Some entrepreneurs start early in life, but few at the age of four as did Nitin Khanna.  Surrounded by family in businesses ranging from coal to clothes to packaging plants, it was all he knew.  “At night, my parents, aunts, uncles and cousins all sat around and talked about the business that day:  ‘Did the trucks come in?  Did the cash get collected?  Did the vendors get paid?’  It was the natural thing for me to think about”.

His very early success drove him to branch into engineering, and he moved to the US for school where he graduated with a Masters in Engineering from Purdue in 1994.  Those strong family ties continued when he and his brother Karan founded Saber Corp. in 1997.  The company grew rapidly, but when the brothers wanted to pursue other ideas they found there was little expertise to help exit a company of their size.  After selling to EDS in 2008, the success made them – you guessed it – want more hard work.  Trying to fill the void for entrepreneurs with technology companies wanting to move on, the brothers bought an investment banking subsidiary and re-built it into MergerTech, which caters to companies from $3 to $50 million.

It also filled a personal void for Nitin.  “Saber was 1,500 people when I left.  Your identity is wrapped up in your company and you go from helping solve problems for all those people and all that visibility to being alone and it’s very tough on you”.  So his next “hard work” was for the entrepreneurial community.  He is deeply involved in working with the City of Portland, Portland Development Commission, and State of Oregon to support startups through the Portland 100 concept. He joined The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Oregon and has helped fund and mentor some promising startups.  But perhaps his biggest passion is teaching entrepreneurship at Portland State University and his educational talks for groups like OEN and StarveUps.  “It is troublesome how many entrepreneurs are focused on things that are tangential to success like fundraising, finding advisors for boards, and networking.  Learn the fundamentals of business I tell them. Create a product or service, sell it for more than it cost you, collect your receivables, go find more customers.  THAT is how you build a successful business!”

Yes, and it also keeps you working harder.

by Thubten Comerford and Michael Coates

This interview is sponsored by WePost Media