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No that led to Po

Posted by on February 5, 2025

It will soon be 14 years since NoPo was founded in 2011. This was reminiscing the journey from what started as a dream that was impossible to be on track to producing significant scale. I was mapping our performance record in this time. From a microgram to a ton. It has been a scale of an astonishing 10^12 times.

2010: Not Possible – There is no way to produce Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes in india. Not happening in Private Sector. So named the company, NoPo and moved on.

2012: No way – Took samples to a national lab for analysis. They felt that I was bluffing and that it’s impossible to produce tubes so small. So we took it to their Zeiss machine; opened it up and voila. I took the images on a CD; had them load it up and walked out with satisfaction.

2014: ‘No’ – I wanted to expand NoPo into a larger premises and asked my grandparents for help. They offered a piece of ancestral land that was no longer in use to expand. Both of them were extremely proud of what we had accomplished and as a bonus; I’d be with them in their old age. My uncles, Narendra and Raghava said No saying they will do some development in the lands and didn’t want me there. As of 2025; the land remains overrun with wild shrubs without even a hint of a fence being built! This led to searching for more places and finding the R&D center in Electronic City.

2015: ‘No, bye’ – One of the key people working with me decided to quit just as we were moving to a new facility. He was to have taken up a bigger management role. But decided to go work for a speculative railway project that never happened. I asked for him to stay back but No. This led to more hiring and found one of my co-founders; Anto.

2017: ‘No, No’ – A cousin had joined NoPo to begin his career and had been moulding him by training in various things. One time, a reactor was damaged down due to carelessness. Had planned out his career and growth but he quit. Later turned out that he had been speaking to a few uncles who had nudged him to quit. He refused to be part of the journey anymore.

2019: ‘No’ – Signed an MOU with a major Aerospace and defense contractor. Due to changes in procurement laws by the GOI; the follow on actions were cancelled. This led to us being part of IDEX and began development of a Desal system. The water development led to improved purification and sorting capabilities. This in turn led to us developing a material most suited for our current markets. The metallic nanotubes that were envisioned to be developed for the project have now made an entrance in 25

2021: ‘Not sure, sure’ – Met my wife and we both touched the right chords. There was a brief moment when the thoughts oscillated on whether this is it or not. Luckily; everyone was convinced. And met my life partner and Yuri. The Not sure became a firm Yes and led to building Vrisva; a company that is building rockets to take me us to Mars.

The ‘No’s are just a distraction. As long as we can ‘Po’ on the journey.

Po – ಪೋ – go in telugu.

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