Abdul Khaliq Khan and Bandam Ranjith Reddy were born in middle-class families of Telangana and Andhra region respectively. Both of them had great social esteem from their early student’s life, and their thoughts were shaped in Lovely Professional University, Punjab, and they started to conquer their surroundings.
Abdul was influenced by the thought of his granddad. He believed that “every little thing you do in your life, drives you to a specific purpose, that God has determined for you.” He, who has been a youth speaker from his education time excelled in his studies. He stood first in his 10th standard and second in the intermediate. Consequently, he won three times Gandhi award in 2009, 2010 and 2011. He went to Lovely professional university, Punjab for mechanical engineering in 2013, from where his genuine adventure of life had started. Staying with different people of the nation he understood the basic principle of humanity.
First Start-up:
Mr. Khan and I developed a cordial relation. I became frank with me over time. Out of curiosity, I started interacting with him about the story of his start-ups. In his words, I am sharing some of his experiences below.
Everything began, when I was just in my fourth standard and all my companions were going crazy with playing stickers that were free with buying two big bubble chewing gums. Every student was ready to give 2 rupees just for a playing sticker. I then thought of doing business. I went to the betel shop owner, and he had a deal with the shop owner that he would sell all his cards as he had already observed that no client was keen on purchasing cards from his shop. I bought 100 cards for 5 rupees. The shopkeeper was enthusiastic towards the clients. With smartness, I remained successful to sell out to classmates all cards for 100 rupees with 95% profit. At that time, I was about ten years old. As always little things in life make huge things happen. This was simply the beginning of my life’s journey.
Second Start-up:
The taste of business was in his blood, Abdul with a smile on his face looking towards his mobile with great respect towards his family members said. The comparable sort of situation occurred when my family was involved in a handmade bracelet business. For some time out of curiosity, I went door to door to sell the product and get them sold. Whenever the client was not intrigued to buy the product, I used to come back to the same client in the evening, ask them for a glass of water to maintain the healthy relationship and shared how many numbers of bracelet sets their neighbor bought from him. Again, I was successful to maintain 100% selling record at the age of just 12.
Third Start-up:
I had great inspiration from my family, and especially my grandad who was known for his good social influence and impact. Inspired by my granddad, I started a social journey from 2004 during the tsunami. That time, I gathered 2000 rupees from going door to door. During the same time volunteers of Students Islamic organisation of India (SIO) were also engaged in relief work of tsunami. Later, in my 6th standard, I joined SIO and have been an active part of the junior associate circle and my passion to serve the society got boosted. From that point onwards,I have been a part of Andhra Pradesh’s various training programs which nurtured my talents and skills and from then I was actively associated to SIO.
Fourth Start-up:
Suddenly, Abdul turned his head another side and his voice was heavy, he was so emotional and said that after coming to Punjab for Engineering, he felt alone because, he couldn’t contribute to the organisation which made him bold. New state, new language, new teacher, new friends and new environment made him feel easy and he got adjusted.
I believe that there is a lot of things, the person can do for his family, society, and country. Presently, I am 22 years of age. I have an aim to establish an Islamic bank in India during my lifetime. To me Islamic Bank, which works on the principles of interest free loans, can be of great relief to thousands of farmers whose suicide news we often hear. What I think is that if I clear the debt of one farmer it will be helpful to one family, but if the system changes then entire farmer community will get benefited.
After listening to his great thoughts I introduced him about Indian Centre for Islamic Finance (www.icif.in) which is a private body, working on the principle of interest free banking. I hope he will explore and serve the farmers and the backbone of Indian economy which is still largely dependent on agriculture.
Fifth Start-up:
I cannot forget Abdul’s smiling face, when he looks up with love and affection saying “Hum Bahut Kuch Karsaktey Bhaiyya” (Brother, we can do many great things…). A smile of satisfaction dedicated to Mr. Ranjith whom I am going to introduce here.
Ranjith who completed his earlier education in Telangana, +2 from Andhra Pradesh and joined LPU in Electronics and Communications Engineering department. Before completion of B.Tech, he writes his designation as Founder and Chief Executive Office of Rectangle India, and yet Mr. Abdul who just passed Engineering writes as Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Rectangle India.
The main chapter of Abdul’s life started when he joined a student organization “Youth for Management and Technology” (YMT) at Lovely Professional University, Punjab. Within six months, he was elevated to Organisation board and then he handled the organization as Co-CEO for 1 year.
From the failure of YMT, he decided to do something big. He set up the company named as “Rectangle” with the help of Bandam Ranjith Reddy who has previously been CEO of YMT- the humble, hardworking and dedicated guy coming from a little town in Telangana who always shares the vision of Thinking Big as that of Abdul Khaliq Khan.
Abdul shares that Ranjith is the best co-founder that he can ever get in his life. That he doesn’t quit when things get hard is the best thing that can describe his partner and whose ideology is same as that of Abdul.
Ranjith explained to me the reason behind such a name. As in our classroom, the way blackboard gives us the learning and wisdom to think the genuine significance of life, the name “Rectangle” has taken birth.
I was shocked to hear their concept behind the name of their start-up and how perfect and confident they are in handling people to explain their thoughts. As Ranjith was speaking with great enthusiasm Abdul was calm and confident as his co-partner is explaining the things in a beautiful way, and of course not just in English but with mixed Telugu as we all three were Telugu speaking guys.
Ranjith said that the main goal of Abdul is to build up an organisation to contribute to the education system and enhance the skills of students by providing quality training, conclaves and business summits and take them to new horizon along with IT services and brand marketing for the companies to achieve their full potential.
Abdul shared that there is a more profound significance as to why we are interested in event management service. It all started when the name “Rectangle” rises with a tagline of “a right choice from every angle “. Thus assuring the right quality product to the customers, Rectangle has been recorganized the first ever startup and has initiated “National Entrepreneurship Conclave” in 2017, incorporated under the government of India in February 2018 with funding from Mr. Amit Singal- CEO startup Buddy and Mr. Abhishek Aggarwal.
As discussion continued, I came to know some thing more. Just in 8 months these two young entrepreneurs made a revenue of 1.7 million and their target is to reach 10 million in next 5 years or less. They are clear with their targets and passion of their start-up too.
Journey of young friends continue. They consider themselves lucky to have got supporting parents, and they attribute their entrepreneurial success to the Almighty and their parents and friends. They say “everyone whom you meet in your life has got to play some role in your life”.