Nitin Bajaj

Welcome to the industry show. I’m your host, Nitin Bajaj, and joining me today is Pratik Gupta. Pratik, welcome on the show.

Pratik Gupta

Hello, Nitin. Nice to nice to speak to you.

Nitin Bajaj

It’s great to have you here. Let’s start with the very simple question. Who is Pratik?

Pratik Gupta

Well, Pratik, on a personal front, I’m I’m I’m usually full of gratitude. I take life, you know, as it comes, and I’m really thankful for all the experiences, all the people I I know and I meet. I really cherish, you know, lot of lot of things in my life. And, on a professional side, I’m I’m bouncing between super confident and, you know, let let let’s not hear anything about, you know, we know what we’re doing kind of person, and then, a huge impostor syndrome, you know, troubling me all the time. Yeah. You know, are am I really fit for this? I think that’s true for most, startup founders, and, you know, that’s that’s the world that I keep bouncing between. But, yeah, so far so good. I’ve been able to manage it. So, you know, it’s an interesting journey.

Nitin Bajaj

Well, hey. What what is a an entrepreneurial journey if it’s not for those ups and downs and those self doubts and those huge bursts of ego and then followed by, do I know what am I doing? So

Pratik Gupta

Yeah. I I keep telling people that people keep asking me that should I start a company or not. I was like, that’s one of the things you should at least try once. And then Yes. A lot of people I know are not cut out for it, but it’s it’s something that you should try once in your life. Maybe it will it will work for you or not, but it’s it’s good to do this.

Nitin Bajaj

So true. I mean, it’s a roller coaster you wanna get on and and decide if that’s something you will enjoy or will freak you out.

Pratik Gupta

Yeah. Yep.

Nitin Bajaj

So tell us about your journey. Tell us about, Straumann Motors. What’s the mission? What’s the vision? What have you guys been up to, over the past few years?

Pratik Gupta

Yeah. So there’s a little update on the Strom Motors. Of course, Strom Motors, as some of some of you might know is, we started in 2016. We actually, last year, merged with a company called Gensol Engineering. They they are into solar and renewable space. You know, the 2 companies are, you know, very close in in terms of the ethos that guides us, and, you know, we really, we really saw good value in this. And so we are now called Gensol Electric Vehicles, Gensol EV as we as we call it. You know, what we’re doing here, the, you know, the main mission is, you know, Accelerated with option. We live in a world where, you know, from the way I see it, I see, you know, we are just burrowing our head in the sand. There’s there’s lots of things coming our way. You know, climate climate change is the real thing. You know, we might soon be faced with the calamities like climate refugees and, you know, people large, you know, populations moving, you know, to different parts of the world, and how do we embrace it politically, socially? These are all, you know, extreme, crazy scenarios. Today, I saw in some news article that World, Economic Forum is trying to say that, you know, they will push to stop fashion because fashion itself is a huge, you know, carbon emitting industry, and everybody will be wearing, like, a uniform. So imagine, like, like, this world where we’re all wearing the same clothes every day, day in and day out. These are all really nasty scenarios and, you know, but the way I see it is it’s a lot of problems and, you know, as a problem solver, you know, as an engineer, you know, I I, you know, we we kind of took it upon us to solve that problem or at least part of that problem, which is which is mobility. So we see mobility, space evolving. This is back in 2016 when we were, you know, we were a private r and d company. We were bunch of 20 people doing, work on solar and electronics and stuff like that. And here comes, you know, electric vehicles, and we started exploring, talking to a lot of people. What we found was there is there’s a massive disconnect. You know, there is on one side, there’s a lot of people who want to, you know, go sustainable, but the technology, but the products that that people or the industries continue to make is not the right fit. So our product is a compact mobility solution. We are, like, 2 door, 2 seater car. It’s we call it personal mobility platform. Mhmm. You know, what it is is it’s a lightweight vehicle which requires significantly smaller amount of battery, to go, you know, 200 kilometers, which is what we think people in India in urban cities is is the right right kind of range to start with. So with that, you know, we are making, EVs more accessible. The price points are almost half of what other competing cars are without giving up your, you know, usual, you know, things that you expect from a mobility platform like air conditioning and all of that. So it’s a complete car with storage, with 2 seats, and comfort, safety, and all of that, but it helps you join this sustainability movement. Even if you’re not really into that, it it is an extremely cost effective way to move around the city. We’re actually cheaper than lot of metro systems and bus systems, public transport, what have you. So, you know, they’re they’re on on many, many ways, going small on mobility really helps, without giving up the the comforts that we expect. So that’s what Gensoil EV is all about. We’re also, you know, adding to that. We’re also kind of delivering a cargo variant on that, which will help logistic, you know, logistics suppliers, to carry large, small boxes, last mile delivery. That business, of course, COVID really, you know, accelerated that adoption for India. You know, it’s it’s scheduled to kind of go 5 x in the next 3 years. You know, so that industry itself is also big pollution, center, you know, and those are some of the problems that we’re trying to solve. So our our mission and vision is always around accelerating AV adoption. We want to make AVs more accessible to people and bring products that people would, you know, readily and, you know, would love to kind of use it. Yeah.

