Story Behind: Sleeping on Railway Station to Rs 5000 Cr Worth Company

Let’s begin

This is the story of the most inspiring entrepreneur who started his journey in a small village, Appanaickenpatti Pudur located in the Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu, India.

Meet the man, Dr. Arokiaswamy Velumani who built a company worth Rs 5000 Cr. But the story behind this success is different. This is the story of a person who was born in a poor family. That was a time when he couldn't even afford proper footwear. He started working at the age of playing and faced many challenges in his path, yet he never lost his hope. So let’s enjoy the remarkable story of this powerful entrepreneur.

Know about Dr. Arokiaswami Velumani:

Arokiaswamy Velumani was born in April 1959, to a landless farmer in the village of Appanaickenpatti Pudur, located in the Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu. His mother, a housewife, took up rearing buffaloes and selling their milk to support the family. Velumani tells about his father, having been a pampered child, never realized the need to care for his own children.

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As a result, at the age of 10, Velumani had to take on all the responsibilities. At the age of 11, he started working 4 hours for 25 paise and by 13, he worked for 1 Rs per day. Despite having no textbooks, for higher education in the school, he managed to study arranging the study materials from here and there. He got 200 out of 200 in mathematics.

He says, “Poverty gives you the power take decisions.”

Subsequently, with the help of a teacher, he enrolled in a B.S.C. course and in 1978 at the age of 19, completed his graduation from Ramakrishna Mission Vidhyalaya, affiliated to University of Madras.

Now the time has come to take a job. He went almost 50 companies for giving interview but all the companies rejected him. The reason of rejection was: lack of experience. This time, he was determined that when I will run a company, I would hire to only freshers. Today, over 25000 freshers are employed by Velumani. Now the journey started from Coimbatore to Mumbai.

He eventually secured a job at Gemini Capsules, a small pharmaceutical company in Coimbatore, with a modest salary of Rs 150 per month. Despite this, he sent Rs 100 home each month, retaining only Rs 50 for himself. However, his life took an unexpected turn when the company closed down. Now the journey had started from Coimbatore to Mumbai.

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The entrepreneurial journey started :

After shutting down the company in Coimbatore, Soon, he received an interview letter from Baba Atomic Research center. Now he had decided to go in Mumbai and, he took 500 rupees from home and left for Mumbai. This time, being lack of money he spent 3 nights on railway station. This was a very tough time for him—a new city, no home, and many challenges—but he didn’t lose hope.

Finally, his hard work and patience paid off when he got selected and started working at Baba Atomic Research center. Further while working at the age of 37, when everything was fantastic, he asked a question to himself that “I came to live or to win.” And his next move was even more shocking.

What was his next move?

While working, Velumani got a project on why Thyroid Testing Agents were imported from Europe instead of being made in India? Here, he saw an opportunity, that if we do import then cost will be 150Rs and if we do this by self then the cost will be only 30Rs. This realization sparked an idea in his mind. Soon he decided to do something in this particular field and make something big.

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What was the idea?

The idea was simple: To provide high-quality diagnostics and preventive healthcare services at affordable rates. To full-fill the gap in this particular field, Velumani left his job and in 1996 founded Thyrocare Technologies Limited, India’s first IT-enabled, 24*7, fully automated leading clinical laboratory. Based in Mumbai, Thyrocare operates from a central processing laboratory in Mumbai and has expanded to include 20 regional, 3 zonal, and 5 satellite processing labs across the country.

• Starting with only thyroid testing, Thyrocare has expanded its menu to 700+ tests and profiles
• 1L+ Samples Processed Daily
• 17 Crore+ Samples Processed till now

Dr. Arokiaswami Velumani tells:

• In 1982, he didn’t know where thyroid was.
• In 1992, he finished a PHD in thyroid biochemistry.
• In 2002, he was running world’s largest thyroid tasting laboratory.

The one thing is clear here, that the person is never poor from money, it’s all about mindset. Arokiaswamy Velumani is an inspiration!

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