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This millennial gave up traditional CS roles for the startup world & is now the Global Company Secretary at an edtech unicorn

CS Akarshak shares his story of why he chose the startup route instead of listed companies and what he has learnt so far from working at various startups.

Preeti Mondal by Preeti Mondal
Published date: 5th December, 2021
Last edited date: 24th June, 2023
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  • Hi, I am Akarshak Maheshwari, a qualified Company Secretary operating as the Global Company Secretary at a unicorn ed-tech startup, with a valuation of $3.2 billion.
  • After qualifying as a CS and completing my 15 months of training, I worked for a few years in various reputed listed companies but was missing that ‘KICK’.
  • As a result, in 2019, I took the unconventional decision to join Bewakoof.com – an e-commerce startup. After two years, I moved to Eruditus Executive Education & Emeritus Institute of Management, an ed-tech startup.
  • Here’s my story of why I chose the startup route instead of listed companies and what I have learned so far from working at various startups.

A close friend, who is now my wife, influenced me to pursue CS

I was born and bred in a middle-class business-driven family. Growing up, I never wanted to join my family in the business. Instead, I wanted to venture into the corporate world.

Frankly, I also never thought I would be a Company Secretary (CS). In class 12, a close friend, who is now my wife, decided to pursue the profession and that influenced me to pursue it too. She and I both enrolled in the CS course from ICSI (The Institute of Company Secretaries of India).

There are basically three stages in CS – Foundation, Executive and Professional. After clearing the Foundation and Executive as well as two groups of professionals, she dropped out and ventured into media management. However, I fell in love with the CS profession and the career possibilities. Since then, I never turned back.

I did my 15-month management training at Khaitan Chemicals & Fertilizers Limited – a listed manufacturer of fertilizer, chemical, and soya edible oil headquartered in Indore, India.

My training was so rigorous that I was not just limited to the secretarial stuff but had to undergo training in other departments viz. commercial, purchase, HR, Marketing, and whatnot.

Fortunately, all the efforts paid off when I qualified as a CS in 2015. A 4-year journey that I will always cherish.

Despite not having a clear career plan, I joined established listed companies

After becoming a CS, I was waiting to carve my own path but then came the big question, “What Next?”

I did not really have a clear answer to that question, but I was certain that I did not want to limit myself to core CS duties.

After obtaining my CS membership, I continued at Khaitan Chemicals & Fertilizers Limited as an Assistant Company Secretary. For the first 8 to 9 months, I was overseeing all other departments such as Commercial, Purchase, HR, and IR, besides secretarial duties.

Everything was going well, but I was hungry for more.

I realized that the scope of growth in Indore was good but not great considering it is a Tier 2 city. So, I decided to move to a bigger city with better career opportunities.

In January 2017, I relocated to Mumbai, the finance capital of India. Here I joined Videocon d2h Limited, a NASDAQ-listed entity headquartered in Mumbai, forming part of the Videocon Group.

During my time in the company, I initiated the merger process of Videocon d2h with DishTV to form India’s largest direct-to-home broadcast service provider. For nearly two years, I learned about IBC cases, various corporate litigations, how to conduct the merger process, and perform due diligence.

In September 2018, I joined Sahyadri Industries Limited – another listed company that is a pioneer in building solutions.

Here my role was limited to just secretarial duties and not challenging enough. So, I decided to look out for opportunities that could help me with new experiences and learnings.

I made an unconventional decision and joined a start-up – Bewakoof.com

During my time at Sahyadri when I was looking for more challenging and unconventional roles, Bewakoof.com approached me to join them.

(Bewakoof.com is an internet-first brand of multi-category fashion products catering to both men and women and is famous amongst youngsters for its hattke products.)

Bewakoof was aiming for their Series A funding (earlier they had raised funds through angel investments) where private equity investors were going to be a part of the company. They wanted someone who could understand the processes and the company very well.

Since I had dealt with all sorts of companies, including private, public, India-listed, and foreign-listed, they felt I was a perfect match.

In my short interaction with Bewakoof’s Founder and CFO, I got a glimpse of the startup world and the opportunities for me as a CS. I recollect going for the interview wearing formal with a blazer, only to see many working in shorts and t-shirts. I did feel out of place but I knew this was the right place to start a crazy adventure known as startups!

And in Jan 2019, I decided to move from my boring 9-5 traditional job to join the startup world.

How I transitioned from my typical CS duties to the start-up world

Upon joining, I was informed that I need to create the legal and compliance department and structure various ongoing processes.

I formulated various SOPs for vendor creation, onboarding, and contract management, to associate ourselves with various brands and advertising agencies.

As everything was scattered, I had to chase various CS offices and external legal counsel, who were providing services to them, prior to my joining.

The company’s due diligence process was fun and I initiated a plan that got us a clean Due Diligence report (with a few red marks). The process of formalizing informal processes was amazing as my role was 80% legal and 20% secretarial, for a change.

The legal functions did include drafting, vetting, and finalizing various legal agreements required for the Company’s day-to-day work.

Once Series Funding is completed and private equity investors are on board, even though you are a private company, you technically function like a listed entity as you have to follow all the norms laid by investors.

It could be conducting Board/Committee meetings, recording minutes, and working out an actionable plan post-meeting, which were amongst the few secretarial activities like any other listed company.

At each meeting, we had at least 2-3 actionable items about the company, it could be for the marketing department, tech department, or some other departments. However, I was playing a key role in coordinating with all these departments and getting things done so that in the next board meeting we could get a clean comment from investors.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to work on complying with regulatory requirements to obtain approval to operate our factory as Bewakoof.com ventured into the marketplace model. I was involved in SOP creation for onboarding sellers, creating the seller portal, contracts for sellers, etc.

In short, I was involved with getting private equity funding, planning out actionable items, managing board and committee meetings, creating and maintaining the ESOP pool, and registering for trademarks in various classes… A terrific experience indeed.

After a stint in e-commerce, I joined EdTech

In 2021, after all these achievements at Bewakoof.com and two great years of learning, unlearning, and relearning, I asked myself, “What Next?”

I wanted to venture into either a fintech or edtech company. Between January and August, edtech has been among the top three funded sectors, inviting over $1.9 billion in capital across 80 deals. That number is steadily growing.

Luckily, I received a call from Eruditus and started the interview process during the pandemic. Now, I work with Eruditus, an ed-tech startup that offers professional courses and executive programmes in partnership with leading universities. It has 2.5 lakh users across 80+ countries and that fascinated me. The company has a global footprint and I joined it to manage all its global compliances.

They have been in business for over 10 years and we just closed our Series E, a $650 million round at a valuation of $3.2 billion. It has only been six months since I joined them and I am learning a lot!

As Global Company Secretary, I am responsible for compliance with the laws and regulations for all our companies based in India, Dubai, the United States, Mexico, China and Singapore.

The various assignments I have done include legal due diligence, closing Series E Funding with marquee investors, onboarding investor nominee directors and observers, etc.

I do not regret joining start-ups instead of traditional listed companies

I clearly remember when I decided to join Bewakoof.com, many of my well-wishers and seniors were against my decision and said, “There are Company Secretaries who are eager to join listed entities, but you are leaving a listed company to join a start-up.”

Fortunately, with the guidance of my mentor and my wife, I made the move and the unusual choice of joining a start-up, which really paid off.

Working with start-ups, I have learned that the sky is the limit as it does not restrict you to the “old way” of doing things.

Moreover, I learned that the start-up world is actually so much fun as they offered me the opportunity to learn by formulating my own playbook.

I have also learned to take risks and learn from mistakes.

 

Preeti Mondal

Preeti Mondal

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