Today we’d like to introduce you to Rohan Thakkar.
Rohan, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Raised by a father and mother who both worked in Finance and Accounting, my upbringing was “financially wise,” to say the least. Our dinner conversations consisted of the global economy, stocks, interest rates, and other topics most adults and children alike might find horribly boring. At the time, I know I did! However, my perception of these topics began to change when I was about 12 years old, and my father helps me select a few stocks that would be the first I ever purchased on my own. I took all the money I had to my young name and applied the limited knowledge I had of the market.
Truthfully, despite the intellectual and worldly dinner conversations and family discussions, the only directly applicable stock market topic I felt confident it was the simple and trusted: Supply and Demand. So I looked around me, curious to see what was in demand among my peers. Enter, the click wheel iPod. Fresh on the market and hot playground discussion, I knew with certainty that all my friends wanted it. Demand, check! Now for the supply research, I went to the Apple store to check out the product for myself. People were walking out with click wheel iPods all day long, so I bought my first shares of Apple in 2001. I was hooked! Bit by the bug! I continued buying and applying the same method over and over again.
Years went by, and I headed off to Indiana to attend college at Purdue University. My focus during my time there was Marketing and Sales. With a hunger for challenge and desire to create I began using all my past experience with the stock market and my fresh knowledge from my college major to create new ideas and business plans all the time. My brain never stop, I was relentless in the pursuit of the next big idea. I think, at one point, I was pitching a new idea to my parents every week! But life ebbs and flows, and we make decisions and hope for the best. So instead of working for a startup or creating my own concept right out of College, I went straight into corporate sales with IBM.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time at IBM and every lesson I learned while there helped shape me to be the businessman I am in many ways. I was an Account Executive and swiftly began managing large and exciting accounts all throughout Silicone Valley. I feel I did well in my position in huge part to my utilizing financial strategies to help sell the software. I made a name for myself as being the man with the answer, and my peers came to me often to openly discuss complicated tax topics and answer questions about their 401K. It was through these discussions I realized that what I was offering my friends and coworkers who came to me was more than just answers, it was education, and it was freedom.
And most importantly, I enjoyed helping people in this way so much. I began to look around, and I realized besides myself, there were very few if any, sources offering this service of advice and education. No one was helping to break down finance language or assisting bright eyes start-ups to navigate the confusing topic of how finance ties into starting a company. Through further research, it was undeniable that millennials were painted in a negative light. My frustrations grew as my peers and myself were discussed on TV, online, and in many other capacities as if we were intentionally being irresponsible with our money or deliberately choosing not to learn, understand, or acquire financial literacy.
Yet, while we were being dumped on, no one was offering us a hand or a connection to alleviate the issue they saw in “the younger generation.” With this final relation, I had every ingredient to create the recipe I needed to start my own all-inclusive financial freedom experience. I cordially planned my departure from IBM a few months after the conception of the idea and spent the next year building out the website. I began a deep dive into the finance world learning, educating myself, and honing in on all skills I would need to successfully bring this company to life. Orca launched, and only three months later AOL finance reached out wanting a syndication agreement to republish Orca’s articles. I was ecstatic!
Then shortly after, several podcasts began requesting me to come interview. Things were on the up and up! Then Forbes reached out wanted to write an article about Orca and or success thus far. This was a huge confirmation that I was on to something good, and to have access to such a large audience was incredible. We realized our unique approach to education was resonating, and we have been pursuing this approach in all ways to this very day.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There are always ups and downs when you create a new concept. I would be lying if I said that I did not encounter any struggles. From building the website, creating content, and coming up with new articles for my “Emoji Finance Fridays” every week, there are plenty of potential bumps in the road. Honestly, I struggled to create content for a while.
The issue was that my audience needed a more personal interaction. They wanted to learn from a person, not a brand. So I had to inhabit both. I found relief, success, and a fresh sense of creativity by shifting from producing content on the website to content on my LinkedIn.
As most companies find, one of the biggest struggles is scalability. I constantly have to check in and ask, “How does one scale and build a company when the company is still changing?” Although my answer to this continues to evolve, at the moment I would suggest investing time and resources into creating automation and cultivating leaders within your team that will help offer creative ideas to scale efficiently.
Orca Financial – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I run a company that helps empower the younger generation by encouraging financial literacy and a sense of freedom associated with being in control of their finances. We use trending topics and easy to digest explanations to assist in navigating the ins and outs of what can be a daunting and complex topic.
Through Orca you can get access to tips and tricks that can be applied to your daily relationship with your finances, making it easy to start and keep going down a better path. We aim to ensure that you create and apply good habits such as planning ahead for taxes as well as help make sure you are not making small mistakes that could be costly in the long run as you start your own company.
We are most known for our unique twist on how we explain terms and concepts, most notably Orca’s “Emoji Finance Friday. Through these fun strings of emojis, we incorporate a guessing game and a detailed explanation of topics such as comparing mutual funds to dating or how the DOW Jones is like an Instagram influencer! Above all else, we take pride in our transparency and our genuine mission to help those who need and want to learn.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
My proudest moment, by far, is when I spoke to a group of leadership kids at the Edge Conference at UC Berkley. When I was invited, I could not fathom how impactful this would be to me. Going into the event I was so nervous! Totally plagued by imposter syndrome, I did not think I was qualified to speak. I was once a leadership kid in high school, and I remember the speakers that would come.
These experiences of once being where my audience members were made me particularly critical of what I had to offer. I remember the type of speakers that held my attention and those that didn’t. The good speakers who share their experiences and their wisdom still resonate in my memory and being valuable contributors to shaping my thinking on being an entrepreneur.
While speaking the nerves melted away and the excitement on the kid’s faces became like jet fuel to me. I gave myself the permission to believe wholeheartedly that what I had to share with them was valuable and their eager faces assured me that they were listening and registering what I spoke about.
To myself, I was a young CEO taking each day at a time, but to them I was an entrepreneur sharing my journey with them, speaking to them like adults, and showing that vulnerability is strength and sharing wisdom doesn’t put you at risk for competition if you do what you do well.
Of all the speeches I have done to this point, those kids asked the best most inquisitive questions! I loved meeting each and every one of them after I spoke because their excitement helped me walk away with fresh excitement for my work. I still look back and smile because what is the point of doing all this if you can’t inspire others?
Contact Info:
- Website: orca.financial
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orcafinancial/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/orcafinancial/
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohanthakkar/
Image Credit:
@superluxe
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