Hello and welcome to the top floor the podcast where Charlotte area CEOs get to tell their leadership journey. My name is Jeff Cass. I'm an executive coach and the leader of a peer advisory group for CEOs and business leaders here in Charlotte and I'll be your host today. Happy to have an international guest with us today, Venkat Beruso from UBC BIM Services with us. Venkat, welcome to the show. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you for hanging me on the show. I'm really looking forward to the discussion. Yeah, international. So you and I were just talking, you are in India today, so it's evening for you and you've already worked a full day today, right? Yep, yep. It's 8 p.m. as we speak right now in India. I'm in a beach city in the eastern coastal India, southern part of India. It's called Weizak. It's a beach city, it's a port city, which is where we have another business of ours and I'm actually sitting in that office and it's truly a global meeting today. I'm really excited. Yeah, you told me before that you're in 12 countries and I want to get into all that, but tell us first the acronym UBC and BIM. What does that mean? Yeah, UBC stands for unique building concepts. I'm basically a mechanical engineer you know, did my MBA and then work for Corning Incorporated in the US for about 10 years and then moved back to India in 2010 and started my own business. I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur and came back to India, started my construction business and after about 10 years in the construction business, then being a technology person, I wanted to move into the technology set of construction and that's how the inception for UBC unique building concepts came into the picture to bring technology into our existing construction business and eventually it spun off into a division of its own and now we're doing services for clients across the globe, United States, all the way up to Australia and New Zealand and between Europe, Israel, Middle East, almost 12 to 13 countries, about 80 people that are supporting three different shifts and that's the team. But unique building concepts, UBC, BIM, BIM means building information modeling. So it means a lot of tremendous amount of technology adoption that is actually happening within the construction industry and generally construction industry is the last one to actually adopt technology. I mean, you see technology into banking, you see technology into other industries like insurance sector, healthcare, so many other sectors but construction industry is the one that actually most of the people that are working in construction industry are not very tech savvy. So it's actually, it's taken a long time for the construction industry to start adopting some of the latest and greatest of the technologies which is simulation. You construct on the computer to understand what are the challenges before you go into the construction site. That's all driven by the fact that the cost of labor is actually increasing and availability of labor is also increasing and on top of it, the global population is growing at a rapid pace where there is millions and millions of units requirement at this point in time where the majority of the population of the world is below 30 to 40 years of age where they need a lot of housing, a lot of commercial spaces and the construction industry is forced to adopt technology and that's basically why we exist is to provide technology solutions for the construction companies to be able to easily adopt that technology so that they don't have to worry about technology part of it. We actually help the companies take care of the technology side of it so that they can still focus on their core side of the activity. Okay, boy, you had a lot there. So let me just pick a couple of things that we can talk about further. So first you started 2010, you were building what? You were building a single family homes and small structures in India? Is that how it started? Yeah, we started off with building integrated townships because at that time, this organization was happening and there was a need for in the suburban areas to build integrated townships which will have housing, school, hospital, everything in one place. So we started off with building department complexes, single family homes with a strip mall kind of a setup where they would have multiple facilities and a primary school, all of that in one place and we actually focused on small towns and tier one, tier two towns rather than the mega cities or the metropolitan cities where that kind of requirement was pretty high when I moved back to India in 2010. So do you still operate the construction business or have you completely gone to modeling and construction technology? No, we still operate our construction business and but that's what actually driven us to how do we bring technology into our own construction business. We tried it, tested it, we built the models there and then we said, okay, let's, you know, it works. So let's move on to providing this as a service to outside companies. Okay, so you were your best first clients, I take it, is that right? Yep, definitely. That's the best way to, you know, be the guinea pig of your own theories, right? Rather than trying with someone else. Because we already had a business running and we didn't need any external client and we needed to automate some of our processes and then we built a team and then that team actually branched off into providing services to other outside folks. Okay, so the building technology and the modeling is really what became international, right? So help us understand the start of this when you were your own client in India to how you kind of moved to different parts of the world and then got to Charlotte because that's what I'm most interested about. Yeah, I mean, basically, you know, in 2017 around that time, when the construction in our business was really booming for us and we were struggling for labor resources and some technology to resources like structural engineers and people who can actually, you know, plan our projects, like project management teams and supervising team. I mean, we were struggling to, you know, hire a lot of folks and in India, the construction is done with brick and the cement mortar for walls and then the structure is done with concrete columns and beams and and slabs for the roof and the system. So it was very laborious. So I started, you know, exploring how do I, you know, bring some automation into this whole process. Can I use plaster spraying machines, you know, the wall, you know, plastering machines, different things that I was doing some research and can I even replace the walls with, you know, with some lightweight systems rather than having this heavy weight bricks, which were actually, you know, taking quite a bit of a toll on the on the on the overall structure itself. We were investing quite heavily on, you know, making sure that the structure can carry this heavy weight, you know, bricks, which are made with clay. So that led me to, you know, different countries, like Bendy China, went to so many different places where there is new technology innovation that's happening in Italy, did a lot of research and finally landed with this light gas steel framing. That's what seemed like, which would solve most of our challenges, which was, you know, it was not labor intensive. We didn't have the equipment to move the materials, but two or three just lifted themselves and then installed them. And then it was pretty fairly easy. It was almost like a Lego blocks. You could actually use screws and drill bits to assemble them, just like a water table for your home and you assemble it similar to that, you can assemble the entire wall and install it. So it was taking care of most of my checklist of issues that I had at that point in time. So I've landed with light gas steel and then that one, the machinery at that point in time, the pioneers are in New Zealand. Most of the companies that are in New Zealand, like FrameCAD, Howick and Scottsdale, these are all the big companies that were making these machines that were produced, these light gas steel framing systems. And I went to New