As a founder and start-up advisor, Arjun Agarwal knows first-hand that a business idea can only take flight when an entrepreneur has both the skills and mindset to give it wings. Arjun credits the Master of Entrepreneurship with helping him develop – and identify – the traits of a potential business success.
A successful entrepreneur needs way more than just a great idea. According to Arjun Agarwal, an aspiring founder needs a structured, step-by-step approach – and the character traits to weather the wild ride that is building a business.
That means resilience, grit and the humility to take advice: ‘The grace to fail, and fail often, and then keep going – that’s the primary marker of a decent founder,’ says Arj, a 2020 Master of Entrepreneurship alumnus. ‘Sometimes things don’t work out, and if you’re not asking why, you’ve probably already lost the battle.’
Founder of the fintech platform, Inaam, which empowers young people to invest in social-impact companies, Arj is also a portfolio manager at KPMG High Growth Ventures. The firm has more than 300 Australian start-ups in its portfolio including some of the countries’ best startups and scaleups. Offering non-dilutive capital, strategic financial advice and structuring to help businesses scale and grow, Arj is always on the lookout for visionaries with the right qualities to succeed.
‘The Masters gave me a very good lens to spot those characteristics, mindsets and traits,’ he says. ‘I’m no clairvoyant, but there are certain tell-tale signs: founders that take feedback, that value the wisdom of others.’
The self-described ‘black sheep’ of his family, Arj was born in India and raised in South Africa, where he studied finance and economics. ‘Hell-bent’ on becoming an investment banker, he had a successful career in the field, helping set up renewable energy infrastructure across India, but ‘struggled to find purpose’. He bridled against the ‘traditional approach’ of his colleagues and the industry itself: ‘I’m a very ‘let’s-break-shit-and-get-things-done’ person … so entrepreneurship just fits the bill.’
Arj wanted to immerse himself in people’s problems and find meaningful solutions. Turning his back on traditional MBAs, he found a ‘perfect blend’ of academic structure and real-life learning in University of Melbourne’s Master of Entrepreneurship, co-delivered with Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship.
‘Converting that side hustle to something that matters, or a business that can function independently without you, is a very long journey made up of multiple steps, and this course very clearly articulates what those steps are,’ says Arj. ‘Entrepreneurship can definitely be taught. There’s a level of personal growth that needs to happen, and this course addresses that as well.’ There’s a supportive culture, he adds, where students are encouraged to experiment and embrace failure.
The program covers the nuts and bolts of building a business, giving an essential toolkit to entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs alike. ‘Even if you’re at a big multinational company that’s going through a transformation, you need those skills,’ says Arj. ‘You can’t change something internally unless you’ve spoken to your stakeholders, identified the problem, built a test-flight model of what this new change looks like, and sold it to everyone in the organisation, so it can be finally funded and implemented.’
The Masters program also offers priceless exposure to Melbourne’s thriving start-up ecosystem, with guest speakers and networking events introducing students to potential investors and co-founders. ‘As an international student from India coming to Australia with nothing, those events were the only way I was able to build a network,’ says Arj. ‘That network has proven very valuable, both at a personal and professional level, because I know that if I need something, I can pick up the phone and call someone. If that person can’t do it, they’ll find someone who can.’
In an era of rising technologies that far surpass human thinking, Arj says the only thing that remains original is our ideas.
‘It’s being you, it’s being creative, it’s being innovative,’ he says. ‘And this course combines all of that together. The world is changing and this is probably one of the only programs in the world that will keep up with – if not beat – that change.’
This article first appeared on the University of Melbourne.
