Vinayak Burman
Founder and Managing Partner
Vinayak is one of the country's top corporate lawyers specializing in Private Equity, Venture Capital, and General Corporate practices. Having made the youngest partner at one of the Top Tier law firms of the country, he decided to leave his cushy job and take the entrepreneurial plunge in 2016, and Co-Founded Vertices Partners. With individual expertise in Venture Capital, Private Equity, Mergers & Acquisitions, as well as strategic acquisitions in a variety of industries, Vinayak has represented multiple venture capital and private equity groups, as well as the founders and promoters of several businesses at every level of fund raise. With a broad and deep knowledge of corporate law and as someone who started out his career in Litigation, Vinayak, a lawyer-turned entrepreneur has a unique vantage point which ensures that with his advice, his clients remain ahead of the curve Speaking to such a seasoned and interesting lawyer and entrepreneur. We realized that the bottom line for him became Who can protect not only the clients' legal mandates but also their business interests better!
In an exclusive interview with CEO Insights, Vinayak discussed his professional ups and downs, as well as his path to becoming a successful entrepreneur.
What inspired you to establish Vertices Partners?
The long and short of it, is innate hunger. A hunger to keep learning, keep growing, and staying relevant. After going through the grind as a lawyer across various top tier firms, across industries, and across roles, I felt like I could do so much more. And what better way to stay relevant in the Indian economy if not by contributing to the country's entrepreneurial scape. VERTICES PARTNERS gives me the opportunity to do this not only by being an entrepreneurial venture in itself but also by allowing me to advise other entrepreneurial ventures, founders, and business heads.
Having worked across, I had gained invaluable business learnings and it seemed a waste not to apply these learnings myself. I felt like I could make a difference. At the fundamental level, that's every entrepreneur's insight which pushes them to take all the risks that go with living their entrepreneurial vision. The desire to make a difference and scale it.
My co-founders and I believe that we can continue to make a difference not only in the lives of our clients but also our team members as well as the business and social ecosystem at large. But all this is talk unless I can show you want I mean. So let me share some examples with you. When it comes to work, we have observed a beautiful phenomenon ever since we started Vertices Partners. Our clients have turned into our friends. Most of the business we get at the Firm is either for a continued business relationship or word-of-mouth reference. This is only because when working with Vertices Partners, our clients find a confidant, someone who understands their interests and problems and someone who will only talk of solutions that can be customized to their needs.
Similarly, when we speak of our team members, we believe in paying attention to their happiness quotient. Happiness includes health. Last year, we launched Period Leave, Mind Your Wellness a mental health initiative, and Work-From-Home-Fridays-Forever to encourage optimal productivity.
And finally, we, at the Firm, continue to invest resources into initiatives around women empowerment, women representation in workforce, and byond!
I have gotten to make this kind of a difference only because I am a lawyer-turned entrepreneur.
Could you talk about the learning and experiences that you had acquired from Symbiosis Law College and how you apply them in your current role?
Symbiosis Law College is where I completed my law degree. First and foremost, the multicultural outlook that the institution promoted was a valuable lesson I took away from my time at the Pune campus. Among the many cultures represented, there was at least one from every region of the nation. One of the most fundamental philosophical principles that I've carried with me from college to my career and the business is this proverb, which we adhere to wholeheartedly. "Celebrate the differences". It's all about the concept of recognizing and celebrating one's uniqueness.
All of us have our unique thoughts, ideas, methods, and personalities, and it is quite easy to create disagreements when several distinct personalities or unique structures are coming together. How one thinks might be very different from how another thinks. Now, there are two ways to deal with this, either you oppose it and build your own vertical, or you can embrace it and live in a world of diversity. Make use of your canvas, which lets you observe such a wide range of ideas, personalities, and backgrounds; I find the latter way of living to be enlightening. That's what my college instilled in me, the importance of appreciating and embracing one's uniqueness.
Define Vertices Partners as an organization & where is it positioned in the industry? What are the company's greatest strengths & unique propositions that it offers to its clients?
Vertices Partners is a firm for the segment of business which was largely unserviced previously because there were either bulge brackets or there were freelancers. So, to answer your question, Vertices Partners is a niche firm on a fast-track to becoming a full-service law firm for the mid-market segment. Most recently, we have added to our partnership by on-boarding partners having specialized expertise.
We have a very clearly defined approach at the Firm which has been validated repeatedly by client success and industry recognition. We believe that relationships are the key. We love it when we see our clients grow and we have many stories where the Firm, its leadership, and its clients have all grown and achieved remarkable milestones together. Now the question is how do we do it? We do this as a matter of habit by being proactive, honing our performance, and nurturing our pedigree at every level within the Firm. We also do this by maintaining a lean Partner to team ratio. This ensures quality work for our clients as well as quality learning for our team members. Hence, those who align with this way of functioning become a core part of the Vertices Family.
And our ever-humble and ever-warm Vertices Family provides complete legal services including the whole spectrum of transactional, advisory, litigation, and regulatory concerns. Our key specializations include private equity and venture capital transactions; corporate and commercial law; mergers and acquisitions; joint ventures; foreign investment; real estate; regulatory & secretarial compliances; white collar crime; insolvency and bankruptcy; arbitration and dispute resolution.