Zealand, you know, got Howick machine to India, set up the factory in India thinking that I would replace our construction, you know, models. And then I, you know, basically we, we, we had this machine and then we didn't realize that there is a lot more to it rather than just getting a machine. That was the easiest part. Then the real journey started in 2018, June, we actually placed the order. And then by the time it came, it was like 2019, March or something like that, around that time. And then by the time we got the machine, we realized that, you know, the feeding a CNC machine file to this particular machine is the most difficult thing rather than getting a machine. Then, you know, our journey started, so we started talking to who, you know, provide this software. And then how it pointed us to a company in Finland, Vertex Systems. And they actually said, okay, this is the technology you need to train these many number of people, this much amount of investment needs to go into it. So we needed to put about four people and then train them and it took about six months for us to train those people. And then even then, we were not having 100% in a knowledge, constructability knowledge, like onsite knowledge. So we had to again go tap into some seniors in the industry who were already doing it, go back to the New Zealand folks and Finland folks. And then we learned it the hard way for what an year. And then started within India. And as we were talking, the team in New Zealand and then in Vertex team in Finland approached us saying that, hey, you seem to, you know, understand how this holding works, maybe because I come from a technology background and then understand these whole offshore service models, this global service models, because that was my background. Back when I worked for Corning Incorporated, where I was traveling to Taiwan and other countries. And we had the IT offshore services team sitting in India. So we're already working with a global team. They said, we asked us, can you provide services to our clients? Then I'm like, what's wrong? Like, oh, okay, you know, we didn't realize that there is this big market that is out there, that people are buying these machines and they invest almost like $200,000 to $300,000 of capital investment on two or three people, training them and getting them the knowledge, and then trying to figure out all the time, trying to retain these resources, because they are the most pretty people to produce this building information model, a 3D BIM model that can actually feed into this CNC machine. They said, you know, if you can provide an incremental cost to them, the client would really love it. And then, you know, we saw a new business opportunity in that, and then we started off onto it. And that's all we ended up really launching into this global services. We started with about four people in 2019, June, and then throughout the COVID period, we were like, pranking numbers big time, because everybody needed the services. That was a great time for us. Timing was, it was perfect. And we're today about 80 people serving about 12 different countries and, you know, or a million square feet of building information modeling we have done over the last four years. Wow, wow. Okay. So let me tie this together a little bit, because you've heard of the term stick built home, right? You know, we're the basically the folks that are on site are cutting every piece of wood and, you know, putting it up themselves. And that's a very skilled job. Not having those folks, what you're doing is you're automating that, right? Where you're either taking the metal product, you know, that you're using to, you know, construct the house or wood, but you're, you're modeling it, feeding it to a CNC machine, and you get a somewhat prefabbed, you know, kind of material that shows up on site. Is that is that a good summary for kind of what you're describing? Yeah, I mean, if you if you try to draw a parallel to it, like, you know, a stick frame house, basically you have walls, you have studs, you have joists, you have roof trusses, everything is there. So we actually model the entire thing. And we, you know, we do a simulation, we even do the simulation of HVAC systems and mechanicals, electricals, plumbing, all of those lines are incorporated into it. We run the entire model. And we basically saw it to make sure that there is no challenges once they reach the site. And all the holes are pre punched, how the how the lines are going to run. And then we feed the file into the machine. And actually, a machine actually takes a steel coil and then it bends cuts everything. It actually does a lot of punches, almost 15 different punches most of these machines have, which will have different kinds of cuts. And they cut everything and they actually produce each wall as a package, each truss as a package. And then we produce the we supply them with shop drawings and assembly drawings. So just like a table that you order from one of the furniture stores, you use that drawing and then you just assemble the wall and you put the trusses together. And then you put the whole house together, basically. So you're, I mean, about four to five people can build a house, you know, within like 10 to 15 hours, a single family home with this entire process. Once the once the material reaches the site. And now there is more evolution. I think we can talk about it a little later, as we go through the conversation. But I want to come back to that one point, which you asked, you know, how did you end up in Charlotte, right? You know, that's the important thing for this particular podcast, because this is targeting most of the folks around Charlotte area. As we were doing this service, we actually started serving clients in the US. And I've worked in the US for about 12 years and I had lots of experience and connections in the US. And I always had this intention to get back to the US to set up an office. And as we were talking to most of the clients, you know, having an office in India versus having a headquartered office in the US that the whole brand image was actually completely changing. So then, you know, I said, okay, let me set up the office in the US so that when the client company is presented as a US based entity, it is actually received in a different way with a lot more credibility, a lot more, you know, the contracts are valued much better. And so the price negotiation, people actually don't negotiate much. If you actually come from the US for the rest of the world, kudos to the entire US the way the structure is set up. So the decision was made to come to the US to establish our headquarters there. But we have one of our biggest clients in Charlotte. And they were offering us, you know, graciously, you know, the space and the systems to be able to get moving there. So we ended up in Charlotte. And we've been working with them for the last three years. And we've got now like almost three big clients in Charlotte and rest of the US and Texas is one of our biggest client base where we have a lot of our clients and then Utah and we have clients in Arizona. We have clients in California. So, you know, we're spread across the US, but we're based over Charlotte now. Okay. Okay. Okay. Good. I appreciate that. So, are you primarily working with folks that are doing single family homes or is it other buildings here in the US right now? So we, the light can steal our wood framing wherever it is used. We serve all those markets. We serve single family homes, multifamily townhomes, hotels, and we do strip walls. So basically, this technology is suitable for a low to mid rise structures, which are not like high-rise structures. But for high-rise structures, we only do the walls. Like, for example, a 13-story, 15-story kind of building like a hotel project. We supply walls. We design the walls and then we design the plumbing and electricals and mechanical building information model. I see. I see. Now, since you started in 2017, it feels like you've learned a lot about that building technology and what services you're offering, right? So now, when you arrived in the United States, you're fairly well established is what it sounds like. Is