Meet 26-year-old entrepreneur Aadil Bandukwala. At the age of 26, he is the CEO and owner of not one, but two companies — a web consultancy firm called Leading Minds and the quirkily named recruitment agency Talent Onions.
Aadil some how came across my site while googling and he immediately mailed me and asked me whether I would give him an opportunity to re design my blog. I readily agreed as I was in search of a designer who had to be from Belgaum as my site is for Belgaum. The deal clicked and what you are now all seeing is the design made by Aadil’s design team at Leading Minds. In 4 days, the whole site was re laid and many of you have acclaimed that the design of the blog is next Gen design. I am Proud to be associated with Aadil. This story published in Rediff just 3 days after he lost his Bachelors degree; I wish him all the best in his new life and in his career.
Some excerpts from the interview on Rediff.com:
After school, he took the CAT exam and received admission to the Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (Pune), where he chose to study entrepreneurship. Three months into the academic year, however, all of us who had elected for the subject were still to attend a single lecture — the institute was simply not holding the class! We decided to approach the Dean and were told that there were no faculty members to teach entrepreneurship and that the college would be happy to transfer us to another course.” Dissatisfied with this option, Aadil did take a transfer — to the Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) in Ahmedabad. There he was a model student, topping his classes and winning the Student of the Year award.
He took a loan from his father to start up Leading Minds –a venture that started as an HR firm, then took up education consultancy and finally wound up as a web agency. Dad wanted him to join the family business, but he asked him for five years’ time to try my hand at something new. Atique, his younger brother who has always been interested in the family firm, so I wanted him to join my father instead.
Leading Minds started as niche area of coaching students for MBA programmes. However, money was there in the building websites and web development, so he went up there.
In 2007, one of Aadil’s professors from the EDI, assistant vice-president of BPO Genpact got in touch with him, requesting him to help the company hire people. Aadil launch his second company — recruitment agency Talent Onions. He was only 22 then, so most people just did not believe I had it in me. Then we landed Ambuja Cement as a client and Siemens followed soon after. Today he has 13 clients.
“I will always be based out of Belgaum. I love the small town life — being able to come home for lunch everyday, deciding when I want to work and when I do not. Entrepreneurship is a definite boon when it comes to your personal life — now I have taken 25 days off to get married and work hasn’t stopped, my employees have all pitched in. Moreover, my friends are all in Belgaum and I want to give back to this city as well. And if all this isn’t reason enough, my mom can’t bear it when I’m away — it was very difficult for her when I was studying in Ahmedabad” Aadil said.
Read complete story here. The whole story is worth reading.
Aadil You made us proud.