CAR GUARD, WAITER, BREAD DELIVERY GUY FROM RAGS TO RICHES DECODED
Priven Reddy was not an overnight success. Building a business and the personal wealth that comes with it has taken a decade.
Today, sitting in his plush Umhlanga boardroom and watching ships from the Far East queue into Durban Harbour is a far cry from the Durban taxi ranks where he once sold frozen chickens to factory workers standing in long queues to catch a ride home. But he’s learnt invaluable lessons along each step of his journey.
Priven’s at ease behind the wheel of his Lamborgini Aventador or indulging in caviar flying First Class at 50 000 feet, but the persistent memory of his ‘caterpillar years’ is still what drives him.
It’s taken 12 years, but not only is Priven Reddy a self-made millionaire at the age of 36, he sits at the helm of five companies and 380 employees, and his companies have R4 billion in assets. And he’s determined to leave a legacy that will benefit all South Africans.
Here’s how a kid from Chatsworth in Durban stopped blaming his fate on everyone else and took control of his destiny.
Player: Priven Reddy
Company: Kagiso Interactive Media
Launched: 2006
Start-ups: Krypteum (launched 2017). Krypteum allows traders to buy a cryptocurrency coin and have their investment managed by artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities.
Dryvar (launching end-August 2018)
Shypar (launched January 2018)
Net worth including crypto assets holdings: Over R4 billion
Visit: www.kagisointeractive.com
As a kid growing up in the 90s, Priven Reddy has had a rough childhood after the passing of his dad. “After my father unexpectedly died, my mom settled down with a man who turned out to later on become an alcoholic. There were times when we wouldn’t have food to eat,” he candidly recalls. It’s a stark reality, but one that laid the foundations for the man Priven would become, and he doesn’t shy away from unpleasant memories.
Instead, young Priven soon figured out that he needed a paradigm of how he viewed the world, or he would be consumed by it. Over the years he has built up a framework of eight codes that he not only lives by but believes this has shaped his success and more importantly, the mindset that has been instrumental in achieving that success. By adopting them he has turned his life around and then used them to rapidly climb the success ladder of the corporate world once his foundations were in place.
Code 1: Find your inner drive and keep feeding it
For Priven, the pivotal moment that forced him to shift his attitude in life is still a fresh memory, despite the intervening years. “I was 20 and waiting tables at a restaurant at the Gateway Theatre of Shopping. One of my customers had finished eating and gestured over his plate containing some left over, half eaten pizza. ‘Here, this is for you,’ he told me with mistaken generosity. ‘Put it in a doggy-bag and take it home.’ His words were like a sucker punch to my dignity and my sense of pride. I couldn’t believe it. Was this how our society treated its poor?”
That was the last straw amongst all the blows that, Priven had endured that day. He’d been rejected by a girl whom he had asked out, on the basis that she wouldn’t date anyone who didn’t own a car. That morning his family had also once again shared their disapproval over the way he was living his life.
“They called me an embarrassment. It stung – and it stuck in my mind. To top it off, I arrived at work that day and the owner of the restaurant took me aside and told me that I had too much potential to be working as a waiter my whole life. He was thinking of firing me so that I would get out of my comfort zone and do something else.”
After his run-in with the customer later that day, Priven went outside the mall, reflecting on what had happened that day and his life in general. “It was like someone snapped their fingers and woke me from a bad dream. I would never let anyone belittle me or impinge on my dignity again. Then and there I made a decision: I would no longer be the victim of my own fate. I was going to be the master of my own destiny.”
Hungry to prove himself, the promise was more than just words for Priven. He knew that he needed to take matters into his own hands and start making some real changes. “Once I stopped blaming the world for everything that went against me, I started to grow. I began to see challenges as opportunities and I was able to channel that energy into a positive inner drive. I began to understand that things don’t happen to you, they happen for you. That shift changed everything for me.”
Code 2: The biggest opportunities are found where things are the most difficult
“The first principal I learnt is that in adversity lies opportunity. In a business sense this means being able to identify the challenges people have and create a solution that takes away these difficulties.”
