Team Spotlight: Introducing Rishav

Every week we ask a Terra team member to let us know who they are. Here's Rishav:

What wearables do you use?

I might be the first member at Terra that doesn't have a wearable yet, haha! I've been speaking to different people in the office to get a better sense of what suits me best - Alex is a Whoop fanboy and recommended Whoop to me, but in all honesty, the Oura Ring looks pretty cool as well.

Favorite activities?

Working out for sure; I work out about five days a week. This is primarily strength training in the gym, but I also mix some of my other favorites such as football, cricket, and singing. I also enjoy taking time off and thinking about entrepreneurial ideas.

A man of many talents! What kind of singing do you get up to?

It's just a hobby, and I mostly jam with my closest mates. Occasionally we do some gigs as well. Although, I was more active during my high school years!

Could you expand a bit on your entrepreneurial side?

Startups are something I enjoy; I like being challenged to think deeply, whatever is pushing my brain to the limit, either tasks or activities - both at University and at Terra. Whenever I have time, I sit down and break down problems I have - I enjoy solving problems regularly, I like to think about scaling, and I organically try to think about how I would build a particular product. I kind of like to think of most tasks as gamification: I like to break things down, and the process itself is a reward for me. I also like to manually keep a tab of the number of hours I put in week-in and week-out; this is one of the things that keeps me motivated consistently. Also, I built a startup in India in my teenage years.

That's awesome... What was the start-up?

The start-up was about developing the ethos around e-sports in India and removing the stereotype about e-sports being a solitary activity. I organized e-sports events around the country with Sony Playstation and other gaming brands in India with a focus on gathering friends in open, bright spaces. The biggest thing I learned about business was presenting my brand to my audience and investors - I learned a ton from this. I was only 16 at the time I built my first startup, and the entrepreneurship bug bit me. This is what, in the end, led me to join Terra!

How did you end up in the UK?

When considering different universities, out of all the universities I got accepted into in the UK, USA, and Canada, Imperial College London stood out and spoke to me as a University that would require me to push myself to my limits. It's a place where I have been able to meet a lot of bright and like-minded people and develop the work ethic for my professional life. It was about building a network and challenging myself, and it seemed to fit the next chapter in my book.

Favorite food?

Butter Chicken and Garlic Naan, hands down - haha!

Speaking of food... If you could have dinner with any person, past or present, who would you choose and why?

Elon Musk! The drive he has when he sees a problem, dedicating his entire life to solving that problem, I'm getting inspired to have that same drive to solve complicated problems myself - he's an inspiration. I would love to sit with him and pick his brain to understand how he approaches complicated problems.

How do you find working part-time at Terra with balancing studying at Imperial College London?

I currently work two full days a week, while the rest goes to University work. Something that wasn't a requirement for me until now was strict discipline and time management skills - discipline is no longer a choice but a requirement for me to succeed at University and Terra. Regarding managing my hours and day-to-day, working out regularly helps clear my mind, and keeping social commitments for the weekend works best for me. More recently, I've been helping with organizing IC Hack 2023, the UK's largest student-led hackathon, as a committee member of DocSoc (Imperial College London's Computing Society) - Terra is an official sponsor of DocSoc and ICHack ‘23!

Can you reveal anything about the Hackathon and what students can look forward to?

This year the IC Hack will be bigger than ever before and with prizes and merchandise at a really high level - 600 students in total have signed up for the event with tickets selling out within a total of just 2 minutes from release! Essentially students form teams and have 24 hours to come up with an idea and present the idea in front of a committee. Terra will be there as a Gold Sponsor, and I can't say what exactly yet, but you can expect some really really cool prizes and merchandise from us, so for that, you will have to stay tuned on our social channels... However, if you're attending the event or a student at Imperial College London, you can already join Terra's "Road to Asgard - Challenge" to win an Apple Watch.

Lastly, what did you get during our steak lunch with the team in Covent Garden last week?

A starter of butter-garlic prawns, mozzarella with focaccia, and a whole tomahawk steak as a main. That's what protein refills look like to me, haha!