I, a simple average individual, possessed a great deal of passion and dreams to fulfil. After spending a decade immersed in the corporate lifestyle, my desire to become an entrepreneur led me to leave my highly paid job in my early thirties to pursue my goals. Throughout my life, I have always been captivated by innovation and the process of creating new things. In 2012, I took the plunge and founded a tech company called Access Networks. Despite my limited knowledge of finance, tax laws, and profit-loss statements, I dove in headfirst and gradually grasped the fundamentals of running a business.
A year later, I established another company called Z-wave India, aiming to build a nationwide business. To our delight, we managed to gain recognition from prominent entities such as the Tata Group and Reliance, who presented us with multi-million INR business opportunities. This early success was incredibly encouraging, considering we were a fledgling company collaborating with renowned enterprises. While many individuals strive to gain entry and do business with such esteemed companies, we were fortunate enough to have the access right from the start.
During this pivotal period, we began contemplating a more ambitious vision that ultimately gave rise to our third company, HOGAR, in 2014. Right from the very beginning, we had a clear vision of establishing HOGAR as a global brand. We prioritized maintaining exceptional quality, incorporating cutting-edge technology, and ensuring a global appeal that could rival even the most established players in the industry. Unfortunately, the web domain for ‘HOGAR’ was unavailable, so we appended ‘CONTROLS’ to the name, resulting in the distinctive and memorable brand identity of ‘HOGAR CONTROLS.
Over the next couple of years, by 2018 we expanded our operations across India, we also made significant strides in establishing our presence in other regions. We successfully extended our operations to encompass the rest of Asia, the Middle East, and had some limited expansion into Europe. With our growing global footprint, we set our sights on the next significant milestone: entering the highly lucrative US market.
We had no intentions of seeking an external investors until an indiVidual approached us and presented a compelling story. Unfamiliar with terms like PE (Private Equity) and VC (Venture Capital), and lacking knowledge of how companies are valued and how these processes work, we welcomed this person as an investor in 2019. Naïve, honest, and hardworking, our team granted him complete access. We respected him as an inVestor, assuming he brought valuable business experience. Consequently, we sincerely followed his self-proclaimed team of advisors, including the CFO, auditor, and valuator.
Within a year, all the funds were squandered even before they reached our accounts due to the CEEO cum Investor’s extravagant ideas. A once profitable company found itself burdened with enormous debt and imbalanced balance sheets due to an abrupt surge in employee numbers. The InVestor cum CEEO pressed various buttons to resolve the situation, which turned out to be a complete disaster and chaos. With revenues plummeting rapidly, the debt only continued to mount.
In 2021, a dramatic scene unfolded as employees were fired for trivial reasons, leading to a sudden change in the work atmosphere. This exposed a grand conspiracy orchestrated by the CEEO cum InVestor, who aimed to take hostile control of the company. The founders were forced to walk away empty-handed, leaving everything behind.
To hide the truth, false propaganda was disseminated in secret within the company. Employees were forbidden from carrying personal phones, and spy software was installed on all computers. Those who possessed knowledge of the truth were terminated. The CEEO cum InVestor’s actions revealed their fear and insecurity about the facts being exposed.
A catastrophe unfolded, resulting in disastrous consequences from 2022 to 2023. With none of the original teams remaining and no possession of the original technology, the company experienced a devastating failure in their attempts to develop their own version of the products. However, this failure seemed to ignite motivation within their expert team to create copies of the HOGAR original version products that I had designed and developed. Not only were the products copied, but even the apps and cloud software were pirated.
As a result of declining revenues, the company resorted to inflating the balance sheets and orchestrating elaborate trade events and showcasing extravagant offices as a deceptive cover-up to conceal the truth.
It’s been 2 years we parted our ways, but still some silly questions haunt me.
My straight 5 questions to the self-proclaimed CEEO cum InVestor.
- How can you call yourself the ‘Founder of Hogar Controls’ when the brand was established in 2014, company and trademarked were registered in 2016 by me and Vijay, while you approached us in 2018 with an investment proposal. Should I share your own introduction email of 2018 ?
- What value did you add to the company’s growth? Your investment came with an expectation of a stake, so it was not a free contribution, right? Whereas, we gave you ‘our’ stake for the company growth.
- What is your response to the act of copying the original products and IP that I designed?
- Did you pay the full amount to the founders cum promoters for the additional stake you acquired, which ultimately gave you majority control?
- Did you ever approach the founders directly and express your desire to acquire more stake, or did you unethically seize it?
The CEEO cum inVestor manipulated the facts, deceived people who trusted him, spread false propaganda about the founders and promoters, and unlawfully took control of the company. And now, through paid events and PR articles, he claims himself as the Founder of ‘HOGAR’ as well.
I can see his desperate need to have the five-letter label ‘HOGAR’ on his products, as they likely won’t sell without it. I understand that he lacks the ability to create a new ‘brand label’. Therefore, I willingly donate the label ‘HOGAR’ to him. It pleases me to see that my 2016 version products are still assisting him in his self-promotion endeavors. Instead of creating inferior copies of my original designs, I can help the new team enhance those products and provide knowledge transfer of the original design details. Besides, I no longer use my OLD versions anyway, we upgraded them to NUE.
I am aware that brand building extends far beyond the mere application of a label and the replication of products, as well as participation in a handful of trade events. A brand is cultivated through the power of emotion. He should check if anyone on his new team has that emotional connection to the 5-letter word mark label he sticks on those products.
So, my 3 reasons for donating HOGAR…
- I built it
- I love it
- I can rebuild it
I am grateful to those who were along with my journey in building HOGAR, and I know what it takes to build a brand.
I am fully capable of rebuilding it once again with even greater enthusiasm… now it’s DOCH –
Karan Kumar
Founder – DOCH