Kamlesh Nanasaheb Ghumare: The Inspiring Tale Of A Village Boy Turned Entrepreneur.

Kamlesh Nanasaheb Ghumare a simple village boy from Devarpade, Malegaon, Maharashtra might have never heard of the term entrepreneurship. Rarely does he know what he is thinking and planning to do is actually entrepreneurship ( often a cool term for many these days).

The guy who many of you know as Jugaadu Kamlesh pitched his idea at the reality show Shark Tank India season 1.  The village guy came up with an idea to solve the problems of the farmers. He pitched a pesticide spraying machine which was at an initial stage.

Ever since he appeared on the show he became a big sensation. But reaching that platform and presenting his idea to the world the journey was not easy. Kamlesh was always interested in technology and innovation, and he would often tinker with machines and gadgets in his spare time.

After the completion of his education, Kamlesh started a new venture called “Kamlesh Electronics”, where he began designing and manufacturing a range of low-cost consumer electronics products. This was the start of his entrepreneurial journey which was about to take a major turn.

Living in the village where many are involved in agriculture as a source of livelihood he was moved to bring the solution to the farmers. Kamlesh saw that spreading pesticides manually in the field was causing skin problems, irritations, and diseases to farmers apart of the effort it takes.

Over the next 7 years, Kamlesh put in all his effort and resources and began designing the product with scraps he bought from scrap dealers. What he presented on the show was the testimony of his blood and sweat. His friend Naru was his partner and motivator in the journey when many doubted his idea and capabilities.

Kamlesh’s idea and his entrepreneurial journey got a big boost when Lenskart’s founder Peyush Bansal (a Shark, on the show) invested Rs 10 lakh in exchange for 40 percent equity in his company KG Agrotech. Peyush was the only investor who backed Kamlesh realizing his talent and potential which only needed the right direction and platform.

Lenskart Academy (Lenskart training school) and the guidance of Peyush acted as the catalyst for Kamlesh’s idea. In a recent update, Bansal shared how the pesticide equipment KG Agrotech is now ready and has more features than before.

The product named Bharat-K2 (to signify the second version as the original was what was presented in the tank) is now all set to face the test of the market. Kamlesh claims that his machine offers a 4x advantage over the current pesticide sprayers.

Bharat -K2 saves nearly 12 hours of the farmer’s time, he says. Kamlesh plans to take farmers’ feedback after selling 2,000 units and improve the cart further if required. The manufacturing cost of one cart is ₹20,000 (which is almost half of what he had when he went to the show pitching his idea) and he plans to sell it for ₹25,000.

As Kamlesh moves ahead in his journey Peeyush said that we should not be surprised if he comes on Shark Tank Season 3 to raise funding with a much-improved product and sales number backing his ask.

Kamlesh’s story comes in as a great example of hard work and determination motivating and inspiring many who come from humble backgrounds with a lack of resources to achieve their dreams. It also proves that in this wave of startups, entrepreneurship is not a term restricted to big urban cities like Bengaluru rather it’s everyone’s playing field if they have got faith in their idea and hard work.