“I'm going to be the president of Cvent and topple this Aggarwal guy!”
Reggie Aggarwal, CEO of meeting technology company Cvent, might have rivals, but it will be a few years before he has to worry about this good-natured challenger: a young Indian boy who delivers his line in a YouTube video sure to make you smile.
The boy lives at the Suparna Ka Aangan orphanage in New Delhi, which Cvent began supporting in January 2010. When Cvent stepped in, the orphanage was taking care of 48 children in a two-room, 10-foot-by-10-foot apartment. With Cvent's contributions, the orphanage now takes care of 80 children, has a much larger facility, and provides food, medicine, education, and supplies beyond the basics, such as water purification and back-up power systems, air coolers, bedding, and bicycles.
More than half of the 850 employees of the McLean, Va.-based company are headquartered in New Delhi, which also has family ties for Aggarwal and his wife.
The Suparna Ka Aangan relationship grew out of an employee suggestion and now draws many of Cvent's New Delhi workers to volunteer at the facility when U.S. employees travel to India on an employee exchange program.
The mission to improve Suparna Ka Aangan has even become part of joining the Cvent team. For 60 new hires in the U.S. last August, part of their training was to participate in “Cvent Apprentice,” which involved orchestrating a fundraiser that raised $12,300 for the orphanage.
In 2012, Cvent expects to move the orphanage into an even larger facility and provide money for more of the children to attend school. Discussions, says Aggarwal, are under way about starting a college fund.