Innovating From Within: Vijay Saraff on Building Startups Inside The Saraff Group

How do you innovate like a startup while stewarding a multigenerational family business? In Episode 3 of The Exponential Show, Vijay Saraff walks through a career spent experimenting—launching new ventures, professionalizing real estate operations, investing in startups, and building tech from scratch—without losing the strengths that make family enterprises resilient.

From family enterprise to founder mindset

Vijay’s entry point was classic family-business pragmatism: spot an opportunity, validate fast, then build systems. Fresh out of college, he helped launch Saraff Infotech in business process outsourcing. The early days were lean—six months of groundwork before the first customers arrived via email marketing and trade shows—but they taught him the two muscles that recur throughout his story: hiring well and institutionalizing process.

That playbook transferred neatly to real estate, where he focused on brand, presentation, and tenant experience—taking occupancy from ~30–40% to near full. Later, curiosity about venture building took him to India for a stint at a VC firm. He returned with sharper pattern recognition—plus the humility that comes with seeing high mortality rates up close. The result: a more disciplined appetite for experiments, including launching Brand On Road, a taxi-media startup inspired by proven models abroad and adapted to local conditions.

Innovating in a family business environment

Inside a conglomerate, “startup” is less a label than a decision framework. Proposals arrive; you assess capabilities, passion, and fit with existing assets; then you test. Vijay describes it as a continuous loop of idea selection → pilots → team/incentives → systematization—the same fundamentals of venture building, but with the advantage of existing networks and cash flows.

Breaking barriers with technology (AI as an operating layer)

Vijay is most animated about technology’s role in codifying and transmitting institutional knowledge. He sketches a vision for an internal AI—think a context-aware, always-on mentor that preserves policies, culture, and “how we do things,” then onboards and guides new team members through conversation. That idea is now moving from concept to reality: a proof-of-concept deployed, with integration into in-house software underway.

Zooming out, he sees AI and modern software narrowing skill gaps, raising quality, and reducing errors in services businesses. The goal isn’t replacing people; it’s augmenting teams, standardizing best practices, and freeing humans for higher-order work.

Thailand’s local business ecosystem: hard to enter, rich to build in

Thailand rewards relationships, language, and cultural fluency. Networks are well-defined and long-standing; newcomers need sponsors, local partners, or patient capital. Yet the ecosystem does create space for the next generation to try, fail, and try again—exactly what a healthy startup scene needs. Vijay’s practical advice for operators and expats alike: learn Thai, respect the social fabric, and show up consistently.

The importance of learning and systems

Two habits underpin Vijay’s approach:

• Teach to learn: Make team members responsible for training the next person. Turning tacit shortcuts (the “Excel power user” mindset) into shared playbooks compounds organizational competency.

• Systemize what works: Incentives, checklists, SOPs, and lightweight automation reduce cognitive load and error rates. As the company scales, systems create stability without stagnation.

  
  

Advice for founders and ecosystem players

Vijay’s core message is deceptively simple: know yourself. Ten minutes of intentional daily stillness can surface clearer judgments and better decisions than a week of frantic busyness. For founders, that means going to the source—observe problems in situ rather than purely theorizing in classrooms or slides. For policymakers and investors, it means immersing in real contexts before writing rules or term sheets; proximity improves judgment.

Key takeaways

• Family businesses can be entrepreneurial labs: use existing networks and cash flow to run disciplined experiments.

• Codify knowledge with tech: AI-enabled onboarding and SOP assistance can raise quality and consistency across services.

• Local fluency matters: in Thailand, language and long-term relationships are strategic assets.

• Teach what you know: institutionalize tacit knowledge to compound team capability.

• Protect time for reflection: clarity fuels better operating decisions—and better products.

  
  

Watch Ep. 3 with Vijay Saraff to dive deeper into building startup-style momentum inside a family business and how AI can preserve—and spread—organizational wisdom.