Managing people is harder than building machines or software: Sanjeev Barnwal, Meesho
In this exclusive conversation with ETCIO, the co-founder and CTO of Meesho talks about his journey as an entrepreneur and shares some key lessons learned during that journey.
Vanshika Sharma
ETCIO
Updated: December 05, 2022, 13:05 IST
Kicking off a company from scratch is empowering but challenging too. Sanjeev Barnwal, Co-founder and CTO of Meesho, digs into his experience of building the e-commerce firm, which has been loaded with unique hurdles, the most crucial of which was building the team.
"From building everything myself to managing a huge team, the entire journey has been a learning experience." When you start a business, you always have to be open to dealing with new problems. "You have to be okay with unsolved problems at every point in time and have the confidence that you'll eventually solve them," he says.
Thus, for Barnwal, encouraging himself with consistent efforts is the greatest way to avoid giving up in the face of hardship. He realizes that solving complicated problems energizes him and allows him to take the lead. "When you've been trying to solve something for a while, eventually accomplishing it and seeing the impact of it surely motivates you," he adds.
Key leadership lessons learned
Believing that every step is a lesson for the next climb, Barnwal feels that the biggest leadership lesson for him over the years as co-founder and CTO was managing people.
"Managing people is a lot tougher than building machines or software. When you try to manage people and get the best out of them, it's a different challenge. Recognizing their uniqueness and individuality and fine-tuning their actions matters a lot," says he.
"The best way to manage people is by developing a personal connection and understanding their personal lives beyond work and I learned this from my manager at Sony," says he. "You cannot paint everyone with the same brush. To help your people recognize the next ambitious milestones in their career that pushes them to achieve over and above that, but at the same time also ensure that the goal is not too ambitious, making it unattainable," he explained.
The first step towards Meesho for Barnwal started with his first job at Sony Corporation in 2012, where he joined the Japan team as a software engineer and worked on DSLR, Cybershot, and Sony Mobile cameras.
Japan is well-known for its superior engineering, especially in the hardware sector, but Barnwal saw it as an excellent opportunity to learn about Japanese culture also and it was one of the key reasons for him to join Sony. But the journey at Meesho certainly helped him to evolve into a new person, he believes.
"It has been quite an adventurous journey, perhaps a roller coaster ride. Right from taking the leap of faith and quitting my job with Sony at their HQ in Tokyo to starting and building Meesho with Vidit and the team, the experience has been quite exhilarating. This entrepreneurial journey has had a massive impact on my personal and professional development," he says.
It's all in the roots
It was the early realization that technology holds tremendous potential to create a massive impact on this world and will always be deeply ingrained in the lives of people to such an extent that it is practically impossible to sustain without it that attracted him towards this road.
Being brought up in Hazaribagh, a small town in Jharkhand and coming from a humble background, pursuing a BTech degree in electrical engineering at IIT Delhi helped him uplevel himself to a great extent, believes Barnwal.
"Before getting into IIT, you're used to being in the top 'x'% of your batch, and then suddenly you start to feel that you're a nobody is a humbling experience. All of this pushes you to become the best version of yourself," he added.
He also credits his parents for teaching him perseverance, which he believes is a key trait for any entrepreneur.
Barnwal believes that the constant challenges that you face while building a hypergrowth business, help develop your "problem-solving muscles" quickly and it is also one of the key takeaways for him.
"The most important advice I can probably have for new entrepreneurs is that the only thing that matters is moving fast. "It is important to understand that as an entrepreneur you're not wedded to a specific idea. Being flexible and open to iterating on beliefs with new data points is critical. Furthermore, in any growing company, 10x the talent creates far more value than 10 individuals 1x. But moving fast is the only thing that matters in the end, and that's the most important advice I have for the new entrepreneurs."
While he continues to pursue the mission of democratizing internet commerce for everyone in India, he also believes that being happy and content is what matters the most and everything else is secondary. He loves to read books and listen to podcasts to unwind and re-energize himself.
meesho
cybershot
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