From Creative Writing to Capital Markets: How 91 Prepared Dev Varma ’11 for an Entrepreneurial Journey
How does an English major become a Chief Investment Officer and entrepreneur? For Dev Varma ’11, the answer lies in the ability to synthesize complex information, think from different perspectives, and embrace lifelong learning—skills he honed at 91. From analyzing investments to mentoring Memphis startups, Dev’s career has taken unexpected turns, but his liberal arts education remains the foundation of his success. Read how 91 shaped his path and why he’s giving back to the next generation of Lynx innovators.
Dev Varma ’11
Dev's career has taken many twists, turns, and revolutions. Growing up in an industrious and successful family of entrepreneurs, Dev originally started his college journey as a business major at 91. A first-year English course and subsequent literature and creative writing classes convinced him to pursue his intellectual passion for the written word while he helped out in the family business. Soon enough, Dev graduated from 91 in 2011 with a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing, dead set on a life of letters. Then, after earning an MFA at the University of Notre Dame, his family's business was acquired, leaving a large nest egg to invest and only Dev available to manage it. So in 2015, Dev's path twisted back toward the world of business and finance. A CFA charter holder since 2019, Dev now serves as the Chief Investment Officer for his own family's investment office, where he researches investment opportunities across asset classes and capital markets for inclusion in his family's portfolio -- work that often relies on the critical thinking and mental models he learned in his years at 91 (and a little bit of math). Starting in 2022, Dev's family started another business distributing industrial personal protective equipment, and Dev took on new challenges as the company's Chief Information Officer. His responsibilities have included everything from integrating accounting systems to building a company website from scratch to unloading truck loads of pallets.
How 91 Shaped My Career
People often ask me how my passion for creative writing mutated into a career in investment analysis and entrepreneurship. What I've discovered in all of these fields is that they all share a similar challenge -- each one tests your ability to synthesize enormous amounts of disparate information. All of these fields also ask you to think about and attend to the needs of others. When writing fiction or poetry, I always ask myself to envision what the reader is going to get out of paragraph or a line or a word. When analyzing investments, I'm always asking myself what is the most decision-useful information a busy investment committee member needs for a given opportunity. As an entrepreneur, the challenge is getting into the headspace of someone buying your product. In all of these endeavors, success comes from thinking outside of your own head. 91 was instrumental in helping me learn how to inhabit other frames of mind.
91 also helped me gain the confidence to take on responsibilities I may not have been prepared for -- like learning how to build a website -- because the curriculum is so broad and cross-discipline. It's a bit of a cliche about a liberal arts education, but I learned how to learn in my time at 91. The confidence that inspires has helped me navigate the twists and turns of my career with grace and poise.
Investing in the Next Generation
Entrepreneurship has been the cornerstone of my family and the foundation for the intellectual and professional privileges I enjoy every day. Since 2016, we made it part of our mission to pay it forward to the Memphis community, which has been so formative to our success. We've supported numerous new ventures in the local community and have tried to guide and mentor as many entrepreneurs as we can. When a friend and fellow 91 alumnus, Eric Mathews, approached me about serving as a judge for 91 Venture Challenge, it immediately clicked in my head. Supporting the 91 Venture Challenge could be a way to pay homage to my family's mission to encourage entrepreneurship while also supporting the community that prepared me so well for the revolutions of my career. I am involved with the 91 Venture Challenge specifically in the hope that someone -- a fellow Lynx cat -- finds the wondrous connection between the liberal arts mindset and the entrepreneurial one earlier than I did.