Secrets of my success: Rishi Khosla, chief executive of OakNorth Bank
Rishi Khosla, chief executive of OakNorth Bank, discusses lending, Brexit uncertainty and family life....
What is OakNorth Bank?
It is the London-headquartered bank I co-founded with Joel Perlman in 2015, focused on lending to SMEs.
We use our next-generation credit platform, OakNorth, to assist us with our underwriting and monitoring in the UK and license it to other banks and lenders around the world.
What do you do?
My weeks are busy and varied. I am based at our Soho office but will regularly be out meeting existing and potential customers and hearing pitches about projects we may want to lend on, including those involving tech and property. I also sit on our credit committee.
What do you like?
Winning: I am very competitive. I still get a big kick every time we secure new business. Our loans have helped support the creation of 10000 new homes and 13000 jobs. That makes me feel so happy.
What don’t you like?
Brexit uncertainty hasn’t been helpful. It has made a number of SMEs, who might have been our clients, cautious about expanding.
Biggest break?
I grew up in south Harrow and credit secondary school as helping to unlock my love of tech, with lots of studies around computer science.
I went on to study economics at UCL and LSE before heading to a graduate investment banking scheme at ABN Amro.
I then joined the business development team at GE Capital and got an amazing opportunity when I was just 23 to pitch to the then boss the idea of a tech venture fund. I got to run it and meet some great entrepreneurs and business.
In 2002 I founded a financial research company called Copal Amba with my colleague and friend Joel Perlman. We successfully scaled Copal Amba to almost 3,000 people before selling it to Moody’s Corporation in 2014.
We used some of the proceeds to establish OakNorth.
Setback
When we set up Copal it required a lot of our savings. I then didn’t take a salary for around three years. We had to rely on my wife, who is a solicitor, to produce the sole income. It wasn’t easy.
Home/Work balance?
I have been married to my wife Milan for 18 years and we have four children, aged six to 13. We always have an annual holiday and have a no phones at the dinner table rule. I also enjoy going to the gym before work.
Any tips for people wanting a career in the sector?
As long as you have the conviction and the passion for what you are doing and you have a real belief in it, you will be able to grow and improve in any sector.
