Meet Varun Chandran, the young entrepreneur who was recently in town for the Kerala Youth Icon Award 2016-17
Words by: Shalet James & Hazel Austin Images: Corporate 360
Many examples exist around us. The lives of icons like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffett and many more show us that it’s not just the good genes that matter. Grit and determination are the values that shine through in the success stories of these individuals. FWD Business was fortunate to have interviewed one such enterprising individual who is set to make a difference with his work.
Meet Varun Chandran, CEO of Corporate360, who was recently awarded the Kerala Youth Icon Award 2016-17 by State Government for making a mark in the field of industrial entrepreneurship. Born and brought up in a village in Kollam district, this college dropout now heads a big data software company, headquartered in Singapore, and with operations spanning across four continents.
Life was by no means a cakewalk for Varun during his growing up years. His father worked as a head load worker and had to toil hard for a living. Recalling his early days Varun says, “I began building my ambitions seeing my dad and village life. I wanted to help my family in whatever way I could and even as a teenager I would do physical labour to help my father. It was when I developed a penchant for sports that my life began to get on track.”
On some gentle probing over his life-changing moments, Varun is nonchalant. He emphasizes that there was no particular moment that encouraged him to change his life. In fact, he believes it could probably be attributed to a series of moments that helped drive the change. A genial smile across his face, he chipped in that like all kids his age then he too was fascinated by the big trucks that roared past the muddy roads of his village and he secretly wished to be a driving one of those big vehicles when he grew up. But somewhere deep inside he knew he was meant for more and his love for football became the game-changer.
The game ‘Football’ changed my life
Speaking of football, Varun’s eyes light up and he sits up straighter on the couch, a new energy in his self as he goes on to mention that it was his love for football that got him a scholarship in Trivandrum via the state’s sports quota. He captained the university team and state junior team there. He took home the gold medal for best junior state footballer by the Kerala Football Association. But life had different plans for this young man. A ligament injury on the shoulder meant Varun had to step out of the Santosh Trophy Football camp. Not one to lose hope, Varun hopped onto a bus to Bangalore where he spent several months job-hunting. A mind-boggling 48 interviews later, he got through with a call centre job. Varun laughs as he recalls that after a few interviews he spotted a recurring pattern in the questions and very determinedly decided he was going to crack the interviews by rehearsing the questions beforehand. But poor communication skills in English got him fired three months into the job.
Putting together his meagre savings, he enrolled himself in an English training program and also for a software training course. After nine long months of struggling hard to keep multiple jobs, Varun finally managed to secure the position of a business consultant in SAP & Oracle technologies. New job opportunities began to come his way and he was soon flying to San Francisco on an assignment.
Inspiring words of his mentor
Varun finds a lot of inspiration in the life of footballer I.M Vijayan who grew up selling peanuts and soda in football stadium galleries but went on to become the greatest Indian footballer. “He made his name despite all the hardships. If you believe in yourself, there is nothing that will stop you from fulfilling your dreams,” adds Varun.
An inherent sense of curiosity and his thirst for knowledge made him seek greener pastures and in the year 2008, Varun moved to Singapore where he began coding a software tool for himself during his spare time off his job. His innovation gained him a lot of appreciation among his colleagues and eventually, in the year 2013, his venture Corporate 360 (C360) became a reality. “How can we use all the data on the web to make companies grow and sell more?” was the question that Varun was constantly pondering over.
Applying data science technologies, we can procure intelligence from online platforms. “I started experimenting and initially opened a website for 400$. After a few months we received an order of 500$,” said Varun.
Corporate360 provides marketing intelligence to help companies prospect data for their marketing campaigns. The company is a business to business (B2B) product company. Some of the world’s largest IT-companies and tech startups are now C360 clients. “We bring industry specific sales relevance data to the customer, which enables them to create highly targeted sales campaigns aimed at the right people at the right time with the right messaging,” emphasized Varun.
Corporate 360 follows a very process driven integrated marketing plan. The company provides educational blogs and video tutorials for clients. “We do a lot of work on content and we talk to our clients regularly, get their feedbacks.”
His dream was to open an office back in his hometown and Varun has made his villagers proud by doing just that and opening an office in Pathanapuram in Kerala. “I want to create opportunities for people in my hometown and for rural youth. We do not lack talent but lack opportunities there. There will be so many like me who have the drive to make things happen. I am going after them,” he says.
Committed to social empowerment the employees of Corporate360 also volunteer in community development projects in rural areas such as digital education and provide scholarships for students, assist with housing & sanitation projects, school bus & ambulance service, food subsidy, sports development. Today, Corporate360 has created over 300 jobs and distributed over half a million dollars in wages and impacted over 600 families from rural villages.
The Kerala branch has about 80% of women employees and when asked about the reason behind this move, Varun smiles and says, “They are the ones who build the future. I want to create awareness among women to be independent. My mom struggled a lot in life. I hope I can groom a generation of super women. In fact, my wife is the Co-founder of Corporate360 and whenever we go for meetings, I introduce her as the VP and Co-founder of the company to everyone. Her support and guidance are immensely important in the company’s growth,” exclaimed Varun.
A true entrepreneur at heart Varun says his mantra for success has been to find a problem that can be solved and to try and build a product to solve that problem.
The company’s flagship product, Tech SalesCloud, a cloud software is designed for B2B marketers to avail comprehensive marketing campaign data services powered by Big Data, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Predictive Analytics, Competitive Intelligence, Contacts Intelligence and Human Intelligence. Today, the three-year-old company has crossed the million-dollar-mark and has big plans ahead.
On Artificial Intelligence
Admitting that it is an amazing technological advancement happening in the industry, Varun is quick to pitch in that AI is hardly a threat to humans. We will continue to evolve because we are continually tuned towards inventing new things and creating new opportunities he says. From a technology perspective, he cautions against remaining stagnant and quips that upgrading one’s skills will allow one to get jobs in such emerging technologies. He believes with the right policies, right funding support, right training and exposure and right ecosystem, the collaboration between government and private sector will come up with new job opportunities in these areas.
Motorcycle Diaries
Speaking of his hectic travel schedule, we ask him if he gets tired of the constant travel and living out of suitcases. Varun replies in the negative with an amused expression and goes on to say he’s an avid traveller. He confesses to being a big fan of Che Guevara, the iconic Marxist guerrilla commander and is quick to bring up the movie on him -The Motorcycle Diaries. He regales us with anecdotes from the movie, particularly about the road trips and seems at ease as he waits out the last few hours before his midnight flight back to Singapore.
Mesmerized by the simplicity of this successful young man, we ask him what would be his message to the youth of today and Varun says it’s simple, “Be yourself, be honest. Avoid being judgmental, make friends who are not judgmental and with whom you can be yourself. Have a purpose in anything you want to do in life. Make a difference with your work”