Reflect on some of the major challenges you have experienced in your journey so far& how did you overcome them and what did you learn from them?
If anyone gets a chance to live the kind of childhood and later formative years that I consider
I have gotten to make this kind of a difference only because I am a lawyer-turned entrepreneur.
As a company that values long-term connections, VERTICES PARTNERS is committed to nurturing relationships with all its stakeholders
Could you talk about the learning and experiences that you had acquired from Symbiosis Law College and how you apply them in your current role?
Symbiosis Law College is where I completed my law degree. First and foremost, the multicultural outlook that the institution promoted was a valuable lesson I took away from my time at the Pune campus. Among the many cultures represented, there was at least one from every region of the nation. One of the most fundamental philosophical principles that I've carried with me from college to my career and the business is this proverb, which we adhere to wholeheartedly. "Celebrate the differences". It's all about the concept of recognizing and celebrating one's uniqueness.
All of us have our unique thoughts, ideas, methods, and personalities, and it is quite easy to create disagreements when several distinct personalities or unique structures are coming together. How one thinks might be very different from how another thinks. Now, there are two ways to deal with this, either you oppose it and build your own vertical, or you can embrace it and live in a world of diversity. Make use of your canvas, which lets you observe such a wide range of ideas, personalities, and backgrounds; I find the latter way of living to be enlightening. That's what my college instilled in me, the importance of appreciating and embracing one's uniqueness.
Define Vertices Partners as an organization & where is it positioned in the industry? What are the company's greatest strengths & unique propositions that it offers to its clients?
Vertices Partners is a firm for the segment of business which was largely unserviced previously because there were either bulge brackets or there were freelancers. So, to answer your question, Vertices Partners is a niche firm on a fast-track to becoming a full-service law firm for the mid-market segment. Most recently, we have added to our partnership by on-boarding partners having specialized expertise.
We have a very clearly defined approach at the Firm which has been validated repeatedly by client success and industry recognition. We believe that relationships are the key. We love it when we see our clients grow and we have many stories where the Firm, its leadership, and its clients have all grown and achieved remarkable milestones together. Now the question is how do we do it? We do this as a matter of habit by being proactive, honing our performance, and nurturing our pedigree at every level within the Firm. We also do this by maintaining a lean Partner to team ratio. This ensures quality work for our clients as well as quality learning for our team members. Hence, those who align with this way of functioning become a core part of the Vertices Family.
And our ever-humble and ever-warm Vertices Family provides complete legal services including the whole spectrum of transactional, advisory, litigation, and regulatory concerns. Our key specializations include private equity and venture capital transactions; corporate and commercial law; mergers and acquisitions; joint ventures; foreign investment; real estate; regulatory & secretarial compliances; white collar crime; insolvency and bankruptcy; arbitration and dispute resolution.
Reflect on some of the major challenges you have experienced in your journey so far& how did you overcome them and what did you learn from them?
If anyone gets a chance to live the kind of childhood and later formative years that I consider
myself privileged to have had, facing challenges becomes a matter of habit and nothing feels `major' anymore.
I was raised in Kolkata by well-educated, middle-class parents. When I was born, my father had just quit his stylish job as a planter in tea estates and decided to turn an entrepreneur. In the early days, he undertook odd jobs to provide us simple luxuries. After trying to sell tea machinery to companies all day long, my father would come back home and pick up the spices made by my mother which he would then set out to sell in the neighbourhood to earn some extra money. Even with all of these difficulties, my parents were able to provide me with the greatest education possible.
I studied in one of the best schools in Kolkata, Don Bosco Park Circus. Here, my early years were difficult since I stuttered as a kid, which resulted in my being bullied by my classmates. This caused me to turn into a total introvert, and there were times when I didn't have any friends to have lunch with. As a consequence of coping with all of these issues, I had a year-long fallback in my high school years, but eventually, I realized that failure can either make or break you, and it was a turning moment in my life. Thus, with the support of my family and friends, I was able to regain my strength and energy.
As a result, when I moved to Symbiosis to study law, my college years were full of excitement, and I did reasonably well in most things. Having gained back my confidence and zeal, I decided to earn some extra pocket money. So I used to do some odd jobs including occasionally working in fast food joints like McDonalds and Pizza Hut, which had newly opened up then.
After doing well in college, I woke up to the reality of trying to make it as a lawyer in the real world. My journey started from litigation, went to an unpaid internship until eventually, I got a job with a top tier firm on a salary, that I later realized, was measely for a city like Mumbai. It barely allowed me to live hand-to-mouth.
But finally, I went from living in a shared accommodation to making it as one of the youngest partners in a top tier firm. These kind of experiences helped me to think of doing things differently and independently and the experiences helped me a great deal in the years to come.
And 20 or so years later, here I am, an entrepreneur myself. Life has come full circle. I realize that all of my earlier experiences that I like to call `Privilege of the Unprivileged' have given me invaluable insight, hunger, and chutzpah for life that I find irreplaceable.
