Today he is a digital sales and marketing specialist with Canadian Western Bank, but a few short years ago, Varnit Karumuri was part of the inaugural cohort at GreenHouse.
An Environment and Business student at UWaterloo, Varnit was intrigued by the incubators springing up in Waterloo, and felt that GreenHouse would offer him something beyond what he had gained in his courses.
Like many students, Varnit did not arrive at GreenHouse with an idea, and the project he worked on with another student “never ended up being anything” – but he sees the experience as being a very important factor that has led him to his career.
“My GreenHouse experience wasn’t just a few months of inspiration that went away, but has had much more impact. It helped shape my interest in the banking industry and helped me develop skills I use in my career in new product development.”
Varnit adds, “Entrepreneurship is a spirit as much as anything else. A turning point in my career happened when I took the initiative to talk to people and to take on work that wasn’t part of my job description.
“Some of the skills I learned at GreenHouse helped me with this, thinking about how you want to proceed, creative thinking, and inspiration. I didn’t use these skills to create an enterprise, but you don’t have to do that. You can successfully apply the lessons learned at GreenHouse to other ventures and other areas of your life.”