Watch: Back to India After 10 Years in US to Start Construction Tech Startup

3:38 Knew that okay I want to come back my parents are here they will never travel back so it was always back in the mind but I think it took 10 years for me to get that step and and get out of it yeah cool so how was the life in us I know 10 years is quite a bit of a time how was the life and what made you to decide to move back to

4:02 India okay so the life in general I would talk like at the beginning it was very exciting right so when we were like new in us were student we were getting into job so everything was very new and it was very different so I always love challenges you know as a person I'm more like my growth starts when I'm being challenged so getting a new envirment was very challenging at the same time was exciting for me so I was enjoying at the early beginning phases College was very fun I was at University of Florida so the weather was very well for where I was in in India so I didn't F felt many like much of difference so that was good when I started in the corporate job as well it was good at the earlier stages life was good in terms of like climbing the ladder I was pursuing the dream you know that was like your American Dreams you can call so I was into that mindset now because everybody was talking about it that you're in US you have this dream but

5:03 After the second half like after 5 years for some reason it was started looking more of a robotic life you know like I towards the end I was feeling stuck there you know that's kind of my feeling towards it got it is there any specific if you think about it that you felt that way just curious is that anything that you can I think it was more it was more of a job like like the corporate job I I feel like over there the culture is like you work hard and you play hard you know so there is no in between like you you they're expected you to work very hard and then for playwise like for us we don't have a big Community we don't have a big family over there so getting into their culture cycle it was okay but we always felt like an outsider you you're forcing yourself to enjoy

6:05 Their culture you know it was never like connected to what we are rooted from like how we grown up so that was like more of feeling that okay on the play hard you can't do it as well as like on the vacation side I feel like lot of Indian can connect with these that when you're in a job you wait for that whole like taking your vacation you wait for whole year because you want to go back back to India so you don't go anywhere you don't travel much you know I think things are changing now people are taking more vacation but I remember my time like I would save all my vacation time so that I can come visit to India so that whole year was like feeling like stuck like okay I was just waiting for that one one month yeah for sure so sounds like I think in the last five years this is when you felt it was robotic and that's when you were thinking about making a change so for how long have you been planning about moving back to India maybe you can talk a little bit about your plan especially you know how many years or

7:05 Things and anything that you can share on that yeah yeah so like I said from the

7:11 Beginning the plan was to move back to India but after after a certain point U so there was an incident so basically how I felt to come back is like I was in India and covid 2020 okay and and then one of my friend got married at that time so I met with him he was actually at University of Florida and he moved back in 2018 itself so I I went to his wedding we enjoyed a lot and then somehow this idea of starting our own company came in during that whole entire three four days you know so we started just laughing about that why don't we do that and then actually we started thinking seriously about it when I moved back in in 2021 we started really thinking about it and then we planned all things together you know and it was from idea to now getting into execution those small baby steps were taking places and then that's where I think it was starting to build up that okay now I would have to move back but really the push was happened when in

8:13 2022 when I came back actually 2023 so yeah it was 2023 last year when I came back to India to visit my family there was an incident that happened with my dad you know he was he always had like the high blood preure situation but one morning I was sleeping my mom came and woke me up in in the morning that hey something is happening to your dad you know so I rushed down and that was those moment that you that was the worst dream right like nightmare that you could dream about my dad was sleeping he had the hand over here and he was just smiling but I knew something was wrong you know so he he said he's a very scholar guy you know he knows exactly what's wrong with him so he asked me immediately to rush to the hospital we went to the emergency room the doctor hooked all the the equipments that needs to be done and later that whole day I found out after all the tests were done that there was like a minor stroke for with hypertension you know because he had

9:13 High BP at the same time his heart rate was going high and that was like a a blow at my head and there was a strike that oh my God I was here but what if I was not there you know at this moment I was feeling like okay this is Invincible you know they everybody will live forever they're healthy happy but now this moment was like the turning point where I realized that okay this this could also happen you know they are getting old now they're not getting younger yeah so that was the moment as when I went back I knew exactly okay I have to I have to come back so the same month I put my notice down to my company and told them that hey this is it that I would want to move back so pretty much immediate decision and an action related to that got exactly I I didn't thought much about it yeah cool so is there anything that you can share so sounds like I think on a planning perspective you know after that you know thought and you just made the

10:15 Decision to move back was there anything that you can share from a career planning or a financial planning or anything like you know what was your idea when you're you know moving back to India how were you thinking about those aspects yeah no definitely there was lot of

10:33 Thought process that went behind it that okay what will we do after it luckily like I said when I started the company I was more of a passive investor when I started it and then the company actually started earning some money out of it you know so since 2022 I was getting money back from the company which I started as an entrepreneur you know so I knew that okay there was a source that I can continue forward you know it was not built up large but I knew that I can put my time and energy in it it was the same field of work that I was doing so I know exactly from 10 year I was doing I can do that but on my own time yes so that was one good good thing that I I did before this thought came in so that was one the second was I was u i remember in 2019 one of my colleagu his name is David he introduced me to the the the market which is the equity and the stock market he just fin were sitting in the