Vinayak Burman, Founder & Managing Partner, Vertices Partners
Vinayak graduated from Symbiosis Law College in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in law. Later, he started his career as a corporate lawyer, and he has worked with some of the top tier law firms of the country. Vinayak's areas of experience include Private Equity, Venture Capital, Corporate Commercial Laws, Joint Ventures, Acquisitions, Buyouts, and so forth. In 2016, Vinayak along with Archana Khosla Burman and Amit Vyas decided to start a niche law firm, resulting in the establishment of VERTICES PARTNERS. Today, the Firm is recognized as one of the country’s top corporate law firms.
Awards & Recognitions
> Awarded Times 100 Most Influential Personalities 2021 for Excellence in being Founder Counsel for Private Equity and Venture Capital in India
> Recognized by Forbed India Legal Powerlist as one of the Top 100 Individual Lawyers 2021 for Private Equity, Venture Capital, Joint Venture, and Mergers & Acquisitions Practice
> Ranked as the Highest Rated Lawyer for Private Equity based on client feedback by Asialaw Client Service Excellence in 2021.
> Vinayak has been profiled in Yahoo India as one of the top lawyers in India under the age of 40
> Ranked by Asia Law Business (Thomson Reuters) as one of the Super 50 Lawyers in the country.
> Ranked by Legal 500 2015 as the go-tolawyer In 2016, Vinayak was awarded 40 under 40 Rising Star by Legal Era
> Vinayak has been consistently ranked in the top lawyers in the country in the Private Equity Practice area by several forums
I was raised in Kolkata by well-educated, middle-class parents. When I was born, my father had just quit his stylish job as a planter in tea estates and decided to turn an entrepreneur. In the early days, he undertook odd jobs to provide us simple luxuries. After trying to sell tea machinery to companies all day long, my father would come back home and pick up the spices made by my mother which he would then set out to sell in the neighbourhood to earn some extra money. Even with all of these difficulties, my parents were able to provide me with the greatest education possible.
I studied in one of the best schools in Kolkata, Don Bosco Park Circus. Here, my early years were difficult since I stuttered as a kid, which resulted in my being bullied by my classmates. This caused me to turn into a total introvert, and there were times when I didn't have any friends to have lunch with. As a consequence of coping with all of these issues, I had a year-long fallback in my high school years, but eventually, I realized that failure can either make or break you, and it was a turning moment in my life. Thus, with the support of my family and friends, I was able to regain my strength and energy.
As a result, when I moved to Symbiosis to study law, my college years were full of excitement, and I did reasonably well in most things. Having gained back my confidence and zeal, I decided to earn some extra pocket money. So I used to do some odd jobs including occasionally working in fast food joints like McDonalds and Pizza Hut, which had newly opened up then.
After doing well in college, I woke up to the reality of trying to make it as a lawyer in the real world. My journey started from litigation, went to an unpaid internship until eventually, I got a job with a top tier firm on a salary, that I later realized, was measely for a city like Mumbai. It barely allowed me to live hand-to-mouth.
But finally, I went from living in a shared accommodation to making it as one of the youngest partners in a top tier firm. These kind of experiences helped me to think of doing things differently and independently and the experiences helped me a great deal in the years to come.
And 20 or so years later, here I am, an entrepreneur myself. Life has come full circle. I realize that all of my earlier experiences that I like to call `Privilege of the Unprivileged' have given me invaluable insight, hunger, and chutzpah for life that I find irreplaceable.
Vinayak Burman, Founder & Managing Partner, Vertices Partners
Vinayak graduated from Symbiosis Law College in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in law. Later, he started his career as a corporate lawyer, and he has worked with some of the top tier law firms of the country. Vinayak's areas of experience include Private Equity, Venture Capital, Corporate Commercial Laws, Joint Ventures, Acquisitions, Buyouts, and so forth. In 2016, Vinayak along with Archana Khosla Burman and Amit Vyas decided to start a niche law firm, resulting in the establishment of VERTICES PARTNERS. Today, the Firm is recognized as one of the country’s top corporate law firms.
Awards & Recognitions
> Awarded Times 100 Most Influential Personalities 2021 for Excellence in being Founder Counsel for Private Equity and Venture Capital in India
> Recognized by Forbed India Legal Powerlist as one of the Top 100 Individual Lawyers 2021 for Private Equity, Venture Capital, Joint Venture, and Mergers & Acquisitions Practice
> Ranked as the Highest Rated Lawyer for Private Equity based on client feedback by Asialaw Client Service Excellence in 2021.
> Vinayak has been profiled in Yahoo India as one of the top lawyers in India under the age of 40
> Ranked by Asia Law Business (Thomson Reuters) as one of the Super 50 Lawyers in the country.
> Ranked by Legal 500 2015 as the go-tolawyer In 2016, Vinayak was awarded 40 under 40 Rising Star by Legal Era
> Vinayak has been consistently ranked in the top lawyers in the country in the Private Equity Practice area by several forums