My Story
It started in a small town, watching people work harder than the system rewarded.
I grew up in Kumbakonam, a town in Tamil Nadu where business is not an abstraction. It happens in front of you: in workshops, in small factories, in shops that open before sunrise and close long after everyone has gone home. The people around me were traders, makers, and shopkeepers. Their work was disciplined and their standards were high.
What stayed with me was not how hard they worked. It was how little of that effort translated into growth. A good product did not guarantee a good customer. Quality did not guarantee credibility. Ambition did not guarantee reach.
When I entered the workforce, I met the same pattern at a larger scale, and then at a much larger scale again. In early internet services, in online B2B marketplaces, in growth work across manufacturing, exports, industrial products, consumer goods and services, the businesses changed but the obstacle did not.
Businesses that deserved to be found were invisible. Businesses that deserved to be trusted had no way to prove it. Businesses that deserved to grow had no map of where to grow next, and no support once they decided. These questions now shape my writing on why a great product is not enough, the SME capability gap and what SMEs should expect from AI.
That is the observation everything since has been built on. Small and mid-sized businesses do not lack ambition. They lack infrastructure. Not a website, not a listing, not another tool, but the surrounding structure that makes credibility visible, information usable, and execution possible.
Pepagora is my attempt to build that structure rather than describe it. It is not a departure from what I have done for twenty-five years. It is the same work, finally attempted at the level where it can matter for many businesses at once.
Where this goes next is simple to say and difficult to do: make it easier for a capable business anywhere to be found, trusted, and supported as it grows.
Journey
From early digital markets to the work I am doing now.
My journey has never been about roles or companies. It has been about understanding one thing deeply, how businesses actually grow, and why so many don't.
Late 1990s–Early 2000s
01 · The Internet Was New. So Was the Opportunity.
I entered the workforce at a time when most Indian SMEs had never sent an email. At Sify Technologies, I worked with businesses still relying on expensive ISD calls and physical fax machines, helping them adopt eFax and internet-based communication, not as a technology pitch, but as a real cost-saving solution for their daily operations.
At TradeIndia, I was part of something harder: convincing businesses that an online catalogue could generate real orders. Most didn't believe it. Every sale required education before it required a pitch, building trust in a medium the market hadn't accepted yet.
This is where I learned how businesses think before they change, and how trust shapes every decision.
2002–2011
02 · Building South India's B2B Market, One SME at a Time
I joined IndiaMART when digital B2B was virtually non-existent in South India. I became part of building that market from the ground up, starting in Chennai, then expanding across Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka.
What made this phase different wasn't the scale, it was the depth. I regularly spent 2–3 hours with a single business owner, understanding their products, their ambitions, their frustrations. I worked with businesses ranging from early-stage operations to established manufacturers turning over ₹10-50 Crores per year.
Despite access to platforms, most SMEs still struggled with credibility, visibility, and consistent growth. This is where the core insight behind Pepagora was formed.
2011–2023
03 · Working Across Verticals, Building End-to-End Growth Systems
For over a decade, I worked directly with SMEs across a wide range of verticals, manufacturing, exports, industrial products, consumer goods, and services. These were businesses with strong products and proven quality, but capped by regional reach, price-based competition, and limited visibility beyond their home markets.
The work was practical rather than promotional: sharper positioning, a stronger digital presence, a more structured way of handling enquiries, and a plan each business could actually run. That work gave me a close view of what helps a business move beyond its home market, and what repeatedly holds it back.
Even great businesses fail to scale without the right infrastructure. Growth is not a marketing problem, it is a systems problem.
2023–Now
04 · Pepagora, Two Decades of Insight, Turned into Infrastructure
Pepagora is not a startup idea. It is the result of watching the same problem from multiple angles over twenty years, as a field salesperson, a regional leader, a platform builder, and a brand strategist.
Every SME I met was capable. Many had products the world needed. What they lacked was the infrastructure to be found, to be trusted, and to grow consistently across borders.
Pepagora is where I am putting those lessons to work. We are building toward something different from a directory: a place where a capable business can be found, believed and supported as it grows. Technology, including AI, is what makes that possible now in a way it was not ten years ago.
Built for global SMEs, because the current system was never built for them.
2031 & Beyond
05 · The Journey Ahead: From Building a Company to Building an Institution
Pepagora is an important part of what I am building, but the larger mission has never been about building one company.
Over the years, I have come to define success differently. I want to see more SMEs stay relevant when markets change. More entrepreneurs build businesses that outlive their founders. More small businesses gain access to technology, knowledge, and opportunity that was once available mainly to large companies. And more businesses from places outside the world's traditional commercial centres participate confidently in global markets.
That is the journey I want the coming years to be about.
For me, the evolution is from building a company to building an institution: one with strong leaders, strong systems, and a mission capable of continuing far beyond any one individual.
Over time, I also hope to use what I have learned, along with my network and capital, to support other entrepreneurs as an investor and mentor.
The roles may evolve. The mission does not: Help businesses stay alive. Stay relevant. Grow. Create jobs. And create opportunity for the next generation.
The road ahead
Build companies. Build institutions. Build entrepreneurs.
My ambition for the next chapter is not measured only by how large Pepagora becomes, but by how many businesses become stronger, how many entrepreneurs succeed, and how much opportunity the ecosystem creates because we built it.
Kumbakonam is where this started. The work now reaches a long way from there.