He’s not only a CTO, but Rahul Agarwal, of Capri Global Capital, has experience in theatre and is a skillful story writer/ ad maker. Agarwal has even directed a play and received an award for it. His love for theatre began throughout his undergraduate days, which pushed him to be creative and flourished him as a person. Agarwal has also written, acted, and directed a play at a professional level. He says, “I was always interested in marketing, creative writing, and theatre.”
Adding a feather to his talent, he can make mouth-watering dishes and bake delicious cakes for his loved ones. “I love cooking and baking. I can bake walnut cakes and cook Pernetta pasta, Chole Bhature, Chicken. If there is a recipe, I can cook that dish”, he added.
His love for cooking and eating does not stop him from leading a healthy life. Considering health as his priority, he says, “My life priority is my health and, my maximum time goes to my health”. Agarwal loves to exercise and spend his time jogging and participating in various marathon events.
Along with his physical health, he also considered time as a vital component for a healthy life. Influenced by his father’s traits, Agarwal progressively realized the importance of time, which developed his punctual characteristic.
“I am from a business and Bania family, ROI is rooted in our blood. I cannot see money wasted. If somebody wastes money, it pains me a lot. Also, I like to be punctual; I believe you can lose people, but time is the only commodity that you never lose and, you always have it in your hands. So, I do not like people waiting for me and wasting mine or another person’s time,” Agarwal stated.
He also follows the 2- min principle which strengthens him to make decisions and clean up his mailbox with pending piled-up work. He ponders, “I follow the 2 min principle which says, if I can complete the work in next 2 min then we should do it without any second thoughts. This has helped me a lot to complete the work on time and not leave it pending.”
With his father as a businessman, Agarwal’s father was aware of the business challenges and never persuaded him to join the family business. Instead, he wanted him to stand on his own two feet and live a life of identity and self-taught lessons.
“It was pressure from my father. He never let me enter the shop. I still can’t sell anything of my father’s business. He thought, If I see money coming, I will not move further and do things on my own. As I am the only son with three sisters, there was never a partiality in my house. I did all my chores. Thus, I do not like to delegate my work or responsibility”, he added.
Coming from Alwar, Rajasthan, Agarwal completed his schooling in his hometown and went to Kota for two years. The support from the family to not necessarily follow the family business enabled him to pursue chemical engineering at IIT Delhi. He says, “IIT doesn’t teach you just technology, but also teaches you survival”.
Armed with survival skills due to his college, Agarwal says, at first, he did not particularly like technology and did his masters in chemical engineering. But time changed and, his interest in technology grew, making him like his first job in the tech field. “I feel I have so much to learn and grow in this field and grow, So, it’s a continuous process to develop and acquire more knowledge,” he expanded.
Worked as a CTO at Lava International, Policy Bazaar, Aakash Educational Services Limited, and now Capri Global Capital, Agarwal accomplished milestones for these businesses and uplifted their tech game in the market. Executing successful projects at big firms, he started his journey from a start-up architecture which made him more flexible, and developed his risk-taking attitude in his professional approaches.
Gained a marvelous experience with his work over the years, Agarwal feels the transformation from his early days to now has been tremendous. As a leader, Agarwal feels he has grown accepting and understanding of people’s strengths and shortcomings. Thus, it allows him to make the correct decisions and steer the ship in the proper way.
“To make other people work at their full potential is difficult you have to understand how much the other person can do and see their potential. I also understood that there is always a person, which believes the show must go on. So, I have inculcated that in my personality. I think I have grown a lot in the past five years,” he adds.
Moving on with his implacable goals, Agarwal enjoys spending time with his nine-year-old daughter and intends to invest additional time with her in the future. As a foodie, he will continue to travel and explore new eateries with his wife. “We love food hunting and, we know every food joint. I feel happy spending time with my family as they energize and motivate me to keep going further in life”, he added.
