Dhruv Agarwala Dhruv Agarwala, Group CEO, Housing.com, PropTiger.com, and Makaan.com, is a serial entrepreneur who has started and successfully exited ventures across education, mining and fintech domains. Here, Agarwala recounts in his own words his fascinating journey, and spells out a bright outlook for the real estate sector in 2021 to BrandSutra Born into a business family... I grew up in Calcutta, seeing entrepreneurship first hand as my grandparents on both sides, and then my father, ran their own businesses. That seeded a very early desire in me to go out and build something of my own. After obtaining a degree in Material Science and Engineering from Northwestern University in the US, I went to Stanford University, but left it to come back to India. Then I started a small iron ore mining business, to supply iron ore to steel plants. The mines were at Barbil in Odisha, and I would take a train from Howrah to Tata Nagar and then travel three-and-a-half hours in a cab (no AC those days!) through smoky and dusty terrain to reach Barbil. When you enter the iron ore mining zone, this red dust flies into the car and settles on you. I remember the first time I went to Barbil, and took a shower after reaching there, I was horrified to see a red stream of water going into the drain. Then I realized it was iron ore dust! As for business, I couldn't have asked for a bigger trial by fire as I had to deal with the quasi âmafiaâ contractors. At that time, I also partnered my maternal uncle to take the management institute that he ran in Delhi to Calcutta â I set up the Eastern Institute for Integrated Learning in Management. So being amongst intellectuals, professors and students was exciting as well. Then something funny happened â I asked my Dad to take over from me as opposed to kids usually taking over the parentsâ business - as I wanted to move back to the US.