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

Sramana: Were you able to change the layers of service you provided from 2-D to 3-D? Would you talk about the technologies you were standardizing on? Bimal Patwari: Absolutely. There were several companies that offered modeling software. However, Autodesk has a worldwide presence. Everyone works on their platform. We also bought some other software solutions

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Bootstrapping to $6M from Durgapur, West Bengal: Pinnacle CAD CEO Bimal Patwari (Part 5)

Sramana: Aside from having a loyal workforce, you have also created a workforce that operates in a niche market. There are not many places in India that your workers are going to be able to move to and leverage American architectural knowledge. Bimal Patwari: That is a factor as well. We invest a lot of

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Bootstrapping to $6M from Durgapur, West Bengal: Pinnacle CAD CEO Bimal Patwari (Part 4)

Sramana: Why did you elect to establish your U.S. office in Houston? Was that where you client was based? Bimal Patwari: Our client was in Tennessee. I elected to establish the office in Houston because I had friends there. Houston in an engineering hub, and there is a lot of oil and gas industry there.

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Bootstrapping to $6M from Durgapur, West Bengal: Pinnacle CAD CEO Bimal Patwari (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Once you received your first order, what were your next steps? Bimal Patwari: Immediately I found a team of four people from the students I had trained. I had one experienced person, and the rest were my top students. I used that team to get us started. All of the architects typically work

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Bootstrapping to $6M from Durgapur, West Bengal: Pinnacle CAD CEO Bimal Patwari (Part 2)

Sramana: During the five-year period that you ran the computer-aided design (CAD) training program, what kinds of business were you able to build? What was the revenue level like? Bimal Patwari: My father gave me five lakh rupee, which was about $12,000. I always believed in myself, and I always pushed myself to be the

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Bootstrapping to $6M from Durgapur, West Bengal: Pinnacle CAD CEO Bimal Patwari (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  Sramana: Bimal, let’s start with your personal story. Where does your entrepreneurial journey begin? Bimal Patwari: I went to college at IIT Kharagpur where I studied electronics, and then did mygraduate work in marketing and finance at the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow.

Building a $5M+ Digital Design Services Firm from Kolkata: Indus Net CEO Abhishek Rungta (Part 7)

Sramana: Have you built this company organically, or have you taken on investors? Abhishek Rungta: I have built this entire company from my initial 1,500 [~$27] rupee investment. All of the growth has come from our own efforts and sales. Sramana: Services companies have the ability to bootstrap and grow well organically. You can get

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Building a $5M+ Digital Design Services Firm from Kolkata: Indus Net CEO Abhishek Rungta (Part 6)

Sramana: What have been your primary strategies for growth? Abhishek Rungta: I did make a few good decisions. In 2009 I joined hands with a small company, and I ended up acquiring it. They were running a small .NET business but did not have a lot of work. I was able to provide them with

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