High Fidelity
A phone call that changed my career The year was 2004. I was fresh off the launch of Franklin India’s Flexi Cap Fund, one of the largestNFOs of those times. My experience with Franklin Templeton had taught me the importance ofdistributor engagement, and it helped generate strong business. At that time, there was a buzz […]
Login FinTech
Fortunately for me, the tailwind of Fintech had just begun in 2014. So I was lucky to get a phone call from Mr Karan Datta, the then Chief Business Officer of Axis Mutual Fund. Karan had references from a few IFAs stating that I was enthusiastic about tech and discussed an opportunity to work on […]
Does M&A help retail investors?
An engineering conglomerate acquiring the world’s largest asset manager assets L&T enters the ‘turbulent’ mutual fund business without an edge. I read this article in early 2010. First, a quick disclaimer – I am not a registered investment advisor. Hence, my opinion on either L&T or L&T Finance shouldn’t be considered a stock recommendation or […]
India’s First Fund Supermarket
Today for an Indian retail investor, many investment platforms are available online. In 2006, many platforms / administrative tools existed in the U.K. market to aggregate investments. This archive post of the Financial Times post listed the big brands then which were operating these platforms. In early 2008, Fidelity launched their new mutual fund distribution business in […]
A fund which gave 10x returns in 10 years (1993-2003)
Mutual Funds > Insurance During one of my sales calls in 2002 at HDFC Standard Life with one of the financial consultants, I discovered product leaflets related to mutual funds. One of the product documents was very compelling, and it was Franklin Templeton. The product document, application form, and fact sheet were excellent. So I […]
bizarre: Career switch from “Tech” to “Life Insurance.”
Having experienced the hardships of an early-stage startup, I aspired for a prominent brand in the IT sector. Therefore I was working on getting leads to get placed in a large corporate / brand. Unfortunately, none of the large IT firms considered me as I lacked engineering graduation. There were a couple of offers from […]
Jumping into the dot-com bubble
Demand for Tech > Supply In 1996, I graduated in Commerce from a Tier II college in Bangalore. However, my dad wanted me to enter the sunrise sector, software / IT. How could a commerce graduate get into the tech industry? Lo, there were many bridge courses – two and three-year diploma courses to skill […]