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Beans & Intellect – the name may sound unusual, but it is well thought of, drawing its inspiration from the magical fairytale of "Jack and the beanstalk" where Jack turns a handful of magical beans into a spiraling ladder that reaches up to the sky. Anshumaan Verma – the Jack that we are talking of has also turned the beans of opportunities into the ladder of success to reach the zenith. He also likes to describe himself as the Jack of all trades and master of many. He grabbed the opportunities offered by entrepreneurship early in his career because entrepreneurship offers many flavours, because It is a multi-career high-end job and because working on multiple assignments, roles and varied areas can only be possible in an entrepreneurial set-up and also because everyday experience of creating strategies, jobs, newer avenues, thoughts, ideas, missions, plans etc. is more satisfying than any 9-to-5 job. The reasons may be multiple but the goal has been single to introduce the world to the avenues of treasury technologies which is virgin, niche and offers explosive growth potentialities. Beans & Intellect was selected among the top 30 innovative technologies program of the India Innovation Growth Program of DST and Lockheed Martin in the year 2009. The program has been developed to help Indian innovators with promising early-stage technologies find markets around the world. The young, dynamic entrepreneur shares his story with us, read on……. |
Best From Bihar The state of Bihar conjures up images of lawlessness and backwardness. But at the same time it boasts of its brilliant populace who have excelled under harsh conditions and have moved beyond its geographical boundary to top and occupy positions of envy not only all over the country but the world as well. This populace has given a new identity to the State. Anshumaan Verma born on 28th Feb, 1982 in Bhagalpur, Bihar is one such person who moved out of the State and has made Mumbai his Karma Bhumi. He is the lone brother among four sisters, with his mother being one of his strongest support system. |
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Brilliant with and Beyond books Anshumaan boasts of a brilliant academic career with high scores not only within the class room but also outside. He was selected as the Distinguished Child in the Country in All India Talent Search Examination. Not only this he was also the Prefect, School House Captain, School Sports Captain, and represented the School Team in elocution, science quiz, debates, etc. The school journey meandered
through the lanes of DPS, successful clearance of IITJEE examination and
enrollment in IIT Mumbai in July, 1999 from where he obtained his B Tech
& M Tech degree in 2004 in Metallurgical Engineering & Material
Science. Anshumaan did not restrict himself to books and contributed his
energy to being Corporate Relations Head, The Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT
Mumbai, the Online Project on ‘Disinvestment Process in India’
with Viral Acharya, London Business School (LBS), Project on ‘Financial
Leverage & Investment Pattern’ with Sankarshan Basu, Indian
Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore, Onsite Project with the ‘Foundation
for Ecological Security (FES’) NDDB, among others. He was also the
lone ‘Indian Student Delegate’ (in the top 30 publication)
in ‘Education Without Borders – 2003’, an international
e-learning conference at Abu Dhabi.
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Mixing and Matching Opportunities The best thing about IITs is that there is no restriction on students for pursuing their interests. So, during his early engineering days, there were dedicated qualitative courses on Material Sciences as well as few courses on modeling, numerical methods and core mathematics on Anshumaan’s plate. The quantitative part of the studies attracted him more with the result that he chose more of them during the second half of his IIT education. This prompted him to explore and understand application of mathematics to various real life problems. Few courses on software and computer programming languages were also floated in IIT. This gave him an opportunity to effectively mix two streams – software and mathematical modeling – that led to the discovery of a new area called ‘financial engineering’. He gradually discovered that financial engineering was in existence for more than three centuries. However, stumbling at this interesting field was the result of his quest to learn more than what was taught in course curriculum. These early years discoveries resulted in his entrepreneurial venture in ‘financial engineering’ – which happened much later after working for few years post IIT. Experience for Expertise There were few jobs for metallurgist but fewer jobs for material scientist in India when Anshumaan graduated in 2004. However, he was not interested in metallurgy opportunity because of the lack of research and innovation opportunities in it. During the same time, he was also offered few jobs by companies that needed skilled workforce in financial engineering. His personal initiatives led to his gaining some level of risk technology and financial engineering expertise, and he decided to start his career with a related job. The job market for risk technologies and financial engineering was up-coming and less crowded in India in 2004. ‘’Though my goal was to start up my own venture, but I wanted to work for some time and hence waited for an appropriate time’’, says Anshumaan. The Entrepreneurial Entry Anshumaan’s strong penchant for a MNC job, started to vanish after, approximately, a year of his joining. After a few months, the job looked mundane with little or no challenges. The learning curve became flat which tempted him to think of either switching his job or starting up. However, that was also the time when his inclinations for entrepreneurship re-surfaced. So, he heard his calling and started preparing for his next role as an entrepreneur. The Finance With his personal savings, and funds from a few private investors to the tune of a couple of lakh rupees set Anshumaan on to the path of entrepreneurship. Since then the company