It was a lesson Priven was already learning in primary school. The school had a small tuckshop catering for over 1 000 kids. Long, frustrated lines meant many kids ended up missing their entire lunch break waiting to be served. The young entrepreneur immediately spotted a gap. “I borrowed some money and bought bags of chips and chocolates and sweets from a local wholesaler. I started at the back of the queue and sold to the kids one by one all the way down the line. I sold out quickly and made more profit than the tuck shop vendors because I didn’t have any overheads.”
The small business only lasted a few weeks before the school shut it down, but Priven took something away from the experience more valuable than some extra cash in his pocket — he’d found validation that his approach to business worked.
“How do you make things easier for people? Answer that and you’re making money. Difficulties can be found everywhere, regardless of class or creed. It doesn’t matter what the circumstances are. It could be a blue-collar factory worker at the end of the day not being able to go to the supermarket, to purchase groceries because they’ll miss their taxi home. Or it could be wealthy early-adopters interested in investing in blockchain technology but not having the time or know-how of how to manage their cryptocurrency portfolio effectively.
Priven doesn’t let insurmountable tasks discourage him. “If it’s difficult, there are fewer competitors who will enter that field. It’s that simple. Most people are daunted by the challenge and find something else to do. However, Priven says, that’s where the real opportunity lies. I believe the impossible is not unachievable — it’s just a niche market.”
This same philosophy has driven Priven to explore highly technical sectors, including augmented reality (which he began exploring over six years ago), and how to incorporate artificial intelligence into cryptocurrencies. “I love doing difficult things. That’s the space where a lot of money can be made,” he says.
Code 3: There’s no substitute for hard work
According to his close friends and family, Priven’s capacity for burning both ends of the candle is legendary. He’s proud that entrepreneurship runs in his DNA, a trait fostered by his late father, Christie Reddy, from an early age. The founder of a national logistics company, Christie owned a fleet of more than 100 trucks and boasted a client base of multi-national accounts when he was killed in a fatal road accident. A series of hijackings, theft and mismanagement quickly saw the company crashing into bankruptcy. Priven was just 11 years old and his world was ripped apart.
“My dad taught us the value of working hard from a young age,” he says. “My four siblings and I were always competing in entrepreneurial games. He even sub-divided the back garden into five small vegetable plots and gave us each a packet of seeds. The challenge was to see who could grow their own veggies and herbs and then sell them door-to-door. ‘After paying your mum and me for the cost of the seeds and fertilizer, the one who makes the biggest profit is the winner,’ he told us.”
For Priven the challenge wasn’t work though — it was fun. And that sense of fun has always persisted. To this day Priven says it’s not hard work if you’re having fun.
“I think my dad knew that by giving us these business principals, skills and tools at a young age, he was laying the foundations for our future independence. He knew this was more valuable than any trust fund he could set up.”
Today, all Priven’s siblings are successful entrepreneurs operating their own businesses in diverse industry sectors, ranging from one of the leading app development companies in Africa and the Middle East to one of the largest independent events management companies, to South Africa’s only business consultancy for tech start-ups, to a niche organic farm in the Western Cape.
Code 4: Perseverance always pays off
Priven launched Kagiso Interactive as a web design agency 12 years ago in what he calls ‘the wild west days’ of the IT industry in South Africa. “I had learnt graphic design at my brother-in-law’s design studio and was making a little money doing a few below-the-line advertising projects for clients. I had a chance meeting with a guy in a coffee shop who said ‘You need to meet my brother — he does web design. Maybe you can work together.’
“Web design was still pretty new. We met and ended up launching a small start-up from his garage, combining my graphic design and business skills with his web-building skills. We began attracting some clients and even employed a few people. But it was tough. The garage flooded every time it rained. We moved into an office block, but we weren’t stable yet. After eight months my business partner left, along with most of our employees.”
For Priven, it felt like he was in a downward spiral. He was 24 years old and finally feeling like he was building something worthwhile. At this point, after everything he’d been through, quitting wasn’t an option.
