Devesh Chawla: The Multifaceted Founder of Chatur Ideas and Chatur Wealth

Introducing Devesh Chawla: An Overview of His Key Contributions and Role

Devesh Chawla is an ingenious strategist, mentor, an effective leader, out of the box thinker, trader, investor and to sum it all up, an all-rounder. He is known and highly respected for his brisk planning and execution. He is the Founder and CEO of Chatur Ideas and Chatur Wealth.

Chatur Ideas: India’s Premier Startup Platform Offers Comprehensive Support for Entrepreneurs Across All Stages

Chatur Ideas – one of India’s leading startup enabling platforms that acts as a ‘ONE-STOP SOLUTION’ for start-ups and entrepreneurs.

Currently, Chatur Ideas has more than 1100+ startups under its wings. We have also collaborated with 1000+ institutions and have a base of 1500+ investors which is rising gradually. Not to doubt, we have a tremendous lifetime value of people associated with us. From an 18 years old aspiring entrepreneur to a 60-plus angel investor, we are happy to cater to all.

Overcoming Doubts and Embracing Competition: My Journey to Establishing Chatur Ideas in a Crowded Market

One of the biggest challenges that I personally faced was acceptance. I was not sure if people would accept me, as there were already bigger players in the market, doing things similar to our business idea, and even they were facing tough times.

I was not sure, being so young, and entering an already competitive field, if I would be able to achieve what I wanted and if the market would respond to it in a positive way. To overcome that, I got into it and gave my 100%. I stepped out of my comfort zone, and spent more than 18 hours a day on the start-up, making sure that I put all the pieces together to get the benefits of the mentors and the investors.

Eventually, the hard work paid off, and people started seeing the sincerity and honesty in my work, often foregoing the revenue in it and thinking of the bigger picture. This is how I overcame this challenge and Chatur Ideas was able to rise up rapidly.

First-Time Entrepreneur Reflects: Finding Problems Before Solutions is Key to Success

As a first-time entrepreneur, I wasted a few months looking for the solution before looking for the problem. This should be the other way around. They should look for the problem first and then find the solution.

Just finding the solution is not enough, the solution should be very enticing, and should have the potential to create money and solve problems at the same time. These are the pointers that first-time and aspiring entrepreneurs should keep in mind.

What does revolution mean to you?

My definition of revolution is rising against something you believe the people are doing wrong. Due to growth in technology and the convenience of our inventions, we are growing as a civilization; however, they often come at costs which are missed or neglected due to growth. Sometimes, a revolution is needed to set the civilization back on the right path to growth.

How has the industry changed over the years?

The Covid-19 Pandemic has forced the world to accelerate its transition to the digital stage. For the first few months of the pandemic, the business slowed down a little as coping up with the situation was quite challenging for all of us. It was natural to get anxious and stressed about the sudden changes brought about due to Covid. In my opinion, feeling stress can have a positive impact if you know how to channel it in the right ways.

Eventually, the pandemic became a boon in disguise as it gave a new space to people to innovate and a want to begin with their startups. Thus, these startups started approaching us with their fresh and interesting ideas to seek funds, get mentored, and scale up their businesses.

While we were worried about coping up with our customers’ demands and their association with us initially, we gradually adapted to the new normal. Eventually, everything started fitting right in where we left.

Our team of experienced professionals made sure to encourage meditation. I believe keeping ourselves calm amid the stress and problems is the best way to handle the situations.

Coming to the company’s future, when we started Chatur Ideas, India stood at 67th position in the global innovation index, we currently stand at 47th position, and we aim to reach in top 5 in the near future. It’s great to see that we are on our journey to reach there soon. We also strive to become the first thought of any entrepreneur who wishes to grow their business and build an unforgettable brand.

Tell us about the client base.

When it comes to the company, what are you most proud of?

You know people say, the right team can take you a long way. I believe it’s the people and my team that have made my challenges easier and my success better. I would like to majorly give credit to their ‘Chatur Ideas’ and their optimism.

What do you see as the most difficult task in being in your Industry?

We have come to an age where organizations catch up to each other within a few months. The only way to keep your competition at bay is to innovate and change. Change your product offering, its price, service quality, etc but do not change the core identity. In business, it is vital to realize that when you are a market leader, you have to be at least 6 months ahead of your competition and when a market follower, you should aim at catching up with the market leader within 3 months.

What are the most important decisions you make as a leader of your organization?

While micromanaging exerts a greater control on its operations, micromanaging, to put it bluntly, annoys the team, creates trust issues, and can cause employees to become dependent on micromanagement leading it to be unscalable. apart from when the operations are complex and instructions need to be clearly communicated, it is really not very useful. The micromanagement style, or more specifically, keeping close tabs on what work is being done, how it is being done, and the quality of the output, can certainly be used effectively, however employee wellbeing & psychological safety must be taken into account.

So, I believe in efficient management; Creating important tasks, and allowing employees to do the work in their own way goes a long way into creating trust between the employees and me. Simply touching base with them at predefined points along the way eases the employee to complete the task at a defined pace in his own methods improving his growth and creativity. This reduces my workload, makes the team understand my trust in them and also navigate the further steps ahead for Chatur Ideas.

How do you encourage creative thinking within your organization?

As a company, we believe in nurturing creativity. People who see closed doors before an open window do not think out of the box. We firmly believe that ‘One should always paint a new story,’ as there is no point in following what others do. We at Chatur Ideas will always seek disruptive thinking because we understand that the only thing, which will be constant in this world, would be the change in the way people live, think, hear and understand.

What are some of your future endeavours?

As one of India’s largest startup enabling platforms, our goal is to further grow globally. USA, Israel, UAE, and Qatar are just a few of the countries with an international presence. We aim to expand our presence internationally as we continue to grow. The most important goal would be to help 50 startups reach unicorn status.

What is the best advice you can give to our readers?

Every entrepreneur is unique. What makes each successful is their drive to succeed and the hard work they put in. When I meet a startup, I only ask for 2 things, their business plan and P.D.F.

PDF stands for Perseverance, Discipline, and Focus. For example, Colonel Sanders, the founder of KFC, knocked on 1009 doors before he became successful. That is perseverance, the persistence in doing something despite hurdles.

Being spendthrift on your investor money like college graduates is not how an entrepreneur should behave. So, discipline plays a key role in an entrepreneur’s success.

Thirdly, a laser-sharp focus is required where the entrepreneur’s focus must only be on aim and nowhere else just like Arjuna of Mahabharata, the best Archer of his time.

These are the qualities that I feel a leader should have to be successful.

Is there anything we’re leaving out here that needs to be addressed?

Chatur Ideas is one of India’s largest startup-enabling platforms. With over 1500 investors in our network from India and abroad, we aim to provide a ‘One-Stop Solution’ to Startups and entrepreneurs.

If you’re simply looking to connect with me, you can drop me an email at deveshchawla@chaturideas.com