'Tore govt job letter and pursued his dream': How a father of four launched a start-up in 1948

Tearing a central government job letter to start a new business, when a previous one has already failed, is not for the faint-hearted. And that too just months after India gained freedom in 1947 — and the challenges that came with it. 

This is the tale of a man who created one of the largest agarbatti brands in India - Vasu & Cycle Brand. N Ranga Rao founded Vasu & Cycle Brand Agarbathies in 1948 in Mysore, Karnataka. His son Mohan Rangarao, Managing Director at Arvee Syntthesis, who also served as Managing Partner at Vasu Agarbathies from January 1994 to June 2021, reminisced his father's journey as an entrepreneur in a recent LinkedIn post.
          
Mohan said his father failed in trading and dairy farming in 1946. He was reluctant to apply for any government job but applied nonetheless. N Ranga Rao got a central government job in 1948. But, according to his son, he tore up the appointment letter and decided to become an entrepreneur.

"Reluctantly but out of necessity applied and got a central govt job in 1948. Sat on a stone bench on Vinoaba road, tore up his plush Govt job appointment letter, walked back home, and decided to pursue his dream of becoming an entrepreneur (sic)," Mohan wrote.

He further said that his father took a huge risk started his own incense business in 1948 borrowing Rs 4,000 pawning mother’s jewellery. "He took this risk with his wife, his old mother, and four children to support," he added.

Mohan said his father Ranga Rao built his empire from scratch with a meagre capital of Rs 4,000 and achieved revenues of almost Rs 1 million by 1958. "That was my father late N Ranga Rao, founder of Vasu & Cycle Brand Agarbathies. Appa, your life and all the wisdom you shared with me will be as clear as day until my dying day," he wrote.

Ranga Rao revolutionised the incense stick industry with his simple idea of offering quality products that are simply unsurpassed, according to the NR Group, which now sells its agarbatti brand Cycle in over 65 different countries.

A simple man with lofty ideals, Ranga Rao had nurtured a dream of starting an incense stick manufacturing company and envisaged it as a leading company. He launched Mysore Products and General Trading Company in 1948. Within months of its inception, the business grew rapidly and the brand Cycle was born.

Cycle Pure Agarbathies pioneered a series of innovations – all firsts in the history of incense manufacturing. It was the first company to obtain design copyrights to offer an immersive and interesting range of incense sticks, cones and sambrani. In order to create exquisite fragrances in the perfumery industry, the company set up its own in-house fragrance creation workshop.