He Quit FedEx to Build a Logistics Company for Exporters

Deepak Siag (Host)

Before we get to the business part, I'd like to know about your personal side — your education, school and college days. What kind of student were you? Where does this aggression come from?

Praveen Vashistha

I belong to Alwar — my primary education and schooling all happened there. Then I went for my graduation and MBA. Throughout my education I was very focused on finance: I did my graduation in Economics Honours and my MBA in Finance. As for school — no, I wasn't a very studious kid. I was average, because I was more involved in sports. When you're deep into sports your studies get a little weak — and that's also where the aggression comes from. After my MBA I started my career in FMCG with Pepsi, then moved to ICICI — core finance again, an interesting industry for me — then an NBFC for some time, and then FedEx. It was at FedEx that I understood what international logistics really is: how it looks, how it works worldwide, and how it affects every industry that works cross-border — importing, exporting, manufacturing in India and distributing outside. I worked in the corporate world, learned things from them, and implemented the same things in my own company.

Deepak Siag (Host)

FedEx is a global brand — you helped set up its operations in Rajasthan and were managing a territory. That's a comfortable position. How did the mind-shift happen from a good job to founding a company?

Praveen Vashistha

Entrepreneurship always starts from one important question: why. For me, the "why" was my customer. I've always believed relationships are the most important thing — if you go to a customer only to sell, you won't succeed; work on the relationship and give them the trust that you will work for them first. If your customer grows, you automatically grow. At FedEx I always felt a gap — I couldn't give my customers everything they needed. Sometimes the challenge was price, sometimes service, sometimes we could only offer air and not ocean. And the biggest gap: all the big companies — FedEx, DHL, UPS — majorly focus on bigger customers. They want volume-based business and high-yield customers. But the small companies, the people just starting their journey who want their products showcased in international markets — they couldn't compete with the big players. Their product quality was good; these were handmade goods from artisans who had always sold through middlemen and were now trying to send their own products to buyers directly. They were left with unorganised operators who never educated them — how to make an invoice, how to make a packing list, that the government gives incentives if you export formally. I felt that gap. So when we started Gxpress, our priority was education first: teach the customer what's right for them and what's the wrong fit. Sellers were shipping products marked as samples or free gifts because no agent had ever told them that a formal export entry makes it a legal export — and earns them government incentives. We built customised solutions for each customer — per their product, its size, the commodity's nature, the destination country. The result: our solutions were liked so much that we crossed ₹6.5 crore in the first year.

Deepak Siag (Host)

You identified a real gap in the MSME and small-business segment — much like OYO did with mid-segment hotels. How is your company helping these businesses grow globally today?

Praveen Vashistha

The most important thing in business — and I'm sure you agree — is that the environment can change at any time. You're aware Mr. Trump introduced a new tariff policy; everyone has questions about what happens now, what duty applies to their products, because the US is always a popular market. As a seller grows from a single box to a thousand packets a day, their requirements change. So we guide our customers continuously: when they were small they used our air consolidation services; then we moved them gradually to ocean consolidation because the volume was high and they could plan shipments so the urgency that once demanded air freight is minimised — balancing and optimising their overall logistics cost. Then we gave them warehousing: send your stock in bulk, store it there, break shipments as orders come, and run local distribution in that country itself — selling not just on Amazon but on every other marketplace too. One example: a customer's first shipment with me was 500 kg of tapestry from Jaipur. Today their volume is almost 10 to 15 forty-foot containers. And that's just one customer — we now work with more than 2,000 customers globally.

Deepak Siag (Host)

That's a perfect example — being part of someone's success journey. The satisfaction must be next level.

Praveen Vashistha

That is the satisfaction. If your customer is everything for you, you become everything for them. Never forget the people you started with — they are your most loyal people, and you are theirs. If their happiness and pain is yours, and yours is theirs — that is business. Business runs on relationships, and a relationship always works both ways. Today I'm happy that if you go to America and see Kapiva juice — or so many products on US shelves — these are our customers whose products we successfully placed there. Indians living in the US, UK, Europe or Dubai can now buy the same things they bought in India. They may miss their country, but they don't have to miss those products and those tastes.

