This School Dropout Runs Staffing Venture, Made Rs 8 Crore in FY-24

Hailing from a middle-class family in Jaipur, where his father was a bank employee and his mother was a housewife, Harry Saxena was sent to a hostel for studies after his 10th grade. However, he began to fall sick and faced a severe case of thyroid issues.

The health problems and financial constraints of his family led him to drop out of school and start working.

"My family's financial situation was stable, but then I began to fall sick. Staying away and falling sick made things tougher financially, and hence I had to discontinue my education when I was in 12th grade," Harry told Startup Pedia in an exclusive interview.

Despite these challenges, Harry was determined to build a career for himself. He started working at a young age, doing sales jobs to support his family.

He worked with several companies before joining Protingent Inc., a US-based company. During his tenure, he saw an opportunity to expand their business in India. He realized there was a significant potential for providing payroll services, employment services, direct hire services, and staffing workforce to American companies from India.

Harry had been working with Protingent Inc. for three years and had been recruiting and sourcing directly for a major company in the consumer electronics industry. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Harry saw an opportunity to create jobs for a small group of people in India by starting a new division of Protingent Inc. in India.

He presented this idea to his CEO and was designated as a partner in Protingent India, which was formed in 2021.

"I got this opportunity because my CEO saw potential in me. I provided 25% of the total staff to Protingent Inc. during my three-year tenure there," said the founder of Protingent India while explaining how the staffing company was formed to Startup Pedia.

What is Protingent India?

Protingent India is a staffing company based in Jaipur that provides manpower to American companies. The company receives job requirements from clients, finds the right candidates, and submits them for further interviews.

Once the candidates are selected, Protingent India assists in deploying them to the clients and takes care of payroll services.

Protingent India's core business is to provide staffing services to American companies. They have a team of recruiters who work on job requirements received from clients.

The recruiters find the right candidates, submit them for further interviews, and assist in deploying the selected candidates to the clients. They also take care of payroll services for the deployed candidates.

The Journey So Far:

Harry invested around Rs. 20 lakh as initial investment to start his Jaipur-based staffing venture. The investment money, which was his earnings from Protingent Inc., was utilized for recruiting software, setting up an office, having a couple of team members, and maintaining corpus funds to sustain the business.

Currently, the business has a team of over 40 people in India and has deployed over 300 people in America. Protingent India's sales strategy involves building relationships with American companies and understanding their staffing needs. They have a dedicated sales team that reaches out to potential clients, pitches their services, and negotiates contracts.

"We receive job requirements from clients and use LinkedIn Recruiter services to find potential candidates. Much of our hiring is done on LinkedIn Recruiter, and we have a system in place to manage the recruitment process," explained the founder during the interview with Startup Pedia.

As the venture grew in terms of staffing and its own team size, Protingent India's financial growth has also been significant over the years. The company's revenue has grown from Rs. 1.2 Cr in the first year to over Rs. 8.3 Cr in FY-24.

"The profit of my company last year was around Rs. 37 lakh. The growth rate of our company is 50% year on year," Harry told Startup Pedia.

During his entrepreneurial success, Harry also sought further education, having dropped out of school in 12th grade. Just three years ago, he enrolled in an Amity online course and completed a B.Com, and he also pursued a company director program from IIM and Data Analytics Post Graduation from Purdue University.

"Learning is important, especially when you are building something. I must say, in the last three years while seeking further education, I have learned a lot that has helped me in my business," added the founder of the Jaipur-based staffing venture.

The Road Ahead:

Protingent India has outlined several ambitious future plans and goals. One of their key objectives is the expansion of services. The staffing venture aims to broaden its offerings to include new areas such as IT staffing and engineering staffing, thereby diversifying its service portfolio.

Another significant goal is to increase its client base. Protingent India has set a target of growing its client base by 50% within the next year and achieving a 20% increase in revenue over the next year.

"To achieve the financial and client targets, we plan to extend our operations to new countries, including the UK and Australia, to establish a global presence and explore new growth opportunities," Harry said during the conversation with Startup Pedia.

He further added while concluding the Startup Pedia interview, "My vision is to become a key contributor to the overall business of Protingent Inc."