Why Iqbal would be every Investor ‘s Investable Founder!

Iqbal, the only child for his parents was born in Nashik, a small Tier 2 town of Maharashtra. Father was an accountant in a small factory earning hand to mouth to run the family. Mother used to contribute her bit financially doing household errands. Together, they made sure that Iqbal was not deprived of basic education.
Iqbal made good use of the opportunity and completed his Class 12 but financial circumstances did not give him the privilege to go for higher education. He joined a nearby factory as a machine tool operator and began to learn the nuances of running a business even while nurturing dreams of becoming an entrepreneur himself someday.
As luck would have it,good fortune struck earlier than he expected and and he got an opportunity to start a trading business at a throw away price. But that would mean he would have to relocate to Mumbai. The entrepreneurial spirit and the fire in the belly did not allow him to let go of the opportunity. So, he made arrangements for a loan andbegan his entrepreneurial journey at a young age of 20. He took a train to Mumbai and found his fortune as a small business owner. Things were going great and business was flourishing.
However, at the prime age of 37, he was forced to come back to the small Tier 2 town because of his father's illness. Unable to manage the trading business remotely, he decided to sell it and return home to his family responsibility. His only motivation to leave the business capital of India - take care of the entire family and help his younger brother in business. He may have exited the trading business but the entrepreneurial spirit in him had not faded away. He started a small manufacturing unit -upstream to his trading business and he began his second innings as an entrepreneur using the funds, he had mopped up from the sale of the trading business.
Years had passed by and I happened to participate in one of the trade association meetings and knowing about my role as an investor , he came up to me ,explained in detail about his journey through the trading business , the circumstances that compelled him to return to Nashik and the struggles that he had gone through before bringing the manufacturing business to a position of scaling to level of an externally funded business .He then asked me if I could help him find an investor. He offered to take me to his factory and we did a site visit together and I was given a full tour of the plant, the team and the customer profile. It was clear that he had been able to build a good funnel of orders, a great team that he surrounds himself with and more importantly, he is a leader who leads from the front.

• One, he was on the factory floor leading from the front. He knew every single technical detail of the unit. He had an "UNUSED" office because he is always involved on the floor.
• He was very transparent about his entire journey to this point and found his level of transparency and integrity a great asset if we were to associate
• He was extremely passionate about his business. The purpose was more powerful than the financial rewards
• Last but not the least, he had the skin in the game and nothing could shake his rock-solid long-term commitment