The Exchanges

Q What were the early failures in the business, and how did you learn from them?

A Three failures if you ask me. One is the fact that we didn't attach as much importance to location, ah, as we do now. So, you know, picking a spot which is easy to access, there is easy parking facilities, ah, that it's not a one-way system. Uh, parents can get there and get out of there easily is absolutely critical. So for all practical purposes, we are like a high street brand, a consumer brand, where people should find it easy to come and get out of. The second was the importance of marketing. You know, my assumption coming in is that a school is something that grows by word of mouth. People say good things and other people come to it. But it is a very hyperlocal business. If you're opening in a center, Letting people know, ah, that you're opening in the neighborhood is very critical. So pre-marketing and post-marketing was something we didn't pay attention to, but we've done a much better job of it now. And the third was, you know, how to attract and retain High quality talent. So, the dignity of labor piece that I was talking about, saying how do we systemically make sure that people come through this, and we understand that these are also working women, and their challenges, and how do we provide an environment where they feel like they're supported, um, and cared for.

AI assessment note: “Three failures if you ask me. One is the fact that we didn't attach”

Q So what are those moments which you spend with yourself, maybe, you know, reading, Or meditating or any practices which you follow for more, getting more peace in your daily routine?

A Um, couple of things. One is the fact that I, I've always gone to bed reading. So, uh, and I think it's a good habit of inculcating the boys as well. Um, I at least spend an hour reading before I go into bed, and it could be a range of books. And at any given point in time, I think I read four or five books. Uh, so, you know, that sort of calms you down as your, and also helps you wind down before you get into bed. The other thing that I've become more disciplined about is about spending at least an hour exercising every day. You know, given travel schedule, the sort of toll, just mental toll, I think, you know, young business takes on you. It's very critical to find the time to stay healthy. Um, so, you know, whether it's running or it's yoga, um, I seem to still enjoy individual sports, maybe because it is my time alone. Um, but I definitely try and find between 45 minutes to an hour every day to do it.

AI assessment note: “I at least spend an hour reading before I go into bed”

Q In our conversations, Priya, you came out as a founder who is very much structured on principles, revenue, profits. What goes on behind that thinking?

A I think as a entrepreneur who, where, you know, you had about thirty million dollars, ah, I think when investors do this, they take a leap of faith, and they say that I'm backing the entrepreneur. Yes, there is an IRR requirement. Yes, there is a, you know, payback requirement. Yes, they are out, they are doing it from a financial objective. But as an entrepreneur, I think you have a fiduciary responsibility to deliver to that. If you sold a plan, it is your responsibility to make sure you see that plan through. Um, and I don't know whether it comes from the fact that I'm a woman, but a degree of transparency and saying what works and what doesn't, and level setting and saying, hey, these are the setbacks in the market, and how do we re-engineer the plan but keep the larger objective in place, ah, is something that, you know, has stood us in good stead with investors as well. I've heard a lot of entrepreneurs saying, oh, but investors, they just are, you know, breathing down your neck, and the business plan is aggressive, etc. But I also think investors don't want To operate the business. As long as they get the confidence that you're operating the business, and add the principles that they have committed in turn to their, you know, partners, et cetera, um, that becomes a smoother relationship, and you spend less time managing your investors and more time managing the business.

AI assessment note: “as an entrepreneur, I think you have a fiduciary responsibility to deliver to that.”

Q How do you define success for yourself, and how do you define success for clay as a business?

A So success for me is, you know, actually the plan for clay came from an obituary column, which was, you know, I wanted to be known as a good mother, a good wife, a good, Uh, daughter. And I wanted to leave a mark in the world. And I feel, you know, with every child we've had in the system, we've made a difference. So for me, the seven and a half thousand going to 10,000 going to a 100,000, ah, doing it consistently day in and day out and making that experience seamless for each parent as we scale is what I would define as success for the organization. My own personal success comes from the fact that I'm able to balance work And home, and find personal time for myself. So there are three parts that are conflicting, um, and, you know, trying to make sure that I'm able to balance those three, that I'm seeing as a supportive wife to a, you know, entrepreneur husband, two boys of 14 and 10, that, you know, they see life, and take the life lessons, and that I'm able to pass those on to them. You know, where I have children in my centers, I'm not outsourcing my parenting journey to my own parents or to someone else.