Nitin Bajaj

And that that’s you’ve been doing a lot. I know we’ve spoken a few times before on this. But first off, congratulations on the merger. That’s huge validation for all the work you put in, all the research, all the the planning, the vision that, you put forward, and, I can’t wait to see this thing come alive and, jump into one of these cars, here pretty soon.

I agree with you on, you know, pretty much everything. And I, for 1, am a very big proponent that we should all wear uniforms. I’m kidding. But

Pratik Gupta

but yeah.

Nitin Bajaj

I hope not. Congratulations again on the journey so far. I know the, the things are coming alive as we speak, so can’t wait to experience those. But give us a quick sense of the impact, the size and scale, of the operations as you see it in the next few months?

Pratik Gupta

Yeah. So we grew from, like, 7 people, early last year to more than 120 people now, and we probably double by the end of this year. So it’s a massive scale up, for for us, you know, as an organization. We we are in 3 locations. We have a we have a factory in Pune, which is, you know, one of the automotive centers, you know, in the country. We have an r and d center and a, you know, tech center. You know, there’s a lot of really intelligent people, you know, working on this problem and, you know, kind of trying to solve this from all angles. You know, so the scale of things is, you know, our factory can produce up to 30,000 cars a year. You know, that is that is the scale of things that we can, And each car helps, you know, take away 3 tons of carbon every year that people drive it. So just imagine the amount of change you can make. In fact, the scale of automotive sector is what really drove me, into solving this problem because I started my journey as an r and d engineer, you know, out of University of Maryland and kind of solve problems with NASA, US Army, and such. And, you know, when you’re in r and d, a lot of what you do just ends up being on a shelf somewhere or it’s in a report someplace.

Nitin Bajaj

Yeah.

Pratik Gupta

You know, and, it it it it is a big kick technically because you’re solving really difficult problems. But then, when I moved to India in 2012, I started working the solar industry, and, yeah, I could see the scale of change. And, you know, after that, you know, when we started doing our own automotive, this this scale of automotive and the way it can touch, you know, so many lives both from users point of view, you know, economic point of view, and just job creation point of view. It’s just phenomenal, the the size and scale of this industry. Of course, it comes with its own, you know, things, challenges, because you’re operating such a complicated machine. You’re building something like that, especially with lithium ion and all the, you know, you know, things that it comes with. Of course, you kind of do, you know, do do your hard work, you do your math, and, you know, you solve for all of that. So that’s it’s an interesting space, you know, we are we are we are kind of entering, and we are very close to a market launch. So next few months, we’ll see our cars on the road, and that is when really, literally, the rubber meets the road kind of a moment for us. As a team, we’ve been at it since 2000 16. We’ve had great, you know, people who backed us, you know, early investors, angel investors. We also had, crowdfunding equity round. Mhmm. So there’s there’s not just, you know, people who are working on the card. There there would not many believers outside of the execution team who’ve who would love to see this, you know, come to life. And, you know, that’s why, you know, joining hands with Gensol gives us that, you know, ability to scale at the right time with the right, mindset. You know? So there’s there’s a lot to lot coming in later this

Nitin Bajaj

year. I’m sure. And, you know, as they say, here’s the 10 year overnight success in the making. But, I wanna pause and acknowledge, you know, the just the sheer effort it takes to move from one country to another across all the oceans, spend time here, learn here, work here, and then go back and take on an extremely challenging industry and then make a dent in that. You know, hats off to you. It’s, I mean, you have to be crazy to be doing this, which is, you know, going to come to life pretty soon here. So, again, I wanted to make that acknowledgment because these are not easy problems to solve, but I’m glad you’re the one taking them on.

Pratik Gupta

Yeah. Happy happy to be here.

Nitin Bajaj

So, Pratik, despite, you know, all of these challenges that you just mentioned, what’s the one big challenge you wanna call out?

