Meedaas Protek was born out of a passion to walk down the way less travelled by. But destiny would have Prashant Narayanan Nair go at his entrepreneurial aim when life hit him squarely. Today his entrepreneurial venture Meedaas Protek is ready to take on any engineering challenges and provide solutions to the specialized requirements of its customers.
Becoming a self-made entrepreneur and the founder of a successful manufacturing company that is inching towards good turnover in just the second year of formation, Prashant Narayanan Nair of Meedaas Protek epitomizes entrepreneurship at its best.
Starting his career as a Commerce Graduate in the banking sector and later on moving to sales, Prashant's entry into entrepreneurship to start something of his own was probably destined. Prashant came back to make his mark in the world of manufacturing and created Meedaas which has now become a symbol for aspiring entrepreneurs. In just over a year of its formation, Meedaas has carved its share in the manufacturing sector offering customized and cost-effective products for a variety of customers solving varied problems that they faced in production.
In conversation with Machine Maker, Prashant Nair describes the challenges he faced during his journey and his insights into how to become a successful entrepreneur in the manufacturing sector.
From a failed attempt at banking
Prashant had applied for a Diploma in Instrumentation after completing his 10th standard. “But in the 1st year itself, I failed miserably and then during graduation got a job in a DSA of ICICI Bank in Home Finance department.”, Prashant adds. There he met Reshma, fell in love and got married to her, who would eventually become his pillar of strength as well.
Prashant stayed at ICICI for over seven years. However, the banking job put them under extreme pressure and Prashant and his wife ultimately decided to leave their jobs and search for less stressful ones so that they could settle down and start their family. He joined a company called KK Nag and within a year and a half, he started looking for new avenues.
Thereafter he went to work in Sandvik – one of the global leaders in cutting tools, and many different other manufacturing solutions, where he worked in Operations for the next 12 years.
The idea of starting own business
Destiny would have other plans as well. Out of nowhere, on 11th December 2018, he was asked to leave Sandvik as part of the company's retrenchment requirement. Prashant came at a crossroads in his life. He had two choices – look for employment in some other company or the much riskier choice of starting something of his own. But as they say- Rewards come to those who take risks.
Prashant decided to take up the challenge and in April 2019, Prashant got into the distributorship of Ceratizit with the help of one of his friends, Srinath Korath. After smooth sailing for about a year, the COVID pandemic derailed Prashant’s operations and there was a total lockdown in the nation.
However, Prashant did not lose heart and never stopped looking for new opportunities. “By June 2020, I decided to start something new. I was in touch with some of my customers even during the lockdown. This helped to find out a requirement, and got into fixtures manufacturing where there was the scope of developing a business”, Prashant recalls. And then something wonderful happened.
He received his first order from a manufacturer based out of Pirangut, who were looking for fixtures. Prashant and Harshal Sandbhor worked day and night to complete the order. Even his first order came after 3 whole months, but he was hopeful that he could succeed in his business endeavour.
From Ideation to Full-fledged Operations
Rajesh Mandlik, Managing Director of Setco Spindles India, played an important part in Prashant’s early development as an entrepreneur. Prashant adds, “In October, while we were looking for customers, we came across Setco Spindles. We developed some product components. Rajesh Mandlik was impressed by our skills and offered us regular orders which finally paved the way for Meedaas.”
Through Rajesh Mandlik and Setco Spindles, Prashant got the confidence to enter into full fledge precision machining. Rajesh made a verbal agreement with Prashant and assured him of the role of an exclusive vendor.
On September 30 2020 Medaas Protek was born. Prashant said, “The idea had been there and finally it became a reality. To kick-start the business we bought the machine offered by Setco for over 42 lacs with the help of a mortgage. We got the delivery of the machine on 25th December and Meedaas started full-fledged operations.” In the first six months itself, Meedaas had almost 14-15 lakhs turnover.
Offering a varied range of products
Due to Prashant and his team’s hard work and efforts, Meedaas took off and in a few months has established itself as a prominent manufacturing company offering varied solutions to its customers. Prashant adds, “We are doing welding fixtures, CNC/VMC fixtures, and even manufacture precision components.”
Meedaas has recently produced customized Material handling equipment i.e hydraulic slab lifters and hydraulic coil lifters for and Australian company Strang. To make the process of the aluminium slab and steel coil lifting more efficient they got in touch with Meedaas who designed a new solution from scratch and now are in the process of signing an MOU.
“We also have the capability to design new components be it for Material Handling or any other custom requirements with the proper in-house capabilities”, Prashant adds. Today be it precision components, fixture manufacturing, or be it customized material handling equipment. Meedaas is capable of providing solutions for complex engineering projects.
Lesson for Future Entrepreneurs
Even when all seemed to go wrong for him, Prashant Nair saw an opportunity in the worst. “When I was fired from my job at Sandvik, I started to spiral into negativity. My wife supported me through those times and advised that I enter business instead of getting another job.”
Prashant chose the hard path of developing a business from scratch. He was the first entrepreneur in the family and he built Meedaas with a lot of hard work and ambition towards achieving his dream of becoming a successful businessman. Prashant’s determination to achieve his goals is praiseworthy and his story inspires others like him.
“I advise every aspiring entrepreneur to not lose hope and carry on with their efforts. Hard work and determination is always the key to building a successful business.” Prashant Narayanan Nair concludes.