that a true statement? Yeah. I mean, we, since 2019, we've been serving clients in the US, so we understand because every country, every county, as a matter of fact, has their own building codes. So that takes a lot of time and effort to learn. I mean, thanks to so many softwares that actually have those built in today, but still, you need to have, you know, constructability knowledge, because every area, the crews, install crews, are used to doing certain things in a certain way. And some clients, they prefer certain things in a certain way. And then, on top of it, you play with another layer, engineers. Engineer and record prefers it to be done in a certain way. And then, another layer, architects, they have a certain way of doing things. So you have to bring everything together in a way that everybody is happy. At the same time, you make sure that you do it in a standardized way, because you lose the purpose if you don't standardize it. The module is as important as much as you can standardize and use the standard things, you actually minimize the requirement for the labor and then the skill that is needed. You can actually get it done with the semi-skilled person. To try to customize it again, you're actually going back to the older ways of doing it. So there's a, you know, right balance that you have to strike. So in our team, we have folks that understand the Australian code and New Zealand code. There is a team that understands the European code, UK, that side of it. And then we have a team that understands the ASI code, which is specifically for the American code. And every state has their own guidelines, for example, California, because of the heavy earthquake zones like San Diego and all actually have quite a bit of, you know, stringent norms. Their Florida has a lot more wind-related norms that we have to consider when we're designing buildings for different states. But most of the time, we actually work with the engineers on records from different states, and then we take the inputs and we detail them to produce the files for the machines. Okay, okay, I see. So maybe for the listeners, if you could, I mean, thinking more about the Charlotte area, where we know we have a lot of houses that need to be built, where we know that we have a labor issue in that particular area. What kind of efficiency do you provide for the companies that you're working with? I mean, we, as I said, building information modeling is something that actually simulates the construction and highlights the areas that they need to be worried about, even before they reach the construction site. So we actually work with a lot of project managers to plan these things in such a way that they can efficiently build projects. That's one way we help. The second way we are helping is these factories that are actually building modular homes, where they actually finish everything in the factory and then take it to the construction site and then just assemble them on site by breaking apart a project into multiple modules. That's one of the biggest trends that's going on at this point in time. We also help folks build bathroom pods where they finish the entire toilet in a factory and then just fork it and take it to the site and then just slide it into the place and then just connect the outlets and the inlets, rather than having to finish it on site. So, you know, various different ways we help. We help people who are still doing a traditional way by helping them plan it better, giving them shop drawings, assembly drawings, and all of that. People who are moving into modular construction factories, we help them, putting them, breaking it into modules, and then take them to the sites. Then we also help like hotels and different projects where they're doing bathroom pods and other things that can be finished in the factory and then take them to the site. And we also help a few companies that actually do ADUs, tiny homes, accessory dwelling units, which is what they call, especially for the affordable housing market, and where they can actually build these ADUs in the factory itself and then take them to the site and just install it. That's one of the big big pushes that's happening. Even the government of the United States is pushing in every state to build as many ADUs. I mean, there's Charlotte. MacLanburg County actually brought a new regulation last July. I built a new building code just for ADUs, actually. That's going to be a big thing that's going to happen in that area. We help almost all of those folks in planning and executing those things on the computer itself so that they don't have to waste their resources and they'll be more efficient. Instead of building 10 units per month, they can build probably 20 units because they're much more efficient. Do you have a typical amount of man hours or labor the savings that you have by going down this modeling path? You have some case studies about that? Yeah. We generally come, if you take a look at the per square feet savings, we have been always impacting at least three to four dollars per square feet in terms of the construction cost. If you look at the overall in a traditional stick-built way of construction versus using this building information modeling and planning and all these resources, it'll save you in terms of insurance costs, debris cleaning because we plan much better so that you don't have to have so much debris on site. There is general insurance, there is less labor requirement, all of that actually translates to generally four to five dollars per feet in terms of construction costs. Man hours, it's one way of measuring it, but ultimately it's the dollars that actually matter to the folks. As I said, we could build a frame in seven to 12 hours, basically, generally which takes about four to five days to frame the whole house, pressing the hose. The wall panels and all the trusses are pre-assembled in the factory and then transport it. Less than 12 hours, you can actually have a house standing, basically, with interior finishes. Yeah, and where we're short so many houses, I would think that time savings is a huge motivator. I think we have a good sense of how you got here, which is a very interesting story, Venkat. We've talked about it here now for 30 minutes, but boy, you put in seven, eight, 10 years into this, so I can imagine the journey you've been on. Let's shift gears here a little bit. Talk a little bit, if you would, about some of the biggest challenges you have in your business today. One of the biggest challenges that we have today is, I mean, I would categorize that into two different segments. One is the internal to the organization. The other challenges are the external to the organization in terms of the external factors. If you have to look at the internal to the organization challenges, it's the technology. Whenever there is technology involved, it's the hiring the right resources, making sure that they're trained well, and then you actually motivate them enough to continue to work with us, because obviously, there is competition. That's how it's actually scouting for companies who are training these, who are basically like breeding grounds for the technology folks, so they can actually take a guy who is already a person who is ready to work rather than having to train, and when the codes are 12 different countries and training all these folks, we are a big resource for a lot of upcoming companies or other companies that want to hire resources. It's a huge challenge for us internally to hire the right mix of people who are freshers that are continuously coming in, keep on training them, and then because you're going to definitely have a turnover of some employees, because you're not going to keep everybody happy, but giving them exciting work is what keeps them motivated more than just the monetary benefits and other things, and sometimes we do a lot of different things to make sure that the employees are motivated and stay with us, but there's a strategy that we have on balancing this entire internal skill matrix, and then there is new technologies that keep coming in, then we have to train the resources, and most of these technologies are very expensive too, I