Deepak Siag (Host)

Technology is a game changer in any business, and surely in logistics. How is Gxpress using technology to help customers?

Praveen Vashistha

Traditional logistics — what people know as freight forwarders, customs clearance, CHA — is the old way. An exporter wanting to send a 2,000 kg shipment from their factory to America had to coordinate with many people: first a trucker to move it to Mumbai or Delhi port, then find a CHA there for customs clearance, then the forwarding — air or ocean — then customs clearance again at destination, then deconsolidation at a warehouse or CFS, and then last-mile delivery. A very lengthy, hectic process across different people, and because it was 100% manual, there was a 100% chance of errors. That's what we removed. We consolidated everything — not just the shipments, all the services too — and the entire process runs on our technology platform, GClick. The customer is the only person doing a manual job: they add their shipments and products into our system once, with the HS code, weights and price. After that everything runs automatically — from generating the invoice and packing list, to creating the shipment, the airway bill, the BL copy, filing customs clearance — and they can track their container and shipment end to end, until it's delivered and they receive the POD. On the back side, all our internal and external communication runs on our own CRM/ERP, built fully in-house. We were a tech-enabled company from day one, and now we're planning to launch our upgraded version — GX 2.0 — using blockchain and AI, more technology-driven. It's going to be a one-click service for the customer.

Deepak Siag (Host)

These days everyone talks about funding — seed rounds, Series A, B, C. In that environment, growing a company completely bootstrapped — how did you make this happen?

Praveen Vashistha

It's become a general concept: I want to do a startup, so first I'll raise seed funding, then Series A, B, C. But a business never grows because of funds — that's a very big misconception, that investor money makes you grow. It's all about your idea: what do you want to do, what is your vision as a founder, in which direction do you want to grow the company? If you ask me in the old baniya or Marwari style — there's no business without profit. If you're not making profit in a trade, you're not doing business. Our one thumb rule: if we're helping our customers grow, then we've earned a right to a share of that profit too. That's how we've grown — slowly, gradually — and we're still a bootstrapped company. I'm not against funding. But sometimes, when funding comes into your head, you forget the reason you started the business in the first place.

Deepak Siag (Host)

Any guru mantra on this for our viewers?

Praveen Vashistha

It's not a guru mantra — it's what I implemented and what worked. Never build your base on "if I don't have funding, I can't do business." You can start a business from one room. It's all about your idea and how much you believe in it yourself. If you believe in your business, nobody can stop you from taking it to the next stage. Business needs two things: one is an idea, and the second is your zeal — how much you, as a founder, believe in your business. And you don't even need a wildly unique idea. Every successful startup's idea already existed in some other country in some other way — a smart person just picked the idea and executed it well. That's what made them a successful company and a brand.

Deepak Siag (Host)

When we talk about business we talk about people and networks. What are your views on having a network — and how has Corporate Connections helped you?

Praveen Vashistha

In your day-to-day work you do a lot of jobs, and without a network everything takes more time, more effort, and — what people like least — more money. That's how the network is a net worth. If you have good people in your group and connections available, whatever you need — personal or business — you can get done in a short time, effectively and at competitive cost. My business is all about network; if you don't build a network you cannot expand yourself. When you see a lot of like-minded people in the same room, it gives you a different thought process — about yourself, your business, your vision, your growth. You start your business as an individual, alone; when you have a room full of people who already have experience and plenty of advice for you, that's a major advantage. And Corporate Connections isn't just a group in Jaipur — there are over a thousand members across India and members in every part of the world. My business means I travel internationally a lot, and wherever you land, whatever you need — a car, a stay, or just a good conversation over coffee — a member is available. In my case it gave me a real push.

Deepak Siag (Host)

It's been almost a ten-year journey. How do you see the logistics domain changing in the future?

