Dhruv founded Thriwe (formerly known as GolfLan) in 2011 with the goal of making golf more accessible and affordable to golfers while at the same time helping golf clubs/courses to boost their revenue. Currently, Thriwe connects with more than 2 lakh golfers across India, Middle-East, South-West Asia, US, and South Africa. It has evolved substantially under his leadership to become India’s top B2B consumer benefits marketplace, with a 100000+ stakeholder network serving markets nationwide and in 130 countries. Today, it operates across 5 key sectors – travel, wellness, lifestyle, sports, and dining solutions.
RISING ABOVE ADVERSITIES
Dhruv was born into a typical upper middle-class family and attended the finest schools in Delhi. He lost his father, who was a businessman, at the age of 10. This unfortunate incident changed his life immediately and substantially. Even in the face of adversities, his mother, who was a teacher, made sure her children lived a quality life. It was during this difficult time he became entrepreneurial and learned how to make the most of his little pocket money. By sheer force of will power and hard work, the young entrepreneur bought his first home at the age of 22, an age when most people are still pursuing their education.
AN INTERESTING CAREER GRAPH
After pursuing B. Com from Delhi University, Dhruv joined Standard Chartered Bank as a Training Manager. While he enjoyed a successful career in the banking industry, he continued to experiment with various ventures, which helped him learn and grow as a better businessman. His experience as a start-up expert began when he was hired to establish and expand the CPP, UK India operations at the age of 28. When Dhruv started Thriwe, he had only 4 multitasking employees. Moreover, he had to struggle to find the right talent to assist him with scaling the business. The other challenge was to scale the company without burning cash, given that it was self-funded. Despite careful expenditures, his company ran out of money in just 7 months of operation. At this point he decided to sell his house and move his family to a rented apartment. Following the cash infusion, his company was able to survive for a few months. Simultaneously, he constantly tweaked his business model to get a foothold in the market. Moreover, to enhance margins and cash flows, he also ventured into the corporate business, which worked wonders for Thriwe and enabled him to launch innovative technology solutions besides entering new international markets and acquiring 2 companies. His success has been attributed to a few HNI investments, which enabled him to expand across the nation and launch operations in Dubai and Southeast Asia. Consequently, orders and queries poured in from all over the world, including the USA, the UK, South Africa, Europe, Singapore, Australia, and others.
ON A GROWTH SPREE
In 2017, Dhruv entered the US market, the largest golf market in the world, by establishing an office in the Valley and signing the first contract. Thriwe currently serves over 15 million customers across 60 organizations. In this 15 million strong list are customers from wealth management services, consumer electronics brands, automobile brands, etc. Aside from India, Thriwe has also gained a strong foothold in the Middle East, and South East Asia, and is currently preparing to enter the African market, where it will cover Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.
