For Tithi and Gautam Tewari, co-creators of Trezi (India’s first Virtual Reality product for the building industry), their relationship began on a professional note, and over the years turned into love. Today, they have a family and a prospering company they run together. Gautam had just returned from Australia in 2001 and had planned to move to Mumbai to start a new job that had been finalised while he was still in Australia. The plan was to spend two months in Delhi, before moving to Mumbai.
“During that time, I met Tithi at a party. She was working for an Australian corporate workplace company. While talking, she suggested exploring the possibility of working with the firm she was working in. She organised a meeting for me with the CEO, he offered me a job, and that was that,” he recollects. Tithi was working in Bengaluru then. “I took over the Delhi office a few months later, and Gautam started reporting to me. We worked for such long hours and spent so much time together at work that at some point our professional relationship turned personal. I don’t remember exactly when.
But if I were to make a guess, it probably would be in 2003,” says Tithi. The duo often gets asked how it is to be married and be working together. “And our answer has been consistent. If we were to be married to someone else and kept the kind of work and travel schedules that we had for nearly 15 years, either the marriage wouldn’t have survived, or we would not have been able to give to our jobs what we gave. Basically, the business partnership was a natural progression to the life partnership and vice versa,” says Gautam. Both are goal-oriented, personally and professionally, and this trait is what, Tithi believes, has kept them together. “Also, our other skills complement each other.
In our previous stint, I was the business head, and Gautam headed projects at one of the largest design practices in the Asia-Pac region. Basically, his job started where mine ended, and we were a really good team together, growing the business and delivering successful projects together,” says Tithi, adding, “I am a very detail-oriented person who plans every minute of her day. At times, this makes me analyse things and situations a bit much. Gautam, on the other hand, is a big vision guy, and does not get lost in the woods. Despite these differences, our goal orientation is very high.
This has really helped us face challenges, most of them with a big smile.” Over the years, if there is one thing the couple hasn’t been able to do is the ability to leave work in office. “Initially, neither of us had an issue with that. With our kids (a 13-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son) needing our attention, we are consciously making an effort to switch off from work after a particular time in the day and on specific days in the week,” says Tithi.
On the work front, the duo hopes to extend the success of their venture. “We have already created India’s first Virtual Reality product for architecture, engineering, and construction industries. We are now shaping into the world’s first immersive platform that connects architects, designers and building product manufacturers,” says Tithi, who also takes time out from her entrepreneurial commitments to support NGOs that focus on critical surgeries and rehabilitation of underprivileged children. “Helping out in whatever way we can is intrinsic to our personalities, which comes from the value systems we grew up with. This was probably what brought us closer in the first place,” concludes Tithi.