A short stint of four years in the corporate world was enough for Chandrasekhar B. He found his inclination towards entrepreneurship growing stronger and ventured out with his own consulting firm before he got into leather manufacturing. It was during this period that he realised the harmful effects of the chemicals used in this industry and similar ones. His interest was further piqued when he came to know about probiotics. The inquisitive researcher in him came to the fore and soon he got in touch with the leader in the field — SCD Probiotics, a firm based out of the US. What transpired next is the beginning of the story of Proklean Technologies and their endeavour to promote usage of clean, biodegradable chemicals.
“Focus on team-building. You cannot be doing everything, so try to build a team with complementing skill sets.”
Vishwadeep Kulia, Chandrasekhar B. & Dr. Sivaraman Pillai
The story begins with Chandra’s chance meeting with SCD’s CEO Dr. Sivaraman Pillai. Dr Pillai shared Chandra’s passion for technology and believed in its immense potential in environmental applications. Their sharp business acumen helped them identify the deficiency in the team and they reached out to Vishwadeep Kuila, Chandra’s batchmate from IIMA and a marketing expert. This coming together of three individuals with complementary skill sets led to the founding of Proklean in 2012 — a company that today provides non-hazardous, non-toxic, and fully biodegradable products based on probiotic technology, to replace chemicals used in various cleaning processes across industries.
Over the past five years, Proklean has grown tremendously and can count amongst their clients corporate giants such as Raymond, Mafatlal, Welspun etc., allowing Chandra and Vishy to beam with pride that Proklean is present across the globe now. This fact underlines their belief that a good team is the cornerstone to achieving entrepreneurial success. A strong team notwithstanding, Chandra and Vishy have had to face their fair share of troubles. The biggest of which was in 2015, when their factory in Chennai was submerged due to floods. The incident put immense financial and emotional pressure on them. This was a big jolt. However, their irrepressible passion towards reducing adverse environmental impact of chemicals got them back on their feet within a year of this calamity.
The satisfaction that accompanies watching their products create a significant impact on the environment has helped them turn around their fortunes from many such setbacks. Their products have reduced water consumption in facto- ries and have led to their clients saving lakhs of rupees on cost. Adhering to their philosophy, they have even revamped their lifestyles to embrace a chemical-free life, and now plan to promote the benefits of such a lifestyle at both personal and organisational levels. Chandrasekhar, Vishwadeep, and Sivaraman are deeply committed to leaving behind a better environment. We definitely need more of them around!