds are against you succeeding and it will take all those three to make it a success.
How can aspiring leaders prepare themselves for the future challenges of entrepreneurship? Are there any books, websites, or even movies to learn from?
Prashant Srivastava: Immerse yourself deeply in one industry you are interested in and learn all about it. You will eventually identify unmet needs, inefficiencies in the market, or processes that you can do better. One of those may be what your future company will solve for. Build your confidence – put yourself in uncomfortable situations – like a new department within the company or a new location – and as you survive and thrive in those, you will have the confidence to make the big leap to your own business.
You have shared quite a bit of your wisdom and our readers thank you for your generosity but would also love to know: If you could choose any job other than being an entrepreneur, what would it be?
Prashant Srivastava: Teaching. I would like to take all my learnings from the ground and pass them on so that future entrepreneurs don’t make the same mistakes I did, but create new ones.
Thank you so much for your time, I believe I speak for all of our readers when I say that this has been incredibly insightful. We do have one more question: If you could add anyone to Mount Rushmore, but not a politician, who would it be; why?
Prashant Srivastava: Pep Guardiola, Manchester City’s manager. I am a huge soccer fan. Pep embodies outstanding leadership with an uncommon humility even after winning all there is to win across the soccer world – La Liga, Bundesliga, English Premier League, and Champions League with a brand of exciting one-touch soccer that has transformed the game.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Prashant Srivastava 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 Prashant Srivastava or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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