Meet Rohit Malrani | Co-Founder, OfficeHours

We had the good fortune of connecting with Rohit Malrani and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rohit, do you disagree with some advice that is more or less universally accepted?
Many individuals think that money correlates with success and while that is true, many individuals tend to stay in finance because the money is great however they’re generally not happy with their work/worklife balance.

The reason we started OfficeHours is to enable individuals to think about next steps in your career appropriately without the lure of money/prestige/status hanging over your head that many individuals in finance tend to get caught up with.

Our main MO is that you can make money in the long-run (so long you’re good at your job) but the main focus should be that you’re focused on agency of work and satisfaction in what you’re doing.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Career is an interesting one — I started off in Growth Equity (a bit more traditional finance) and did that for a couple years out in the Bay Area. What drove my success in SF was simply my admiration for technology and passion for everything tech. After realizing I probably need a bit more experience before being able to give entrepreneurs millions of dollars of investment capital, I moved to the operating side at a very small start-up based out of a conference room, SourceScrub. I joined them as Employee #2 and was focused on everything from Sales to Customer Success to playing ‘Amazon Mom.’

That start-up is where I learned not only how to literally wear multiple hats but that when you work at a larger brand name (my former firm) you’re not challenging yourself in the same way that you are at an operating company — especially a small start-up. Part of life is sometimes coasting off the brand name that is a larger company and then part of life is sometimes focused on building a brand name. Building a brand name is MUCH tougher. I call it being in the rocket ship (being an investor/banker/consultant) vs. being in the control tower seeing which rocket ships are going up vs. down (being the operator).

Cutting my teeth on the operating side at SourceScrub is what taught me that 1) my biggest enemy could be myself if I don’t treat everyone like they work in finance and are driven by the money they make and 2) operating experience is consistently made up of UPS and DOWNS (big ones that too). Working with non-finance people as you pursue a mission was very eye-opening (something that I think that comes to a shock for many who leave finance)…

The decision to drive OfficeHours was after a successful exit from SourceScrub but also because we wanted to open up the idea of being able to pursue your dream career in finance and outside of finance without being judged for it.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
This doesn’t have to be in LA does it?

If so — Elephante I’m a big fan of, Proper Hotel rooftop, Santa Monica beach walking along it but at the same time I would probably prefer renting a convertible and driving along the water.

I call many places home — mainly Boston because of my family but I’m in Miami and NYC often. In Miami, big fan of all the tennis we get to play within world-class facilities — I would 100% start off either jogging down in Brickell or playing tennis as a workout, perhaps hit Juvia for lunch, Joia Beach for a drink, and maybe finish off at Byblos/SeaSpice. A boat-day is always a great time in Miami as well. In Boston, Seaport is a great place to be at with many bars/restaurants. If you couldn’t tell, I’m definitely a big fan of either being on the water or close to it! Haha

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I dedicate this shoutout to Tyler Fair from SourceScrub because he came in with a finance background but went against all odds, started his own business, and successfully exited it. When things got tough, when most people didn’t believe, when most people didn’t think that the company wouldn’t amount to much — he had faith and he taught me that half of life is just having faith. Sure the other half might be having a network and a skill-set to fall back on, but half of life comes down to believing in yourself and so long that you’re “up and to the right,” things will be ok.

Tyler taught me how to be a very nice boss honestly. If there was a second person to attribute my success to today it would be my boss before that, Duncan Gills — (an ex-military/Private Equity man) — he taught me how to be very disciplined in everything I did and to create artificial deadlines on everything that we did as individuals and as a firm. The drive that I recognized in him that eventually carried onto me created the animal in the workplace that is Rohit today.

Basically the blend of these two individuals created the Rohit that not only works hard but more-so enables others to do good work with him.

Website: https://getofficehours.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getofficehours/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohitmalrani

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rohit107

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx2C8BZOZ-9eh4G3N_0Ctow

Other: Personal IG: https://www.instagram.com/rohit107/