November 27: Neetish Sarda is a name to reckon with in the Indian entrepreneurial space. He is the founder of Smartworks, India’s leading Managed and Flexible workspace provider for large enterprises, SMEs and Unicorns/high-growth startups. His vision to provide smart, tech-enabled, inspiring and modern office spaces that work as a holistic ecosystem has been hailed time and again as being “truly revolutionary”! Recently, he was also named in the ‘Hurun India Future Unicorn List 2021’ as one of the youngest startup founders in the country.
Neetish Sarda’s journey is an inspiration for many aspiring entrepreneurs – especially his indomitable spirit and positive outlook towards life. Still in his 20’s, he is leading India’s largest flex space with over 4.5 Mn sq.ft., area under management with a pan India presence. When launching his startup, Neetish Sarda faced a lot of hardships, but with determination and persistence, he was able to turn them around quickly. His foremost advice to budding entrepreneurs is to turn challenges into opportunities and use crisis as an opportunity to grow and never give up.
As a young and successful leader, Neetish Sarda has sealed a reputation for himself as a resilient, dynamic leader and business strategist who has constantly evolved with the times. His suggestion to youngsters and budding entrepreneurs is always to keep their eyes open, look out, and seek new opportunities. He further advises people to read regularly to expand one’s mindset and enhance their creative thinking. Networking too is equally important, not only for your business and careers but for excellent relationships and friends.
Most entrepreneurs are entirely immersed in their idea and keep working hard towards transforming their vision into reality. However, to achieve success in the entrepreneurial journey, one needs to look beyond. “While the idea is the starting point, learning and researching thoroughly about the market and target audience is critical. Staying updated about the market, trends, and shifts is a crucial aspect of entrepreneurship. But then, it is also important to quickly get hands-on and present your business in the market with an MVP (minimum viable product). After the MVP stage, the entrepreneur(s) can turn to refining and fine-tuning based on the market response or feedback,” believes the young Entrepreneur, Neetish Sarda.
Passion and willingness to learn and grow are among the essential traits of a potent entrepreneur, according to Neetish Sarda. A strong determination and dedication to one’s work are some of the chief components for success. However, one also needs to have a flexible mindset and be willing to improvise, pivot, and change as the company grows and evolves. For instance, Neetish Sarda’s startup Smart works has gone through a series of transitions, which he believes helped make it big in the industry. Hence, failures are the stepping stones of success, and he advises young entrepreneurs to be more comfortable with failures. “One always has to start small and then expand and diversify their business; it’s usually never the other way round,” adds Neetish Sarda.
A keen observer & tech enthusiast, he is always ahead of his time in using technology to his business advantage, constantly identifying the thrust areas for his company before others. “Continuous product innovation and differentiation, along with an excellent customer experience, will make you stand out in the crowd”, adds Neetish Sarda. To all the newbie entrepreneurs out there, his final thoughts are that one should always believe in oneself, trust one’s instinct, and have the courage to take risks and attempt to add value to people’s lives. When one adds value, money comes anyway as a by-product. Young entrepreneurs can soon attain remarkable heights of success based on passion, strong determination and perseverance, combined with the advice from real-life entrepreneurship role models like Neetish Sarda!
