From Founding Micromax to Becoming A Manufacturing Mogul: Rahul Sharma’s Story

“If you really want to build something, you’ll find a way.”

That line from Rahul Sharma, the visionary Co-founder and CEO of Micromax, stayed with us long after his fireside chat with Pratham Mittal at Masters’ Union.

In an open and insightful conversation, Rahul took us through his incredible journey from running a  SAP training institute to building India’s most disruptive mobile phone brand, to now scaling a manufacturing behemoth under BPL.

Micromax: A Giant Among Giants

Many remember Micromax as the desi underdog that went on to challenge global giants like Nokia and Samsung. At its peak, it was among the Top 10 mobile phone brands in the world. But Rahul’s journey is far more layered and unconventional than you might think.

The Beginning: Embedded Tech, Not Phones

Before mobile phones entered the picture, Rahul was obsessed with embedded technology. He ran a training institute, believing that this was the future. His early break came when Nokia India’s M2M division was looking for partners. While everyone chased the glitz of mobile handsets, Rahul quietly cornered a niche.

Partnering with Nokia, he built fixed wireless terminals (FWTs) and later pitched the concept of affordable payphones to telecom providers like Airtel and Vodafone. This M2M business scaled from ₹4 Cr to ₹100 Cr annually.

The First Micromax Phone: No Distributors, No Chance

When Micromax finally decided to make its own phones, no distributor would touch them. Nokia’s market dominance left no room for new players. But that worked in their favor—Nokia didn’t see them as competition, giving Micromax a quiet runway to enter the market.

Their unique insight? Long battery life. In rural India, where charging infrastructure was scarce, Micromax offered phones with 30-day standby time.

“Mobile Ka Baap”: The Marketing Stroke of Genius

At the time, IPL was grabbing headlines, and big brands were burning money on sponsorships. Micromax couldn’t afford TV ads. But Rahul spotted a newspaper ad with the line “Entertainment ka baap”. That became the inspiration for “Mobile ka baap”, Micromax’s first print campaign.

It worked. Their phones went out of stock for six months.

How Do You Start a Hardware Venture in India?

Rahul doesn’t sugarcoat it. Making a mobile phone isn’t child’s play. It involves 700 to 1300 components, from memory and battery to charging circuits and sockets.

What helps is understanding your TAM (Total Addressable Market) and going deep into the value chain. Who makes what? At what cost? What’s imported? Much of this data is publicly available, and sometimes even on government portals.

Rahul gave a great anecdote about cold-emailing a professor in New Orleans, flying across the world to meet him, and eventually striking a partnership with the University of California. That led to research breakthroughs Micromax would later use. 

No MBA? No Problem.

When asked how he learned marketing, he simply said “We learned by doing. We figured it out with our agencies”. Rahul never worked for anyone else. He didn’t have marketing experience. But he had an itch to build, and everything else followed.

His advice to aspiring founders is you don’t need clarity from day one. If you have 20% clarity on what you want from life, you’ll figure out the rest.

BPL: The Reinvention No One Saw Coming

After Micromax, Rahul quietly turned his attention to manufacturing. Under the BPL brand, he built a massive contract manufacturing and white-labeling business, focusing on electronics.

In just one year, his new company scaled from ₹600 Cr to ₹6,000 Cr in revenue.

Rahul now builds everything from consumer electronics to smart devices, creating the kind of manufacturing muscle that India sorely needs in its bid to become a global factory.

What Rahul Teaches Us About Building Against the Odds

1. Start where you are. Even running a training institute can open doors if you’re passionate and persistent.

2. Be resourceful. Cold emails, flights across continents, digging through import data—do whatever it takes.

3. Positioning matters. “Mobile ka baap” wasn’t just a line—it was a sharp differentiation.

4. Iterate your way forward. You don’t need all the answers. Start moving.

5. Think beyond products. Build ecosystems. Build capabilities.

Rahul Sharma's story is proof that in India, even the most technical, capital-intensive ventures are possible—with the right intent, relentless hustle, and a sharp eye for opportunity.

At Masters’ Union, it’s stories like these that remind us why we’re here: to learn not just how to build businesses, but how to dream big—and make those dreams real.