In the second instalment of our Guru Spotlight series, we meet Vivek Ravi, who is a Product Manager in our Risk and Compliance department.
Vivek joined EstateGuru in our Tallinn office seven months ago and is originally from Chennai, India. It’s a common occurrence in the office that, whenever you hear people bursting out in laughter, you can be sure Vivek is involved. Read on to see why.
Question: Hi Vivek, and thanks for joining us today. First up, what would you say is your mission at EstateGuru?
Answer: My personal mission is learning more in the risk and compliance space and helping EstateGuru to not only comply with the regulations, but also to make this compliance a hassle-free process for any investor who wants to use our platform. I want to make this a very low-risk investment product that is accessible to everyone and help them achieve some form of financial independence.
Q: EstateGuru’s key values are growth orientation, boldness, freedom, honesty, determination and empathy. Do you experience these values in your daily life? Which is the one that you see the most in practice?
A: Yes, I definitely experience these. Since I’ve spent about seven months with EstateGuru now and it is almost on a daily basis that I see at least one of the values being exhibited in the office and I see all these values exhibited by the employees. So, if I had to pick just one, I would say I see empathy almost on a daily basis being shown multiple times by all the employees. Whether it is from the product side or the investor side, I see that they are always empathetic and I feel that all these other values stem from this, that the root is empathy. So you can be growth-oriented, but at the same time, if you are not empathetic enough, it’s easier to reach heights and then fall down immediately or without sustainably scaling your business. The same goes for boldness or freedom or honesty towards your investors. It all comes because you are empathetic enough to understand the product, in general, and to be transparent enough to actually give out all the information to the investors in advance to help them make a choice that best suits them. So yes, empathy is the best quality that I have seen in the EstateGuru group.
Q: What do you like most about working at EstateGuru?
A: The team that I’m with. Since my first day, everyone has been really supportive and they also all make an effort to actually talk to you and understand you. And not only professionally, but also personally, they put a lot of effort into the overall development of every employee. And it is this support and this team bonding that I’ve seen, which has made me fall in love with the company.
Q: Let’s move away from the work a bit. Tell us something interesting about yourself. What do you do in your free time? What makes you ‘You’? What are your quirks?
A: I don’t have many quirks, but I perform stand up comedy at least once or twice a month. And I’ve been doing that for a few years now. And I think that’s what takes up all my personal time, trying to come up with jokes, trying to think of new things, trying to modify my performance each time and improve, in that sense, it is getting out of my comfort zone and trying to make people laugh. It’s the biggest challenge I’ve taken in my personal life and I’m happy. You can usually catch me at any open mic night in Tallinn, Estonia.
Q: If you could give some advice to people who would like to join EstateGuru what would it be? Why should exceptional talents join EstateGuru?
A: This is a company that hasn’t reached its peak yet. It’s a growing company and the growth that has already happened is exceptional. So any exceptional talent joining will get an opportunity to learn and grow together with the company. And that’s not an easy way out for anyone, or an easy choice to make when it comes to the options that you have joining different companies, some have grown too fast, some have grown too big, some are just starting up. And there is a lot of ambiguity. So I feel that at EstateGuru you get the perfect balance between the challenges that are thrown at you and the learning that you can get from this to boost your career in general.
I would say anyone wanting to join should be ready to take initiative. As an organization, I feel that EstateGuru respects ideas from its employees. There have been many instances when I have given some new solutions or new ideas to the management team or to my superiors and they have been really welcoming and encouraged me to move on with it. So it is somewhere I feel that if you do not make an effort, or take an initiative to try to change things, it will be very difficult or your life will be very stagnant. So I feel people with the initiative, people who are passionate about what they do, these people will fit right in.
Q: Thank you very much for your time Vivek. Just one last question. What’s your favourite joke?
A: What do a poor pole vaulter and I have in common?
We both hit the bar more often than we should.
Want to join our awesome team? Check out the vacancies on our jobs page here