Praveen Vashistha

India is the one country with enormous opportunity right now. Our products are among the most liked worldwide. Talk about tariffs, talk about our Prime Minister's vision — Made in India products are supposed to reach a bigger market, and the government is emphasising global exports: presenting India's traditional, artistic quality in global markets. Demand is going to increase. And with the China–US trade war, India will definitely benefit as a country. When business grows, one thing grows automatically with it — logistics.

Deepak Siag (Host)

Most Indian business — and most exports — come from the small and medium segment. What's your advice for MSMEs exporting at an initial level?

Praveen Vashistha

We have one simple mantra: small is important. Whatever the size of the customer, they matter to us. My advice: whatever domain and product you work in, have proper education and knowledge of your product — and its legal side. Which country do you want to sell in? What are that country's packaging requirements? What licences does your commodity need there? If you pre-plan all of this, there's far less hassle when you send your shipment. And remember the economics: selling domestically in India, gross margins are normally 10–20%. When you sell internationally, the margins are much higher. So if you want to expand your market reach globally — just like banks say "know your customer," the same thing applies: know your product.

Deepak Siag (Host)

And how can Gxpress help them with this?

Praveen Vashistha

There was a time when so many customers came with the same question: I want to export Ayurvedic products — shikakai powder, moringa powder, a bottle of rooh afza — how is this possible? The only way is that Gxpress helps the customer with their HS code and the legal requirements — what they need to sell and export the product out of India, and at the same time what the destination country requires: which licences must be procured, what the packaging material and details should be, and one very important thing — product liability insurance, so you're safeguarded against any future legal compliance issue in that country. When a customer starts their journey with us — from India to global — we guide them on each and every product. We don't only do the logistics; we guide our customers properly at each and every part of that journey.

Deepak Siag (Host)

We've come to know you're a fitness freak too. With such a hectic schedule of meetings and travel, how do you manage it?

Praveen Vashistha

I understood the importance of fitness because when you grow a business, the first thing you sacrifice is your health. They say an entrepreneur never sleeps — but if you don't sleep, you won't stay healthy, and you attract a lot of problems. A couple of my friends are fitness freaks, and that's how it started. I always keep one hour in the morning for myself — gym, running, whatever I'm doing physically — and I make sure that whichever country I'm in, I focus on my health at least four to five days a week. I used to play basketball — that was my favourite — and plenty of gully cricket; even now the whole team tries to get out for a cricket match on weekends. And horse riding is my newest hobby — I love spending time with my horses. We're breeding Marwari horses, the legacy breed of Rajasthan — one of the finest things Rajasthan produces — trying to breed the Marwari line back to the same quality and the same bloodline. And yes, once my hands are properly trained for riding, I'm definitely going to think about being a polo player too.

Deepak Siag (Host)

Rapid fire! One book you'd recommend to every entrepreneur?

Praveen Vashistha

Steve Jobs.

Deepak Siag (Host)

The biggest lesson from your journey?

Praveen Vashistha

I'm possible.

Deepak Siag (Host)

A quote that keeps you motivated?

Praveen Vashistha

Never give up.

Deepak Siag (Host)

Before we wrap up — three final tips for our audience to achieve the kind of success you've achieved in the last ten years?

Praveen Vashistha

First: whatever business you're in, you have to believe in yourself. If you believe in yourself, you'll believe in your idea and your capabilities. Business has good times, bad times, tough times — it's you who has to keep calm and keep believing "I can do that; it is possible." Second: business is all about risk. You cannot remove risk, you can only minimise it — so always take calculated risks and don't be afraid of taking them. There's a good line: no risk, no dhandha. If you want to do business, you'll have to take risk. And third: whatever scale you take your business to, always remember one very important thing — your health. If you're healthy, you'll grow more. Whatever time you get — 15, 20, 30 minutes — go for yoga, meditation, a run, a walk, or the gym. Whatever way you like, just get yourself moving.