1. Can you give us a brief on your journey?
I was raised in an all-girls family with two younger sisters and parents who had a progressive outlook towards life. My father, was a first-generation entrepreneur, supported and encouraged his daughters’ education every step of the way. Despite hailing from a small town called Alwar, in Rajasthan, we had the privilege of being taught by Anglo-Indian teachers and being surrounded by a diverse community.
My professional journey started at the age of 25 when I Co-founded HirePro Consulting, an AI powered hiring platform, with a vision of making hiring frictionless. Later, in 2009, I ventured into Ultrafine Minerals, a leading manufacturer of minerals catering to the needs of the Cable, Polymer, Plastic, and Paper industries.
Space has always been close to my heart, and I understood how space worked for diverse companies. In my quest for revolutionizing workspaces, I started this journey with IndiQube in 2015, as a flexible workspace provider catering to the holistic needs of Enterprises, Offshore Development Centers, SMEs and Startups.
2. What were your high points and low points in this field?
Highs and lows are a part of parcel of an entrepreneurial journey; however, COVID-19 has undoubtedly been the biggest challenge that I’ve faced as an entrepreneur. More than the lockdowns and multiple waves, the pandemic has changed the whole narrative around commercial real estate and offices in general. There was a notion that offices would no longer be needed, and companies would embrace permanent WFH. With the adoption of hybrid model, the way this entire narrative got changed and the uncertainty around the relevance of office space has been put to rest, has been a great learning experience for us.
Amongst the highs, onboarding our largest client, Myntra for a 3 Lac Sq.Ft campus, expanding to newer geographies and venturing into tier II cities, maintaining an attrition of <1% in a highly volatile industry rank amongst the top.
3. Any one turning point in your career that you wish to highlight?
I wanted to be an investment banker after pursuing my MBA in Finance from IMT Ghaziabad. However, the recession following the 9/11 attacks in the US halted my plans, and I ended up not having many lucrative job offers. It was during this point in time that I was contemplating an idea for my entrepreneurial venture and started my professional journey at the age of 25 and I cofounded HirePro Consulting along with Rishi Das and have since forayed into multiple ventures including IndiQube and have never looked back. I see this decision to pursue entrepreneurship albeit accidentally has been a turning point in my career.
4. What is the one mistake in your career that you’d like to go back and change if you could?
I see myself as a combination of all the choices that I’ve made in my career be it the good ones or the bad ones. Thus, I do not wish to go back and change anything and like the space where I am right now.
“Commercial real estate is tough and highly competitive just like a few other industries. To succeed, women need to have an attitude of never giving up.”
Meghna Agarwal, co-founder, IndiQube.
5. The industry is still largely male-dominated – why do you think that is?
When we started IndiQube, I’ve seen that the representation in Commercial Real Estate Industry and in the ecosystem of Developers, Landlords, Consultants and Operators is skewed towards men. However, this trend is slowly but surely changing and today there is increased acceptance of women both from the developer as well as the investor community in Commercial Real Estate.
6. With changing times, what would be your advice to upcoming women leaders on how to navigate the commercial real estate world?
There is a notion that women are usually not taken seriously in the Real Estate & Hospitality Industry and that an acknowledgment of women’s presence is missing. However, I have personally seen that if you deliver on your commitments, then gender is never an issue. Once you start delivering results, all these challenges start to fade away.
In any industry and even more so, in commercial real estate, you need to strike the right balance between speed and scale. Your speed of execution and the scale of operations that you could achieve makes all the difference. Commercial real estate is tough & highly competitive just like a few other industries. To succeed, women need to have an attitude of never giving up.