11:34 In the office and he were discussing and he's like why don't you start investing he I think he gave me like AMD or something that you should invest some money in it I have no clue about investment till till that day but I clearly remember that okay I listened to him and I invested $500 just by listening to him I was like okay I'll invest in it and then I think that that stock blew up within couple months and I saw that okay wow this is real thing you you know and then I started putting a lot more money into it yeah so since 2019 I started putting most of my savings into the market so till date when I made this decision I had a good amount Corpus made into it which gave me a little bit of security where I was feeling okay and confident that okay even if I don't have any job even even if the company fails at least I have the secuity which I can continue living for a little bit longer you know so that give me the the financial boost and strength to jump back got it so sounds like I think you kind of made a plan to move from a

12:35 Corporate world to you know entrepreneur I think you know the one that you already started you know few years back before the move and have enough you know Corpus fund to let you do the things that you want to do and then decide as the things come up that sounds good so maybe you can share some insights especially like you know you have worked for an year in India and then almost close to like 8 to 9 years in us before being an entrepreneur so maybe you can compare and contrast or shed some light in terms of a corporate world for versus an entrepreneur that's one question and the second question is how easy easy to run a startup or business in India in this current age right so if you can help us provide some insights from your own experience on those two aspects that would be very helpful yeah perfect no I think I'll

13:30 Touch base on the first question which is moving from corporate to an entrepreneur lifestyle right so it is night and day to be very honest like in corporate world you are bound on a Time You're basically trading your time right you're going and putting your time in you getting money in return out of that time so that is in my mind that is Corporate that you're going in and putting in so you're very bound you're very limited with your time now because you're trading your time you you are bound on the company rules and policies you can't just think of of going on a on a holiday without a notice you know you have to plan everything accordingly that was corporate world when I moved out of it in entrepreneur life I quickly learned how to do the same thing but with others time you know so the the the switch is this where you need and as an entreprene you need to think about how can you make money on somebody else time and and as soon as I got it was like oh my God okay this is it you know this is

14:31 What I was doing there and somebody else was earning money on my time now I can do the same thing you know so I have figured that equation out and then you're not obligated now like now literally since I moved back to India I traveled in this one year I traveled that much that I didn't travel in last 10 year like literally I'm taking trip every month I'm just not thinking too much as soon as I think like okay I want to go somewhere I'm just getting in my car and just driving you know so this freedom is something totally different you know you don't feel that in the corporate world now but both have their plus and minus like the corporate you have good security right you know you have a cons consistent income Source coming in so I don't I don't think that is bad for a lot of people that's good you know they want to have that security they want to have that study live with entrepreneurship you have freedom but you have lot of FL fluctu fluctuation you know like in corporate I'm working from 99 to 5: but as an

15:31 Entrepreneur sometime I work from 5: to 9: which is 5:00 a.m. in the morning till 900 p.m. and sometime I work from only 5:00 p.m. to so the work hour are very different the Dynamics are very different but I think it suits person to person if you're enjoying challenges like me you you will enjoy a lot in entrepreneurship so that is your first question I believe right the second one is how is the work culture difference between India and us how to start a company here right yeah so primarily like the running a business or a startup in India right now yeah at this time yeah you know yeah yeah so my company actually so my

16:15 Background of my company is more of an Outsourcing company so basically all the work that I'm doing still is us work so when I established that that was an Outsourcing company so I'm just trading all the Manpower from here and then getting the work from us so I still deal with us client but Manpower wise if we talk India has a humongous amount of talent here you know there is like plenty of talent available to hire like when you put a resume when whenever we are in hiring need we put on LinkedIn ads and within an hour we would get like 200 300 resumes you know so there's a lot of people that are available and they're talented people as well they're not just any so we have a huge amount of food so that is one biggest advantage that we have is having this consistent source of skill labor that that comes in that we can use now in terms of other side of it like if you're doing business in India which actually I started doing some of that here as well I thought why not test out the Indian

17:17 Client Market as well so I reached out to lot of larger organization here as well having this knowledge base that I got from us is actually helping me to tap into these companies and they're more willing to listen to me now if I was here itself and I want I would have approached them it would be different but now when I have this background with me that hey I've spent 10 year in US construction industry I learned these these things now companies like lnts companies like Gage tataa projects we are working with them now like they some few of our clients because we have this background now they're able to listen to us the only situation is that if I talk freely that money wise the Indian clients are still a hassle you have to get your money out of it the US client is little bit easier but again it's it's the beauty of of of doing business you know you you you can spread yourself across the globe so if one market is slowing down you at least have second Market to go with yeah for sure

18:19 If I may ask how did you choose like which city you want to relocate to back in India like I mean is it where like you have your company working or parents just curious on that or how you approached it yeah so that was simple again for me

