When you are an entrepreneur passionate about your business, each day brings a whirlwind of emotions. For over five years, this has been the reality for Abhilash Thirupathy and Karthic Ravindranath, co-founders of Gold Farm — a startup providing high quality agricultural equipment and services to farmers.
Abhilash, a dental surgeon, and Karthic, an aerospace engineer, came together to make a difference in the agriculture space. They were confident of the tremendous unfulfilled potential of the sector. They believed that coming from completely unrelated sectors gave them an edge as they could approach the industry’s problems with an unbiased mind, free from any preconceived notions. With immense trust in each other and their complementary skill sets, they took the plunge and co-founded Gold Farm in 2012.
As newbies, Abhilash’s and Karthic’s aim with Gold Farm has been to bridge the technology gap that exists between industry and small and marginal farmers. Their journey began with educating farmers about the benefits of solar water pumps and over the last five years they have transformed millions of lives by converting over 2500 hectares of barren land into cultivable. Now, they aim to become the ‘Ola’ for farm equipment and make farm equipment easily accessible by leveraging the benefits of sharing economy.
As they delved deeper into addressing the problems at hand, it dawned upon them that their respective skill sets did not equip them enough to come up with comprehensive answers to the issues plaguing the agriculture space. No prior experience in agriculture or a related space was now proving to be a double-edged sword. Realizing that they lacked the required technical nous to make a mark, they understood the importance of always remaining in a learning mode. They also realized the importance of humility and the need to constantly improve.
“Don’t analyse too much. Go ahead and give it a shot and, while you are at it, enjoy the journey – don’t suffer entrepreneurship.”
The pair emphatically affirms that entrepreneurship is full of surprises and that there aren’t any thumb rules! The only route to survival, and perhaps success, necessitates that one always remains nimble. The many moments of agony and joy in their journey have brought about tremendous personal growth in Abhilash and Karthic. These bumps and joyrides have toughened the duo and they look forward to the adrenaline rush that a regular day at work has to offer.