Interview with Ashwin Bhadri | Equinox Labs
We hope this can inspire you to become a successful entrepreneur too! Why is it important to hear the story of a successful entrepreneur?
Having the vision to become an entrepreneur is great. Making it happen is another story!
In that frame, We had the pleasure to interview Ashwin Bhadri, CEO of Equinox Labs. Equinox is a leading FSSAI Approved & NABL Accredited Food, Water & Air Testing Lab with 15+ years of experience. With a PAN-India presence, Equinox is Industry Leader in Food Safety Auditing and FoSTaC Training.
1. What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e what’s your source of motivation?
Progress and Innovation. I love to stay updated with the latest digital tools. I believe curiosity is the best teacher, it keeps me going. I speak to leaders in respective fields to know their way of thinking, this helps me think likewise which has certainly helped me contribute to my business. I also like to venture into different sectors, as an entrepreneur, investor or an advisor. The prospect of exploring something on a large scale really excites me. When we enter a new sector, we strive to be the best and the largest in that sector, reaching out to as many clients as we want and impacting lives in a positive way.
2. Why should people choose your product/services?
The reason people choose to work with Equinox is mainly due to 3 things:
– Firstly, the team that we have. We have a fantastic group of people working together. Our work excites us and we are absolutely, positively committed towards improving the Food, Air & Water quality in our country.
– Our PAN-India presence. We can do sample collections across 200 cities. We can do audits across 150+ cities. So there’s that
– Thirdly, it’s our brand. Today, Equinox stands for assurity, it stands for quality and people want to be associated with us.
3. What’s your competitive advantage and why can’t it be copied?
What makes Equinox stand out is the work culture and the way we reach out to our customers. We present ourselves as a customer-centric company where we are not selling, we are solving. I think that is something that separates us from the pack.
4. What risks are you facing?
Right now, due to COVID, there is this cloud of uncertainty no matter what business you are in. Lower sales, businesses being shut, customers not willing to pay. I think more or less every company has been hit with these predicaments. The line of business that we are in, requires a heavy investment in capital. Going from 2 labs to 6 labs in a single year is a massive risk in itself.
5. Have you considered any alliance/partnership?
Absolutely, all the time. Some of our successful alliances have been with Swiggy, Zomato, Dineout. Forming an alliance is an excellent way of growth hacking and getting new clientele.
6. What are your cash flow projections? When will you break even? How much will you need in investments?
As a business model, we broke even in the first year itself and we have been cash-flow positive ever since.
7. What comes first for you, money or emotions?
I mean if you are asking me whether I let my emotions drive me through a decision-making process, then I’d say yes. Two things here: First, I never ignore my gut feeling. Intuition is something that has a strong control over everything I do. Not everything is number-driven. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense statistically, but you take those risks. When they pay off, they pay big. Can they backfire? Of course they can. But if you want to be innovative, you have got to follow your instincts. And with every mistake you make, your gut feeling becomes stronger. No successful businessman has not made mistakes. They all do and they all learn from it. For some it’s based on facts; in my case it would be emotions.
The other one would be the emotion you share with your teammates, the people you work with, the customers you deal with. I can’t stress this enough, you must be empathetic. Understand the people in your life, see where they are coming from and grow together.
8. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
My weakness used to be time-management, I wasn’t really good at it. But COVID has changed that. It has honed my time-management skills. I have been able to live quite a structured life over the last few months. So, there’s one weakness I HAD. A weakness I still have (some may call it weakness, some may label it as a sign of a good leader) is empathy. I guess I empathize a little too much at times.
One of my strengths would be having a vision and getting an organisation to follow that vision. Being able to execute large plans on a consistent basis would be another.
9. Tell me about an accomplishment you are most proud of.
From a business standpoint, I take great pride in creating a business culture where people are respected, creating a work culture where it’s ok to fail, ok to disagree and creating a work culture where your work is aligned with your passion.
On the personal side, something I am really proud of is my son playing chess at the national level and me helping him in whatever way I can.
10. How do you handle the pressure?
Love it. I thrive under pressure. I am not afraid to lose, I am not afraid to fail. I love trying new things, taking on new challenges, and staying in touch with new trends and updates. I use pressure as a tool to improve my work quality, reducing the manual inputs and automating everything possible for better results. Do I fail? Absolutely. I have failed many times; sometimes the softwares I use don’t work well in our line of operations, the features we use fires, and so on. I have even lost a lot of time and money in the process, risked my customers’ support, almost lost my prospective partnership but I make sure I don’t wilt under pressure because there’s a lesson in everything.
11. If you sold your company today, what would be the tone of the conversation? What would you want to gain? What would you want to avoid losing?
I don’t think I would ever be in favour of a complete takeover, I just don’t see that happening. But if you talk about partnerships or diluting stakes, I would say one thing that is non-negotiable for me is maintaining the work culture we have cultivated. I would want that to continue. Can it be faster? Absolutely. If the new partner shares the same vision and can help accelerate the process to get to where we want, why not?
12. What advice would you give to someone starting out?
There will come a time when you feel like giving up (and mark my words it will spring up on you at some point). When that time comes, just remind yourself why you started out. Also talk to your mentors for guidance. Never hesitate to ask. Ask as many questions as you want. Be the most curious one in the room.
13. Where do you see Equinox Labs in 5 years?
In the next 5 years, Equinox will be the largest Food, Water and Air Testing Lab in Asia with over 20 Labs spread across the continent.
