Q & A with Prasad Ajinkya, Co-founder, Homeville https://homecapital.in
How were your growing up years? Any fond memories that have stayed with you?
I had pretty much an idyllic childhood, blessed with super liberal parents who allowed both their children to pursue careers of their choice.
I vividly remember the first time I saw a PC, a 80286 housed in the office of my maternal uncle (Mama). I relished 'Prince of Persia' on it, and right from that moment, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in technology.
Both my parents were supportive of my decision. They reassured me, "Look, we will support you to a tee. Since neither of us have any background in engineering, you will have to chart your own path. But we are with you on every step, turn and juncture."
What were your favourite subjects at school and college? How did IIM happen?
Maths was always an all-time favourite, so was Computers.
I used to like drawing, and I was pretty good at engineering drawings as well, but I never really honed that skillset.
The guidance that led me to IIM happened by chance. I was working with an organization that specializes in content syndication of financial data. One of the visionary project managers that I was fortune to work with suggested I should really think about doing an MBA.
My reason for seriously considering IIM was my firm belief that a Business degree would enable me to positively influence any project right from its formative stages, and thus have a lion's share in deciding the fate of the ensuing product or service.
You have said you never knew you would venture out in the finance space? So what were the sectors of your affinity?
Technology/Systems has always been a forte. The PGP programme at IIM Indore allows you to decide your specializations based on the electives you chose in the second year. I did a dual major in Systems and Marketing, and ever since have always participated in roles around either of the two functions.
How do you look back on your career trajectory?
Looking back, I see my career as a natural progression of a techie who learned business and then moved towards working on solving multiple business problems using technology.
I got a fair number of opportunities early on that helped me fortfify my conviction. We were the second batch on the new campus of IIM-I, and that meant that the infrastructure was slowly being built around us. This helped me proactively engage in the basic networking setup which often teaches you more than working in a ready to deploy environment.
I would rather repeat most of the key decisions. Of course, having the benefit of hindsight invariably implies that you could have done things a bit differently as well.
If I were to look for a truly "What if?" moment, then I believe that would be the time when I quit my job at TechMahindra to chart out a career in startups. The road down the employment path would truly have been different, had I pursued it. Having said that, I wouldn't change the script one bit if I were to start all over again.
What is the backstory for Homeville?
In the course of several freewheeling interactions with Lalit and Madhu, I was instinctively drawn to idea underlying HomeCapital and signed up to handle the technology and promotions around it. The whole idea was to do 100 cases and test out the business viability and unit economics, an exercise that consumed the better part of 2017.
What do you reckon is the distinctive value prop of Homeville?
Homeville is creating a Housing credit enablement network to enable flow of institutional capital in retail credit assets linked to housing.
We feel that the housing industry is yet to boom in the country, and with the pandemic the one thing that most people have realized is the need for larger homes.
For housing to flourish, there has to be enough credit made available in the industry. We are building those guard rails. We provide the retail user seamless access to a series of fair, friendly, and transparent platforms which are designed to protect their interests and convey clear communication regarding their housing finance requirements.
How do you see it evolve over time?
In India, the banking and finance sector is just waking up. With open banking and the AA eco-system, users can share their data while being protected through a strong consent framework. With digitization of land records, the turn-around time for checking the legal ownership of land and properties is bound to reduce. With most banks open to adopting service oriented middleware, the entire workflow for housing finance can, slowly but surely, be automated.
I would like to see a world where the average Indian doesn't have to walk into a branch for availing of financial services.
Digitization and technology brings to the fore a very serious issue: Access and ownership of data.
I feel over the years, my identity has undergone a litany of changes and for me to define it would be a bit of a challenge. The sheer number of roles that we play often dictates who we are. It is best to play these roles rather than make meaning out of their holisitic interplay.
Any tips and suggestions for startup aspirants?
What were your favourite subjects at school and college? How did IIM happen?
Maths was always an all-time favourite, so was Computers.
I used to like drawing, and I was pretty good at engineering drawings as well, but I never really honed that skillset.
The guidance that led me to IIM happened by chance. I was working with an organization that specializes in content syndication of financial data. One of the visionary project managers that I was fortune to work with suggested I should really think about doing an MBA.
My reason for seriously considering IIM was my firm belief that a Business degree would enable me to positively influence any project right from its formative stages, and thus have a lion's share in deciding the fate of the ensuing product or service.
You have said you never knew you would venture out in the finance space? So what were the sectors of your affinity?
Technology/Systems has always been a forte. The PGP programme at IIM Indore allows you to decide your specializations based on the electives you chose in the second year. I did a dual major in Systems and Marketing, and ever since have always participated in roles around either of the two functions.
How do you look back on your career trajectory?
