Build. Scale. Repeat

RONNIE SCREWVALA, WHO TRANSFORMED UTV FROM A PRODUCTION COMPANY TO A MULTIMEDIA CONGLOMERATE, IS NOW DIPPING INTO HIS ENTREPRENEURIAL GENIUS TO BUILD EDTECH STARTUP UPGRAD INTO A VENTURE OF SCALE AND IMPACT

- KathaKali Chanda

Barely five minutes into my Zoom meeting with Ronnie Screwvala, I earn my first strike when I call him a serial entrepreneur. “It’s a word I’m going to put a cross on,” says the 64-year-old.

I prime myself for a debate. After all, what better sobriquet to describe a man who has pioneered a slew of businesses since the 1980s—cable TV ‘Network’ in 1981, a toothbrush manufacturing unit, Lazer Brushes, which went on to become the largest in the country, media and entertainment company UTV, which would eventually be sold to global giant Walt Disney. Right now, Screwvala is the founder of a bouquet of companies, which includes edtech venture upgrad, PE firm Unilazer Ventures, film production house RSVP Movies, sports business U Sports, and not-for-profit Swades Foundation. I surely had an easy debate to win, right? Maybe not.

“A serial entrepreneur is one who builds or buys something with a clear intent to sell it in time. I have never started any business with an intent to exit, ever,” says Screwvala. “Serial by definition means pre-meditated and it goes against my core motto for entrepreneurship: Staying the course to create maximum value. It took me 20-plus years to build UTV and I never planned in my second year that I will sell it off 18 years on. Of the 2,000 to 3,000 people who emerged from the media, I probably stuck to it longer than most.”