Business is a game of strategy: Sanjay Bhatia, Co-Founder, CEO tells us all about the man behind Freightwalla

The Proust Questionnaire is a questionnaire about one’s personality. It has its origins in a parlour game popularised by Marcel Proust, the French essayist, who believed that, in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature.

Business is a game of strategy: Sanjay Bhatia, Co-Founder, CEO tells us all about the man behind Freightwalla

Sunday April 12, 2020,

4 min Read

Sanjay Bhatia is the Co-Founder and CEO of Freightwalla, a technology enabled freight forwarding company which started operations in January 2017. Freightwalla provides instant quotations for ocean freight, real-time tracking and digital solutions to streamline logistics operations.

Prior to Freightwalla, Sanjay was with PwC Strategy Consulting, Solera Partners - a venture capital firm and Everstone Capital - one of the biggest home-grown private equity firms in India. In his previous roles Sanjay has consulted on growth strategies for numerous Fortune 500 firms and MNC logistics companies, advised on technology investments, prepared growth and distribution strategies for top three global sportswear companies.

He also led teams to design and build dashboards that improved visibility of the senior management’s performance and provide real-time access to data. Sanjay has also built a model to forecast migration patterns in India 5, 10 and 25 years in to the future.

Sanjay holds degrees in Economics, Politics and Philosophy from the University of Warwick. He also holds a Master of Science degree in Applied Finance which he earned from Singapore Management University. Here are his responses to our Proust questionnaire


What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Unadulterated freedom.

What is your greatest fear?

Not being able to pursue my dreams.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

My aggression, as it allows me to push myself very hard but can also rub people off in the wrong way.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Big talking.

What is your greatest extravagance?

My music.

What is your current state of mind?

Relaxed.





What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Frugality! Sometimes you need to spend money to make money.

On what occasion do you lie?

White, social lies.

What do you most dislike about your appearance?

I can't grow a nice, thick moustache.

What is the quality you most like in a man?

Ambition.

What is the quality you most like in a woman?

No drama.

What or who is the greatest love of your life?

Music.

Which talent would you most like to have?

Music composition.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I'd work much smarter than I do right now.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Building Freightwalla to what it is (and hopefully will be).

If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

A Japanese person so I could enjoy Japanese food.

Where would you most like to live?

Maldives.




What is your most treasured possession?

My headphones.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

A life without purpose.

What is your favourite occupation?

I have my favourite occupation already - leading a company.

What is your most marked characteristic?

My drive.

What do you most value in your friends?

They are not flaky.

Who are your favourite writers?

JRR Tolkien and Nassim Taleb.

Who is your hero of fiction?

Aragorn and Gandalf.

Which historical figure do you most identify with?

John D Rockefeller.

What is it that you most dislike?

Lack of effort, when someone wants something but is not willing to put in the effort to get it.

Who are your heroes in real life?

All my mentors who help me understand that entrepreneurship is as much a game of psychology as it is a game of strategy.

What is your favourite name?

Sanjay.

What is your greatest regret?

Missing out on the deadline for the applying to Oxford University!

How would you like to die?

On the moon or Mars!

What is your favourite journey?

Holidays in the Maldives, on a beach.

What is your motto?

You only fail if you never try.