Welcome to The Next Billion by Sharran Srivatsaa. A no-fluff business playbook with over 100,000 readers.
I’m building our next billion-dollar company.
But this time… you’re coming with me.
Here is what I mean…
Not just for the wins.
Not just for the fancy highlight reel.
But for the whole damn ride.
The breakdowns.
The hard lessons.
The frameworks that actually work.
The days where everything goes wrong—and how we reset.
Because I’ve done this before. Twice.
But I never really told the full story.
That’s why I created The Next Billion.
A free Substack where I write in real-time, as I build again.
So you don’t have to learn everything the hard way like I did.
How we got here
When we built Teles, we grew it 10x in 5 years.
From boutique firm to $3.4 billion in sales, with a run-rate of over $5 billion.
We sold it to Douglas Elliman (NYSE: DOUG) in one of the largest scale transactions ever done with two independent brands in the history of US real estate.
We had a playbook.
Sorta.
It worked.
But I barely got to share any of that.
A couple podcast interviews here and there… and maybe a Forbes article to make me feel better about myself. That doesn’t even scratch the surface of what it takes to build something that big.
And I am sad, because all those lessons could’ve helped you.
Then it happened again.
Later, at Real, our publicly traded real estate company on the Nasdaq, we did it again.
When I joined, we had 6,800 agents.
And in under 3 years, we grew to over 28,000 agents.
Not only did we grow our agents into all 50 states and Canada, we also grew our operating revenue to over $1 billion. That’s 400% growth in the toughest real estate market in 3 decades.
No shortcuts.
No celebrity influencers. (unless you think I count, ha)
Just strategy, systems, and culture. And lots of air miles and hotel points.
And of course a team with a ridiculous work-ethic.
Our valuation went from approximately $200 million to $1 billion+ in under 3 years. And our growth made us the fastest-growing real estate brokerage in the world. That’s bonkers.
And I’ll be honest with you:
I was too busy chasing the prize and doggedly committed to outworking everyone that I lost my way. I was too slammed to see my family, too drained to work out, and definitely had zero time to stop and write any of it down.
So this time, I am committed to doing better.
What’s different now
I’m documenting everything.
No filters.
No fake urgency.
Just what’s real.
Because the truth is:
Growth is not a mystery.
It’s a system.
And when you get the system right,
You don’t have to burn out to build something big.
So if you’re building a company, a brand, a team…
Something that actually matters…
This just maybe your seat at the table.
3 Lessons I Wish I Knew Sooner
These aren’t just business lessons.
They’re survival tools:
1. Bigger isn’t better. Better is better.
At Teles, there were points where we grew too fast.
I won’t forget the times that I had to hold payroll.
First for myself, and also for my partners. And that is not a fun email to send when the headlines are telling a different cinderella story.
My point: Growth means nothing if you don’t control the engine.
2. Vision is oxygen. Repeat it often.
At Real, we scaled during the most brutal market in decades.
Because we didn’t sell hype, we shared belief.
The belief that we could win without silos. The belief that kindness and collaboration were the missing ingredients in our industry. The belief that a “One Real” approach would serve our company and our community better than anything else the industry had seen.
Vision, spoken daily, and operationalized relentlessly was our unfair advantage.
3. Cash flow tells the truth. But culture builds the future.
We didn't outspend our competition.
We out-cared them.
We operationalized generosity full throttle.
We gave everything away, not just to deploy unbeatable goodwill, but to also stack the evidence in our favor that kindness could actually be a viable and scalable business model.
Because when you lead with trust and ownership, people bring their full selves. That’s where exponential contribution lives.
In fact, our t-shirts didn’t even have our logo or brand on them like you may expect. It just had the 4-magical words that all 28,000+ people knew was the heart-beat of the company: Work Hard, Be Kind.
So welcome to The Next Billion.
No fluff.
No play-acting.
Just a guy who’s done it twice (with a lot of help) and is doing it again.
I say all this not to impress you.
But to invite you.
Because if you’re building something real…
Something that can last…
Then you don’t need another guru.
You need a friendly guide who’s still in the trenches.
Let’s build the next billion together.
—Sharran
If you have a minute, check out my recent TEDx Talk.