As part of our relentless efforts to identify and share some of the meaningful stories from India and around the world, this week we invited yet another passionate entrepreneur Deepak Bhuvneshwari Uniyal for an interview with us. He is the Co-Founder and CEO at Insurance Samadhan tech-based startup that helps both individuals and organizations resolve all their Insurance-related complaints. Let’s read more about his inspiring journey so far, way forward and his advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with him:
Talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;
I come from a humble background where my father was among the first generation to leave his village in Garhwal and move to a big metro city like Delhi. My Father sacrificed his govt job to join Ramjas School coz he got to know that his kids can go to a Pvt school considering that there is a very low fee for employee’s kids. I completed my education at the same school. I sold mustard oil and firecracker to take care of the hobby of learning Martial Arts.
I was a shy child who was more comfortable speaking in Garhwali than Hindi in my early years. English was an alien language for me until I started working. That was, fortunately, a short-lived phase and I went on to join college politics where my first lessons of organization and getting things done started. After that, there was no looking back. I completed my graduation from Delhi University and went on to complete my MBA, all the while taking on jobs to make some pocket money but more importantly feel the thrill of accomplishment along with being part of something bigger than myself.”
Connecting with people and looking back on those days I can now say that they were the foundations of my deep desire to grow personally as well as see everyone around me succeed. I was fortunate to work with great organizations and people that groomed and prepared me to build something of my own. My drive or measurement for success was never and will never be about making more money. It was always about building something which can solve a big problem or can contribute to our amazing Nation.
A little over a decade ago, having spent 12 years of learning and growing in the corporate world I ventured out on my own and became a Financial Wealth Manager. In my last corporate job at Max Life, Insurance became a big part of my work and I understood and experienced firsthand the immense impact it made in people’s life. This was also the same time I realised how so many people were being fooled and cheated into buying something that was of great importance but was not getting their money’s worth. My colleagues Shailesh Kumar and Shilpa Arora shared a similar passion and view. This was where the idea of our start-up Insurance Samadhan came into being.
Today it is that same drive of doing something that impacts people positively that has brought Insurance Samadhan to where and what it is.
Insurance Samadhan or InSa, in short, is a tech-based startup that helps both individuals and organizations resolve all their Insurance-related complaints. Our 4th Co-Founder Sanjay Aggarwal adds his experience of legal expertise and our CTO, Ravi Mathur who is as good as a Co-Founder is building a state of the art technology.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a corporate career?
I chose entrepreneurship over a corporate career as it gave me a chance to personally impact people and their lives positively. The best way to predict the future is to create it. It gave me a chance to build something on my terms and grow it to the vision I have. That thrill of accomplishment that comes from starting something from a concept or an idea and building it to an organization can never be fulfilled in a corporate job. Insurance Samadhan was an idea in 2017 and we launched on 15th Aug’2018 today we are 26 Insurance Samadhan family members.
In fact, I would like to share that I had grown to the position of an AVP at Max Life when I quit and became an agent advisor, It was probably unheard of in the insurance industry that an AVP leaves management and becomes an agent. Definitely a very bold step that even few of my friends and family opposed but one that took and do not regret a minute of it. Every bit of my experience as an agent has helped us create the advisors vertical at Insurance Samadhan where we have tied up with more than 1000 top advisors of the country and it’s growing at an amazing speed.”
Please share with us some of the challenges you faced in your journey;
Like I already shared I come from a very simple and humble family, where the business isn’t our cup of tea but so there was some opposition from friends and family in the beginning. I take my time to decide and have a habit of putting my plans on paper, once I decide, then it’s about going all out and implementing on the ground and building a team.
One professional challenge that INSA faced at the beginning of our journey was that people were not ready to believe that something like this has come into being. We were either thought to be part of Insurance companies or brokers, but with time as the number of resolved cases increased, people started to confide in us and today we are the most trusted platform for resolution of Insurance Complaints with close to 14000 resolved cases which has come from every corner of the country.
Given the rapid pace at which the world is changing, what are the leadership traits that are necessary for success?
The world has gone remote so there are going to be some irreversible changes that are going to happen in the way organizations operate. As a leader, it is now important more than ever that you communicate clearly. Every individual in the team should be aligned with the Company’s vision. You have to trust people and show your faith in them. People will be reporting to you from different time zones, different backgrounds, so creating a culture which can be felt even when you have not seen your colleague in physical is a challenge that we have successfully dealt with.
What is your Business Mantra: Money or Emotions?
Money can and never will be a business mantra for me. Money is a by-product and the easiest thing to earn and lose. Building something which solves a big problem adds value to people and the economy. Once you have that focus, money follows and you make it for your investors, colleagues and yourself. As the CEO of Insurance Samadhan, my focus is to build a problem-solving business. Going forward, we have identified more problems which we are going to solve via our products. INSA is an emotionally bonded team but professional in its approach, as I said earlier, money is a by-product of the problems you solve.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
I don’t relate to the word stress. The more difficult the situation, the harder I work, I believe in the positivity of life and only believe in finding solutions. I have always worked towards accomplishing a goal and focussing on that. There will always be challenges along the way but finding a solution is my forte. The way I look at challenges is that I consider them as milestones. This approach has worked well for me and I don’t see any point in changing that.
At InSa, we have an exceptional team of co-founders and employees who share the company’s vision and ideals. The most amazing part is I can be honest with my team. I have known my co-founders for more than a decade now and that helps them to share their honest feedback with me. The culture we are building within is that of a family and families share the load making it so much easier than if only one person was bearing it.
What are the business mantras you have embraced as you sought to establish your success story?
Make it simple, Be amazingly passionate and positive coz that attracts every good in the world, Co-Create, Share success with your team, friends and family but stand and own up the failures yourself and don’t share it with anyone coz that’s the real capsule of amazing future.
My business mantra is always about people first. At INSA, we always think first of our customers, then our partners, then stakeholders and then about us. I have been blessed with a fantastic set of people which has toed this line with me. My previous experience of wealth management has helped me in laying out this template for INSA and the response we have got from everybody has been encouraging for us to move in this direction.
What has worked well for you so far?
The very fact that we have solved real problems for people. We have testimonials of our customers sharing their story and how INSA helped them. That feeling of having made changes in people’s life has worked for us so far. Our customers keep us going, the fact that we are a tech-based company along with being pioneers in our field is something that has worked great for us. Tech has been an enabler for us to reach to the last mile and connect with customers from every corner of the country. We are going to cross boundaries soon for some of our products. We are setting our own benchmarks. Obviously the experience and talent that each member of our team brings to the table make me more confident that we are on the right track.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
The fact we are solving a big pain point of resolving insurance issues in itself is a great Success for Insurance Samadhan. Having said that, I am still too young to define success, I am learning a lot on this beautiful journey, the only motto I live with is “Be passionate and focused towards what you are doing and do it the right way, you are already successful”.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
There is no age to be an entrepreneur. There is no too old or no too young. All you have to believe in the dream you dreamt off and do whatever it takes to make it happen. Believing in yourself when everybody thinks what we dream of is a fairy tale is the most important thing. This is what exactly I believe in and please remember it’s your dream which you saw so it’s ok if everyone else around you doesn’t believe in it. Once you start working towards it, seeing your passion and focus, you would find your dream team and everything would start falling in place. Also honestly, just follow the basics of life which were taught to us by our family and teachers when we were kids. Doing things simple and the right way is an easy road to success if it becomes your way of life.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
