Nitin Godse, 43, was born to a poor family in Akole village, situated in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district. His family lived on a monthly income of Rs 400, which his father earned as a salesman in a local store. Nitin too had to work as a labourer with road construction contractors and sell vegetables to support his family and fund his education, reports SME Magazine.
After finishing school, Nitin wanted to become an engineer, but had to settle for a BSc degree from Pune University due to financial constraints. After graduation, he found a job as a supervisor and started saving money to do an MBA.
Once he had completed his MBA degree from Pune University, Nitin started working for an agro-based startup. Nitin worked from 3:30 in the morning until midnight, before he decided to channelise his hard work and passion towards building his own business.
“I still remember the day when I started this business. It was the same evening when my elder son Aditya was born. I always had a dream of doing business right from my childhood. The idea was to ‘start a business’ and be independent,” Nitin told Franchise India. With a seed investment of Rs 5 lakh from an acquaintance, Nitin started Excel Gas and Equipments Pvt Ltd in December 1999.
Over the past decade-and-a-half, Nitin's venture has grown to be a one point solution for projects in gas piping installations. His business has expanded into the Middle East, with an impressive list of clients such as BARC, Cipla, Reliance, Pfizer, Godrej, Indian Institute of Science & Research, and Qatar Petroleum.
