This CA quit PwC San Francisco, returned to India and started a freelance consulting practice

• In a conversation with The Finance Story, Amit Agarwala shares with us his journey to becoming a Chartered Accountant.
• He worked in San Francisco for 5 years before quitting his job to start his career all over again in India.
• Amit also reveals how he started a freelance consulting practice in a small city in India before venturing into Stones2Milestones, an Edutech StartUp.

My journey of becoming a Chartered Accountant

I grew up in Siliguri, a small town near Darjeeling (India).

Although I was not a brilliant student until my 9^th grade, I was always in the top 10.

I got into SRCC (considered to be one of the best colleges in India). And was certain to do an MBA from a top-tier institute. I was driven by the notion that it would help me get exposure to the very best the corporate world has to offer.

But as luck had it, I was not able to get through any of the top 4 IIMs.

My uncle was also a CA in my hometown (Siliguri) and it was a big deal back then. So I knew that Chartered Accountants garnered a lot of respect and of course opportunities.

So the next best option was to pursue Chartered Accountancy from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India with articles at a Big 4 Firm.

Fortunately, I got through PwC, Delhi for articles, through campus placement.

After 3 years of articles and lots of challenges, I managed to clear the exams on the first attempt, which was a big feat at that time.

Getting an opportunity and moving to San Francisco

After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 2003, I continued working at PwC, India for almost a year.

I then quit in 2004 and moved to another company, EXL. It was almost like a start-up then.

Around the same time, I was also preparing for an MBA abroad. I appeared for the GMAT, scored 720, and got admission to the Johnson School of Business at Cornell University.

But as luck may have it, at the same time, I got an offer to join PwC, in the Bay Area (San Francisco, US).

I was again torn between choosing an MBA or a well-paying job in the US and I chose the latter.

In April 2005, I joined PwC, San Francisco. I also completed my CPA in 2006, which was a cakewalk having just done a CA.

Working in the US was a completely different experience. I got on to one of the most prestigious and largest clients for PwC in the US and handled a critical area.

Within weeks I was in front of their Global Controller highlighting a $30M error that had been continuing for years. And within a year I got promoted and the next year received the Chairman’s award.

It showed me that I could excel at the highest level.

Life was good. Great Actually

Returning home after living abroad? 

My son was born in Nov 2009 and we have seen that once children grow up in the US it becomes very difficult to move back and settle in India.

So my wife and I made a conscious decision to move back to India.

It was a very difficult decision and some people advised against it as well. However, there were certain personal reasons which took precedence over anything else.

So after working in San Francisco for over 5 years with a great career trajectory in the US, I quit my job and moved back to India.

Starting a freelance consulting practice in a small town 

When I moved back to India in 2010, I joined my previous company EXL. But after a few months there I realized I couldn’t sail on two boats i.e. wanting to do something of my own and working in a company.

I decided to quit my job, pack my bags, and move back to Siliguri which was a place I had grown up in and my parents still stayed there.

After quitting my well-paying US job and moving to my hometown, I worked with my uncle in his CA practice.

I realized soon that having my own CA firm was something I never wanted to get into. The core CA practice in a small town like Siliguri was never my domain, especially after coming from a Big 4 background.

Instead of starting a CA firm, I decided to take freelance assignments. I began working extensively with companies in Bhutan, Sikkim, and North East India.

I picked up consulting assignments with the Royal family of Bhutan, M&A of an Iron and Steel company with cross-border FDI, helped set up a private investment fund for an HNI, consulted with a large conglomerate, etc.

And never got into the audits and tax filings or anything of that kind.

I was careful in selecting assignments and only picked up what I could do well in a limited amount of time. It is also important to know what your core skill is, that is not readily available in the market.

I did not have a team so it was largely me except for maybe some interns when needed. You need to maintain quality so you can’t outsource work. And if you work full time you might as well take up a job.

Part of an EdTech startup 

Stones2Milestones was started in 2008 by a very old friend of mine, Kavish. He was an Investment Banker by profession but had started this to fuel his desire to give back something.

For the first 8 years, the ed-tech startup was being run as a research and pilot company where an accomplished academic team was leading the effort. However, he was not involved full-time.

It was only in 2015-16 that he decided to get into it full-time and scale it up.

Around the same time, I moved out of Siliguri to Gurgaon, as the freelance consulting and other projects I was involved with were not scalable.

So in a sense, the journey at Stones2Milestones started in 2015-16 when Kavish, Nikhil, Aditi, and I came together as co-founders and decided to build a scalable Edtech company out of the 8 years of research that had gone behind it.

Learnings and mistakes in my entrepreneurial journey

When we venture on our own, we must be fully aware of what we are getting into and have our expectations right.

Sometimes as CAs, we are so risk-averse, but I have been the contrary. I have been very extravagant, to the point of being reckless in my decision-making. But then no journey is complete without mistakes.

When you are starting your own business even if you have savings, they can fizzle away quickly if you are not prudent. I did have a fair idea of how I was going to manage my finances but things don’t always go to plan.

When you are on your own, you feel inclined to try out multiple things, you get many ‘free ideas’ on ventures that can be started/invested.

Likewise, I tried my hands (and burnt them) at several ventures but in hindsight, it has been a great learning experience.

Without the right mix of exuberance and prudence, these can tend to be a drain on liquidity which it did in my case. When some investments do well, there are some which don’t so it is important to be able to take them in your stride.

So be wise in your decision and take well-thought-out risks.

Wrapping up…

I read it somewhere – All happy families are the same but all unhappy families have different reasons.

However, in business, it is the opposite – all unsuccessful companies are the same while successful companies have their own success stories.

So each story is different so build your own.

Before quitting your job to start your own, know what you are getting into and know that with patience and persistence, you can make it. Write your own story.