Vinod Khutal
Grew up abreast Indore and advised architecture, afire belief computer science. An ad by bold developer Gameloft on Naukri.com led him to a job in their Hyderabad office, area he eventually became a bold designer. In 2009, he founded Twist Mobile, with apps such as Age Effect. He angry up with VServ to use their app-wrapper technology for ads anchored in apps. Success belief included acceptable the aboriginal Asian aggregation with 10 actor downloads on Noki’s Ovi store. “Today’s analgesic app is tomorrow’s delete,” says Khutal, who has now angled out into Android and iPhone apps
Sriram Subramanya
grew up in Pondicherry and started plan in the auto accessory business, with postings in Chennai and Bangalore and training in Germany. He after confused into the desktop publishing business, brief from book designs to agenda content. Sriram’s wife had to advertise her jewellery at one date to armamentarium the advance of the company, Integra. A bound focus on quality, attention and business ability helped abound the aggregation into one of the world’s Top 10 in publishing BPO. The aggregation as well won the Gender Inclusivity Award from NASSCOM
Rohit Bhatt
grew up in Udupi, Karnataka, and advised computer science. He started off with a Japanese aggregation authoritative Mac products. Exposure to Japanese passion, determination, pride and superior aggressive him aswell to bang out on his own, in the breadth of Indian accent computing. Rohit was aswell aggressive by Taiwanese companies who started off with arrangement accomplishment again angled out with their own brands such as HTC and Acer. His company, Robosoft, aswell spawned artefact companies Global Delight (utility apps such as Camera Plus) and 99 Amateur (such as Wordsworth and ‘Dhoom 3’ games).
Sanjay Vijaykumar,
Sijo Kuruvilla George and Pranav Suresh were engineering acceptance in Trivandrum, and started off their aboriginal business by affairs SIM agenda bales for students. Their aggregation MobME began with adaptable agreeable for cine and TV promotion. Investment aswell came from affluent Keralites in India and overseas. But their better abstraction was to amplify their success via Startup Village: to actualize an addition hub like YCombinator and ultimately actualize a ‘Silicon Coast’ – which eventually begin abutment from the government and clandestine sector. As a result, Kerala has become the aboriginal accompaniment in India with an official apprentice entrepreneurship policy.
Deepak Dhadotti
grew up in Belgium in an agronomical family, advised engineering and again abutting the UK company, Moog, in the breadth of servo-controls. He traveled abundantly in Asia and Europe, architecture abysmal acquaintance – and aswell causing anguish to his parents that he may ally a adopted woman. They abiding a alliance for him with a bounded bride, and he confused aback to India eventually. Deepak started Servo Controls India with his brother, bagging orders from HAL and again the animate and ability industry. Tie-ups with Russian companies and the Tata accumulation accept as well accurate lucrative.
Dilafrose Qazi
grew up in Kashmir, and aesthetic her business abilities while belief in a government college. She stared part-time courses for women, and eventually set up the SSM Academy of Engineering, the aboriginal clandestine engineering academy in all of Kashmir. She ploughed on ahead, admitting accepting her brother and bedmate kidnapped and getting attacked by militants. Qazi even opened a sister academy in Haryana for Kashmiris, allowance ensure that the next bearing would accept sources of livelihood.
Nand Kishore Chaudhary
grew up in Churu, Marwar, and started off his carpeting business with weavers from the ‘chamar’ caste, admired as untouchables. Today, Jaipur Rugs is India’s better exporter of hand-knotted carpets. The aggregation connects alloyed articles anon to all-around markets, and employs a ambit of weavers, including affiliated women. A focus on bounded admittance and all-around trends led the aggregation to be profiled as a case abstraction by the backward abundant Prof. C.K. Prahalad
C.V. Jacob
grew up in Kolencherry, Kerala, with his ancestor alive in the architecture industry. He started off in the adhesive industry, if a cruise to Japan apparent him to oleo resins, or abounding aroma extracts. Jacob alternate to India, best up ability from the Central Food Technology Research Institute in Mysore, and started the close Synthite. He after on set up collective ventures in Europe and a branch in China, and his close is now the world’s better aggregation in oleo resins.
Parakramsinh Jadeja grew up in Rajkot and excelled in cricket and chess as a student. He mastered lathe technology in school and eventually got into computerised numerical control (CNC) machines. Partnership with Siemens and exposure to machine tool fairs in Paris led him to master the tool business based out of India as Jyoti CNC, and the acquisition of a French company turned out to be a win-win situation. As the largest manufacturer of machine tools in India, Jyoti CNC is planning an IPO.
