A recent Forbes report on billionaire immigrants who started their careers in the US on an H-1B visa features only a handful of Indians. Among them is Raj Sardana, founder and CEO of Innova Solutions, who moved to the US for higher education, built a business from the ground up, and is now worth $2 billion.
Born in 1960 to Punjabi parents who migrated to India during the Partition of 1947, Sardana grew up in government housing in New Delhi. His family had no modern amenities—no heating, air conditioning, refrigerator, phone, TV, or car, according to HT.
“Despite our humble beginnings, my parents instilled the values of relentless hard work and found a way to provide quality education to me and my brother,” Sardana recalled in an interview with Authority Magazine.
Moving to the US with just $100
In 1981, Sardana moved to the United States to pursue a master’s degree in mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech. He arrived with barely $100 in his pocket and took a job in the college cafeteria to support himself.
“I started my life from scratch here,” he said. “I got a job at the cafeteria of Georgia Tech and supported myself through college.”
After graduation, Sardana secured an H-1 visa (the predecessor to today’s H-1B visa) and started working at Howmet Aerospace.
A career setback that led to success
By 1987, Sardana had landed a prestigious job at Teledyne CAE, a firm manufacturing Tomahawk missile engines. But in 1990, with the end of the Cold War, missile production was halted, and Sardana lost his job.
“I had just bought a house with a mortgage, had a six-month-old daughter, and my parents were also living with me. At that moment, I had no income to support my family,” he said.
Instead of seeking another job, Sardana decided to become an entrepreneur.
Building Innova Solutions from scratch
With $25,000 in savings, Sardana started his own business. A decade later, it had grown into Innova Solutions, an IT services firm. Today, Innova Solutions has over 50,000 employees worldwide, and Sardana’s net worth stands at $2 billion.