mean one license sometimes costs $15,000 or $20,000 for one seat, so it's very expensive to make sure that we get those licenses, and then we keep on training folks, because there's so many new companies that are coming up trying to build machines that can better the other machines that are there in the market, and then training for those machines, so it's just basically there's no one standard yet, it's still available, so you're still on that, and the thick of this whole technology evolution adoption and the construction industry, so that's one of the biggest challenges internal to us, and then moving on to the external factors, any new technology there is there is resistance, people are not comfortable trying that, especially in construction industry, and then as there's so many new players that are coming into the market, so trying to make sure that you stay up to date with that, and then trying to convince customers who want to you know, why would they want to stick with wood frame, why can't they move to a steel frame house, so those are some of our biggest challenges in the external as the external factors, and you're dealing with most of the time, you know these contractors, general contractors, or fabricators who are used to doing with steel with wood, then want to move to steel, and then they don't have the knowledge, so we're trying to give them the knowledge, and you're trying to educate them at the same time you want them to try this new ways of doing by you know, showing the savings, but fortunately we have you know there are industry associations that we actually participate and try to educate folks on you know trying this new technology head-off, and this is how I think you know, and if you look at the statistics, Australia and New Zealand have been at the forefront of them, and they've got about 40% penetration into their housing and mid-rise structures, the United States is still below 10% penetration, so there is a huge amount of you know gap that's there that's probably you know going to be a big you know growth curve that's kind of that's going to come in the next few years. Okay yeah in a lot of ways it sounds like you're revolutionizing kind of what's going on in the construction business right so that's it's hard to be at the forefront of that I would guess that's what you're describing. Yeah yeah it is definitely it's it's hard and then you're trying to learn yourself and also trying to you know implement it in the industry, those are the biggest challenges, and when we're just working on a project in the Niont City that's coming up in Saudi Arabia, they're actually trying to do a lot bigger technology adoption, and it's a huge project that we're trying to you know an apartment complex which is broken down into like 200 to 300 small modules, you need to be finished in a factory, you take them you stack them up like a Lego bollocks, and then finish them in in less than 10 to 15 days and that's that's a huge undertaking so so there's there is there is one extreme of folks that don't want to try and there is another extreme of folks that okay let's let's try it. So we're actually in the middle of the the entire exercise. Well and you're doing that in 12 countries which has unique requirements in each which I think is interesting but let's talk a little bit about the labor because that is that's an issue for everyone that's running a business let's say in North Carolina and Charlotte and frankly across the United States and many cases across the world but you have developed a unique solution there in the sense that you have round-the-clock folks you know that provide services to each of the different time zones so maybe just talk about how you got there and what that service is okay yeah I mean see these the this business model is actually depending on two most important factors one is you have to know the knowledge and the know-how and the technology and all of that and then the second piece is taking it to the the client right so you know you've got the resources that are already trained sitting in you know with a computer in in front of them sitting in the desk but if you cannot provide a good service to the client especially in a technology space there is a lot of you know resistance to it you want to get over that how you get over that is with a good customer service so if you want to be you know just like the Amazon kind of a model right you know you want to put the customer at the forefront that's what actually really makes the you know differentiates us and how we've done that is we've actually followed the Sun kind of a model we start with Australia and we come to the Europe and then we go on to the United States Eastern time zone and then we move to the Western time zone and actually follows on to the Australia so we actually divide our teams into into multiple time zones and then there are three different ships and then folks come in the work and then we've actually picked certain softwares that if someone actually you know is doing let's say there is a three-story project that is that's happening a same you know one person could be working in parallel on the ground floor and then another person could be working on the first floor detailing and another person could be working on the third floor so first shift the guy sits and does the work on the ground floor and then the second person comes uses the same computer same license whatever the infrastructure keeps there so that we can share it and then does it on the second floor and then so same person is continuing but all of that comes together towards the end as one project and then serves the client so in the fastest way you know that that's that can be turned around so customers actually get surprised when we can actually produce a 3d big model which takes more than 20 to 30 days sometimes to even produce a basic model we produce it in like less than 10 days less than five days because we work in three different ships and then work in parallel and then complete the project then produce it as a unified solution to the client within a very short period of time okay okay yeah interesting so all your technology your people are in india right but they're working these three shifts and they they also share you know some of the projects so you can get them done much faster in a 24/7 is it 24/7 or is it 24/5 what is it what is the time frame yeah i mean we work 24/7 almost because uh israeli it's they work on sundays they have a seventh on saturday so they are off day saturday so then we start saturday so we actually start we are working on sunday and then you know in the middle is there are off days on friday so it'll actually we have to be available almost every day uh 360 friday is 24 i mean it's not 24/7 it's almost like 20 22 23 21 hours basically is what we work we have a gap with like four hours uh three to four hours in between and that somebody is not available for the rest of the time uh the entire team is available that's what you know it differentiates us from most of my competition that's out there right i could see that i could see that i would think one challenge for you also you personally as you're kind of steering the company is how do you make sure you're not you know trying to grow too fast and growing into new markets is that a consideration for you as you think about how you grow and where you grow yeah i mean you know i think i need to go back to your initial previous question which like one of what is what's the biggest challenge that you have there right you know the the most of the projects that we work on are single family homes and multifamily homes and these projects which are smaller and footprint they are not like a huge you know uh 50 floors at a hundred floor tower in in new york city kind of projects but there's the volume is so high now we work on 100 to 200 projects at a given point in time that's one of our biggest challenges and you know to be able to meet that you know that's that that challenge is is a uh is a fundamental thing but it's a good thing because we work on so much volume and we have so many resources that are sitting out there but at the same time that's that's a you know a real challenge