Best Advice: 'The opportunity should compensate for the risks,' says NoBroker's co-founder Saurabh Garg

What was the problem you were grappling with? 

When I was looking to quit my job to start a venture, my mother was very apprehensive about it. She questioned my decision, as leaving a dream job at Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) to start up something of my own was a giant leap of faith and not without its risks. 

Whom did you approach for advice?

I approached my father as he has been my first role model and mentor. He’s my first point of contact whenever I have doubts.

What was the advice you received? 

My father gave me two pieces of advice: First, create something that solves a pain point for the customer; and second, the opportunity should be large enough so that the returns should compensate for the risks that you are taking. In his non-management commonsensical way, he told me about positioning and market size.

How effective was it in resolving the problem? 

Solving customer pain points has been our motto at NoBroker. Whatever services and verticals that we have ventured into can be attributed to that one thought. To this day, whenever I take calls that involve risks, I use those two pieces of advice and try to understand if the product or the service that we’re creating would justify the risk involved.