Yogesh Bulchandani, CEO and co-founder of Sunrise Capital: Each week, My Morning Routine looks at how a successful member of the community starts their day — and then throws in a couple of random business questions just for fun. Speaking to us this week is Yogesh Bulchandani (LinkedIn), CEO and co-founder of Sunrise Capital. Edited excerpts from our conversation:

I moved to Dubai about 21 years ago in 2004. My family had already been living there, and we were involved with investments in real estate. I went to university in 2009 in Boston at Bentley University, where I studied finance, entrepreneurship, and a little bit of law. After returning to Dubai, took me about a year and a half to figure out what I want to do, and the opportunity presented itself for me to purchase a land in Arjan — that’s how my journey in real estate development began.

I launched Sunrise Capital in 2022. We’ve delivered two projects with 250 apartments, both in the affordable luxury category. We take a lot of pride and care when it comes to the quality of our apartments, since the space today is very crowded with plenty of new launches and new developers. Five or seven years ago, it was very different. At that point in time, I decided that I want Sunrise Capital to be known for the kind of quality people really wish to have. And that came from the experience of investing a lot in real estate properties in Dubai, where we always had criticism for how things could be improved. With that at the back of our minds, we thought it’s best if we actually put our thoughts into reality.

Branded residences are in vogue at the moment, as well as having an excessive number of amenities — 30 or 40+. I look at it from a very practical standpoint, with a focus on usability. I prefer to give my clients features and aspects of the building that they would truly enjoy. We have over 70% of our projects covered by end users, so it’s important to go that extra mile for them.

Client feedback, to me, is crucial. We place part of our team at our developments for a period of a year or year and a half after its launch, so we get very direct feedback from clients. After we finished our first project, Legend by Sunrise, almost 95% of the feedback we received was implemented on our next project, Legacy by Sunrise.

I think that the more the CEO can be involved in the day-to-day running of the business, the more the client also feels connected. I know clients by face and by name, and many developers don’t get to experience that. I'm fully involved in the construction process, in the tendering process, and in negotiations with the contractors and subcontractors. I meet the workers who are working on our projects on a weekly basis. I'm fully involved in the sales aspects of meeting my clients, and in negotiating and getting sales done. And I also like to be involved in after sales and customer service. Then there’s meetings and calls with team managers, of course, and a fair bit of troubleshooting.

I start my morning with some light yoga and exercise. I read my book. I get to work by 10:30am, and I’m in the office until 6:30 or 7pm. These three things are really what prepare me for the day.

[One constant in my day is] hanging out with my team. My team is more important than me, because they are the ones taking forward my vision.

I wish I could say my days are fully organized, but there’s nothing I can do to organize my day. This line of business requires a lot of attention and dedication if you want to do it the right way and keep hitting the sweet spot. We just built a small mansion in Palm Jumeirah — about 17k sqft. The amount of detailing that goes into it, and the amount of small details and issues that need to be addressed everyday, is mind boggling.

In terms of my goals, professionally speaking, we’re launching our biggest project yet, our flagship project, in the next 30 days. Personally speaking, I just got married two years ago, so my goal is to grow my family and give my family more time.

I'm turning 35 soon, and I feel I get a lot of groundedness and understanding of very different concepts of life from the books that I read. Manifest by Roxie Nafousi is a great one. I’m also currently reading Becoming Supernatural, which is another fantastic book that I’d recommend.

The best piece of advice I’d give is to be dedicated and consistent. The more consistent you are in anything in life, like delivering quality products or whatever it is you’re doing, the more possibilities you create for yourself.

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