Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business?
Girish Bhise: Prior to starting ValueAdd Research, I have worked in various leadership roles for ~15 years, at various organizations including Morgan Stanley, Capgemini, Sutherland Global, Moody’s Analytics and Aranca. And I have serviced large clients including Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, JP Morgan, and HSBC, with a team of 120 research analysts across India, Sri Lanka, and Costa Rica. During 2012-14, I realized that the boutique to mid-market financial institutions including investment banks, asset managers, hedge funds, wealth management firms, brokerage and trading firms, and PE/VC firms, were growing exponentially and were looking for more dynamic research support across equity, fixed income, and macro research. I saw this trend as an opportunity and started ValueAdd Research and Analytics Solutions, in 2015, in Mumbai, by investing all my savings; with no anchor client, and one Bloomberg terminal. And 7 years fast forward, today we have 40+ clients across the globe with offices in New York and Mumbai.
Great Companies: What are the various services provided by ValueAdd Research and Analytics Solutions LLP
Girish Bhise: Our research solutions include investment banking research, public and private equity valuations, fixed income and credit research, SRI/ESG research, industry analysis, market research, competitor benchmarking, M&A research and valuation, and financial due diligence. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions include delivering/ developing innovative services and products that are backed by a strong capital market and consulting research domain. We offer these services on a Retainer or on a Bespoke basis.
Majority of the engagements we deliver include delivering actionable research, including the following:
delivering investment research with buy/hold/sell recommendations across equities and credits
originating ideas in high yield, stressed/distressed debt space; and providing maintenance support
delivering private company valuation for the companies raising Seed and Series A/B funding
delivering M&A deal support across the deal value-chain. And the support includes, pitchbook, information memorandum, valuation, investor presentation
drafting sections of Draft Red Herring Prospectus, investor presentations for roadshows, and writing IPO grading notes
Great Companies: What makes ValueAdd Research and Analytics Solutions LLP different from hundreds of other similar service providers?
Girish Bhise: The outsourcing industry is more matured in last 2 decades. The clients’ expectations are hitting the roof. They do not expect us to deliver simple financial spreads, data entry, and template filling support. And being a young and dynamic firm, we are well-positioned to deliver a high value to the client. We differentiate across target segments, scope of work, hiring, training, and most importantly the client servicing. At ValueAdd Research, I have set up some best practices by combining the learning from working with large clients and the large firms listed above. In 2020 during COVID, ~70% of the business came through repeat business and client referrals from our existing clients, that is a strong testimony of our delivery quality and service delivery.
Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them?
Girish Bhise: We have faced almost the same challenges that any corporate or a start-up would have faced. The challenges across, new client acquisition, beating the tough competition, right-staffing, training, client retention, and employee retention. However, we did a couple of things differently that helped us navigate through these challenges successfully,
a) took the problems head-on and implemented the permanent solutions and never sought for quick fixes; and never compromised on our business principles and ethics
b) we aways listened to our clients and their business problems/ challenges and tweaked our offerings. ‘Being relevant’ has always helped us win more business!
c) collaborated with our clients and teams to ensure a win-win solution,
d) hiring the right talent with the research DNA, on-time rotation/promotions/rewards help in better employee retention,
e) I always lead from front with a die-hard approach to resolve all the challenges, and
f) our attitude of “challenges bring more opportunities and growth” helps us be positive in our actions.
During COVID-19, while the entire world struggled moving to remote working, we switched to remote within a day, as our systems and processes were attuned to remote working.
Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for ValueAdd Research and Analytics Solutions LLP?
Girish Bhise: Next 5 years look very promising for ValueAdd’s clients, and thus for ValueAdd and its employees! We have concrete plans to scale the firm from hereon. The firm has plans to penetrate further into research services offering by i) winning new clients, and ii) expanding or enriching the scope of work of our existing clients. The firm is aggressively working on offering innovative research products to our clients, with ‘LIBOtran’ product already in the market and is aimed to help commercial banks successfully and smoothly transition from LIBOR; and another financial research product in beta stage. As a founder, I have a vision of offering the cutting-edge research services and product offerings (PAAS) to the investment research industry in next 5 years.
Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?
Girish Bhise: If one is focused on offering a continuous ‘value’ to clients, then you are always in business, and an attractive ‘valuation’ would follow! The current environment is tempting to start a new ‘start-up’, however the real challenge is in making it a profitable venture and scaling it to the next level, despite all the odds that you see currently. So, if you are the one with a fire in your belly, a street-smart guy (i.e., work seamlessly from ordering office stationery to presenting a million-dollar proposal in your client’s board room in New York), the one who is determined to make a difference to your clients’ businesses and to the life of your team members, and give back to the society, then go for it!
Website : https://www.valueadd-research.com/
All the very Best Girish...Always good to read about your success.