for us to to work on so many different projects keep a tab on uh what's happening uh on all these things so we've actually divided and designed our our team in such a way that you know we've seen or the period of last four or five years how many team members a particular project manager can handle how many projects can he handle so we actually you know designed a team that actually suits this delivery model which is distributed delivery models but at the same time they're all looking one centralized location so uh we we've actually perfected this for a period of seven years so that it I mean initially I used to work uh 17, 18 hours but now it's like you know it's come down where we train next level leadership the uh that's one of the fundamental things that I've learned as a as a CEO uh our managing director is you know to hire the right people train them give them enough uh you know leverage independence so that they can grow themselves keep motivating them you know uh they don't become uh the whole organization is not dependent on one person it's actually uh the whole organization is working in usage and towards uh delivering this uh rather than uh you know dependency on on the CEO or or one person okay okay that's interesting I have so many questions around a lot of that but I have one more question more about the service because I came from an industry where we did automate fabrication and it was more around welding and cutting and one of the things that a lot of our customers would talk about is customer uh the ability to customize right and uh for you you're not producing the exact same house all the time I assume it's a they could be very different but you also could provide maybe a level of customization to some of those designs that builders would want where they may have the same basic footprint but there are there are some small customizations that you could do very quickly maybe just talk about that as you kind of have lived this kind of uh journey on automating more of the building industry yeah I mean there I think there are two aspects that we can look at in a typical single family home you know customer goes and then picks a lot and then picks a floor plan but there is a different elevation facade option there is a garage option there is a crawl space there is all these different options that are out there that a builder is going to offer so the way we help be uh the builders is of all the options and permutations and combinations that are out there we actually feed them pre-feed them and then keep them in the system so that a customer actually picks uh you know I want this floor plan for this lot this facade this roof this garage option and all these options they pick it and and then once they pick it to produce a permit set that actually suits to that particular customer's choices and to that a lot a lot specifically said generally used to take anywhere between 15 to 20 days for a engineer on record to produce the drawing so that they can be submitted for the for the city approval later on we do it in less than 48 hours because we have all these models loaded into the system and we produce a custom you know customized lot specific permit set on the fly and then give it to the to the builder so that they can the permit runner can go and get the permit as soon as possible so that they can start the construction while the permit runner is is actually trying to get the permit we prepare the cnc machine files and get it ready for uh for construction so our goal is from the time a customer actually picks everything within seven days we actually give them a a production file so they can start manufacturing if they can actually get the permit within that period of time most of the time they can't get it that fast but uh you know you you hear so many customers i've booked a home but they they're not starting the construction until three months or four months out because their supplies are out or whatever the challenges that are there in the industry that's one of the things that we try to to help in terms of customizing for in a for especially for production builders by picking the different options and also on top of it the second dimension to this is um there are builders who actually build custom homes they're not you know already pre-defined plans for those custom home builders we actually help quite a few custom home builders in Arizona and Paradise Valley they build these big large 50,000 square feet 25,000 square feet custom homes you know which have a basketball port inside the house that kind of you know mansions and there is a lot of requirements that are there so we actually stand by and we we uh we take all the inputs and also provide the value engineering you know which work let's say a client in New York tried something new as an innovative thing and that really worked and then there's NDA's that we can't share exactly what they've done there but we can actually share the knowledge that's what we bring to the table while working with hundreds of clients in 12 different countries that every engineer is so unique they actually bring a lot of knowledge and we learn from that and we suggest to the clients when they say hey i want to build something like this there is a new client that uh just recently asked you know i've got this building i want to build all the walls with steel but this particular span you know i can't build it with steel kind of use in a wood uh for the logistics so we actually suggested based on other clients uh learnings hey if you use wood here these are the challenges that are you're going to run into so you're better out doing it this way whereas is what you're thinking about so that's what we bring to the table uh all the knowledge that we gain from working with so many different clients and that's that's what is going to be so unique about us because if let's say a a contractor or our factory has two or three resources they will never be able to get the knowledge that we are getting from all these clients working on so many different browsers so even though they can fire two or three resources train them as much as possible but they will not be as good as the resources that are getting this knowledge from so many different working on so many different projects and you know one of our resources could just hop on to another desk and say hey yeah this client is having this challenge have you heard about something like this he might have probably run it or something like this or they could just search our database uh of all the you know typical challenges that we keep track of and then learn from from previous projects and then apply it okay that's interesting ben caddy your business is very interesting we could probably spend three hours talking about all of these things but i want to spend a little bit of time on you personally okay because uh your journey here so you talked about working as much as 17 or 18 hours a day and you know one of the challenges i think with people that are running a business starting a business growing a business is how do you manage that work-life balance so maybe just talk about how you've learned to deal with that over time yeah i mean uh you know work-life balance definitely is a very important thing um you know uh you have to have your own time your family time and you don't want to miss because in the prime time of your uh your life and then at the same time you have the the right energy to be to become an entrepreneur i mean the right a somebody told me very early on was you know if you want to really become an entrepreneur the best age is going to be between 30 and 35 because you've worked for someone for about 10 years you've got enough knowledge you still have a lot of energy and risk taking ability to jump into it and then try it but that's the time when your kids are very young and they're growing and they need you at home right so as a as a very young first-generation entrepreneur i've always made a fundamental decision that six o'clock whatever you know i have on my plate i actually you know shut everything down between six and ten o'clock in the night i actually you know uh give the time to the family and then get back to work uh