Virtual Leaders I Life has become more disciplined: Jupiter’s Jitendra Gupta

The 21-day lockdown triggered by the spread of the coronavirus has entered into the last 10 days and entrepreneurs, the original hustlers, have had to make a plenty of changes to their daily routine to adapt to working from home (WFH). Their daily schedules have been disrupted and their long drawn out usual meetings have been replaced by video calls. Not to mention the stress of a looming economic slowdown and pressure from investors.

Moneycontrol looks at how a scrum of business leaders is dealing with these fast changing times. In the second edition of the series, which we have named Virtual Leaders, Pratik Bhakta interviews Jitendra Gupta, the founder of Jupiter - a neo-banking platform aimed at millennials. Gupta had cofounded Citrus Pay, a digital payments startup which was acquired by PayU India. He also started LazyPay - a ‘buy now pay later’ concept - and ran it within the PayU umbrella for a few years till he quit and started this new initiative Jupiter. Bhakta tries to find out how Gupta's life and work routine have changed these past few days.

You can read the first edition of Virtual Leaders here.

Edited excerpts from an interview:

Q: What does your average day look like now, given your normal routine must have been disrupted by the 21-day lockdown?

A: I am actually busier than earlier. Spending almost seven hours daily on Zoom calls with various team members. Most of those calls are with fellow founders to learn what others are thinking about the situation and what actions they are taking. With the help of my investors, I am attending to calls with the Chinese and American counterparts to learn the actions taken during these situations.

Q: How do you manage your office teams now? How are you keeping your staff motivated? Could you share some unique experiences that you have had during these 10 days of the lockdown while dealing with your teams/colleagues or investors.

A: We are having daily asynchronous stand-ups. It gives an update to the whole company on who is working on what for the day and if any help is needed from others. We have increased the frequency of our ‘all hands’ to almost every 10 days now that gives comfort to team members about being together in these tough times. We discuss all sorts of scenarios for how life could pan out in the next six to 12 months and get ourselves ready for any situation.

Q: Have you found some means to e-socialise with your teams outside work, given all of your colleagues might be remote?

A: Yes. We have BYOB (bring your own booze) with game nights every Friday evening now. This has brought the team closer.

Q: Now that you are working from home, how much time are you spending with family/kids? Any specific activity that you undertake regularly with your family members, which you thoroughly enjoy?

A: Life has become more disciplined. I am exercising daily in the morning and have a hard stop at 7 pm at work. Kids are happier that they get undivided attention. I recently learnt that my elder son who is three years old knows funny dance steps.

Q: Have you always had a separate workstation at home or did you set that up because of the lockdown? Can you share with us how have you set it up

A: No. I had to set up a workstation owing to the situation. But, I have realised that I need to do it permanently. My chair is not comfortable for long hours. So, as soon as the lockdown opens, I am going to purchase an ergonomic chair for me at home.

Q: Was there a hobby that you had given up because of work pressure but you have been able to resume now over the last two weeks?

A: My kids keep me totally busy so there is no time for hobbies though I have resumed my daily exercise routine.

Q: Did you manage to catch up with any old friend or a relative in this time period, someone who has not been in touch with you for a long time?

A: Yes. We are having group Zoom calls with my college friends every weekend. This was not so often earlier. I am also catching up with my parents over the phone on a daily basis now.

Q: What is that one major piece of management learning that you have gained during this forced lockdown?

A: I get to see varied emotions on team members during this time. From anxiety to feeling lows to worrying whether the world is going to crash. The biggest learning I have got is that it is very important to keep calm, think carefully and act as everyone would be watching how I behave in a crisis. We have re-strategised on product priorities and are trying to focus the whole team on execution rather than any external distraction. It is definitely giving us better productivity.

Q: Of all the new things that you have experimented with during this phase, what is that one bit that you would want to continue even after the lockdown ends?

A: The one bit of experiment which I will definitely continue even after things get normal are these asynchronous standups. It helps build the team and brings in more coordination between team members.