[00:00:02 – 00:00:10] Nitin Bajaj

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the industry show. I’m your host, Nitin Bajaj, and joining me today is Harish Consul. Harish, welcome on the show.

[00:00:10 – 00:00:13] Harish Consul

Hey. It’s been great to meet. Thanks for having me.

[00:00:13 – 00:00:16] Nitin Bajaj

Pleasure is all mine. Let’s start with who is Harish.

[00:00:17 – 00:00:37] Harish Consul

Sure. So I’m an engineer, a lifelong entrepreneur, father to two amazing boys, an investor, a tennis player, and triathlete, and and Canadian. So So I grew up in Calgary, Alberta, and, lived in Vancouver about fifteen years and moved back to Calgary, which is our home now.

[00:00:38 – 00:00:54] Nitin Bajaj

So amazing. And you wear a lot of different hats, so looking forward to learning a little bit at least about each of those. Let’s start with OC Grow. Tell us what it is, the mission, vision, but also most importantly, what made you start this?

[00:00:55 – 00:01:23] Harish Consul

Sure. So, Okro is our diversified investment global fund, active in real estate and venture capital. You know, our Okro Ventures Fund is is active in many tech centers, global verticals like AI, health and longevity, SaaS companies, and so on. And our vision is really to help scale the world’s best founders and to become, you know, dominant forces to help humanity over the long term.

[00:01:24 – 00:01:28] Nitin Bajaj

Big vision and rightly so considering your strong shareholders.

[00:01:29 – 00:01:30] Harish Consul

Thanks so much.

[00:01:30 – 00:01:40] Nitin Bajaj

Tell us you know, give us a sense of the the size and scale, specifically around the types of companies and geographies you invest in.

[00:01:40 – 00:02:32] Harish Consul

Sure. So and just some background if I can. So I started, and and sold several businesses, several companies when I was fairly young. And so I did, you know, decided the best ways to form a fund to invest globally in these verticals. We really have a global focus, and we’re only interested in hundred x opportunities Mhmm. That we can make a significant impact, you know, move the needle. We are very fortunate, with them to be early investors in Amazon and Shopify. And so, you know, that’s led to many other opportunities for us. And so we focus now mostly early stage pre series a, series a venture deals. That stage, companies have to have product market fit. They have to have real customers and revenues ramping up. So we don’t do Consul seed rounds. We do slightly later stages, to help them scale. Yeah.

[00:02:32 – 00:02:37] Nitin Bajaj

And is there a specific geography you invest in North America, India?

[00:02:39 – 00:02:53] Harish Consul

We we invest globally. So we’re very active. Obviously, we started out in in North America, Canada, US primarily, but now we’re investing in The Middle East and India and and and Europe and and Africa. So, yeah, we take a global approach based here in Canada. Yeah.

[00:02:53 – 00:02:58] Nitin Bajaj

That’s amazing. And then you get to be around the most beautiful parts of the world, Banff and Jasper.

[00:02:59 – 00:03:05] Harish Consul

So Yeah. Thank you. It’s a it’s amazing spot, and we’re really lucky. So encourage everybody to come visit.

[00:03:06 – 00:03:08] Nitin Bajaj

I should be number one on the list. So

[00:03:09 – 00:03:11] Harish Consul

Absolutely. I look forward to it.

[00:03:12 – 00:03:32] Nitin Bajaj

Now amongst many of these opportunities and especially at a global level and considering, you know, how things are fluid and dynamic, especially in today’s time and age, Obviously, you’re dealing with a lot, but I would love for you to highlight the one big challenge that, you and your team are facing.

[00:03:33 – 00:04:25] Harish Consul

So, you know, it’s a great question. You know, by far, there’s no question the biggest challenge is the pace of change is exponential. So we’re always learning, trying to stay ahead of the curve. You know, we have never seen such a fastest pace in history of human civilization. Everything’s getting faster with AI. And so the challenge of our entire team is really how fast can we learn at at these incredible speeds. And, you know, to use a tennis analogy, we wanna go where the ball is going.

You know, be ahead of of the industry, and that’s where we’re investing. And, you know, we’re really fortunate being a VC funds. Sometimes we think we’ve got a front row seat into the future because we’re hearing these amazing ideas from founders all over the world who are living in the early stage. And and so, yeah, it’s very exciting. But but the challenge is keeping up with all the information, absorbing it all, learning it all, and and that’s absolutely critical.

[00:04:27 – 00:04:32] Nitin Bajaj

Now on the flip side of challenges come opportunities, what’s the one that’s most exciting?

[00:04:33 – 00:05:30] Harish Consul

Yeah. There’s no question, India by far is the biggest opportunity for us. So I’ve always been a big believer in the huge rise of India and, you know, as as as you know as well, I mean, the the dominant force globally is is the India story, in our opinion. We’re seeing it in in every sector. You know, we’ve India has gone from, you know, twentieth GDP to number three. It’s gonna keep rising in many areas. It’s an incredibly educated workforce.

