Believe it or not, I served in the army for a South American country for six months. I went to college in Guyana at the University of Guyana and military service was a graduation requirement. So I ended up serving in the Guyanan Armed Forces even though I was only a student and not even a citizen of the country at the time! - Navin Ganeshan, 2016.
After talking to Naving Ganeshan for just a few minutes it became apparent to me that I was in the presence of an fascinating business leader. Ganeshan, who is Zubie's Chief Product Officer, was poised, charismatic, knowledgeable, and has an impressive resume. And he gets bonus points because he happens to know a thing or two about beer! Originally from India, Navin lived there until he was about 10 years old. He then spent eight years living abroad in different places throughout the world as his father was a college professor whose work took the Ganeshan family to other parts of the world. Navin has been in the D.C. area for about 28 years and currently lives in Fairfax, Virginia. He has two children as well as a goldendoodle. Navin has spent much of his career building or launching products and specifically has used his expertise and skills to build, market, and launch software. He has worked for both small startups as well as huge companies. Prior to working for Zubie, Navin worked for a company by the name of Centrifuge Systems as their Chief Marketing Officer. There he helped the company build software that analyzed human intelligence and the dynamics of social behavior. Prior to that Navin worked at Network Solutions and he was also a partner in a company that worked on home automation. Navin told me that "the home automation company existed pre-iPhone so it never gained much traction." Today Navin is a founding executive and the Chief Product Officer for Zubie. Zubie creates a device that plugs into any car and can interpret information about the car including the car's location, its mileage, the driving behavior of the driver who is driving the car, and the wear and tear associated with the car and the driver. Navin has been with Zubie for about three years and while he works remotely from the D.C. area he travels Zubie's offices in Charleston, South Carolina on a regular basis. Zubie sells their product for $99.99 at Best Buy and Amazon and the company has also struck partnerships with insurance companies and auto dealerships.
The Bar:
One of the things that I learned about Navin is that he enjoys drinking beer when it's nice out. When I asked Navin about the types of beer he drinks he told me he likes Marzens, Kolsch's, and occasionally a good Hefeweizen "when it's beautiful outside." Pair any of those beers with a nice sunny day and you might be hard pressed to find Navin anywhere other than sitting outside sipping on a great brew. Navin and I met at Bushel and Barrel in Tysons Corner. B&B had a great local beer selection with over 27 beers and ciders available on tap. Almost all of the beers were local and from nearby breweries and I noticed that they weren't your standard local breweries either. The bartenders were knowledgeable about the beer they were serving and they strongly encouraged us to try multiple tastes of whatever we wanted. We did a #BLIB at B&B's next door neighbor Earl's Kitchen, and I would say that B&B's beer selection was much stronger than what Earl's has to offer. The vibe, ambiance, and hall-style seating at Bushel and Barrel grabbed my attention as soon as I walked in the door. This is a place where you can sit down with friends and drink a great assortment of beers. Navin likes bars when they have an excellent beer menu and an overall good vibe. This means that there's plenty of unique beers on the menu and all of the bar stools are full, but it's still easy to get a beer and you don't have to wait in line too long. Navin also likes when bars curate beers in a very deliberate sense. So not just average beers on tap but beers from breweries that you don't see all the time and beers that don't overlap with one another. Navin recommends a few places like The Craftsmen Tap House in Charleston, South Carolina and Caboose Brewing Company in Vienna, Virginia. You can also find Navin at Dacha Beer Garden when he wants to sit outside on a nice day and drink beer with his dog or ChurchKey when he wants a rare and interesting beer. When it comes to great restaurants Navin recommends Oyamel in D.C. or Bar Taco in Reston, Virginia.
The Beer:
Navin started out by ordering a Flying Dog Coffee Porter and I grabbed a Hoppy Place IPA by Old Ox Brewing Company. Old Ox is a relatively new brewery that's in Ashburn, Virginia. It's part of solid crop of breweries that are popping up in Loudoun County, Virginia and Faquier County, Virginia. Some of the other great breweries which are a short ride west of Washington, D.C. include Aslin Beer Company, Old Bust Head Brewing Company, and Ocelot Brewing Company. I think it's great that the beer that these breweries are brewing are starting to wind up on many beer menus in D.C. restaurants and bars. When I asked Navin what beers he currently has in his fridge, he told me that he has an assortment of Devils Backbone as well as a six pack of DuClaw's Sweet Baby Jesus Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter. Duclaw is a Maryland brewery that has been around for about 20 years. They make some unique beers like Dirty Little Freak, which is coconut caramel chocolate brown ale, as well as Euforia, which is a toffee nut brown ale. DuClaw's beers tend to be heavy in calories and they often feel more like a dessert than they do a beer that you'd have with dinner. Navin told me that he always keeps some Coronas in his fridge along with some Guinness and Bass for whenever the need arises for an emergency Black and Tan. Next Navin and I discussed overrated beers and breweries. Navin tends to think that Dogfish Head and Sweetwater Brewing are a bit overrated. He also thinks that Alexandria's Port City brewery has some overrated beers and not a whole lot of interesting options. When we talked about other non-craft beers, Navin mentioned that his beer of choice when he was in college was Red Stripe. And when Navin was in Iceland recently recently he would treat himself to some super-cold Icelandic Gull (70) if it was a nice sunny day.
The Business Leader:
One challenge that Navin is currently facing is that he is working in an entirely new category. He said that it can be challenging when you're the first guy to try and do something. You have to define success and expectations for your product or service because they don't already exist. Navin finds himself trying to drive awareness in an entirely new area. Navin did say that one of the good things about new categories is that you don't have to worry as much about price dynamics because there isn't as much relevant competition. The one thing that Navin needs from the universe right now is for it to slow down, just a little bit. Navin told me that things are moving so quickly in the technology world that any service or product that is being built has to be created or developed for the future. It sounds a lot like Wayne Gretzky's quote about skating to where the puck is going and not to where it is. As far as advice for other business leaders goes, Navin wants them to know that they should be skeptical of packaged business advice. For every rule you come across there another rule that is exactly the opposite. He says that other business leaders should constantly be consuming information and structuring their work and lives to be about information consumption. The most recent book that Navin read was Hamilton which is the book that the Broadway show was based on. He also recently has been reading the Hubspot expose Disrupted.
Thanks so much to Navin Ganeshan for participating in BLIB this week. Join us next week when we'll chat with Manny Dureja, CEO of DAS Worldwide at whiskey and beer bar Rebellion.
