My Journey with Urban Company
By – Nitesh Agarwal (Business, Product & Supply Chain)
Five years ago, I decided to switch careers and leave consulting to join this young budding start-up now called Urban Company (formerly UrbanClap). I knew it had a great team, capable founders, and a very pleasant looking app. I am not sure if any of those were the reasons for me to switch and join a start-up at a pay cut. I wasn’t even sure if I’d fit in. I was just eager to learn and wanted to survive at least 1 year in a start-up. Before I knew it, 3 years had flown by and my adoration for UC, its team and its mission kept growing deeper. Today, as UC has given me an opportunity to participate in its 3rd sale of ESOPs for employees, I thought I should share what is it like being at UC.
“I want to use this opportunity to talk a bit about my relationship with UC. What differentiates UC from other startups is the work ethics, meritocratic culture, and work ownership. To add to it, the difference we make to the lives of our partners, makes our work very fulfilling.”
Towards the end of 2018, despite an extremely rewarding career at UC, I decided to get more adventurous and tried my hands at building some other businesses from scratch at another company. Within six months, I realized that my personality has been transformed by what I have learned and experienced at UC. I just couldn’t enjoy myself or imagine working anywhere else except UC.
I specifically remember an incident when I was having a tough week at work (and was struggling to get some time from my founders), I happened to ping Abhiraj, and even though I had moved on from UC and not spoken to him for months, he instantaneously called me back and counseled me on how to handle the situation and become a better leader. Just a few days later, I called him and told him — I want to come back home to UC.
In Jan 2020, I began my second innings at UC. Just before the pandemic hit, I booked a flat for myself. Given the uncertainty related to COVID-19 situation, I decided to put the flat on hold. My wife and I had made up our minds to not block our savings and cancelled the plan to buy this flat. Two weeks ago, when I came to know about the opportunity of selling our ESOPs through a secondary sale, I wasn’t expecting to be a part of this because technically I am a new employee now with no vested stocks.
“But unlike any other company, UC believes in rewarding its people and I was offered to participate using my vested stock from my previous stint with the organisation.”
With the sale of these stock options, I have now finalized the flat, without having to spend anything from my savings or taking a huge loan. We can now have our dream home while being financially secure. The secondary opportunity is one that is going to allow many of our team members gain that much-needed financial security that most dream of.
Had it not been for the intention of buying a home, I would have not sold my shares. In fact, I am hungrier than ever to play a much longer innings at UC and have no doubts that we will do really well in the long term and it’s definitely a stock to go long on. When I was told I can participate in this secondary, Abhiraj mentioned that I should look at this as if my first innings at UC gave me the flat and I should now look to play a much longer innings and get many more ESOPs in future. In my head, I was thinking, don’t worry Abhiraj, I have my eyes set on making enough wealth for myself at UC, such that I can become an angel investor myself.
This is what we are as a company, we celebrate the small milestones and always keep our eyes on the long-term vision. The vision to create jobs for 1 million professionals in India. And it’s still Day 1 for us.
Back to work!
Thanks Urban Company.
