He loves grocery shopping, and she loves to cook; at work, she comes up with ideas, and he steps in to make the final call. a gist of how, Himani Ahuja and Nishit Gururani, founders of One Digital – a PR & Communications firm for architects, designers, and allied brands – complement each other.
Ahuja, an architect, and Gururani, an engineer, met through work in 2015. Ahuja says, “Before starting One Digital, I was a consultant to a couple of design firms and Nishit was managing architectural events. We got in touch to discuss a business proposal. I spoke to him about my clients, and eventually ended up talking about collaboration.” Ahuja was a part of forums such as the World Women Economic Forum, so Gururani invited her as a speaker to a similar event.
“That’s when we met. Both of us had felt the dearth of a dedicated firm for architects and designers, which is why we pooled our respective expertise. The personal camaraderie came much later,” adds Gururani, 30. “We had no registered company even after our first client got on board. When he asked us the company name for the first cheque, we said ‘One Digital’. Nishit goes by the principle to never invest money into anything till you haven’t earned through its services. Only after money came in from the first few transactions, we registered our company in the same name on April 28, 2017,” says Ahuja, 29.
The idea of sharing their lives together in matrimony didn’t cross their minds as both were strict professionals. “But, as we from the same industry, and know the same people, we started hanging out, things eventually fell into place and we got married in January,” adds Gururani. They admit it can get complicated working with your life partner, but having pre-decided ground rules can smoothen the hurdles.
“When we enter our office we are not husband and wife, we are business partners. We made it a point to first form separate teams and have different sets of people,” says Gururani. Ahuja adds, “The clients I handle are completely different from the clients he caters to. Nishit handles the digital side of things, and I handle the PR segment.” Both make sure to discuss and decide the course of action whenever a new client comes on board, but they also end up discussing work during their personal time like any couple working in the same field. “On our honeymoon, while standing in the queue at Disneyland for one of the rides, we were discussing work and coordinating with our teams,” says Gururani.
One rule the two follow is that all arguments are addressed before going to bed. “I take that first step to solve it because I have to keep the company running,” says Gururani with a chuckle. During the lockdown, they devised a design platform, DesignWorx Asia. “As the businesses were brought to a halt, we thought why not start a daily design feed to update people across the AEC Industry about the design world. We also did webinars and Instagram live sessions with designers and architects,” informs Gururani. “Today, we are working with over 30 designers and architects and 15 brands across India, and have a team of 24 working for us at four offices in different cities,” adds Ahuja.
Rapid Fire
What he likes about her
She knows the business well, and is straightforward.
What she likes about him
He brings humour to the otherwise serious work atmosphere.
Any habit he finds weird about her
She has a unique talent of finding mistakes in anything. Be it an article or an email that you share with her.
Any habit she finds weird about him
He gets bored quite easily, and needs to be occupied with something or the other.