Interview with Arushi Gupta | Founder & Managing Partner at Satyaki Legal

We invited Arushi Gupta, for an interview with Most Popular Stories. Let’s get to know about her entrepreneurial journey.

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey as an entrepreneur.

In an unconventional way I like to describe myself as an advocate by profession and a reader by hobby- I like to practice my kathak steps once in a while and be regular with my workouts. 

Talking about me conventionally, I am an advocate who started her career 8 years ago, in 2016. After gaining experience of working with senior advocates, I eventually started working as a partner with a firm and now 2 years ago, I started with my own firm, Satyaki Legal. When in my career, I had almost worked in the domains I wanted to practice in, and run a team of my own, I believed I could start my own firm. We started in the last month of 2021, where from finding the firm name to getting the website and team members was done, we are now a humble team of 6 with an established portfolio of start-ups and corporates to manage and work with. 

In the industry, I have worked with a wide array of firms- from E- Grocery companies to Café’s and from Personal Care brands to Clothing Line- Ups, I have worked with each of the sectors and have assisted them in strategizing their intellectual property in line with the laws as well as business operations. 

2. Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?

I like to strategize things my own way and being free- spirited at heart, I believe in shunning down the set standards in which a task may be done. When I believed that I had enough experience to do that and that I could make a mark of my ownin the industry, I switched over to entrepreneurship. In most unique ways, I like to say that entrepreneurship chose me and I did not choose entrepreneurship. That is so because I believe that the opportunities fell for me in a certain way that I could frame my mind in a particular manner to be ready for a venture of my own. 

3. What was the vision behind it?

The vision behind Satyaki Legal of course, is to engage more team members and work with a larger bunch of clienteles. In past 2 years, the work and team growth has been as per my target and that’s what we aim to maintain.  The mission is to also ensure that the subject matter which is dear to our hearts, Intellectual Property, is given due importance in each of the business operations that take place within any entity that we work with. 

4. Describe the services that you offer to your customers and in what way they are unique?

Our firm offers services specifically in the domain of IPR, and also the ones revolving around it. We provide registration services, opinions on strategizing the use of intellectual property, and services related to protection of the intellectual property, like litigation, investigation etc. We also render corporate advisory and assist the corporates in negotiating and drafting of the terms of the agreement. 

Looking at our services legally, the same might not seem unique, because its law after all and we all are bound to follow the written words of it. However, if viewed subjectively, we ensure that the services are tailored to the specific needs of our clients and are not rendered as per the conventional standards. 

Further, the strategies that we devise are out beyond the realm of law and at times have more to do with our experience of management of intellectual properties and its impact on business operations and valuation.  

5. What difficulties you have faced or you are facing?

One of the biggest challenges we face is to gain trust of the new clients who may not know us. Further, with coming in of new technology almost on a daily basis, along with developments in the brands due to competition is sometimes difficult to tackle, given how slow paced the development of law is. In that scenario, the expertise that we have, not only in the field of law but also management and strategizing of intellectual property, comes handy. 

6. How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?

I think stress is a byproduct of working in the field of Law, however, we all need to set boundaries. Not only for myself, but for the team too, we have kept fixed timings during which client interaction takes place. Beyond the working hours, we do take calls, but that’s only in case of an urgency. This gives us time to organise and do our work and also catch up on the new and upcoming tasks.  Further, sticking to timelines and creating proper sheets with readily available information, helps us save a lot of time and last minute hassles. 

7. How do you market your business?

A law firm, as per the law is not permitted to market their services so we do not engage ourselves in any of the marketing activities. However, working with several renowned institutions like IIML and Amity Innovation Incubator does help spread the word about our services. A good word from the client, post successful delivery of tasks,  to their peers and colleagues as well as engaging ourselves in events related to law benefits us equally.  

8. How many hours a day do you work on average & can you describe/outline your typical day?

My day or my team’s day begins with self- care, it’s not only me but each of the team members makes sure they keep as priority- it could include walks, meditation, yoga home or gym workouts. Post that, the work day commences with client calls, and email responses followed by core operations, i.e., filings and drafting. We end the day with discussion within the team and penning down of new, pending and upcoming tasks. Usually this is on an average 7-8 hours of our day.  

9. In your opinion what are the keys to success?

There is no sure shot way to success. Also, what success means to each of us may be different and hence the pathway to it. However, for me consistency, punctuality and loving the work that I do has been a way to achieve better in life. I still won’t call myself or my achievements a success because I don’t think success has an end- point, each milestone of our life is an achievement and the idea of relishing it while it happens is what success is all about. I think success cannot be defined by certain fix factors that society sets for us and hence there is no fixed answer to this question as well.  

10. What advice would you give to someone starting as an aspiring entrepreneur?

To anybody who wants to start their journey of being an entrepreneur, I would say the following things: 

• Be ready/okay to offend the ones around you especially your family; 
• Be ready to earn less and spend more; and
• Be ready to not adhere to what is so called conventional. 

An entrepreneur has to take their own decisions, be it right or wrong. In most of the circumstances, its not the decision that is either right or wrong but it is how well the entrepreneur executes their decision that makes the decision right. An entrepreneur has to do more, sometimes for their clients, sometimes for their team- there is no I in entrepreneurship. To each entrepreneur, their own needs come later, but the entity that they have established comes first. So, for the ones who are ready to be that selfless- should only choose this path. Other than that, being abreast of all the knowledge, not just their subject matter and network well are the common pursuits of entrepreneurship.  

Connect Here,

Linkedin– https://www.linkedin.com/in/arushi-gupta-5b5b72124/

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/satyaki_legal/