Squash Champion to SILA Founder: How Sahil Vora Turned Sports Discipline into a ₹1000 Cr Business
Squash Champion to SILA Founder: How Sahil Vora made Sports Discipline a 1000 Cr Business. A case study by Sahil Vora of the Mumbai squash courts to the top management of SILA, a pan-India real estate and business services platform, is a good example of how discipline with respect to sports can grow into an efficient entrepreneurial project. To someone who is looking to find the name of SILA founder, Sahil Vora, or sports leadership in business, his experience is one that shows how practice, persistence and humility can indeed help build a 1000+ Cr business, slowly but surely.
Early Squash Roots in Mumbai
Sahil begins his story with the Cricket Club of India (CCI) and Cathedral & John Connon School in Mumbai where he initially had a squash racket in his teenage years.
In the early 2000s, he also worked his way into the Indian national squash set up and he was also representing India in the World Junior Championships where the team made a high finish of fifth.
These were the years of traditioned practices of getting up early, physical exercise and a life of living under the pressure of needing to excel before there was a business career ahead, or an entrepreneurial dream in sight. In this case the preparation was under way: not so much recreation, but the education of mind-learning to assume responsibility point-by-point, match-by-match.
Trinity College: Captaincy, Culture and Character
The second major development occurred when Sahil went to Trinity College in Hartford USA where he studied Economics as well as playing in the men squash team.
Later he was a captain of one of the strongest college programmes on squash in the US at Trinity and the team claimed the national championship many times. He was taught the art of humility by the iconic coach, Paul Assalante. Perseverance and putting the interest of the team above the ego-principles that would eventually be the culture of SILA.
Sport and scholarship gave him a dual view, as he could reason academically with Economics, and compete in sport with world squash.
Wall Street Lessons and the Decision to Build in India
After graduation, Sahil left life on a kind of detachment and sports as the principal activity and joined the profession of finance temporarily. He worked as a hedge fund analyst at George Weiss Associates, a well-known hedge fund in New York, and never lost touch with squash and coaching.
The hedge fund experience exposed him to capital markets, risk, and how large masses of money contemplate over time returns, knowledge, which ultimately would assist in his thinking about investors and institutional clients.
But the attraction to India and the making of something of his own was stronger, even in the shadow of the stability and prestige. By the time he returned to Mumbai circa 2009, he had a very particular scheme- to create a professional, systems-based platform in an Indian real estate services fractured market.
Co-Founding SILA: Bringing Athlete Mindset to Facility Management
Sahil Vora founded SILA in 2010 with his brother Rushabh Vora. The first area of interest was facility management, which is largely informal, manpower intensive and underrated even when it is very vital in real-estate investments.
Vision was introduced by Sahil, Sales and outside relations by Rushabh, Systems was taken into consideration by governance and execution, which is only a good doubles team with complementary roles and not overlapping.
A few of the squash habits were exposed in the DNA of SILA on the first day itself:
- Onboarding of staffs and staff SOPs training.
- Match-analysis project and contract review.
- Much consistency versus grandiose match-based wins.
What began as a one-city business venture eventually evolved to be an integrated business service and real estate business that runs in 100+ cities as Indian growth was ₹1000 Cr Business-Slowly, Steadily, Sustainably.
Scaling to a ₹1000 Cr Business—Slowly, Steadily, Sustainably
Within 10 years, SILA was turned into a multi-vertical platform:
- Residential, commercial, BFSI, retail and industrial facility management services.
- Counseling and development services of a project.
- Presence throughout the pan-India and a large number of staff and operations on millions of square feet.
This ascent was characterized by several milestones:
- Norwest and other institutional capital sponsors, including Norwest who had been reporting good returns on the disciplined, annuity-based model at SILA.
- The publication such as ET 40 Under Forty and other business publications have listed Sahil regarding the way SILA was doing in good governance and sustainable growth.
This was very, as it were, athletic, i.e. focus on what can be controlled, keep on improving things and have the scoreboard (revenue, profitability, investor confidence) to demonstrate the labor.
Sports DNA in SILA’s Culture and Partnerships
There is a distinct sports undercurrent to the story of SILA:
- High-trust, performance-oriented individuals like M.S. Dhoni have been put in the cap table and partnerships of the company in the related ventures, which further supports a brand association of discipline and reliability.
- On the inside, the organisation has a playbook-like SOPs, culture that puts consistency and ethics of the organization ahead of quick, short-term victories.
Sahil, in his turn, has remained paying back his sport, which has made him what he is. He favours squash academies and programmes which persuade children to adopt the sport and regularly stresses that discipline and habit are more significant than mere talent.
Key Leadership Lessons from Sahil Vora’s Squash Journey
The major Leadership Learning of the Squash Journey of Sahil Vora:
- Resilience Under Pressure: This notion of competition squash taught him that each point-and each loss-is an opportunity to begin anew and respond. This in business terms refers to how SILA manages to cope with losses of projects, client churn, macro shocks without forgetting the long term.
- Process Over Outcome: Process-first mentality was drilled throughout the years of court drilling. This is reflected in SILA in the form of well-developed SOPs, governance infrastructure, and tech enabled operational discipline in hundreds of sites, and it guarantees the quality of service regardless of who is on the shift.
- Team-First Leadership: The choice to bring Trinity to the national squash titles were an indication of the familiarity with different personalities and roles. Sahil, the founder of SILA, practices the same, as he constructs the leadership teams where each member works on their strengths and has a common goal.
- Humility and Long-Term Focus: Competition maintains any athlete on his feet- you win some, you lose some. Sahil has been wary of the hype cycles in his business and has focused on profitability, sustainability and ability to serve the clients and investors in a gradual and consistent manner.
Why Sahil Vora’s Story Matters
Sahil Vora is one of those stories that can be told again in the context of a startup ecosystem that appears to be awash with overnight success stories, capital-raising headlines, and process reverence that can gradually build up a big and reputable business.
CCI squash court, to Trinity College championships, and the top of SILA in India, to say a few, his trail is the example of how on the field you might not always stay on the field. It turns into a lifetime operating system- one that can fuel personal growth and a 1000 cr business.
