As part of our ongoing quest to get you meaningful and powerful stories from the startup ecosystem, we invited yet another passionate and purpose-driven woman entrepreneur – Pia Singh for an exclusive interview with BrilliantRead Media. She is a proven leader, mentor, keynote speaker and Founder of 3 Catalysts. Let’s read more about her inspiring journey so far and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with her:
Talk us through your background and your journey as a women entrepreneur, please;
I come from a conservative background where if you score high in School, you need to choose either Medical or Non-Medical field. Add to that, parents in Government Service – so the benchmark was whether or not I could crack the Bank Probationary Officer exam. I guess the proudest moment of my parent’s life was when I became SBI PO.
It was also a sore memory for them because I left my pensionable job to pursue my dreams.
I started working in 2005 and by 2014, changed 4 jobs. While I was working with BNP Paribas, my health took a heavy toll. As we would near peak hours in Bank, I would break in hives due to stress. And that is when I decided that nothing is more important than my health. I was at the top of my Career – the position I was on at 29 – my colleagues were at 42+; and yet I decided to take up an Advisory role at one-fourth of my pay.”
Fast Forward to now, I founded 3 Catalysts with my 2 partners who are a pillar of support and we help entrepreneurs start and scale.
It’s been over five years since I started my entrepreneurial journey, and like any other start-up founder, have had my shares of highs and lows. While it’s a long mile ahead, I certainly had some interesting learning along the way, which has helped me become a better person and a better professional.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a corporate career?
I always wondered about what is on the other side! I would look around me and think how cool it would be if I had an office of my own like this.
I am a rebel at heart and I do not take kindly to authority unless the person in question is someone who I can learn from!”
So, essentially having a Boss was never an option. Plus, I always had this exasperating habit of pondering over errors to understand what went wrong. I would always wonder if I was in their place, what I would do differently.
But Entrepreneurship chose me when I became a Mother.
You see, first-time mothers are hyper-protective – we want to do everything right by the book. So when it was the time to take care of my baby, I researched almost every product available in the market and found out that whatever I buy, it will not be as safe as I want it to be.
That is where my entrepreneurship journey started – A handmade Soap venture – which obviously flopped. But my daughter still uses the safest soaps that one could possibly have.
Please share with us some of the challenges you faced in your journey;
Being a naturally curious, positive and self-motivated person, I relish a challenge and in fact, seek challenges out as opportunities to grow, learn and improve.
The biggest challenge of my career is not something that I have necessarily overcome but a challenge that I have come to better understand and manage – the ability to maintain an appropriate level of work-life balance.”
In the early years of my career, I was told that women could have it all, a successful and rewarding career, a loving marriage/partnership and family, and a working environment that encouraged this balance. This perception was accentuated by women who as leaders would portray themselves as being able to achieve this balance.
The fact is, we can’t have it all. It is an unfair expectation that is placed on women. Like most things in life, it is about decisions we make, compromises and trade-offs, and as individuals only we know what the right ones for us are.
Releasing the pressure I placed on myself to always get the balance right and agreeing in my own mind what I was willing to compromise on helped me to manage this challenge.
What is your Business Mantra: Money or Emotions?
That is a tough trade-off! It is like asking if fuel is important to run a car or the Driver!!
If I put it straight, I will say that the Business Mantra will be Money.
A business is not just meant to make you rich, but it is also responsible for the livelihoods of the employees, who depend on you.
Empathy is something that I was born with, so the trade-off has never been easy. It took me multiple pushes and pulls to understand that Emotions are meant for Managing People and Money for managing Business.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
If you look at the causes of stress and drill down to the root – You get stressed when you are not able to help something (Told you I have this habit ☺)
I learnt early on that as women we place higher expectations on ourselves than our employers, colleagues or families do and just being more kind to ourselves means we are better employees, leaders, and family members.