It’s a very young population. You’ve got this rise of the middle class. So we’re seeing many consumer opportunities, you know, with UPI, and Aadhaar, and data analytics and all of these areas. So, yeah, it’s very exciting. And and so and and, you know, as you as you may know, Canada is a very multicultural, society. So there’s a lot of Indians moving to Canada, Entrepreneurs moving to Canada. So there’s a lot of ties and both in India and and globally here.

[00:05:30 – 00:05:57] Nitin Bajaj

Yep. It is a fascinating opportunity. I I agree with you. Now as we look forward, I would love to pause and reflect and ask you to share two moments from your professional or personal life. One where things did not work out as you had expected and there was failure and lessons, And another where things exceeded your own expectations and became a success beyond your imagination.

[00:05:58 – 00:07:23] Harish Consul

Oh, no. Those are amazing questions. Let me think failure. So I I would I’m gonna use a business lesson here that really everyone can hopefully, get some value of. So, you know, we all have leverage in our business, certain amounts of leverage. And we had a company, that used too much leverage. Obviously, leverage can accelerate gains, but you’ve gotta be very careful. So this company had too much leverage on the balance sheet.

It affected them, and, the company, you know, folded. So that was a very hard lesson, and I believe you learned the most in those adversity, those hard lessons, in life. And so you gotta be very careful, in terms of a personal, success lesson. So I I’m a big sports believer in the power of sports. So, I I you’ve gotta always stretch your comfort zone, and I have a huge, mandate, of that was so I was I was never a great swimmer. I learned swimming very, very late. I couldn’t do one length in the pool, and a buddy of mine got me in the pool.

I wanted to learn. I was in my early forties, and I I started swimming. And slowly, slowly, I got trained. And before you know it, I was doing sixty, eighty lengths in Olympic level triathlon.

So you know what? That was a huge lesson for me that stretch yourself. You can do it in that power of mindset. So I I, there’s there’s one.

[00:07:24 – 00:07:28] Nitin Bajaj

That is amazing. I mean, that that inspires me because I can’t swim either.

[00:07:29 – 00:07:38] Harish Consul

Yeah. I know. I know.

It’s never too late. Believe me. I I was a horrible swimmer. So, yeah, it’s, and it’s such a great exercise. Right? Great workout. Yeah.

[00:07:38 – 00:07:58] Nitin Bajaj

So true. Now in terms of, you know, we kinda touched upon this. You mentioned tennis, obviously, now swimming. But I’d love to see if there is any other things that, you like to do to de stress or just even kinda disconnect from from what you would qualify as work?

[00:07:58 – 00:08:32] Harish Consul

Yeah. Absolutely. So we love to have fun. It’s all about family, for us.

So, very close family. We do a lot of things. We travel a lot all over the world. We race together with the kids, but, you know, we were just in Dubai camel riding.

You know, we’re going to India. We’re going, all kinds of places. And I think, you know, it just bonds everybody together, and it it’s a it’s a lot of fun. So, yeah, I know it’s all everything is really around family, and that’s how I de stress. And, it’s I think it’s it’s great to build those values early if you’ve got kids. So yeah.

[00:08:32 – 00:08:43] Nitin Bajaj

So true. Now in terms of, any any book or podcast recommendations that, you would like to share?

[00:08:43 – 00:09:07] Harish Consul

Absolutely. So I I read a ton of of both the books and podcasts. Some books, I’d recommend Wise Guy by Guy Kawasaki, great book. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, of Nike, of course. One I read just recently, Be Useful, Arnold Schwarzenegger, amazing book, highly recommended. So, yeah, those those, there’s three there.

[00:09:08 – 00:09:15] Nitin Bajaj

Great recommendations. I Thank you. Especially like, Shunai, especially considering what Nike is going through right now.

[00:09:15 – 00:09:18] Harish Consul

Exactly. Isn’t it?

It’s a great book. Yeah.

[00:09:18 – 00:09:25] Nitin Bajaj

Now onto my favorite part of the show, Harish. We call this the one nine life lessons. I’d love for you to share your life lessons with us.

[00:09:26 – 00:10:02] Harish Consul

Yeah. You bet. So I I totally agree. I love these, kind of zingers, and and I I live and breathe by them. So my one of my best ones is always stay hungry. You know, hungry to learn, hungry to grow. That’s really important in life, I believe.

Keep stretching your comfort zone. Surround yourself by an incredible positive circle of influence, And and that circle keep rising, think big and move fast. And and just, you know, in in life, enjoy the day, but keep rising. So

[00:10:02 – 00:10:44] Nitin Bajaj

Love that. And what I love the most is the clarity of thought. And especially, you know, we we talked about children and and giving them these foundational, principles so they can build their own, journey from there on. So, but also extremely true for entrepreneurs and executives, as we continue to grow as, in our roles. So, Harish, thank you so much for making the time to share your journey and story and especially the one line life lessons.

We really appreciate it and, continue being you. You’re amazing. Awesome. And we’d love to bring you back on and, talk about more of your successes.

[00:10:45 – 00:10:51] Harish Consul

Thank you so much, Nitin. All the kind words and absolute pleasure. So, thanks for, leading the show.

[00:10:52 – 00:10:53] Nitin Bajaj

Thank you. Really appreciate it.

[00:10:53 – 00:10:55] Harish Consul

Yep. My pleasure. Take care.