has been on a roll, he says "we have grown at 600% year-on-year in 2008-’09. The plan for 2009-’10 is to grow by more than 1000% over the year gone by. With 15 employees and representatives in Singapore and Middle East, we are looking to hire a few more recruits in the business development team for more effective sales activities. There is a plan to open a Bangalore office in near-term." Once the decision to be an entrepreneur was taken, the next step was to find his sweet spot for business. The clue of his venture was derived from his last job experience. A thorough research of the market dynamics, potential clients, business landscape, marketing and sales issues related to the venture, existing product and services available in the market and market demand of innovative solutions in India and outside, followed. All this clubbed with the hunt for relevant team to start the business made the full story for the business plan. Initial search yielded in two other batch-mates from IIT to become co-founder of his venture. The various starting up work was divided and the team geared up for what they consider the best journey till date. Birth of Beans & Intellect The decision to work in a highly niche area was also the outcome of extremely engrossing discussions with colleagues and senior fellows. There were deterrents as well as some of Anshumaan’s friends vouched of the impending failure that was waiting for his idea stage venture owing to his inexperience as they believed that one needs to have market sense to succeed in business. The young entrepreneur soon realized that they could not have been more right. He also realized that it is almost impossible for young entrepreneurs to successfully operate their business for more than a year. After researching for a few weeks, he found one rider - if one can enter a market which is nascent and has high entry barrier, few of these standard norms of the business can be defied. Anshumaan’s GlobeOp’s experience of hedge fund business came handy in these troubled days and he zeroed on to the niche area of risk and financial engineering for his venture. ‘’Firstly, risk was relatively new in India giving enough opportunities for new ventures in this space. Secondly, there was a serious entry barrier for this business since it included understanding of treasury space, mathematics and latest technologies. Hence, being small, with a very young team, did not seriously go against us in this business. Though, I will admit, I was up against a steep learning curve’’, a very determined Anshumaan discloses. There was constant rummaging of facts and intermittent self-brainstorming on various ideas that led to the birth of what we call todayBEANS of INTELLIGENCE – Beans & Intellect. Major Milestones His first venture was Cogentics that later merged with Beans & Intellect. It was started by Anshumaan and two other graduates of IIT Bombay. The venture focused on risk analytics in the beginning. It came into existence after he got saturated from my 9-to-5 job. A team of senior and few junior guys were built by me in the initial days. He also got incubated in the incubation center of IIT Mumbai which was a great support for the young team. The investment in the incubation center was extremely less making the young venture commercially viable. However, Anshumaan made a few mistakes in building up the team that led to the merger of Cogentics with his second venture - Beans & Intellect. Backing the Rebel The young entrepreneur’s family was apprehensive of his decision as he was comfortably settled in his job. Besides, most of families in Bihar belong to the middle class – low-income earning groups - who would rather concentrate on de-risking career by picking up a settled job. Similar apprehensions also poured in from the peer group who wanted more mature people to start up and were wary of his decision. He was definitely a rebel given the above background. He was all of 24 when he started his entrepreneurial journey which summarizes all reactions. However, people around him, including his parents, were supportive although apprehensive, all through his entrepreneurial journey and Anshumaan attributes all his success to them. |
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The hassles, the lessons The sophistication of the treasury business with its added glamour made it an alien domain for the company to operate. Since Anshumaan was the first founder of Beans, overall viability of their business, which in-turn meant revenue generation, seemed to put extra pressure on him. On top of it, wrong founding team selection in the first few months of operation led to an early disaster for the budding ideas. So the start was not good. One of the founders in the team did not share the common goal and vision of Beans which lead to very early damage control exercises. He does not regret the decision and points out that it was the right thing by mending the team issue quickly and focusing on the business thereon. A lesson was learnt and Anshumaan realised that finding complimentary skill-sets in the founding team is one of the most important steps of ensuring success in a venture. ‘’There is no substitute to hard work. I asked all possible how’s, why’s, when’s, who’s, what’s etc. to seek as much clarity as possible on all issues related to our venture. This definitely worked’’, Anshumaan divulges. Solutions targeted at the present and future needs of market that had the potential of solving the clients’ problems were built. The company worked on the marketing channels and tied up with large organizations where the solutions could be sold as complimentary offerings. This worked wonders for the company since the initial years exposed them to perennial cash crunch. They devised optimized methods of sales and marketing, the cost of which was comparatively less. Successful engagements with the first few large clients in India, Hong Kong and Riyadh have led to credibility for Beans. This was followed by the Singapore operation as well as representative operations in Bangalore and Dubai by Beans. |
The One-Stop Hub Dream Beans & Intellect @ 2020