“With only one employee left, I advised him to find a job at a larger company. as well. remove It was a steep learning curve, but I hung in there. I wanted him to find security, but I was determined to make a go of it for myself.”
One of Priven’s customers, the owner of Tudor Hotel in Durban, offered him some space, furniture and equipment so that he could continue working, and told him he could start paying rent once he brought in revenue. It gave Priven the start he needed.
Code 5: Don’t be afraid to leave your comfort zone
With his fledgling business downsized, Priven looked online for new markets. He registered his company’s services on eLance to broaden his market-base and tap into an international client-base.
“I met an IT entrepreneur who was based in India through an online platform. We became friends and spent a lot of time discussing our companies, our clients and troubleshooting any business problems we experienced. He planted the seeds of app development in my head. I remember telling him it was a ridiculous idea, but he wouldn’t let it go.”
It was 2009 and the Indian Government was largely investing in IT and mobile applications, two things that were virtually unheard of in South Africa. The Google Play Store was only launched in 2012. Priven wasn’t sold on the idea, but he eventually allowed himself to be convinced, largely because he just needed to sell it.
“I didn’t need to build up a team because I could outsource any development to India, so the risk was really low,” he says. “We’d basically do a web search and contact any companies we found who made money from their websites and we’d offer them an app. It wasn’t the easiest sell. We were trying to convince people that you could make money from a smartphone — a device that had just been launched in South Africa. We were telling them it was a computer in their pocket, which was true, except there was no iStore, Internet speeds were slow and mobile data was expensive.”
Once he starts something though, Priven sees it through, and so he stuck at it. “I was feeling a bit like a fish out of water and kept asking myself what I was doing. But the more I did it, the more I learnt, until the idea of app development started to feel familiar.”
Because of that friend’s persistence, Priven ended up on the ground floor of mobile applications development. “By the time other companies recognised the value of apps, we had learnt a lot of lessons and really understood the space. Plus, our clientele was largely international.
“I’ve learnt that people operate at their best when they leave their comfort zones. That’s when the adrenalin kicks in and magic happens.”
Code 6: Believe in your product, always
Kagiso Interactive spent years outsourcing its work to India, which worked well because it allowed Priven to keep his overheads low while he built up the business. “I reached a point where I didn’t want to be a factory though,” he says. “I wanted to offer a lifetime warranty on the applications we built. Most apps only really start to show problems once you’ve scaled your users, and that takes 18 to 24 months, long after most warranties have run out.
“With this in mind, I started building my own team, upskilling and molding them with a service-first culture. We don’t charge maintenance either. If you’re confident in your product, it shouldn’t need maintenance. We back ourselves.”
By 2014, when the Saudi Royal family contacted Kagiso, the company had built over 1 000 applications and had developed a strong reputation in the market. “Working with the Saudi Royal family has been a game-changer for us — a lot of our clients are based in Dubai — but none of that could happen overnight.
“We got into a space early, focused on becoming the best in our field, built a solid word-of-mouth and referral reputation, and ten years later started reaping the rewards.”
Priven is also fanatical about giving clients what they need. “We’re here to build real solutions and we understand this space. It’s not always the popular move to tell a client that they actually need a different product to the one they’re requesting, but it’s the right move, and it will cement an excellent relationship.
“Over the years I’ve turned work down that wasn’t right for us, or if I knew the company couldn’t afford what they were asking for or wouldn’t be able to take it to market. We also never tender for business. Our work should be on our merits alone.
“I also oversee everything — nothing is sent out without my final approval. This means I need to always be available and respond to things quickly. As far as I’m concerned, that’s my job.
“It also fosters a culture of putting the client first. We need to respond to every single client within 15 minutes of receiving a call, email or message through our website. It’s an ethos that has shaped everything we do and is the reason why it took ten years to build the foundations for a business that has accelerated in growth in the past four years. We live for this.”
Code 7: Mindpower is real
“When you grow up in adversity you have two choices: You can either allow the negativity around you to consume you or you can focus on the positive and see the challenges as opportunities. Wallowing in self-pity will only make you bitter. You end up with a victim mentality — and that cripples you. I don’t like focusing on the negative, so I search for the rainbows in the storm instead.”
