My guest this week is fellow UChicago alumnus Azeem Zainulbhai, who quit being an international financier to be a tech entrepreneur in India. I spoke with him about his journey and stories, from co-founding Restaurant Week India (successful exit) to Housing.com (there’s lots on the internet about that story) to ShopX, his current professional home. We talk about tech, India, professional growth, and learning in a conversation I would have been happy to keep on having for hours.
Being in tech in India feels exciting and daunting. The sheer scale and potential of it all is noteworthy, but add to it the complexities of working on Indian infrastructure (both physical and social) and the dynamics with raising capital for a tech company in India, I’m left awestruck at the whole enterprise. You’ve got to have a gut of steel to want to do it, and I’m thankful that there are people who not only do it, but, like Azeem, are willing to explain it to the rest of us.
There was so much career advice mixed in this conversation that I’d encourage any young professional to listen to the whole thing, but one set of life lessons I thought particularly worth highlighting:
- Always be learning
2. Tame your ego
3. Have a reason above salary
I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. As always, I’d love to hear your feedback. Thank you!
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Very interesting listen. It’s good to hear Azeem’s take on how Indian business is changing. I certainly would never want to do business in India and I admire anybody who is prepared to take that bull by the horns… and then actually succeed.