Voice of MSMEs
Rajiv Talreja is an entrepreneur, bestselling author, and one of the most recognised voices in India’s MSME ecosystem.
Over 18 years, he has built the country’s largest support system for MSME founders — working across 196+ industries, 10+ countries, and alongside 1 lakh+ entrepreneurs.
His life’s work is built around a single conviction: that the founders who keep this economy standing deserve an ecosystem that matches their commitment.
" The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. "
Most of what gets celebrated in the Indian business landscape is designed for a small fraction of it. The funding rounds. The unicorn headlines. The startup awards.
Meanwhile, businesses that actually employ people, sustain communities, and keep the economy standing are called small.
Rajiv saw this gap early. Not as a policy failure or a market opportunity. As a question of dignity.
His work over the past two decades has been to give MSME founders the systems, the support, and the voice they were never given. Not to speak for them. To build what they needed and had never been given.
2006. Rajiv’s father tore up his campus placement offer letter.
“If they are willing to pay you that much, you are worth more than that. Go start your own business.”
There was no plan. No funding. No safety net. Just a 20-year-old and his partner Karan, with a shared conviction that the people running India’s real businesses deserved better support than what existed.
That conviction has not changed in 18 years. Everything that followed grew from it.
Everyone says business partnerships do not last. Rajiv and Karan have been building together for 18 years.
Different personalities. Different strengths. One shared standard that has never been negotiated: integrity above everything else.
That standard shaped who they hired, how they worked, and what they were willing to walk away from. It is not a business detail. It is the reason the business exists the way it does.
By 2012, the business was stalling and the belief was running out.
Rajiv made a decision that changed everything: to learn not from books or business schools, but from people who had already built what he wanted to build. What he found, consistently, was that the founders who had built lasting businesses had done so not through smarter tactics — but through a fundamental shift in how they saw themselves and their role.
That insight led to another decision. In 2014, he travelled across India interviewing 300+ business owners. Not startup founders. MSME builders. People who had kept something standing for decades. He listened. Wrote everything down. In 2016, he published Lead or Bleed — a book built entirely from their wisdom.
The book revealed something that became the work: a massive, underserved community of founders who had never been asked what they knew. Who had never been recognised for what they had built.
Rajiv has founded and led a portfolio of ventures, each built to answer the same question: what do MSME founders need that does not yet exist?
Quantum Leap – India’s largest MSME growth ecosystem, working across 196+ industries
Proficorn – An annual gathering where 1,800+ MSME founders come together for recognition, not networking.
Lead or Bleed – A bestselling book built from the wisdom of 300+ Indian business leaders
Dreamcraft Events – Experiences that bring entrepreneurs together beyond the boardroom.
Dreamcatcher Investments – Capital behind the ideas that serve the MSME ecosystem’s future
Contract Bazaar – Connecting MSMEs with opportunities previously out of reach
Karnataka Warriors – Because building what you believe in does not stop at business
Each year, 1,800+ MSME founders gather at Proficorn — the only event of its kind in this country.
Not a conference. Not a summit. A place where the builders of India’s real economy come to see each other, celebrate what they have built, and leave knowing they are part of something larger.
The Business Success Awards, held at Proficorn, recognise MSME companies that represent growth, resilience, and real impact. Not vanity awards. The kind of recognition this ecosystem has never had.
Master Choa Kok Sui
taught that healing and leading are not separate things.
Sidra Jafri
Said “He is finally doing what he was born to do for the rest of his life.”
Blair Singer
showed what mission-driven work looks like when it scales.
Mack Newton
turned belief into a system.
Ashlesh Rao
continues to shape what comes next.
Lead or Bleed was not written from research. It was written from 300+ conversations with Indian business owners who had built lasting companies in conditions most business books never account for.
Every lesson in the book belongs to the founders who shared it. Rajiv’s role was to listen carefully and put it on paper.
Over 18 years, Rajiv’s work has reached 1 lakh+ entrepreneurs across 196+ industries in 10+ countries. His organisations have collectively generated over ₹500 crore in additional revenue for the MSME companies they have worked with.
In 2014, I did something really good and I thank my past self for doing it. What did I do? I accepted the fact that I didn’t know how to build a business. And I began my learning journey… I wanted to learn from the best. So I decided to take myself on a travel across India, and I interviewed the business owners who have been there and done that.
The consequence of the journey?
In 2016, I launched my book named “Lead or Bleed”… Never in my wildest dreams, I thought I would author a book. I filled the pages of the entire book with the lessons I learned from these 300 business leaders.
A dream to guide and coach MSME business owners with the knowledge I’ve gained. What started as a vision became a business, then an organization, and today, a mission.
This learning expedition is the root cause of me, as a business coach, creating the P.A.C.E system which helped more than 25,000 entrepreneurs build and scale their businesses.
“I did not set out to build a business around MSME founders. I set out to make sure they are never invisible again.”
Rajiv Talreja
For speaking inquiries, partnerships, or to learn more about working with Rajiv:
