Q & A: The Irrepressible Jimmy Mistry

By Viren Mayani Khabar Feb. 2022

Electric. . .when Jimmy Mistry speaks, a high-voltage current of words blast through the “barrier” of an online conversation!

@ young age, this self-made entrepreneur from Mumbai parlayed his energies and innate design thinking skills into a successful business empire, the Della Group, that today straddles the real estate, hospitality, and design industries in India. Mistry, a self-confessed “brick-and-mortar person” is now all set to beam into the digital space, a hitherto unexplored realm for him. But difficult or impossible are not words that resonate with this irrepressible business whiz. And hence his latest, and very bold entrepreneurial foray, Della Leaders Club (DLC), the world’s first online business platform.

It’s a space where no one has gone before. And certainly, no one from India. While DLC is a registered for-profit company, it is at its core, a social enterprise dedicated to building an ecosystem for professionals, entrepreneurs, and leaders. The promise? To provide members with content and support from leaders across industry verticals, mentorship, and much more. With expectations of getting the company listed on NYSE in a few years now since it's 2021 launch, Jimmy has already succeeded in getting DLC showcased on Times Square’s Billboard and in?Forbes, Inc., Bloomberg. . .a list that keeps growing.

For this Mumbaikar, community service and philanthropy have been a given from early on.In 2005, he started an NGO for community development in Mumbai that continues to function. He has fought an election and also served as trustee for seven years on the board of a 357-year-old charity organization, the Bombay Parsi Panchayat, credentials that he wears with a mix of pride and humility.

Jimmy’s values, he says, are inherited from his hardworking and very grounded Parsi family. His father worked in pharmaceutical sales, a job that that kept the Mistry's moving across cities in India. Studying in six schools meant that Jimmy never stayed in the comfort zone of having permanent friends or teachers. He would learn to adapt to new environments, new people, and work. Jimmy recalls that his mother, a teacher and home entrepreneur, never had an idle moment to spare. That work ethic is now wired into the next generation as well, with Jimmy’s three grown children integrating their education with work experience in the family business, right from childhood.

Over an hour-long conversation, Jimmy shared insights into his business strategies, values, and of course, the raison d’etre of his new brainchild, Della Leaders Club.

On Della Leaders Club (DLC) – in a nutshell: We have created and we are calling DLC the world’s first business platform because it is genuinely a 360-degree support system to an entrepreneur, professional, or leader. DLC is not necessarily a transactional platform; it is a support system [with] a global membership. Each membership also covers the individual’s family.

On what distinguishes DLC from existing service club platforms and business associations: There are platforms for everything in life. For leadership, for strategy, human resources, design thinking. There are platforms for flowers, fashion, and stylizing.

There isn’t a single platform that connects entrepreneurs across the world, taking care of all their needs—knowledge, lifestyle, connecting people online, offline, in-person meetings. Doing brand collaborations and giving it to them ready where they travel. A platform like that does not exist which really understands what an entrepreneur or professional needs. So, this platform is predominantly created by an entrepreneur who understands the requirements of entrepreneurs, professionals, and young leaders. It’s not a social media platform.

Our biggest challenge is to take away the sense of loneliness and [offer] a sense of belonging to a community. That’s what all leaders suffer from. It’s not management mythology or hearsay. It’s a proven fact, something I’ve experienced as a first-generation entrepreneur myself. Universities around the world—Stanford, Harvard, London Business School—have done studies on this. So, we are basically trying to address these needs into through this platform.

On his motivation to explore the unknown: The biggest motivation was the fact that we are solving a problem that has not been solved before by anybody else. I am a part of CEO Club, Mumbai, and Chambers in the Taj Group for the last 13 years. But none of this gives me the gratification of actually solving a problem! When you are solving a problem, you are in a?dhun, a madness of your own. And when you start talking to multiple people as I did . . . I’ve done more than 700 Zoom calls across the world . . and you’re running it , your faith and trust in the problem your'e solving gets reinforced.

This is not a mom-and-pop shop selling soap or a refrigerator. You are talking to intellectuals, very accomplished persons. If there is no truth in what you’re speaking and no problem-solving that you are genuinely doing for the world, they will not give their time. My job is getting a consent letter from men and women of eminence to give their brand, their name, their time and be a part of this community and accept the pride that goes with this community. So that has been a game changer and a motivation for me.

On the journey to DLC’s launch: When we put it together, there was a lot of apprehension in understanding and people asking as to why we are calling ourselves [this] as there are other platforms. We ended up convincing one person at a time. It took a lot of time and effort to convince?Forbes, Economic Times, Bloomberg?and others that this was a business platform. Now, more than?300 articles have been written globally, from the time we launched on 12 June till now, with more than 100 in America. People are intrigued. They acknowledge the fact that yes, with 2,100 honorary members on board, some of the most powerful men and women across the world, across a spectrum of 26 domains of knowledge, it is the world’s first business platform that an Indian has created and it’s is truly global.

On DLC’s structure: DLC is a for-profit company headquartered in Mumbai. In the U. S. we are registered in Delaware, with headquarters in New York. To be a part of this community, people pay a subscription of $4000 a year. In return, they get to join a forum which is global, regional, or city-specific. They get to consume DLC Knowledge First on the platform, which is about 650 pieces of content across 26 genres [a.k.a. Committees]. We are trying to harness the power of a platform through DLC Genie, a progressive web application. You ask a problem and Genie’s job is to utilize the power of this platform and get a solution for you! People can also be a part of the fourteenSocial Impact communities as committee members. They can join any social impact cause that resonates with them emotionally.

There are more than 1000 brand collaborations which we have curated as brand experiences for them across the world, not just in one particular city or country. These include as basic as a collaboration of a DLC menu in a Michelin-starred restaurant, hotels, experiential travel, wine spreads, cigars, watches, fashion stores, and so on.

People also get a first-degree connect.We are like a LinkedIn on steroids, with a first-degree connect to our [current] 2,280 Honorary Committee Members across the world. Honorary Committee Members give us their domain knowledge and expertise; it is for this that they have been brought on board. [Additionally], we have seven full-time employees in every city who will be answerable to members for delivering what has been promised.

DLC launch broadcasted on the Times Square [NY] digital board!

On DLC in the U.S.: The most exciting geography is the U. S. New York is by far our most powerful chapter. If you look at the profile of people, I can rattle at least the top 20 names of New York as part of DLC. So. . . David Meltzer, Steve Rodgers, Fern Mallis, Johnson . . [There’s also] Homi Battiwalla who sits on the global board of Pepsi. The list is filled with people who are outstanding humans in their own rights. To have the co-founder of IGEAsia, Soumitra Dutta, who’s got Nobel laureates sitting on his board, is not a joke .

On winning over local communities worldwide to DLC: The local Chinese in Hong Kong, and the local Thais in Bangkok, they don’t think very highly of our Indian intellectual club. Some Singaporeans find it very difficult to accept that an Indian could lead a club and be the chair and they would be the honorary member. So perhaps this mindset will change in due time. I am quite hellbent on bringing in locals because I think longevity to an institution can be given only if locals are involved. If expats are involved, it becomes an Indian club. I don’t want it to be a Sindhi Boys Club in Dubai. That’s not the intention. The intention is a truly?global platform. So, if I’m in Dubai, my focus and my traction will always be to bring powerful, local Emiratis on board. Game changers. Contributors who are going to impact society. Who have the vision to think that all men and women are equal. If I’m in Hong Kong, I’ll be very happy to get local Chinese on board. In New York, I’ll want local Hispanics on board. Yes! The Managing Director of EY in New York is welcome and so is somebody else. But the minute it is locals, I am much, much more inclined because that’s what will ensure longevity to an institution like DLC.

On Team Della: I have an amazing team. They take care of all my businesses and free my bandwidth of everything else. So, all the six businesses as of today are practically on auto-pilot. They are the ones who manage it, plus they contribute their time to DLC. I have different people, from my own kids—Pearl, Natalia, and Farhan—to Shilpi, who manage different businesses. We collectively do things when we are launching, but each has a specific role to play.

[Jimmy Mistry with Family L-R: Jimmy, daughter Natalia - daughter Pearl - wife Delna & son Farhan]

On growing DLC in the U.S.: I am moving four of my assets, my three kids and Shilpi [Co officer], to New York. We are setting up home there for the next two years because we are going to be expanding in America. If you are expanding, you cannot do virtual expansion. You have to show your commitment, put your money where your mouth is, set up offices [and] infrastructure. It will be the second headquarters for us, as big as Mumbai. From New York, we’re now planning to expand to L.A., Chicago, D.C., Boston, Houston, and San Francisco. We’ve mapped, I think, 20-plus cities in America. Every six months, five are being added. Atlanta is happening in Phase III. So that’s where we need to focus. Every month, I’ll be in New York as a commitment. It will be challenging to travel every month to America and back but there seems to be no other option. I think if the family is there, it will make my life slightly easier.

On expanding DLC’s visibility: I firmly believe that PR and media is fine but if you put your heart and soul into the product and let people do the talking, word-of-mouth is the strongest recommendation and publicity you can get.It might be a slow process, but it’s the only way out. If the product is great, people will recommend it, people will join, and find value. Against $ 4000, we’ll give them a value of $40,000 or $4 million, depending on how they use this platform! So, value creation is in our hands. People joining is not in my hands, but yes, people who are already on the platform will become our brand ambassadors and will definitely recommend others to join.

On funding DLC’s expansion: We are raising $7 million. We have raised $ 2 million already. This is in Phase I against 10% of equity. Once this is done, the second round of equity will go to institutional investors. We plan to dilute not more than 26% by the time we go public. We hope to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange in the next 4-4.5 years. That’s the vision.

On the DLC value system: The currency of valuing people in DLC is pretty simple. Not how much money is in your balance sheet or bank account. We really don’t care two hoots for that. We really value people who touch human lives and the more the number of zeroes attached, the more respect, and therefore, we hold you bigger in our eyes on this platform. So, our currency is pretty simple.?How many lives or how you have touched Planet Earth. That’s it, these are the two on which we measure anybody’s success.?Everything else is immaterial to us.

@shilpisinghmle, @jimmymistry, @nataliajimmymistry, @pearljimmymistry