you know from ten on till however long i can i can i can stretch myself so i made sure that there are certain slots that i've uh kept for my uh for my family and then in the morning you know best time to work uh at the same time i've actually said you know from 5.30 until like you know 8.30 i play tennis go go to gym i make sure that i have time you know keep myself up and those are the two slots that you know nothing can actually come in the in the middle of those things whatever that that's out there especially you know if i'm traveling sometimes there is a few things here and there i i do it i mean if uh like right now for example i'm you know i'm actually in one of our uh project locations i don't have family so i can uh spend this time but if i'm at home i generally don't schedule anything uh during this time so that i can spend the time so i have uh for my own self uh i've created the morning times and for the family the evening times uh so that you know you and then you're more productive because you're happy and you're you know even though you work only uh let's say eight to twelve hours those eight floors are really going to be productive because you've given the time to the necessary things that are out there you made sure that you keep yourself healthy so that you can sustain and work harder because that's when the as you're growing your business you need to put a lot of time to it and also you give enough time to your family so that they're not missing and then you're not creating a situation where you you know come this far but you're missed out on your kids growing up and your family and your wife and you know their entire setup yeah it's interesting when i when i say work-life balance because i talk to an awful lot of business leaders and CEOs and the family is the first thing that comes to mind but you've not only kind of you know created time for the family but for yourself so physically you're active because i think a lot of folks would say that's the first thing that gets put away that's the first thing you lose yeah but you make a good point if you aren't physically able if you're not mentally you know able then you can't really kind of put 10 or 12 hours into the business or your family yeah i mean you you basically you're not going to be that productive you're going to be you know your your attention span is going to start losing as you as you as your day you know progresses and especially if i want to you know start again work from 10 o'clock in the night till like 12 o'clock or whenever you know i want to catch up on certain stuff that time is you're basically going to be so tired and you'll say i'm not going to you know i that the extra two hours that you give to the business is what is going to make you you know that different from other competition it's just like a you know you know running race or whatever a sport whatever you take you know somebody puts that extra hour or two hours into it they're the ones that are going to be the winners and because i give that two hours in the morning which is for myself for you know staying physically and then obviously eat healthy and ensure that you're you're taking care of yourself so that your energy level you know sustains yourself because i play tennis i watch a lot of these folks that play four or five hour singles matches and then how are they able to do it you know what kind of regime they have right you know you have to have a very rigorous regime so that they can actually sustain that on a daily basis yes it's hard right yes from an athletic point of view i agree with you and it's no different from a work point of view you have to prepare yourself for that same kind of endurance race so to speak now you had said to me earlier that when you came to charlotte i think your family may have come to charlotte so do you have a home here in charlotte and you consider charlotte your home now yeah yeah i mean i have a home in charlotte and my younger daughter goes to school in fort mill south carolina fort mill high school she's in tenth grade there and my wife and daughter stay there so i'm actually going back and forth between india office and the and the us office and then you know attend the exhibitions and shows in different countries and then keep traveling and my two elderly children my son he's already finished under graduation and then he's actually pursuing a career in films and my daughter is is studying in indiana university bloomington campus my environment on public policy oh okay so your three children are here in the states and your wife is here in the states and you you travel a lot then i take it uh between you know many offices yeah okay so so tell me what do you enjoy most about your job um aran to be honest with you you know i think it actually changed or a period of time but right at the moment i enjoy mentoring youngsters who are joining the organization grooming them to be the uh the next level leadership and then um you know importing them uh with the skills that are really required to be successful uh as individuals as well as um and uh within their own job profession whatever they're uh whatever they're doing so that's what i truly enjoy today building teams you know training them, skilling them and and mentoring them you know uh basically what i missed out at the age of 25 to 35 and then 40s uh what i should have probably done uh versus what i've done some some learnings that i uh you know what i kept as priorities at that time versus what i should have probably done uh that's what i really enjoy today i mean obviously business and growth and those things and give you a lot of happiness but fundamentally that's what really truly gives me happiness uh in terms of coaching the youngsters because if you look at India uh in today's world the the biggest challenge India is facing today is i'm sure that the the rest of the world even in China and certain other countries uh laying flat they don't want to work they're not motivated you know the there's all these concepts that are flying around especially in India the challenge is not that there is no employment the youth that is coming out of colleges are unemployable you know that's the biggest challenge that the country is facing because they're not work really they're learning a lot of theory there's learning a lot of you know theoretical knowledge but they don't know what it takes to you know perform a job what kind of skills critical skin they thinking skills or problem solving communication you know uh how do you deal with stress how do you prioritize your things so those are the things that actually give you a product to employ it to you so that you don't have to worry about you know you can go home and sleep uh well that somebody else is taking care of it and i don't have to worry about it rather than otherwise i remember when i was 35 and 40s i would always come back home and i've given this task to this guy is he going to be able to do it or not if he's never and i would always try to continuously micromanage and keep on pinging them saying that you know where is it what's going on you're actually learning to find that you're bugging them rather than letting them do their job okay okay get that out of the window so that they're skilled they they know you know that hey this guy can do it you know skilled them enough so that they can perform the job so you can you can go home and sleep sleep well evolving as a leader and my sense vent cat and just talking to you for the little bit of time before the interview and now is you know i would i would characterize you as a lifelong learner that solving problems and learning also would be one of the things you probably enjoy most now one of the obvious challenges you're not from the united states right but yet you came here you went to school here now you're opening a business here talk about maybe some of those things that you learn you know as you came from a different culture and you know are integrating a business into the culture in the united states yeah i mean it's it's a wonderful question uh jeff woman i'm glad that you asked that because uh as part of this interview i have one of the things that i wanted to do was uh for