Diversity MBA Magazine - April 2008 - (Page 56) Entrepreneur Profile: by Cassandra West Niraj Kataria It takes more than a quality product and a strong management team to make a business really take off. Niraj Kataria, chairman/CEO of Diversity Business Solutions, knows there’s something far more important that an entrepreneur needs: funding. It’s the key to fueling the growth of a business, he says. Kataria knows the ins and outs of businesses funding. In the early 1990s, he worked on initial public offerings for Gartner Group, a technology research and consulting firm in Stamford, CT., and Moldflow, a plastics solutions company headquartered in Lexington, MA. Seeing and understanding how capital gets raised gave him a solid foundation for everything else he has done since. The experience at Gartner and Moldflow prepared Kataria well for his next step up the ladder, when he accepted the position of company president for the New Orleans-based publisher of Black Collegian magazine. That move, he says, was one of his most personally satisfying because he was able to leverage a Blackowned company that had been around for years and lift it to the next level. With a bachelor’s degree in accounting and an MBA from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, Kataria had the experience and skills required to run a company, but his time on the tennis court also helped. During his stint in Lexington, a town without much ethnic diversity, he played tennis with a Black 56 friend. That friend had a friend, Preston Edwards in New Orleans, who needed help raising funds to take his print-based publication, Black Collegian, online. Kataria, 45, a native of India, knew well the struggles Black entrepreneurs face when it comes to securing bank or private funding to expand or leverage their businesses. He thought he could help Edwards, and so did Edwards after the two met and talked at length. Eventually, Kataria moved to New Orleans, becoming president of Edwards’ company, which was renamed IMDiversity.com. Kataria developed a business plan for the company and raised $3 million from two venture funds. “One of the funds was started by the [former] CEO of Gartner Group, which gave $1.5 million,” he says. “Another $1.5 million came from Stonehenge Capital in Louisiana.” With that infusion, hiring took off, and IMDiversity’s staff grew from about a dozen to more than 60. The company’s sales skyrocketed 500%. For Kataria, it was, “A dream come true; me running a Black-owned company.” He held the job of president from April 1999 to December 2001. “It’s one of the best things I ever done in my life.” To this day, Edwards still marvels at Kataria’s expertise in raising seed money. “He put together w w w. d ive r s it y mb a ma g a z in e. c o m http://IMDiversity.com http://www.diversitymbamagazine.com
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