Looking back, I see my career as a natural progression of a techie who learned business and then moved towards working on solving multiple business problems using technology.
I got a fair number of opportunities early on that helped me fortfify my conviction. We were the second batch on the new campus of IIM-I, and that meant that the infrastructure was slowly being built around us. This helped me proactively engage in the basic networking setup which often teaches you more than working in a ready to deploy environment.
As the IT Committee secretary, I led several initiatives to "techify" our campus. Right from making our campus WiFi enabled, to building business simulation games, to launching web-based puzzles such as Klueless, I was fortunate to have been an integral part of the inception in end-to-end fashion.
Needless to say, the rich exposure helped me carve my niche during student years; most of my peers, juniors, and seniors looked up to me for locking horns with any tech challenge. It also helped build an enduring camaraderie with my IIM mates.
No wonder, my stints at eYantra, EduPristine, 13 Llama, TotSmart and Homeville are effectively collaborations with one or more members of my alma mater.
Any career/business decisions or choices that you would not repeat if you were to start out all over again?
No wonder, my stints at eYantra, EduPristine, 13 Llama, TotSmart and Homeville are effectively collaborations with one or more members of my alma mater.
Any career/business decisions or choices that you would not repeat if you were to start out all over again?
I would rather repeat most of the key decisions. Of course, having the benefit of hindsight invariably implies that you could have done things a bit differently as well.
If I were to look for a truly "What if?" moment, then I believe that would be the time when I quit my job at TechMahindra to chart out a career in startups. The road down the employment path would truly have been different, had I pursued it. Having said that, I wouldn't change the script one bit if I were to start all over again.
What is the backstory for Homeville?
If you are familiar with the idea of 'six degrees of separation', then you will appreciate how the three of us came together. One of my seniors from IIM Indore I enjoyed working with at EduPristine was Atul Kumar.
Atul introduced me to Madhusudan Sharma, who was his batchmate from IIT (and now one of Homeville co-founders).
Madhu's batchmate from IIMC Lalit had been long toying with the idea of creating a home down payment assistance product (which was eventually launched as HomeCapital).
In the course of several freewheeling interactions with Lalit and Madhu, I was instinctively drawn to idea underlying HomeCapital and signed up to handle the technology and promotions around it. The whole idea was to do 100 cases and test out the business viability and unit economics, an exercise that consumed the better part of 2017.
What do you reckon is the distinctive value prop of Homeville?
Homeville is creating a Housing credit enablement network to enable flow of institutional capital in retail credit assets linked to housing.
We feel that the housing industry is yet to boom in the country, and with the pandemic the one thing that most people have realized is the need for larger homes.
For housing to flourish, there has to be enough credit made available in the industry. We are building those guard rails. We provide the retail user seamless access to a series of fair, friendly, and transparent platforms which are designed to protect their interests and convey clear communication regarding their housing finance requirements.
How do you see it evolve over time?
In India, the banking and finance sector is just waking up. With open banking and the AA eco-system, users can share their data while being protected through a strong consent framework. With digitization of land records, the turn-around time for checking the legal ownership of land and properties is bound to reduce. With most banks open to adopting service oriented middleware, the entire workflow for housing finance can, slowly but surely, be automated.
I would like to see a world where the average Indian doesn't have to walk into a branch for availing of financial services.
Any issues close to your heart and mind?
Digitization and technology brings to the fore a very serious issue: Access and ownership of data.
If I reveal my identity details to an organization, who should be the owner of that data? Me? The organization or the government?
If you see the flow of data in most industries, you will realize that we as a nation are greadually losing our data assets to the more developed countries. Advertising data for instance is completely owned by the FAANG (I should say MAANG given Facebook's new name of Meta)
Your blog https://kidakaka.com reflects a thinking individual who seems restless in a positive way? How would you describe Prasad Ajinkya?
If you see the flow of data in most industries, you will realize that we as a nation are greadually losing our data assets to the more developed countries. Advertising data for instance is completely owned by the FAANG (I should say MAANG given Facebook's new name of Meta)
Your blog https://kidakaka.com reflects a thinking individual who seems restless in a positive way? How would you describe Prasad Ajinkya?
I feel over the years, my identity has undergone a litany of changes and for me to define it would be a bit of a challenge. The sheer number of roles that we play often dictates who we are. It is best to play these roles rather than make meaning out of their holisitic interplay.
Any tips and suggestions for startup aspirants?
I would humbly advise them to first establish a way to monetize while focussing on unit economics. The tech and scale can come later. One must build the business to make it resilient to bumps in economic cycles; such that it can withstand failures, especially during the formative stages. Have ample room for pivots so that any fag-end crisis can be averted by adapting to the times and their demands.
