- Sanket Parekh is the founder and managing partner of venture capital fund, Secocha Capital.
- He’s also a member of R360, an invite-only club for those with a net worth of at least $100 million.
- He told Insider what it’s like to be part of the exclusive club that puts family first.
This as-told-to article is based on a conversation with Sanket Parekh, the founder of a Miami-based venture capital fund who joined R360, a networking club for people with a net worth of at least $100 million. It has been edited for length and clarity.
I have two professional roles. One is with a family enterprise and the second is a business I started to create a legacy of my own.
I run a venture capital fund based in Miami but I’m also part of the second generation of a family business that began in the late ’50s in India. It’s a fairly large conglomerate that specializes in manufacturing adhesives and sealants.
I’ve come across other member-only clubs and none of them has appealed to me the way R360 did.
I’m a member of other professional networks like the Young Presidents’ Organisation, but in most of those clubs, you see a tremendous focus around personal growth as a professional. Not a lot of them focus on family as an enterprise.
This is what attracted me to R360.
A key factor I appreciated is its ability to help families flourish, and drive activities and interests to help grow the human and intellectual capital.
Something R360 emphasises is how members can engage with a set of like-minded folks who potentially have similar challenges, and use their collective wisdom to help me be a better steward of the next generation. This is different to other exclusive clubs.
The process to become an R360 member was intensive — it was not to be taken lightly. They’re really looking for people who are genuine and joining for the right reasons. And when you start having those conversations, you start appreciating the group a lot more. If it’s a flippant process just for the sake of it, you start questioning whether it’s going to be worth your time.
Part of benefitting from R360 is about what you put in. You can’t sit back and expect things to happen to you. You’ve got to take the initiative to allow for serendipity to take place.
Sanket Parekh
One recent example is a R360 gathering that took place at Richard Branson’s private Necker Island. I got an opportunity to sit and have a 1:1 conversation with Branson about family and succession and how to build a legacy that is beyond just you.
It was just fascinating to have that level of a conversation with someone as magnanimous as him and to learn from him. The beauty was that someone like him spent 15 minutes out of the 30 minutes that we were chatting asking me questions.
Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
It’s about the serendipitous opportunity that you get when you are among folks who have truly experienced life, which gives you the chance to leverage collective wisdom very efficiently.
The range of members in the club is a beautiful mix which is what I also appreciate. It’s not concentrated in one industry. For example, I have sat down with folks from advertising to real estate to geology. They’re also from various age groups and had very different upbringings.
I hark back to my college life where I learned as much from my classmates as I did from my professors. In that sense, the people you surround yourself with will either enrich you or drag you down — and that’s why R360 is picky about who can join the club.
While a $100 million net worth affords you an R360 membership, it’s really more about what the club brings to the table — which is people who have a similar expectation of life.
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