Pratik Gupta

I think the one big challenge, I think all of us, you know, in the EV industry know about it because it’s it’s a significant change in the automotive industry and such a mature industry. It’s been been there for over a century like that. There there’s a problem every place. Like, you know, there’s what we internally right now are also looking at second life of our car in the sense where is the battery going to go, Where are all the different parts of the vehicle going to go? Can we refurbish it? Can we reuse in some places? You know, so those are challenges that are you know, as an engineer, those are challenges that excite me. You know, that, okay. We built this product. We put this thing out in the in the world. But what happens after this? Right? The one big decision that we took was we will stay at a 48 volt. You know, people who know automotive or electric automotive will always tell you that go higher in terms of voltage. But there’s a lot of benefits staying at 48 volt because then our batteries can straight away come out of cars and go into stationary applications like mobile tower backups and, you know, office backup systems where they can live another 10, 15 years before they have to be recycled. And, you know, there’s a lot of smart people working on recycling batteries. So our our hope is, you know, they will they will by then figure out, you know, economic way of recycling these. So it’s it’s those kind of challenges along with the challenges that we have currently, that we are we are also mindful of, you know, as a company and as a unit. You know, so those are there’s lots of you know, if I were not an engineer, suppose, like, had a finance background, I would be probably just trying to solve, you know, a problem around financing. EV financing is not, straightforward. The dealership model doesn’t really work in EV. You know, so there’s a lot of challenges this this ecosystem, this EV industry is throwing at the world and, you know, we are doing our bit. I’m sure there are you know, I know a lot of people who are doing their, theirs. So a lot you know, if you all put what our best foot forward, I think we can we can get through this and, you know, see larger adoption of EVs, you know, in coming years.

Nitin Bajaj

Well, I wanna continue that where you’re headed and ask you about the most exciting opportunity you’re targeting.

Pratik Gupta

Yeah. And then the exciting opportunity is right ahead of us. There there are, 150,000 small cars being bought in India, every month. You know, and, 99% of them in fact, almost 99.5% of them are petrol, diesel, CNG vehicles. Other than that, what big an opportunity to, you know, kind of make a dent in that, you know, and that is what what what excites us. You know? We we wanna see our vehicle every corner of, of India. And then, the great thing about solving for India is also you solve for large large part of the world. So we we are absolutely aware that if we launch this vehicle in India and it it it becomes what we want it to become, this can easily trans you know, go to go to travel to other parts of the world, you know, Latin America, Africa, Europe, large parts of Asia. And, you know, so these are that is the biggest challenge that we are, you know, we are trying to solve, and like I said, there are many parts of that puzzle. You know, trying to kind of compartmentalize it and kind of solve for what is solvable and what is not solvable. You know, what what what what can we do about them? So there’s there’s there’s a lot of exciting, stuff around there.

Nitin Bajaj

We have to pick and choose our battles because there’s so many of them.

Pratik Gupta

Yeah.

Nitin Bajaj

I think I wanna take a look back in time and, ask you about 2 instances. 1, which did not work out was a failure became a lesson, and another one that, blew your own expectations and was a success beyond your imagination.

Pratik Gupta

Yeah. This is way back in time. I think I was couple of years outside out out of my master’s, you know, and I was working on a project with NASA where there was a communication protocol between, you know, these emergency beacons we we were involved in and the satellite. And, the spec was written in 19 sixties. And, you know, and, the the project on hand was to upgrade, you know, so to increase, increase the speed of communication, accuracy of communication, and all of that stuff. And here, you know, you’re a young engineer. You think you can solve you know, people are talking about megabytes, and this was, like, 400 bits per second. How hard could it be? You know, once you get into the physics of it, you realize why why those smart people designed it the way they designed it. And, you know, whatever we tried, we couldn’t really break too many barriers on that side. And, you know, so so yeah. That was a big lesson for me as an engineer is, like, never underestimate the challenge that you are, up against. It’s always important to, you know, take note of it and then then go around solving it rather than be boastful about it at the at the beginning and think it’s gonna be easy. So that failure taught me a lot of things about myself, about, you know, just pure engineering. Right? As in, engineering is about solving, you know, problems and, physics is the biggest enemy that you have.

You know, even even now in EV, the weight is the biggest enemy because every kilo that you add on the car, you have to buy more battery and that, you know, inefficiencies and stuff like come in. You know, so it’s it’s a battle against pure physics on on many, many fronts, and that is what that that real experience taught me. You know, something that really blew or at least, you know, I was I was really taken aback was when in 2018. So we started this journey of in 2016. And

Nitin Bajaj

Right.

