The Story of Kunwer Sachdev
A statistics graduate with no MBA and no money who sold pens, built India’s largest inverter and solar company, organised an entire unorganised industry, filed a record number of patents — lost it all, and started again in the age of AI. Told in twelve chapters.
6
factories built
90+
countries
106
technology filings
₹1,200cr
peak revenue
Told in full, in his own words, at kunwersachdev.com.
Twelve chapters
Read it as one journey — or jump to the chapter you want.
Before the inverters, there was cable
The dish-antenna years — a young man, a soldering bench, and a hunger he couldn’t explain.
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The first inverter, and the fire
A technician’s insult, the exploding MOSFETs, the R&D I built from nothing — and the Government of India’s stamp on it.
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The Inventions — the products that changed the market
A shock on a rainy day, the CHIC, the Fairy Queen, the Home UPS, the world’s first touch-screen inverter — the firsts a whole industry copied.
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How losing one case made me India’s biggest patent filer
106 technology filings — 77 at Su-Kam, 25 at Su-Vastika, 4 personal AI filings, 24 granted by the IPO. The highest, and the only fully verifiable, single-founder patent record in India’s power-backup and solar industry.
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Going solar — and India’s first 1 MW grid-feed plant
I built a separate team just for solar projects — and with it installed India’s first 1 MW grid-feed plant, then took solar to the border, the villages, and two villages lit with Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.
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World-class factories, a world-class office — and my costliest mistake
A $10M Reliance–Temasek vote of confidence, six factories and a world-class HQ built by hand — and the battery dream that nearly cost me everything.
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The brand nobody could copy
No giant budget — just the sharpest ideas: branded buses and Kashmiri Shikaras, a ₹5-crore Mercedes giveaway, umbrellas on street carts, and a fleet of moving billboards.
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Going to market — Sales ka Baazigar, TV, and YouTube
A sales reality show that found talent in small towns, bold TV commercials, YouTube a full decade before my rivals, and the dais beside Philip Kotler.
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900 distributors, 50,000 dealers — a Su-Kam in every town
I built distribution from door-to-door selling into 900 distributors and 50,000 dealers, 1,000+ dealer meets from Kashmir to Kanyakumari — and put Su-Kam on Wal-Mart’s shelves.
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The brand that travelled — into 90 countries
The first Indian inverter company to earn the CE mark — 90+ countries, 185,000+ installed units, and a founder who went where others wouldn’t.
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The peak, and the day Su-Kam died
₹1,200 crore, 5,000 people, a name that stuck — and then insolvency took it all in a single day.
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The rebuild, and the next frontier
No money, cases on every side — and Khushboo who made the beginning. The brutal restart with Su-Vastika, the partner who finally believed, and a new life in AI and writing.
Read chapter →The full series, in my own words
The long-form companion series on kunwersachdev.com — each part told in full, in Kunwer's own voice.
In the press
Three decades in the national press — Forbes, India Today, Times of India, Economic Times and more.
The journey continues
Follow my work in AI, the startups I’m backing, and the founders I’m mentoring.
Founder, Su-Kam · Co-founder & Mentor, Su-Vastika · Building kunwwer.ai