CEO Insights India

Succeeding in the present competitive market can be very difficult for businesses that don't keep a tab on rapidly evolving industry trends and technological advancements. Having witnessed enterprises going through hardships to raise capital for their businesses throughout his career inspired Sandeep Singh Katiyar (CEO, Yellow Mount Capital) to fund the promising entrepreneurs resuscitating their businesses and gradually emerge as a prominent magnate himself. Prolific Retail finance and Real Estate professional, Sandeep possesses significant Management and Leadership experience via his previous engagements with some of the pioneering brands such as Century 21 India, Citigroup, Café coffee day group. Certified by Vanguard, UK for franchising business, Sandip is recognized as one of the prominent pecuniary professionals in the country with more than two decades of exemplary experience in all aspects of business management. Owing to his strongly developed entrepreneurial capabilities across a diverse range of business sectors, Sandeep is currently responsible for the formulation of corporate strategy and management, along with the development of YMC's growth and diversification plans. Founded in 2015 with a vision to build dreams for entrepreneurs in India, YMC strives to bridge the funding gap and empower disruptive thinkers across the country by providing capital to startups and offering them a management tool kit on corporate governance, financial discipline, and industry best practices.

Sandip engages in an exclusive interaction with CEO Insights.

Share some rudimentary lessons of entrepreneurship that will be beneficial for the present day entrepreneurs?
Raising capital can be a very tough job for a businessman, without a smart plan, an apt financial background. A perfect grip over market research can enable the entrepreneurs to have a good

understanding of the business investments, how the market functions, the unique proposition offered by the business, the financials and the intricacies involved in it, the market for the particular business, and so on. Once all the above mentioned factors are perfectly aligned, you will be able to raise the capital. Although a few people tend to think of this phase or success as their biggest achievement, the real game begins after raising the capital, which is the deployment of capital and that is even more difficult. If you have understood the strategy behind smartly deploying the capital, you will definitely succeed as an entrepreneur.

How are you leveraging your industry experience across your present business operations?
Owing to my previously occupied senior leadership positions and strong banking background, I tend to understand the intricacies involved in the finance domain. My real estate background also favored me a lot to understand the nuances of the real estate industry. Since most of the businesses are comprehensively based on real estate at present, a good understanding of real estate helps me to visualize and evaluate their real estate expenses. My expertise in sales and marketing helped me to analyze the tools and strategies somebody should have to successfully establish a particular product in the market. Having a really good bird's eye view of all the afore mentioned factors gives me a comprehensive understanding to assess and engage in any business.


Share with us more about your company's offerings and how are they benefiting the entrepreneurs in their ventures?
Being a private equity com asset management company, we help our clients in furthering their business to

different geographicallocations, expanding the network and reaching their target market. Assisting them by funding their growth capital, the most important ingredient for our involvement is the availability of the proof of concept and sizable revenue generation to demonstrate that the businesses have been accepted by the market. So, we prefer people who have the vision to culminate into realtime revenue generation and those are the entrepreneurs we look forward to working with. Equipped with an experienced team of professionals excelling in senior management and leadership roles, we do the mentoring for the businesses by engaging in the necessary brainstorming.

Share some of the innovative strategies you put forward to align your organization with your vision and mission? How do you generate value for your organization?
As a simple strategy, you have to understand the three most important things, which are, what do you want to create? When do you want to create? And do you have all the required ingredients for a product or a clear market mesh? After you are sure about that, deploying and apportioning money for respective marketing channels and making it an effective way to reach out to your audience is the most difficult part, as its success will pragmatically affect the course of your business. With time the medium to reach out to the targeted audiences has changed significantly and now the trend of social media platforms such Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are increasing across the marketing vertical. Since they have emerged as a medium to reach out to people and generate more awareness about the product, it is crucial to understand the use of social media to excel in entrepreneurial ventures.

Sandeep Singh Katiyar, CEO, Yellow Mount Capital
Sandeep possesses an MBA from ICFAI Business School, ICWAI(I) and is also a Member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyor (RICS), as well as a certified Franchise Trainer from Francorp U.K. With more than two decades of experience in senior leadership and business head roles throughout his career, Sandeep holds expertise in retail finance, channel management, risk management, brand management, franchise financing, venture funding, real estate broking and advisory.