the young entrepreneurs that are out there who are coming from different countries to the united states because it's a big immigration uh how been it welcomes people from so many different countries which is one of the greatest traits of the country uh that it gives opportunity for so many different folks when you come from uh different car different country different cultural background where you grew up uh it's it's essential for folks to understand and blend into that culture so that you can be successful uh there you know you know you know early on when i when i moved to the united states when i was 25 it was a completely a cultural shock right you know you're trying to get used to the new ways of uh doing things like you know let's say i want to have a conversation with jeff about some sports my sports back is completely different we have cricket we have a bunch of other sports that probably you know people don't know any in the u.s haven't even heard so you have to learn the local things and trying to impose your things from where you come from i know you you want to be unique uh by bringing those uh cultural values but you still have to be open to learning the uh local cultures local customs local ways of doing it and that's one of the ways that uh uh that i've been able to uh really uh you know mold myself uh and then blend myself into the local community so that they don't look at me as an outsider because there is always that comfort that you have to give uh to the local community that you belong there rather than you are a foreigner kind of a feeling so fundamentally people need to be really really open to to learning the the local ways you know sometimes i hear folks coming from different countries and cultures saying that hey we don't need salads we don't need this we don't you know it's yeah you know that's great but you have to at least understand you know their food habits they're you know they're their lifestyles they're you know what what what what uh what kind of things that actually can have a good conversation you know with folks so that you blend yourself into that culture and uh and establish the the business there within the local ways of doing things yeah and even how you speak in your english is very good i mean you uh you wouldn't have any problem carrying on a conversation with some of the united states and using you know typical slang terms or other things that kind of fit that's uh that seems like part of kind of what you've learned as well yeah that's something you have to optimize yourself uh to the local ways i mean you cannot be a foreigner and then be a successful uh business man business man within a uh community right you know because networking is is one of the fundamentally important things if you want to be an entrepreneur you want to be an employee you can go work eight to five you come home and then shut your doors and nobody's going to bother you but uh you want to be in general you have to talk to the uh local you know legislators all the way up to different businessmen you're you know contemporaries your competition you're so many different things that you have to interact with and you have to acclimatize uh yourself because unless you acclimatize yourself to the local ways sometimes you may not even get the information um that you can actually uh like you know sba for example uh you go and talk to some folks you want to become you want to pick them as your mentors you're not going to get your own you know country person or your uh foreigner to mentor you there you're going to find someone who's local and you need to be hell stationed with them and and and become one of them one among them so that you're welcomed and then given the information and the knowledge that is specific to the local area okay yeah makes sense make sense so i know we're getting close on time are you okay for a few more questions yeah yeah i'm okay okay uh so maybe just if you can i mean talk a little bit about what you see in the united states for the future of the building industry maybe over the next 20 years what would you see happening well i mean that's a that's a very interesting uh question because i was actually reading an article about two over three years ago and global population um you know statistics where the population is is growing and then the changing um certain institutions like marriage as an institution and you know uh household formations uh as a as a statistic because historically in a days of 25 most of the kids would come out of college they would go out they would start you know uh uh working and then by 27 or you know below 30 they would get married they would build a home of their own and then start a meeting and then that's how you actually generate the need for new houses new commercial complexes new things that are as uh as structures that are uh that are out there as a need but these two statistics you know the the world population as uh per the um uh statistics by 2050 we're going to play toe it's going to reach the the maximum and you will stay there for the next you know 30 to 40 years and then it will start declining and especially in the United States it's today the the uh um total replacement rate you know if there are two wife and husband you have to produce two people to replace the two of them it's actually that it's about 1.6 or something like that so there is not enough replacement rate so you're not even producing that much so you actually fill them with you know uh more outside folks so that you bring it to you keep the employee the the population at at the same rate and that is going to stop in about 20 years from now you're not going to grow the population the deaths and births are almost going to be equal so the the the amount of houses that you build by 2050 are probably going to be sufficient for the whole world you're not going to build no more new house requirements are going to be there unless someone wants to they may even downsize rather than having the bigger houses that's one and then the second thing is the household formations you know the the people are getting uh married very late they're staying more with the parents and then even if they get married they're not having children uh you know uh or they're having children very late you know these are the trends that are actually driving the household formation down and there is actually this like that from 2026 onwards itself the single family homes numbers are going to be uh are declining in terms of uh uh and then more contemplations and more uh the the uh the elderly housing or you know people that are going to be about 50 kind of housing which are going to be having a smaller footprint those are the trends that are uh that are going to be uh you know I think we're going to start seeing over the next um you know 15 to 20 uh 20 years so and one of the reports that I was reading a real estate investment you know from 2040 onwards may become a you know uh lower on the rankings in terms of investment uh portfolio for a lot of people because there won't be too much of a new requirement even if you look at the roads you know there's autonomous uh you know uh driverless cars are coming and then cars are going to be blind uh you know there's a lot more uh you know uh drones kind of uh things that are going to come so infrastructure investment also probably is going to go around okay yeah and I would think if the need for for new houses or new buildings is reducing that we'll put a lot of pressure on the number of builders we have and uh and for you personally look at the business is the efficiency of those folks that are building are going to be the ones that survive potentially is that part of your thinking there yeah yeah I mean the the builders that are going to survive are uh who are going to adopt these newer conditions and make sure that they're you know changing their strategies from you know building the inventory where would you play you know do you want to play in a single family home you know probably you know with this statistics 20 30 20 40 onwards maybe you'd do more multifamily and uh you know uh homes that are going to cater to a different age uh age group so that you actually