It was 2009 and one would have thought that 57-year-old Chennai-based Sivaram Pillai would be gearing up for retirement. Maybe add to his nest egg, look for activities to keep him occupied after having led a busy professional life for several years. But this biochemist, who spent several years working for an Indian conglomerate, had other plans. The mundane life of a retired professional was not for him, he decided; he instead chose to turn entrepreneur.
Having run the global operations of an MNC for several years, Vaidya Nathan V., reached a stage in his career where he wanted something more out of life. The inspiration to set up a facility to create accessible education came when he was on a recruitment drive for the company. “It happened when the father of a girl we’d recruited came up to thank me. They were from a very humble, rural background, but the man had gone against all odds to educate his daughter. And here she was, landing a job at an MNC. That made a lasting impression on me. I realised that if she could do it, so could others; they just needed access to education,” explains the Chennaiite. And that is how Classle Knowledge was born.
Pillai and Vaidya Nathan are some of several such individuals looking to branch out after having put in several years working for another company. The need to do something meaningful and make a difference drives them to strike out on their own — regardless of the risks. Says Vaidya Nathan, “I agree that letting go of a stable job was a risk; but it was one worth taking. It is definitely not easy to make this move. Every single notion one would have about running a business goes out of the window once you are on ground zero. You end up doing things that you wouldn’t have done earlier. The reality is harsh and humbling. But it is all worth it; the possibilities are exciting.”
For Pillai, his interest in Probiotics led him to believe there was great potential in the field, and he could do something useful. And that’s how ProKlean Technologies was founded — a green solution for waste management in the leather and textile processing industries, to replace the influx of chemicals. It took Pillai three years to build a successful business model, and by 2012, he had a scalable product range. Though the company is yet to break even, he says they’ve come a long way from a time when finding customer acceptance was their biggest challenge.
“Back then, people wondered what a small company like ours could do that MNCs producing chemicals couldn’t. But the idea that non-toxic and biodegradable products can be used for leather and textile processing caught on. We persisted with a passion to make a difference to the world we live in; it’s paying off,” he smiles.
Giving up a stable, well-paying career did have its own share of challenges though. “While most people thought I was crazy for giving up my job and that I was probably having a mid-life crisis ( laughs ), my family and close friends knew that I had a vision and that I had something more to offer the world,” says Vaidya Nathan.
For Bangalore-based S. Madhusudhan, founder and chief farmer at back2basics, it was a rude awakening brought on by a major health ailment that inspired the change. “Almost 10 years ago, while my wife and I were driving to a nearby town in Karnataka, we saw a farmer washing carrots in sewage water. That same water was also going into the fields where these carrots grew. It was a shock to see the conditions in which our fruits and vegetables are cultivated. But like most people, I didn’t do anything about it, and went back to my busy professional life. That is, till my health condition five years back made me sit up and rethink what I wanted to do in life,” says the 51-year-old, who had in the past headed the marketing and advertising units at several large companies.
He started by cultivating small amounts of greens in a 1,200 sq.ft. plot of land in Bangalore. “I had no experience in farming; I was a business guy. But I learnt how to prep soil for a crop, sow seeds, irrigate and harvest fruits and vegetables. Today, we have 180 acres of organic farms across Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, where we grow everything from spinach and coconut to lettuce and broccoli,” he smiles, adding that this has been a hugely fulfilling venture for him.
Their years of corporate experience did step in as a huge blessing when these entrepreneurs decided to strike out on their own. “I spent many years in the automobile industry before I decided to establish CarzOnRent. It taught me the nuances of running my own business,” says Rajiv Vij, founder of the company. “Today, the company has services in multiple Indian cities, is the India partner for Hertz, and is in the process of consolidating the B2B market for car rentals in the country. In the next five years, we hope to be a billion-dollar revenue company,” he says.
Madhusudhan also says that his years in advertising and marketing helped him think of his business from the consumer’s perspective. “As a marketing professional, I learnt how to take my venture beyond just a money-making business and turn it into something that fulfils a vacuum in the minds of the consumer. I can only say that my years in the corporate world honed my skills to do what I believe in.”
