Kaustuban’s life is not a fancy story of genius ideas and overnight wealth. In fact, it is something that most people can relate to as he is a first generation entrepreneur who started with a stint in the corporate world for about 8 years, startups for about 7 years, took a 3-year break from any money making activity and then running his own business for the past 5 years.
Having worked in large corporates from early 2000s like HDFC Standard Life, Max New York Life & Reliance Mutual Fund, in 2012, he joined a startup and set up the core business team across geographies. He setup the distribution network and expanded it from 1 city to 441 cities across the globe with about 1000 distributors in a span of 4 years. The firm got ranked as one of the fastest growing fin-tech start-up by Financial Times in 2016. The total market value of projects funded being 1.3 billion US dollars i.e. roughly Rs.10,000 crores. It is notable that in the first 15 years of his career when he was employed Kaustuban got promoted 13 times proving to be a valuable and trustworthy employee raising from a Junior trainee to be the Global Head of Business. From 2018, Kaustuban has been building a few of his own ventures which is well diversified across industries like Interior Designing, Real Estate Investing / Broking, Home Improvement & Wealth Management.
Since early 2000s, Kaustuban has worked with some of the best Financial Planners, Portfolio Managers and Private Bankers from across the globe which gives him a distinct view of the wealth management and personal financial planning Industry. He became an avid reader of financial planning & wealth management related books in addition to having access to the best financial planners across the globe, made him so passionate about retirement planning that he achieved financial freedom and financially retired at the age of 33. He has been investing in the capital markets, real estate & metals for over two decades and considers himself a highly conservative investor. For him every number depicts a story which helps him to quickly differentiate between opinions and facts which makes his decision making thorough, rapid & precise. He believes the key to taking decisions is knowing very clearly what one doesn’t know and things one cannot control.
Kaustuban says “In business and investing there are reasons and results, reasons just don’t matter.”
After he retired, Kaustuban travelled extensively, spent time with his close friends and family, played a lot of sport especially cricket - badminton and watched a bunch movies. He read a lot of material on minimalism during this period which would later on translate to him naming his first venture Clutterfree. Post three years of doing non business or non money making activities, Kaustuban decided to set up a business that reflects his personality and values.
Kaustuban in the early years of business, bootstrapped it and tided through the peak of covid with disciplined planning and forecasting. Meritocracy and trust is the foundation with which he is building his business.The ventures Kaustuban is involved in are run by professionals and pass outs of some of the most sought after educational institutions including engineering colleges & management schools like BITS Pilani, National institute of Design-Ahmedabad, Chartered Accountants & Certified financial planners with deep industry expertise. Advisors & Share holders in his businesses include veterans from the industry like Ex-Shriram Capital CEO, Ex Bookmyshow CEO, Voltas Beko CEO (TATA Product), CEO & Founding team of Myntra-Founder Workspaces & Director-Standard Chartered Bank (Singapore).
Kaustuban feels he has benefited immensely from mentors that he has had through his life. He firmly believes that he should also pass on the practical knowledge & experience he has gained to the younger generation or anyone aspiring to do more and be more. He actively mentors & handholds aspiring entrepreneurs and students. He has been invited as a Chief guest, panelist and speaker in various forums including colleges like Madras Christian College, IBS-Mumbai & PES college-Bangalore.
With un-ending optimism and bias for action, Kaustuban is building an organisation with great workplace culture and values.
Current positions held by Kaustuban
Founder & CEO - Clutterfree Proptech Pvt Ltd
Co-founder - Innercirckle Family Office LLP
