Bootstrapping to $6M from Durgapur, West Bengal: Pinnacle CAD CEO Bimal Patwari (Part 7)

Sramana: What was the most substantial change that occurred with your business after 2007?

Bimal Patwari: After 2007, the biggest change was the size of projects we worked on. We began working on airports, hospitals, and convention centers. That required large teams of up to 40 people working on a project at the same time. We had 60 people working for three years on an airport. That also meant that our workload and our responsibilities increased. We were working with contractors who completely depended on us to work the models and identify problems. We told them the quantities to buy and the off-site fabrication requirements.

Most contractors have back shops for creating pipes. This allows them to work cheaper and produce a better quality pipe setup. Most contractors have their own processes for their back shops. The biggest challenge was to integrate our people to their processes. We kept sending our people to various contractors for a few months at a time just to learn their processes and standards. At the same time, larger contractors would come and sit with us in our offices for a week or so for project kickoff meetings.

We also had hired construction experts in the United States. They helped teach our people the processes and also handled the communication which is important in the construction industry. There is a lot of trade-specific terminology in the construction industry. We had to train our people to talk that language. I have hardly lost a client in all my years as an entrepreneur because we work so hard to make our clients happy.

Sramana: What kind of revenues are you doing now?

Bimal Patwari: Last year our combined revenues were around $6 million. We are growing at a rate of 35% per year. Next year we may even be a bigger year for us. We have capacity for 1,200 people in our office now. We hope to grow faster in the upcoming years.

Sramana: Are you seeing growth outside of the United States now?

Bimal Patwari: Absolutely. Almost 85% of my revenues were from the United States three years ago. We realized that as we grow, we need to look at other markets. The Middle East has been a significant growth area for us. We are also associated for a lot of Indian projects. We are the primary choice for the larger projects in India because of our experience in handling large projects.

Sramana: You took $5 million in loans to set all of this up. What does your capitalization look like?

Bimal Patwari: I have paid off 50% of that loan. In the past few years I have also had to reinvest more money. I have been reinvesting the profits to continue to grow the business.

Sramana: So, you still have capital need requirements to facilitate infrastructure development?

Bimal Patwari: This company is still a partnership with me and my wife. I now realize that we have potential all over the world, including Australia, Singapore, and Japan. We need to open more offices and hire more people. I definitely see that we need to take the next step, which will require more capital.

Sramana: This is a very interesting story. I have enjoyed it thoroughly. Thank you for sharing it with us.

This segment is part 7 in the series : Bootstrapping to $6M from Durgapur, West Bengal: Pinnacle CAD CEO Bimal Patwari
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