In 2010, Priven’s sister gave him The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. “It changed everything for me. I realised the power of thought and what it’s done for my life. Mindpower is real — picture it, really want it, and then focus on how to get it. You can attract people and things to your life. You just need to be able to visualise it and then go out and get it.
“That doesn’t mean it’s easy — you will still bang into walls and face challenges. But when you have a determined mindset, you can push through them to the other side. You can overcome anything. A positive mindset is a powerful weapon that you can use to transform your reality.”
Code 8: Never stop learning
“My overnight success was a decade in the making”.
Priven is an avid learner. It’s a secret he believes too few people take advantage of: There’s so much out there, so many free online courses, and so many ways to upskill yourself. So why aren’t you taking advantage of all of those resources?
“I’ve never let the fact that I didn’t get a degree hold me back. We all have the potential to be great — you just need to be willing to put in the work. I taught myself design, then web development, then app development, and then AI and VR and how blockchain and cryptocurrencies work. The information is out there. You will also be amazed at how forthcoming people are and willing to share their knowledge.
“I hire experts, but I need to understand everything that we do within our business, and I need to know enough to see what’s coming and where technology will take us.
“I use the same philosophy when I hire. We do need senior engineers, but I also hire kids straight out of university. I learnt this from Google — you need a degree, but top companies don’t hire based only on that degree. We hire based on potential and attitude. What can you teach someone, and how much are they willing to learn?
“An individual who believes they should be promoted purely on their degrees isn’t the right fit for us. We want people who will seize any opportunity to learn and really better themselves. Those are the people who do well in our organisation.
“We live by what we believe in. The head of our Shypar team used to be our cleaning lady. I saw the potential in her right from the beginning. She was hungry to learn. Even as a cleaner she found time during her lunch breaks to learn on the computers in the office. She was given the opportunity because she never stopped learning.”
Priven’s philosophy is clear: Expose the right people to skills and they will grab that opportunity — and you will have helped them change their lives. “We don’t always get this right. We hire slow and fire fast. But I prefer to give everyone the best opportunity I can and to do that you have to start by taking a chance on them.
“I try to hire people who are better than me. I believe it’s important to surround yourself with people who are progressive and positive. They up your game. Negative people are energy vampires.
“In 2010 I had one employee. By 2014 we employed 188 people, and four years later we have 386 staff members. I’m incredibly proud of the skills we have built over that time.”
LESSONS LEARNT
Put the right foundations in place
That’s the real secret to growth. In the last three years I’ve really started focusing on other passion projects because Kagiso Interactive has grown to a point where it can bootstrap other start-ups and take some mitigated risks.
We’ve also been learning all this incredible tech that we can now put into action. Focusing on AI in 2012 gave us the know-how and technology we needed to build Krypteum, an AI platform that is going to change the face of AI and what it can do for business. It reads hundreds of thousands of lines of code and information in seconds. Krypteum is also the world’s first AI-powered investment cryptocurrency. You can run before you walk, but if you put the right foundations in place, the sky is the limit.
Collaborate with key stakeholders
When we launched Dryvar, a local ride-sharing app, we immediately started engaging with the taxi associations. We want to create a business that supports drivers and small business owners and is branded and safe for everyone — drivers and customers alike. We knew it would be important to get the taxi associations on board — the right partnerships always enable growth.
Always put your users first
When we built Shypar, our delivery app, we focused on the drivers: What did they need? What helped them to deliver a good service? This was all important, but we ended up with a really complicated app that consumers found too difficult to use. We’ve now made the decision to rebuild the architecture from scratch. We’ve learnt a lot, and we can simplify the platform to make it a lot more user-friendly. Yes, it means losing money short-term, but long-term we will have a much more successful business.
In any sales discussion, make sure you have a solution for your client
Sit back, spot the problem and determine the solution. That way you’re having a discussion that focuses on a solution for a problem that you know needs solving.
Always treat people in the way that you would want to be treated
I’ve been on the other side of this, and it can emotionally damage. Be kind with your actions as they will ultimately define you.