wall be yourself along with the population that's that's growing I mean population is still going to grow for the next 20 years but the dynamics are going to change people the way they they look at a house is going to change especially this virtual work you know people who could be sitting anywhere in the world and they could be working so there is no need for this suburban I know massive urbanization that happened between 1980s and 1990s right people could be working in a remote you know Guatemala and then still be serving the same same client so there is no requirement for for that you're going to be distributing these these houses so a rather than a consolidated concentrated housing developments you could be providing to distributed housing developments wherever people go and I've seen one statistic where you know kids coming out of college they're just going to build RVs and they're going to be trained in trailer homes and they're going to be traveling wherever they want they'll be working and then they they have a small tiny single-bedroom unit that's a trailer home they just actually then they'll be roaming around that's an yeah that's an interesting development I've heard something like that as well I think you know everything that happened in the pandemic you know with the ability to work remote and some of those jobs you know that are hybrid it opens up new ways of living which is it's very interesting I think kind of how that so every builder I think has to you know really understand to the space that they're you know specializing in and how that particular industry is going to get impacted based on these facts and statistics and adjust themselves and as a service provider I think we are you know very well positioned because we can serve any kind of client and we we have to continuously evolve ourselves but you know we're going to be serving different kind of clients and that's what he's going to you know hopefully keep us going for for a longer period of time I say okay that's good insight I appreciate that so one last question for you if you would and I you kind of alluded to a few things as you were talking you know a little bit about mentors but maybe you can talk about what kind of advice you'd have for a new entrepreneur a new founder somebody that might be taking him over a significant leader leadership position within a company I mean you know what I've learned over the years is I always had this drive and zeal to be an entrepreneur and you know to be being an entrepreneur is not the easiest thing that is out there so you really have to think hard you know you have to jump in at some point in time but there are you know you need to speak to folks that are out there that are really that have been there that have been through that people who actually gone back to becoming employers employees from being an employer you know try that for some time what didn't work for them you work for folks you know this is very important for folks who are trying to make a decision because you know fundamentally for me as a rule when I became an employer an entrepreneur for me the first and foremost important thing was how do I run payroll every month that's what I kept as a target if I can run payroll every month cash flow is automatically going to come if I can you know it's going to work on how do I generate cash flow so that basically my payroll is going to continuously run my employees are going to be happy and there you'd say say the child the cycle is going to keep you know the machine is going to keep running because they're going work then it creates more revenue and like that you know I can I can keep keep going so that was my fundamentally I looked at how do I make sure that there is enough you know cash flow resources that are kept in the in the system so that my payroll is not going to get impacted and second important thing that I would advise to the folks that are there that want to become an entrepreneur is it's going to be lonely very lonely nobody is going to be there especially when you're going through those you know from outside when you're working for for a company you could always be sitting there saying that hey what that manager's job I can do it very easily you know or you know all I do is whatever I do he's just taking it and then presenting and then he's getting the applause right a lot of people you know think it definitely crosses their mind you know I'm doing everything and he's just presenting it or what is an entrepreneur doing because all these employees are doing it so he's just you know enjoying the fruits of it but people don't see the amount of food that goes into it you know believe it or not it's it's the toughest thing that is out there that you can pick up on your own as a choice to make to be an entrepreneur is is you have to have the grit and the resolve and have the attitude of hanging on to the lost last straw don't leave you know if you unless you have that attitude don't get don't don't try to you know get into this entrepreneurship you have to have that because you're going to run into challenges you're going to pick battles that sometimes you may not have to you don't want to or you you're going to make decisions that are going to be some stupid decisions that you're going to make they're going to cause a lot of losses or other challenges but if you're on the right side so hang on to it till the last second because you know things are going to turn around at some point you have to have that grit and resolve to so that you can really figure out a way to turn things around and then move on with it rather than you know giving up hanging up the boots kind of attitude and if you don't have that you know it's better off you know stay as an employee you know give you give the best to your family and make sure that you're very comfortable and stress-free life and being in a brand is definitely stressful some people can go home and turn everything off and sleep I mean I can do that you know whatever the challenges that are out there I leave it at office and I will bring it home and I have a wonderful conversation as if nothing is happening and if someone actually looks yeah looks peeps into the into into my brain probably there's so many things that are that are you know that are going on at the same time but you act as if there's everything is is good and you have financial challenges for yourself as well as for your family and those are going to be the top first moments and family is also you know and I said lonely sometimes you are going to be truly lonely even your family is going to sit there and look at you you know how stupid why did you take this decision you're actually very comfortable there but you have to live through all those things and make sure that you you you will come out flying because if you've gained enough experience and then pick the right business definitely there's going to be need for it and you serve it with it with all your heart and soul and it will work but you have to be ready for all the you know ups and downs yeah and keep learning and adapting to all those challenges that come your way it sounds like right yeah yeah well Venkat boy I tell you again I think we could speak for another three hours if we wanted to I mean your story and your journey is so interesting and the business is very interesting I wish you well and as you continue to revolutionize the construction business around the world and I really appreciate you being on the show thank you so much Jeff for the opportunity and I truly appreciate giving the time and I think I I've been talking quite a bit I think there's a lot you can see the energy that I'm really motivated and energized by your questions and I truly appreciate you know bringing this on the show yeah I feel the energy from you you know as we talk and I think that's what gives me the energy to continue to talk to you if we have that time I think you know look I mean you're you're you're a lifelong learner you're somebody that enjoys this a lot and that's certainly what kind of has motivated you to continue to build something that's incredible so again thank you very much thank you so much and best wishes to you and your