AI assessment note: “making that experience seamless for each parent as we scale is what I would define”

Q How many clay preschools do you have right now, and what challenges did you face while opening the first 10 preschools?

A I can go through this podcast talking about this, but we have a 130 now, ah, with about seven and a half thousand students. Ah, when I started the first one, you know, you assume, you make a whole bunch of assumptions in terms of who is the customer, who's going to pick you, why do they need the service, and a lot of that gets debunked in the first two, three preschools. So when we started up, my assumption that it was for returning Indians or expats who lived in the city. Uh, what, even though I had seen the need sitting overseas for, um, you know, people who needed the care, my assumption was people look for either their parents or home help. Don't look for a credible child care. What we saw was, you know, when people, um, saw that there was a credible option, they were very willing to test it out. So that was factor number one. Second was, you know, we said, if you have to provide high quality, how do we make sure that we, uh, Provide all of that at a price point that's acceptable. Um, there I think we've seen parents in India have this ability and willingness, because I think as a generation we've been emancipated by education. So they see education as an investment. Parents are willing to go above and beyond what, you know, traditionally you would expect them to do to make sure that their child is in a safe, secure learning environment. And the third biggest lesson for us …

AI assessment note: “we have a 130 now, ah, with about seven and a half thousand students.”

Q What are your organizational habits that you believe are the reasons for the success of Clay?

A I don't think it's MyClay. Ah, I believe we actually have a hashtag called MyClay which everyone uses, and the, Fact is that we've enabled people to have their own signature into the place, and we believe that everyone within the system feels like an entrepreneur. Um, so as we've acquired other companies, as we've hired people from different industries, we've always said there isn't a clay way, if you may, right? So there's no inherent method of working. It is always open for change. It is always open for input. And as a culture, we've maintained the fact that this, the, uh, centers or the preschools are the center of the universe. We call ourselves the back office. Uh, that's why we are in the back of, you know, literally, it's not a fancy office. Because we see ourselves as the enablers of what goes on there. They're front facing. And as a brand, we'd be very foolish to say sitting in one central office that we can dictate how the service is delivered. People on the ground have to feel empowered and enabled to do it on a day in day out basis.

AI assessment note: “we've enabled people to have their own signature into the place”

Q What would be your lessons which you would like to pass on to other young entrepreneurs for fundraising, dealing with investors, working with them?

A So, one is, ah, you know, in terms of saying, When you're raising money, don't sell a story. Don't sell a story that they want to hear. Sell a story that you believe in. Because if you believe in it, chances are you'll deliver to it. And if there are doubts and niggling things, you know, as an entrepreneur, I don't think any investor is expecting you to have all the answers. You're not the panacea to the problem. You're a product evangelist. And your belief in the product has to be core. The second is, you know, when You're going about, um, to raise money. It is very critical that you have a plan that is exciting and scalable. I think what a lot of entrepreneurs get stuck in the fact that it's my product and I know there is a need, but you know, also convincing the investor that there is a need outside of what you believe is the need, that there is market research around it. There is some primary, there's some secondary research that you've done. Um, and Third is, I think a lot of people just assume that there is a investor, entrepreneur fit, ah, that, you know, will happen. But for, it is your product, and you have to know what skills you're looking for from the PE fund as well. So when we worked with Kaizen, we wanted an educational fund. We said we're a new education company. How do we get resources from them? And then the second fund that we raised was from People Capital, …

AI assessment note: “one is, ah, you know, in terms of saying, When you're raising money”

Q Entrepreneurship is a very lonely journey. How do you deal with vulnerability as an entrepreneur? What face do you show to your team, to your investors when you are vulnerable, when you are broken?

A So, somebody, I can't remember who, and I'm really sorry to whoever gave me this piece of advice, but one piece of advice that I feel is might pay you back and turn to young entrepreneurs is write down the reasons why you got into it. And given it's such a lonely journey, right, you have bad days, and trust me, you have very bad days. You have days where you question, why did I give up a perfectly sane life? Ah, you know, we had a lovely home in London, perfectly well-paying job, and then you're suddenly struggling with Construction workers, and trying to get a project site up and going. I think revisiting that, when you had a rosy hue of why you wanted to do it, always brings you up. So, you know, going back, and it's, well, it sounds cheesy, writing down why I'm starting the business. What has gotten me to a point of why I want to start the business? Revisiting that at the low times is, ah, very, very helpful. It's definitely helped me. The second is, you know, I come from a place where I believe your team should see you as vulnerable. It's not a terrible thing to say, I am, I don't have the answer right now, but collectively, let's figure it out. If anything, to your early team, it endears you. I, to date, say it, right? Ah, you know, if, to a centre head, the fact that she knows the consumer a lot more. If I'm not seen as showing respect for that, and if I'm seen as the fou…

AI assessment note: “I believe your team should see you as vulnerable. It's not a terrible thing”

Q At what point did you realize that business has got validation, or the business has reached the product market fit?