In the next 10 years, Beans & Intellect are looking to have full fledged presence in Dubai, Singapore, London, Chicago and Sydney. Plans are also on to increase the team size to around 1500 with the help of internal accruals and external funding. The company visualizes itself as the most trusted name for critical treasury, capital markets and risk problems for companies across the globe in future. It also aims to reach revenues in excess of 500 million dollar in the next 10 years. ‘’We want to change the life of people around us by generating and sharing wealth. Beans’ idea of growth is inclusive that counts society, nation and world at large’’ Anshumaan adds. They have also opened up offices in Mumbai in the year 2006 and in Singapore in 2009. ‘’I will be thrilled if Beans & Intellect can become a one-stop hub for all needs related to niche treasury solutions. I envisage, Beans & Intellect, to be a knowledge company emanating from the Indian soil and challenging the likes of Numerix LLC., Scicomp Inc., SuperDerivatives, Resolution, RiskMetrics etc. Beans & Intellect should charter a new era of knowledge economy and change the Indian image of ‘a low-cost outsourcing destination. I am looking to build a company that is socially responsible and grows inclusively with shareholders, society and nation’’, a very-very optimistic Anshumaan exuberates. Equal Credits Anshumaan credits his success to both luck and hard work, as they have played an equal role. However, he still believes that there is no substitute to hard work and it can play bigger role than luck in one’s life. There has been constant effort of more than 12 hours every day for the past 5 years from his side to make it happen. He has also motivated his team mates to work harder and try to realize everything that they had set forth to create. For Quality/Uniformity Beans & Intellect's processes, products and organizational structure are geared towards ensuring that every delivery to the clients passes through our stringent quality measures. This policy of total commitment for customer satisfaction has engendered a work culture that pushes us to aspire for market leadership and work for sustainable development of shareholders. Their quality policy believes in stretching a no-compromise attitude towards excellence. The company hires from the IIT’s, REC’s and MBA’s from the top colleges of India. This ensures quality for resources. They also have standardized processes for optimized development of products. They also make sure that their clients are overwhelmed by their customer service through a mix of handholding and consulting for an array of problems. An efficient hierarchy of organization with clear job description of every team member has been drafted for better results. The reporting structure and regular discussions / debates ensure that the whole team has one single goal and aligned vision for the company. Strategies for Success Beans & Intellect are looking internally at the Indian market for their knowledge services. They see a huge demand in it from India for the next 5–10 years. There are plans of testing solutions in other markets once it is success in the Indian shore. The product and service offerings of Beans & Intellect look positive for the external markets too. The recent correlation of the Indian economy with the global markets makes the scenario more interesting. They are also expecting further flow of demand of their services in the growing economies of Asia, Middle East and Africa. Developed nations from the European Union and United States should also be a good target once the global slowdown looks up. The cost pressures with added requirement of skilled workforce for knowledge areas are some of the aspects of globalization Anshumaan is bullish on as regards to his enterprise.
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Mantra for Success ‘’There is no substitute to hard work. Don’t give up. Keep trying. The number of attempt to become successful should be large enough for you to exploit all possible ways of failure leaving you with only the last possible way leading to success’’ – This is Anshumaan’s success mantra for all young entrepreneurs. |
About the Company Beans & Intellect Financial Technology Private Limited, established in 2006 is a niche and focused player providing technology, consulting, analytics and implementation services for financial institutions globally. They specialize in treasury technology, derivatives, banking, risk management and broad capital market area. Beans & Intellect brings unique blend of technology, domain and system expertise that helps the customer achieve their target for various strategic initiatives with extremely reduced time-to-market. Their expertise in quantitative finance and modeling as well as knowledge of global derivatives markets, derivatives desk operations and regulatory framework is backed up with a strong IT capability to convert their strong domain knowledge into customized technology solutions. The company works with commercial banks, investment banks, corporate treasuries, brokerage houses, hedge funds, asset management firms, mutual funds, insurance companies, risk consultants and treasury system providers. They help their clients in improving their competitiveness, business growth and profitability through cost-effective solutions. They strive to provide customers a unique value based service model to manage treasury implementations, quantitative modeling and technology requirements through our techno-functional consultants. The specialist team also assists client in managing their front, mid and back office operations, both onsite and offsite.
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For further details please contact: Beans & Intellect Financial Technology (P) Ltd 363, Powai Plaza, Hiranandani Garden, Powai, Mumbai – 400076, India. T : +91 22 42151133 / 34 /35 F : +91 22 42151137 |
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Note: The author may have used various references in the preparation of this article. For further details please contact her. Disclaimer: Articles & information in the e-zine Science Tech Entrepreneur contain views expressed by individual authors or are taken from various sources. Science Tech Entrepreneur does not own any responsibility for their authenticity. |
Seema Mishra