The Road To Success

Gaurav Biswas, 38, discusses his transition from director of an international consulting firm to successful start-up founder with TruKKer Technologies

- Gaurav Biswas

You launched TruKKer three years ago in 2016, but before that you had a very successful career with AECOM where you became director aged just 32. How did this experience prepare you for the world of entrepreneurship?

I spent 12 years in international consulting with AECOM and Arup, and jumped into TruKKer at the peak of my consulting career. Life is very different in a start-up but my experience with large organisations certainly contributes to my ability to think big, think global and have organisational skills of managing large teams. I have been appreciated for my commercial acumen and decision making skills.

Very early in my career I attracted the responsibility to deliver complex mega projects and be accountable for their commercial performance. This has shaped my decision-making skills. As a start-up founder, you need to make decisions every day. Not every decision is right, but not taking a decision is the only worse thing a leader can do.

Another learning from my consulting experience was the art of delegation and empowering a team. TruKKer has an ace team and we are ruthless to ensure we work only with the most motivated and driven team members.

What challenges and benefits did being a young leader bring you? Was it easy to command respect from those who had been in business for longer than you? Were you able to bring fresh, innovative ideas to the table?

I did get challenged about authority and autonomy from peers during my career in consulting, but you cannot take responsibility without being empowered. My superiors loved my style as they could rely on someone focused on getting the job done and with sight on the result. Innovation and ideas are intrinsic in consulting and I was lucky to work with a lot of very smart individuals during my experience with Arup and AECOM across the UK, Middle East and US.