Jagjit Singh Kapoor’s parents were displaced from Pakistan during the Partition, and he grew up in Doraha, Punjab. He started off in the wine business but then moved into beekeeping and exporting of honey products. A trip to the UK to chase a non-paying customer ended up opening his eyes to a whole new world of quality, processing and technology. Today, Kashmir Apiaries is the largest exporter of honey from India, and Singh started the National Bee Board to increase awareness and networking for beekeepers.
Mukhtarul Amin grew up in Kanpur and left college to work in the family’s leather business. He tapped into the offshoring trend and partnered with European companies, importing their technology. Superhouse Group is now India’s largest leather exporter. Amin also gave back to society by starting schools and an engineering college to educate the next generation.
Vivek Deshpande and Kirit Joshi met as engineering students in Nagpur, and started off by selling study materials for students as VK Publishers. They then set up a workshop for office furniture, where exposure to Canadian and German companies led them to launch Spacewood, a trend-setter in modular kitchen components.
Bahadur Ali grew up in Rajnandgaon in Madhya Pradesh. His father died at an early age, and he got into the poultry business. That also led him into the poultry feed business and soya bean processing, thus opening up the larger ‘protein’ market for his company, the India Broiler Group, with a turnover of Rs 2,200 crores.
Chandubhai Virani and his brothers started selling chips in a local cinema in Rajkot, and today their company Balaji Wafers has a 65% market share in five states, holding out against local and MNC competitors. They first tried the fertiliser business and then running a hostel, before settling on chips and snacks. Adherence to quality helped them get early customers, followed by importing Japanese machines and taking loans to grow their factory.
Sandeep Kapoor grew up in Jodhpur, and worked in his grandfather’s photo studio. Later he joined ITC, getting exposure to Russia and China in the perfume business. He realised the potential of this sector in India, and returned to start Perfume Station. With a wide range of pricing and open minded customer care, he first expanded in Tier 2 and 3 cities before moving into the metros.
Srikumar Misra grew up in Bhubaneshwar, studied engineering in Pune, and joined Tata Tea as part of the mergers & acquisitions team, criss-crossing the world in a jet-setting lifestyle. But the startup bug bit him, and he joined TiE London to interact with entrepreneurs. He returned to Orissa to set up a dairy company, Milk Mantra, plunging into the world of cows, distributors and packaging.
Muruganantham grew up in Coimbatore, with little material wealth but lots of nature and practical wisdom. In the face of criticism from his own family for acting like a ‘mad man,’ he developed a machine to make low-cost sanitary napkins. In the sustainable business model of his company, Jayashree Industries, machines are given to women entrepreneurs who make and sell the napkins to others. Interest in the machines has been received from other parts of Asia and Africa as well.
Chandrasekhar Sankurathri, a fisheries expert from Andhra Pradesh who became a well known researcher in Canada, lost his parents when he was a child – and his wife and children to the terrorist bombing of Air India’s Kanishka aircraft en route from Canada to the UK. Deep soul searching led him to come back to Kakinada and set up the Srikiran Institute of Ophthalmology (with inputs from Aravind Eye Hospital) and Sarada Vidayalam School. He eventually converted his deep sense of anguish and loss into a force for successful social enterprise.
Vibhor Agrawal grew up in Meerut, studied in IIT Bombay and IIM Bangalore, worked abroad and then returned to scale up the family’s engineering business, MultiMax. He has kept a keen eye on the cycles of the product business: growth, commodification and decay.
Abhijit Barooah grew up in Guwahati, studied in IIT Delhi and went to the US for graduate school. He returned to set up Premier Cryogenics, succeeding in a volatile part of India thanks to his business acumen and choice of customers like Oil India. India has never been in a better position for entrepreneurship than where it is today and young people must definitely take advantage of this, urges Barooah.
Each chapter in the book ends with advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. Learn how to dream, then make it come true. Create your own destiny; you have just one life. Creation gives the best fulfillment and gratification. Do not get distracted by comforts and easy money. To best understand the value of money, earn it with your own sweat. Startup life is full of ups and downs – learn to love a challenge.
Do not be blinded just by passion alone, keep an eye on the reality of the business. Always be in the self-learning mode, and think global as well as local. Be ready to learn as well as unlearn. Look for inspiration in all that is happening around you.
Do not underestimate the challenges of doing business in India – red-tapism, corruption,chalta-hai attitudes, non-paying corporate customers, slow and erratic government decision-making. But do not give in to corruption or bribery, they will only suck away your time, energy and reputation. Every place in India has its ups and downs, learn how to find the balance.
Act responsibly because the future of this country is on your shoulders. Employ, encourage and empower women – look at how countries like China are also progressing because of how many women are in the workforce.
Some of the advice differs from one entrepreneur to another, of course. Some say it is best to start up in college itself when energy and risk-taking behaviour is at its peak. Others say it is best to first work for a few years before taking the plunge, and build a base of experience and financial resources.