Pratik Gupta

2018, we did did our concept launch, and I remember we were completely out of money. I borrowed some money from my, from my brother, and, we put our car, our concept first working concept car in in in one of the busiest mall in Mumbai. We hardly had money to do that, and we never had money to kind of, you know, do any ads around it. So we just chose a Sunday, and we said, let’s just put it in the center of the mall. Let’s see what happens. And 2,000 people showed up. There were 5 media outlets. I don’t know how they found out, you know, this was happening. And, you know, just seeing that excitement of people when they saw. So, you know, our car is is not the conventional car. It’s a 3 wheel car with 2 wheels in front, 1 in the rear, mainly because it’s it this kind of reverse strike platform uses the same stability as a hatchback. Right. It’s a nice comfortable cabin. So, you know, there were apprehensions about how people would react to it. India is the land of auto rickshaws. What about that? But people really loved what what what they were seeing. They they were really inquisitive. They were interested to know what is it about, what are we trying to do, and we just had conversations all through the day. And then I think we spoke to more than 600 people Wow. You know, who, and that really, you know, put a complete like, it fueled our entire team who were there that day. And that really that energy is what we carried all through this hard years and stuff like that. But, yeah, that that was one of the moments when we were like, yes. I think we can do it.

Nitin Bajaj

A nice hail Mary there. I know you have extremely long days, but I’m curious to ask you. What do you do for fun?

Pratik Gupta

Oh, I I like to spend time with friends and family. That is my, you know, my quiet time and my, my reset time. I also love playing tennis. So whenever I am not traveling, even if I’m back at a 2 AM flight somewhere, I’ll get up in the morning and go go play tennis. I think that that really is something that, I enjoy. You know? It’s it’s a great sport, and, you know, so those are those are few things that really help me, reset and reenergize for the day.

Nitin Bajaj

That’s awesome. Tennis is one of my favorites too. Now I wanna move us into my favorite part of the show, which we call the one line life lessons, and we would love to hear a few of your life lessons.

Pratik Gupta

Yeah. So I I think these are not something that I, you know, I have written or I, I wrote them, but these are things that really I feel I I try to tell people about it or this is something that is at the center of what I love to do is, I think the first one is do the math. I think in in a world of uncertainty, especially when you’re a start up or you’re you’re trying to do something new, the the only thing you can control is work work things out what is what are solvable. Right? And there’s a lot of uncertainty. Things can go wrong. Markets can go wrong. People can let you down. There can be whole bunch of things. But at the core, if you if you control what is controllable, you know, that is that is the only thing you can do. So do the math is, is one mantra that I keep telling people, you know, to to at least reduce a number of surprises. So that’s 1. 2nd is, it’s it’s a mix of 2. So my dad sent me this, few years ago. He saw it on the bottle of the most favorite whiskey of the world. Keep walking. And I added to that is increase your chances because, again, from from speaking as a startup founder, you know, you never know which email, which cold call could work out for you. You know, so keep walking that perseverance just increases your chances. There are, you know, there’s there’s somebody looking for something like, you know, what you’re building, some client, you know, some investors, some company. You know? So just just persevering, you know, will will increase your chances. You know, so keep walking, increase the increase the chances is is the second one. 3rd, it’s it’s all about having fun. I think, you know, that is something I learned early on in my career. My first boss, was was, was a big proponent of it. And, you know, you kind of become the bosses that you who’ve kind of worked with, professionally. And I was really, you know, the it was really good to have somebody like that. So having fun is not just about, you know, partying and stuff, but I think just involving everybody in the team. If if you energize the team, if you if the team really understands you’re on the same page, you know, then just working becomes so much more easier. It’s so much more fun. You’re making memories while you’re working. You know, and I remember, like, I think 2 weeks ago when we were on a call that night, we were doing some test drives, and I think 30 of us were at the r and d center till 4 AM. And I don’t remember anybody not laughing or smiling all through the night. You know? So just having that, you know, bonding and then that sense of ownership together just adds to the fund. So, you know, it’s whatever you do, you should try to make it fun for everybody. You know, and, so the 4th I have is and I I’m a true believer in this is business like life is all about relationships. You know, and, you know, people treat networking as something that you have to do, but it’s not about that. It’s about, you know, talking to a person, understanding, you know, really be interested in the conversation, building a relationship. Again, this connects to what, you know, increasing your chances because the more people know about you, what you’re trying to do at at the core, I think that is what people connect to more than, you know, where you’re from or what you look like or, you know, what are your interests. I think what you’re trying to do if if if somebody knows that and why are you trying to do, and you do the same for with them. I think those are when strong relationships are formed, on the business side of things. You know, and you know? So that is that is one other thing I I really believe that it’s all about relationship. There are so many examples in this journey alone where people have come you know, somebody I met 5 years ago. You know, we were we were, we were completely, again, out of money. That’s another thing about starting an automotive company is every year you run out of money. So there have been a few of those. And I was just I was just online and, you know, I got a message and, you know, this person, I had interacted not more than 2 hours, in totality. And she was like, you know, I’m part of this startup, you know, thing, and you wanna be you wanna put your name in it. And that’s how we we got, you know, the next round of funding. So, you know, and these are not based on calculations. So if you build relationships, you know, it will really help, you personally and also, you know, like, what you’re trying to do.

