She ventured into business at 24 and built a Rs 208 crore turnover company along with her husband

 

It takes a lot of courage to take the first step towards entrepreneurship, especially when it comes to getting out of the comfort zone of a secure job and a secure monthly income. Kiran Dam was only 24 when she started a business with her husband Ashish Dam and started selling projectors.

"Ashish used to work in a company where she was involved in the sale of projectors. Her experience in the same field helped," says Kiran, recalling the humble beginnings of Globes Info com, an edtech company with a turnover of Rs 208. .crore in fiscal year, 201920. Launched in 2001, Globes Info com sold projectors and displays in the early years before adding other products and services.

Today, the company offers digital learning solutions and has built hundreds of digital language labs and smart classrooms across the country. "We started with a small rented office in the enclave of Haul Has, Delhi. We secured nationwide distribution of projectors and screens from Mitsubishi Electric," says Kiran. BSNL was one of their first clients. "We sold 200 projectors to BSNL in the first year.

The number (of projectors sold to BSNL) continued to double every year until 2010. Police Kiran and Ashish started with just two of them and in six months they have built a team of 20. They now have 250 staff and their office is located in a three-story building, which they own in Noida. Since the Covid blockade, business has boomed and the company's turnover which stood at Rs 100 crore in FY 201920 has more than doubled to Rs 208 crore in FY 202021.

The good run has also continued this year and Kiran is confident to reach Rs 350 crore in the financial year 202021. Financial year 202122. Kiran's father, Tejpal Singh is a musician Tejpal and his brother Surinder Singh are representatives of Hindustani classical music and music Sikh (shabad kirtan) and are known as Singh Bandhu. His mother Renu Sachdev, who has a doctorate in music, she retired as a headmistress of a school in Patel Nagar. Kiran, the youngest of three siblings, completed grade 12 at St Thomas' School, Mand ir Marg, Delhi in 1993 with 83%.

She wanted to study medicine and took a whole year to prepare for the medical entrance, but failed to clear it. She then pursued her Bachelors in Botany Honors from Hindu College (Delhi University) and later did MBA from Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, New Delhi, with major in HR. It was in 1998 that she met her future husband Ashish.“We met through a common friend, gradually clicked, went around for a little while and Ashish directly proposed for marriage,” says Kiran.

Ashish was born in Dehradun. He was brought up all over India, as his father Trilok Nath Dham had a transferable job in All India Radio as a Broadcast Engineer. His mother, Savitri Dham, taught English and Sanskrit to school students. He passed Class 12 from St Xavier’s Delhi, with 83% in 1989.“I had a keen interest in sports, and represented Delhi in hockey, badminton and table tennis,” says Ashish, who did his B tech in Industrial Electronics from Bharati Vidyapeeth, Pune.

In 1994, he joined a company that sold projectors. By the time he left the company in 1999, he had risen to the position of regional sales manager and married Kiran the same year. Orders, we needed funds to complete the project,” Ashish explains. Our work was not completed until after the projector was installed in the client's space. So we borrowed from friends and family and repaid easily. The growth has been far beyond our expectations." In their first year, their turnover was Rs 63 lakh.

Kiran had her first child, a boy, in 2000, and had a second four years later. "When we started the business, our eldest son was one year old, wonderful parents who supported us. They raised children while we were engaged on work, "said Kiran, who divided his time as a mother and director of a fast-growing business."

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