18:34 That I wanted to move back to my hometown because my parents have lived here in uen for many years so I I knew exactly I wanted to move back to Jen the another part that I didn't want to do is move back to a big city that was not in my mind I was living in Miami Florida so that was one of the biggest city in us and I was done with big cities you know the traffic the all the things that are there you know I was like I I can't do big city anymore yeah so my plan was to move down to a small town J is very small town now it's actually getting crowded because of the mahakal temple but at least the area that I am in is very secluded it's very quiet now company wise we're online business so most of our team has worked from home so it doesn't matter where I am you know like I have my laptop I get internet and I'm ready to work so that is one big Advantage we getting of 21st century and after covid I think it is even bigger Advantage if you know how to do it work it well then it's better that's great so how is the life in India

19:35 So far so how how how have you settled the family and everyone yeah how how is it going yeah yeah so every to be very

19:44 Honest like I I knew that this was exactly the life that I want to live and now I'm living it it has been a a very pleasant journey for me like because I moved back to the same Hometown I knew exactly all the places says I have lot of friends that were already there you know so families were there so I I didn't had like it felt like I just took a break and I just came back everybody was there itself you know it was well settled everything was settled so settlement wise nothing like it was completely well settled now actually I'm like when I'm out of the ENT this corporate world and into entrepreneur Journey now I'm exploring India a lot because when I was after college I didn't explored India and I moved to us so now I didn't travel much so now it's my time to actually explore India and go to different different places you you won't believe me that within one year I've actually traveled to like six or eight different places you know every month I'm planning a trip like every month I was

20:45 Last month I was in my store for a whole month I took a a Whole Yoga class for a month then before that I was in Himachal Pradesh I was two or three weeks I was there in Manali so I was just taking time and I'm just exploring India enjoying it a lot so you have the benefit of the flexibility where you can work from anywhere and utilize it and then the you know travel around spend learn yeah exactly exactly yep yep yep so cool is there anything that we haven't covered that you would like to bring up in our discussion for people who are considering about moving back to India so I think just like a

21:27 Last note that I want to mention to everybody who's thinking to move back so don't think too much you know I would tell to people that if you stuck in this thinking cycle you would never never get out or you would never make the move for me it happened quickly like we decided to move in March and July we were here that was quick you know like in three month we made all the arrangement we sold everything out there and moved if you if you extend this thinking cycle then it never ending you know you get into that that Loop and you you never make that move so my only suggestion to people will be like don't think too much life in India is getting better these days now we have high internet speed you know the roads are getting better obviously it's getting crowded but you can manage it well if you live in certain areas then you can avoid those as well you're getting all the facilities that you getting in us at the same time you're enjoying your family time you're enjoying your friends you're enjoying your culture that you have grow grown in and have a

22:28 Three-year-old old daughter so I'm very proud that I'm raising her in Indian culture now you know like she's she's able to live with her grandparents you know and then every day the joy that I see in everybody around the family it's Priceless like you you cannot compare with any amount of money you would get yeah that's my suggestion to everybody yeah no great I'm just like you know just so curious like you know with a family like with three-year-old like you were able to make the decision to action within 3 months maybe you might have been planning a little bit ahead but 3 months is just a short duration to make everyone like you know the spouse the kid everybody to make the big move yeah that the the biggest shock was for my wife actually because like she was not anticipating that it would happen so quick she knew that yeah we will move back but it was so quick you know so you know how womens get attached to a lot of things at house so getting things out

23:21 Was very tough for her and I I saw that as well at the beginning but after towards the end she was getting fine she was like you know feeling very actually the the funny part when we were taking the things out of the house we noticed that we didn't use some of these things for like a whole year yeah you know so so even she was realizing that how much stuff we have collected that we were not even using it and as soon as she started giving it she was feeling lighter and lighter and she was feeling relieved that oh wow this pressure has been relieved to save and to do this so yeah it was a journey you know it was an experience that I think it's will be with us for Lifetime but they're all happy now they they feel like okay we got out of something and now we're enjoying this family and bonding together you know cool and then one quick last question is there anything that you miss from us like you or family miss anything from us Missing wise I feel like I still

24:24 Obviously I will miss like the empty roads and the the Clean Air for sure in India it's very populated so that's one thing which which I was enjoying there was like an isolation so I enjoyed that but apart from that I don't think there's anything that I I miss really like maybe the friends that I made over there time to time will get connected on the call but yeah that's that's pretty much it you know I didn't miss a lot cool so thank you very much chel for taking the time and sharing your journey and you know especially some insights for someone who is is moving from a corporate world to being an entrepreneur and how that opened up with the flexibility that you have right now to travel around so thanks a lot and appreciate it yeah yeah thank you Ain for inviting me I would just give a shout out that if anybody is looking for making the move and want to talk you can reach out to me on my Instagram as well my handle is grow with an so I think Ain will

25:24 Mention it there but feel free guys reach out and again thank you a for giving me this opportunity really enjoyed it thank you very much thank you