Ruchit Garg currently runs a company called Harvesting which sells fresh farm produce and helps Indian farmers get better deals by striking off intermediaries. Nearly 37 lakh farmers have benefitted from this company.
Interestingly, Ruchit Garg’s grandfather was a farmer in a village near Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh. He had a mango farm and watching him made him want to do something similar with his life. However, his work life started a lot differently than he imagined. He lost his father when he was only 9 years old. His mother worked at the Indian Railways library as a clerk. Their house was running on his mother’s meagre salary. So he had to find a job that would pay him well.
Ruchit worked for Microsoft in Hyderabad for three years. He was then shifted to the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington, where he worked as a technical programme manager for three more years. However, in 2011, he called it quits because he was bored. Interestingly, he was earning Rs 1 crore annually at that point and many would think that him leaving such a high-paying job was reckless.
But Ruchit was clear in what he wanted to do. While working at Microsoft, he felt like a misfit as he wanted to do business.
“I got bored. I felt like a misfit there. I always wanted to run a business, and I had dabbled a bit in entrepreneurship in 2004 when the startup craze hadn’t started yet. In 2011, when I saw them mushrooming in the US, I decided to get back in the game again,” Moneycontrol quoted him saying.
Ruchit Garg then went on to launch Harvesting which helped small-holder farmers make more money.
Passion over profession? Always!