I did my BCom Honours from St Xaviers in Calcutta. My family had a stainless steel business there, and I was always expected to join it.
I started working with my father at the age of 19, but soon I became dissatisfied; I wanted to study further. My family didn't encourage this, being very conservative, but my drive finally won out and in 1991 I went to the US to do an MBA in Marketing and Finance.
Countless opportunities
During my time at the university, I joined their Centre for Management of Science and Technology; the head knew my entrepreunerial spark and suggested that I join him in a partnership at his company, Metrics Research Corporation.
I started work there, and then got a job offer at Predict Technologies. In 1994, I joined Predict, who were into preventive technology and were looking for someone to develop and expand their operations.
Moving on
I worked for Predict on the condition that I would be able to take other projects on the side. One of the companies I worked with then was called Essef Corporation, a player in water treatment.
They offered me a permanent position with them, but I was enthusiastic about the job I had at Predict. However, soon the business head got fired by the owner, and since I didn't gel well with the new ownership, I decided to make the move.
Testing the waters
In mid-1995, I joined Essef. They were looking for someone also to expand their operations, and specifically they were looking at Asia.
After some exploring, much to my delight, they picked India to set up base. When they set up here in 1996, I was made managing director of India operations.
My experience in my family business really helped here; I would say my ground experience must have been 80 per cent of use, while my MBA only 20 per cent.
Troubled waters
In 1999, Essef was taken over by Pentair. It was about this time that I started thinking seriously about setting up for myself. Although Pentair did not want me to leave, and even offered me a job in the States, I was determined to stay in India and set up for myself.
Around this time, I met an old friend, Nikhil Nohria, who is a professor at the Harvard Business School, and he offered to go into partnership with me.
Starting from scratch
In May 2000, I finally set up my own company, Everything About Water. I started from my house, we had about 20 people working for us, and the initial investment, which Nikhil and I put in from our own private funds, was around Rs 1 crore.
People thought I was crazy "" not only quitting a stable job, but putting in your own savings to set up for yourself! We set up an internet portal with articles about water and water issues, and we also represented firms which could sell their products in India.
With the internet bus, the portal soon wound down, but we developed the distribution side of the business, and that flourished.
From strength to strength
Today, I have five companies under my belt, each with its own business head.
I have been invited to the World Agricultural Forum in the middle of this month; we have a magazine which is one of its kind and has really built up our credibility; we have an exhibition about water every year; and at 35, I think I should be able to retire in a couple of years, at least from the everyday running of everything.
It's been a very successful venture, and I think the fact that this was a vast, completely untapped market had a lot to do with that, but also the fact that I was creative, imaginative (words that people don't usually associate with running a business but, believe me, both qualities are very important), and was confident about taking risks.
