Sometimes you don’t need a detailed plan to scale great heights. A spark can stay on long enough for the fuel to reach and turn it into a bright flame that provides light and warmth to everyone.
For Ashwini Jain, Sabyasachi Roy, and Tushar Gothi, this fuel came in the form of Prof Bhargava at IIT Kharagpur, where Ashwini and Sabyasachi pursued their postgraduate course in Material Science. Prof Bhargava became the catalyst and helped speed up the trio’s quest for bringing lab-based research into the commercial domain.
Tushar and Ashwini, childhood friends, always wanted to be entrepreneurs; they just were not sure of what to start with and how. Sabyasachi, on the other hand, had no entrepreneurial inclinations but was fascinated with Material Science. At IIT Kharagpur, Ashwini and Sabyasachi began their journey of creating societal impact by founding and running an NGO. Impressed by their drive, Prof Bhargava introduced them to the idea of ‘scale’ or making massive impact through an IP-driven enterprise.
Giving up attractive employment opportunities, Ashwini and Sabyasachi focused all their energies on innovating through R&D. Tushar soon joined them and brought in his entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen. The trio’s vision was to impact the lives and health of those employed in the building materials industry by developing advanced building materials.
“Believe in what you have started. If you believe enough, luck will be on your side too.”
Thus, Ants Ceramics was founded in 2005. They have now come a long way from building India’s first advanced material company with strong research and development foundations.
Being fresh out of college, the three often doubted themselves, their vision, and their aspirations. These self-doubts grew manifold especially when things didn’t go as planned. The hard times lasted long; they worked under severe financial constraints, with negligible.
R&D capabilities, and a thin customer base. They even went broke and considered shutting shop. However, it was hard for them to give up on something that they felt so strongly about.
Drawing on their personal resources, they kept Ants Ceramics afloat while constantly attempting to find a foothold in the market.
Their perseverance paid off. With an impressive list of clients including BHEL, GE, Arcelor Mittal, ISRO and many others, the trio is now aiming at making Ants Ceramics a global player in advanced materials.
With many patents to their credit, these three hope to be an inspiration for other IP-driven startups in India. They have their eyes set on that 100 crore revenue mark. That is the scale of the impact that Ashwini, Sabyasachi and Tushar set out for. And there is no other way than reach there!