That said, giving yourself permission to dedicate attention to what’s important to you and your personal life is very important. When you have balance in your life, work is a very different experience. Work is one part of your life that connects with and supports the other parts and it all needs to work in harmony.
My leadership style is genuine and honest. I believe people want to hear authentic communications from authentic people – not generic information that could come from almost anyone. Authenticity breeds authenticity.”
As Oscar Wilde said, – “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken”.
What has worked well for you so far?
I am an Introvert, so selling came easy…
One can hardly pinpoint one thing that leads to Success!
Although if you pull yourself out of Business, Society and Community and look at things objectively, you will find that for any business to succeed you need people, rest everything is just a mechanism that is of no use without the Driver.
I could always empathize with people, understand their problems and have been sincerely working towards solving them. This helped us come up with offerings that they could relate to… So, we kept our services highly customizable. It also gave us an added responsibility though – when you are an Empath, people naturally trust you because deep inside, they know that they can depend on you.
That was my USP and coupled with the USP of my partners, we made a dynamic combination like the famous Godfather dialogue – “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse”, and that’s what we did!
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
I do not believe in sleeping over solutions. There’s no point taking extra time thinking over a problem or an issue unless you anticipate a crucial development or awaiting substantial factual updates. Taking quick action on challenges opens doors to a host of solutions, which could help solve the problem faster. This does not mean rushing into an uninformed decision but means that once the facts and information are gathered, no point spending inordinate time in circular thinking or complex analysis.
Whether you are a product company or a services firm, it is always advisable to be proactive and constantly innovate. Innovation not only helps make your offering better but also goes well with customers. While improvisation based on customer feedback is essential, being thoughtfully proactive will make you a favourite of customers. Taking time out in the midst of fire fighting and allocating dedicated resources to innovate as well as work on a bigger plan is important.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring women entrepreneur?
In the unknown and challenging world of start-ups, the journey is both exciting and painful. The world is full of nice and knowledgeable people, who are always willing to help. Apart from the valuable advice and help, sometimes, this builds in a relationship of trust and respect, which has many advantages. I have closed my fundraising with an investor whom I approached not for fundraising, but for advice on understanding the sector and B2B business.
We concluded a strategic partnership with a large multi-national organization, with whom I had reached out for some help in structuring few deals. And both of them have been cold calls/emails. In the process of genuinely seeking help, you’ll build mentors, relationships and business partnerships.
And finally, one should look at enjoying this journey and lead by example, as a happy and passionate person can only motivate a team to create a great start-up culture.
Given the rapid pace at which the world is changing, what are the leadership traits that are necessary for success?
The most important trait I feel is your Wish to do something, like Entrepreneurs are always asked – What is your “WHY”
Second, Strategic Thinking to assess where you are, where you want to go and how do you get there? In common language, we call it Common Sense or Wit.
Once you have that – you need to be an Effective Communicator to inspire people to work for that Vision. This is where Will comes in – your patience and perseverance to give your venture the necessary time, energy and efforts to flourish.
The remaining Skills are just by-Products.
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures we have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
If you can intuit/foretell the way the currents of history are flowing, you may be able to ride them.
Bismarck famously said:
“a statesman must wait until he hears the steps of God sounding through events, then leaps up and grasp the hem of his garment”. And he did that when he manoeuvred across the chessboard of Europe to create the new state of Germany.”
My philosophy to Manage Change is simple – Ride the Wave!
While people were making efforts to normalize the situation, we adapted. We used this time to reach out to people, talk and make Strategic Alliances. Instead of thinking, when will this all go away and we can resume our activities, we shifted our activities and used Digital Transformation to our advantage.
We, at 3 Catalysts function as spokes of one wheel – in alignment – together ☺
After all, is that not what I am consulting my clients for! What stops us to use the same for ourselves and grow?
So, for us, COVID has sped up things instead of slowing us down. We have recently taken 40 interns onboard and are preparing our Expansion Plans for 2021.
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.