The 5th one is think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world. Again, this comes from this whole, you know, seeing the world from a point of view of, you know, being really grateful of what you what you’re dealt with and what you have. And, you know, think about think about the people around you, and then that’s that’s at least what is driving us currently. Me personally is, what happens next. You know, if we don’t do what we’re doing, you know, it it will it we are talk like, we talked about earlier in the call that, you know, it’s it we’re looking at the grim grim grim, situations wearing uniforms. You know, so, if you all think deeply about the world, not just, you know, from environmental point of view, I think every on on multiple aspects, we live in a very, very divided part of, you know, history. I think 10 years, 20 years down the line, we people will look at this time, you know, as as something where the whole world was split. But it it’s a it’s a pendulum swing. I think we are just going through this, bad phase, and we’ll get out of it. But but yeah. And then if you all just, you know, stood up and started thinking, more about the people around us, I think it’ll be a it will change faster. So these are my 5, you know, mantras that I I really believe in and live live my life around.

Nitin Bajaj

Pratik, thank you so much for sharing those one line life lessons, but more importantly, sharing your journey and your story so transparently. As you said, there is so many ups and downs, so many challenges, especially in the industry and sector you have taken on because that’s where the most impact is going to come in. And, again, can’t think of a better leader than you to bring about this change in a country like India that needs it a lot more. So thank you again for doing what you do. Kudos to you and your team for where you are, which is so close to, as you said, the rubber meeting the road, and can’t wait to be a part of that journey as, things start to kick off.

Pratik Gupta

Thanks, Nitin. This has been a pleasure, and I always enjoying watch your watching your series. So, you know, looking forward to more of such episodes with the other interesting people.

Nitin Bajaj

Thanks so much, Pratik.

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Linkedin: Pratik Gupta is a seasoned professional with extensive experience in management consulting, digital transformation, and business development. He has a strong background in strategy, operations, and technology, having worked with a diverse range of clients across industries. Pratik is currently the Director of Business Development at ThoughtWorks, a global technology consultancy. He is known for his strategic thinking, leadership skills, and ability to drive business growth. Pratik is also passionate about mentoring and coaching young professionals, helping them develop their careers.

 

Summary: In this episode of “The INDUStry Show,” Pratik Gupta, co-founder of Strom Motors, shares insights into his personal and professional life, detailing the evolution of his company and its merger with Gensol Engineering to form Gensol Electric Vehicles (Gensol EV). He talks about their mission to tackle climate change by accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and improving mobility and sustainability. Gupta describes their compact 2-door, 2-seater electric car, which has a smaller battery requirement, making it more accessible and cost-effective. He also mentions plans for a cargo variant aimed at reducing pollution in logistics.

Gupta explains how his background as an R&D engineer influenced the company’s problem-solving approach within the automotive sector, emphasizing the scale and potential impact of their work. He details the growth of the company, which now boasts over 120 employees and the capacity to produce up to 30,000 cars annually, each reducing 3 tons of carbon emissions per year.

Throughout the discussion, Gupta touches on the technical challenges of building EVs, such as using lithium-ion batteries and maintaining a 48-volt system for easier battery reuse. He speaks candidly about the broader difficulties of transitioning to EVs, including financing and dealing with traditional dealership models. He conveys excitement about bringing electric vehicles to India and potentially expanding globally, despite the numerous industry challenges that must be strategically prioritized.

Gupta recounts two significant past experiences: a challenging project with NASA and a successful exhibition of their concept car in a mall, which garnered unexpected attention and success. He also shares a glimpse into his personal life, including family time and tennis, along with life lessons learned from his father, like the importance of doing the math and persevering.

Highlighting key business philosophies, Gupta stresses the significance of persistence, enjoyment, and genuine relationships in achieving success. He concludes by discussing the challenges of starting an automotive company, particularly securing funding, and shares five personal mantras that guide his worldview. The conversation ends with gratitude and anticipation for future engagements.