Stoa Digest #101 : 📈 1 + 1 = 3 📈
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Hello, hello Stoans!
Your Stoa journey is not just a six-month ride; it is much more than that. During your journey, you will make friends, have career leaps, find yourself, and find us. And we come with a solid warranty of many years.
June is a month of games (for random reasons XD). The Stoa team is excited to not let the little moments of fun, joy, play, and masti slip away. We hope this vibe is contagious enough to reach all of you lovely people. Here are some of Stoans' favorite games: Catan, Codenames, Mr. White, Secret Hitler, Shasan, and Sequence.
Go play and don’t miss out on having fun, fellas!
This week’s fellow spotlight falls on Yash Birla from Cohort 8 brought to you by Satyam Goyal from Cohort 11.
What are the major challenges of being a finance professional?
The major challenge of the finance field is managing the perception of people about finance professionals as “jugaad” professionals. People approach us as the last resort for some financial disaster management service. But they fail to understand that we can only help them manage their money well, and for that, they need to take timely action.
Further, people understand finance professionals as number guys who do not understand practical and other aspects of business, which is not true, our field requires a holistic understanding and we try to understand the bigger picture through numbers rather than see numbers as something set in stone. Numbers are our bread and butter, but we also understand that it has other stakeholders as well.
What do you do in your free time when you are not going through the numbers?
I travel a lot, it is my escape as well as therapy from the hustle and bustle of life. Travel helps me in refreshing my perspective as it brings me out of my comfort zone to meet lots of people with different perspectives, understand the economy of that place, history, and much more.
How did Stoa help in your career progression as a finance professional?
I was brought up in a traditional business setup and know the things to work in a certain way. Taking the program with Stoa helped me to develop a holistic understanding of the business, and to understand how the business eco-system evolved from traditional setup to modern ways of business. Also, it helped me in thinking about those business concepts in a holistic manner, and it helped me understand how finance interacts with other fields of business such as marketing, operations, analytics, etc.
Furthermore, the most important part about the Stoa program is the networking you do as you meet professionals from different walks of life, are taught by facilitators who are achievers in their respective fields, attend interviews of unicorn founders, and learn that it is fine to approach people to network, especially through cold emails, which I initially, never give thought to.
What would you recommend people from ongoing and upcoming cohorts to make the most out of Stoa?
Talk to as many people as you can, and get to know about their field, their interests, their goals, and their reason to join Stoa. Although don’t talk only when you have some favour to ask for, have an agenda in mind, which even can be just to know about their field of business. This will build your confidence, awareness, and perspective and you will have a vast network that will come in handy at a later point in your journey.
One more thing, which unfortunately, I was unable to follow, but I recommend everyone is that read your prompts regularly, and discuss with your fellow mates, as business concepts taught in those prompts are really important for a good business understanding.
🫡 People of Stoa 🫡
This week, we have the new kids on the block - Cohort 12 featuring Astha, Nikita, and Suhaas in an episode of People of Stoa -
🔥 Community Sneak Peak 🔥
We have an exclusive Fireside Chat lined up this week with Ashish Dave, CEO at Mirae Asset Venture Investments. Join in this Wednesday to explore the world of idea-building and investing!
Wednesday, 7th June, 9 PM onwards.
This month, we also have The Great Quiz Showdown in store for y’all! Time to get those thinking hats on fam. 🎩
Wednesday, 28th June, 8:30 PM onwards.
🐝 Community Buzz 🐝
The Stoa city-wide gangs have been on fire with meetups across Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Jaipur over the weekend -
The C12 Hyderabad squad met up with their program manager Madhu post the Stoa Dialogues session!
L-R : Amarnath Nagula, Suhaas Karavadi, Sushma Thota, Shekar Seelam
Here’s the C12 Mumbai squad! 🔥
L-R : Chirag, Pritam, Tanvi, Pragya, Pramod
A constructive meetup with the Jaipur boys! 💭
L-R : Prince Manay Bora, Amatya Agarwal, Arun Biju, Aditya Rupani
⏯ For Stoans by Stoans ⏯
The secret sauce to breaking any habit and never being distracted.
An interesting case study on the UX for Chrome vs Brave.
Find out why Walmart isn’t Amazon’s competitor.
A handpicked list celebrating the best advertisements & ad makers from across the globe
A must-watch for entrepreneurs to understand the Indian market.
see ya later, alligator!