In the noughties, four rookies from Rajasthan sowed an audacious agri dream. Eighteen years later, they are reaping a bountiful harvest in StarAgri, India's largest integrated agri services platform, which is over Rs1,000 crore in revenue and profitable
Amith Agarwal, Co-founder, Whole Time Director and Chief Executive Officer at StarAgri Image: Neha Mithbawkar for Forbes India
Amith Agarwal was instinctively trained to crack complex train equations.
Sample this: A jogger is running at 9 km/hr along a railway track, is 240 meters ahead of a train's engine that is 120 meters long and is running at 45 km/hr in the same direction. What time would the train take to glide past the jogger? Or take this question: Two trains running in opposite directions cross a man on the platform in 27 seconds and 17 seconds, respectively. The trains, meanwhile, cross each other in 23 seconds. What would be the ratio of their speed? The young man from Alwar takes seconds to solve such questions. “All it takes is data interpretation, analysis, and mental math,” he says.
But when confronted with an equally complex life problem, Agarwal’s train of thought remained stuck for seconds, hours, and months. The mental math failed to comprehend the nature of the question. “Alwar se baahar kaisey jaana hai (how to step out of Alwar?) was the big question for the commerce graduate from the small town. Joining the family business of grain trading was an easy option.
But ‘easy’ never captivated Agarwal’s restless soul. Spending formative years in a placid Hindi-medium school gave him an easy option of either behaving like the ‘most of the class’ that didn’t question the status quo—missing teachers, poor infrastructure, and completing syllabus at the speed of a bullet train--or slog to figure out the missing questions. Agarwal embraced the second option. “Alwar was a comfort zone. I wanted to step out of it,” he says.
He finally did. After completing college, a handful of friends decided to pursue an MBA, hopped on a Delhi-bound train to join a coaching institute, and like a piercing train whistle, the five comrades marched towards a promising future. On Day One, three of the recruits booked a return ticket to Alwar. Reason? Cultural shock maimed their senses. “They gave up on the first day,” recalls Agarwal. After two weeks, two more quit. Agarwal was stranded. “ He finally did. After completing college, a handful of friends decided to pursue an MBA, hopped on a Delhi-bound train to join a coaching institute, and like a piercing train whistle, the five comrades marched towards a promising future. On Day One, three of the recruits booked a return ticket to Alwar. Reason? Cultural shock maimed their senses. “They gave up on the first day,” recalls Agarwal. After two weeks, two more quit. Agarwal was stranded. “Main vaapas jaaney ke liye nahin aaya tha (I had not come to return),” he recounts. There was no plan B. He took a garage on rent, roped in two more hustlers from his coaching institute to share the space, and began his preparation.