Ruchit Garg, a seasoned professional with six years of tenure at Microsoft, made a significant career pivot in 2011. At the age of 44, while earning a substantial salary of approximately Rs 1 crore per annum as a technical program manager at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, he opted to return to India and pursue his entrepreneurial aspirations. “I got bored,” Garg candidly admitted to Moneycontrol. “I felt like a misfit there. I always wanted to run a business.”
Having previously dabbled in entrepreneurship back in 2004, well before the startup boom gained momentum, it was witnessing the surge of startups in the US that reignited Garg’s entrepreneurial fervor.
Driven by his familial connection to farming – his grandfather owned a mango farm in Uttar Pradesh – Garg established Harvesting, with a vision to revolutionize India’s agricultural sector. Harvesting aims to empower small-holder farmers by offering essential resources like advisory services, seeds, and pesticides, and enabling direct sales channels both online and offline. The company boasts of positively impacting over 37 lakh farmers across India, earning the moniker of the next-generation Amul.
Garg’s journey, from a financially constrained upbringing to a thriving entrepreneur, underscores his resilience and determination. Raised by a single mother employed as a clerk at the Indian Railways, Garg’s exposure to entrepreneurship began during his visits to the railway’s library in Lucknow, where he avidly consumed books like the Harvard Business Review, drawing inspiration from its case studies.
Reflecting on his remarkable journey, Garg fondly recounted his visit to Harvard University in 2018, where he was invited to speak about financial inclusion for smallholder farmers. “And I bought a copy of Harvard Business Review at the Harvard University campus, mine own copy!” he exclaimed, symbolizing the profound significance of his personal and professional growth.
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