A I think very early on. So our first center was a runaway success. If anything, it scared us, saying, you know, ah, very quickly, the fact that we had set it up, we expanded within less than six months. So the uptake for it was something that was surprising, ah, but, ah, There were some myths that got debunked as we expanded as well. We went into a, ah, we actually expanded across India fairly quickly because we said, you know, we can be a brand that grows locally or we learn our management lessons very early on by seeing what does it take to do a cross city option. Our third centre we opened in Ahmedabad. We just assumed that, you know, all cities were equal and we said, why don't we do a tier two experiment. But it's a very value conscious market, and the support structure there was, um, you know, fairly rock solid in terms of families living with children, etc. Ah, but outside of that, the fact that this was for a migrant family, ah, who wanted credible, accountable, transparent services, that got established fairly early on within our cycle.

AI assessment note: “I think very early on. So our first center was a runaway success.”

Q So what have been your moments of self-doubt, and how did you overcome them?

A Like I started this, I said, I'm a reluctant entrepreneur. So my journey started with a doubt of saying, what if I fail? But, uh, Sanjay has played a very big role. My husband has, he said, you know, what is the worst that can happen? You can fail. Uh, and I was 35 and I started the business, and he said, three years from now, You might say this was a, ah, this was a miserable failure. We can move back. People will hire you back. And what is the downside here? That you will get a character building lesson. And when you break it down like that, I think it helps you say, okay, so, you know, it's well worth jumping into it. The doubts have crept in, you know, in terms of saying today we're responsible for 2100 people's salaries day in and day on. The day is, you know, we are not meeting our revenue numbers to make sure that You're responsible for that many lives, that many children. You have moments where you say, you know, how am I going to make this happen? How am I going to enable the next 10,000 women to go back to work? When you run out of money, you don't know where you're going to pay salaries from, when that funding gap comes, ah, when, ah, a centre opens, and we opened our first centre, and I remember this. We opened it in a month called the Ashad month. I, I don't know, I'm an Hindu, but I clearly don't know my months very well. And we opened it on 18th of July. And 15th…

AI assessment note: “So my journey started with a doubt of saying, what if I fail?”

Q What were the moments during these seven years, Where you were just about to give up?

A Um, I, I wanted to, I think, bury my head in the sand, but I've never wanted to give up. Like I said, I take the responsibility of, you know, that didi in the center. And the fact that her monthly salary, and she's made some commitments for her own children's education, this is this, that's a huge responsibility. So giving up on it was not an option, but wanting the problems to go away was definitely there. Ah, and then you deal with it. You bite, you know, break them down into bite-sized chunks. And those moments come many, many times, right? You just have to say, I'm going to bite over this, tide over it, get on, and then, you know, there'll be the next one that comes along. But that's the reality of being an entrepreneur. It's both the thrills, As well as the downsides.

AI assessment note: “bury my head in the sand, but I've never wanted to give up.”

Q What are the investments you are making in your team that enable them to take so much charge and go out there as an entrepreneur?

A If you ask me one thing, Sudha, my learning has been, I've come from very male-oriented industries, right? Consulting male-oriented. I ran sales in, ah, you know, the business for, ah, emphasis, and I had a fairly large, ah, number of men in the team. This is a largely women-oriented company. And I'm not being sexist when I say this, the data plays itself out. Women are inherently conscientious. What they need is emotional security in the place of operation. So what we do is we create a safe space for these women to work. And in turn, I have a very, very simple mantra, which is if we have happy employees, they in turn will make sure the children are happy, the children are happy, parents are happy, and we will grow. Uh, we don't have a very complex business. So ensuring that at the unit level every employee feels like they are safe, that they have the ability to make a difference, that their voice is heard, ah, and they have forums to do so, ah, is something that we work very, very hard, ah, to make happen.

AI assessment note: “what we do is we create a safe space for these women to work”