From the Heart of Trichy to Embracing the American Dream.
A terrace startup that soon became a global corporation, transforming the lives of talents.
The Journey
Our Origin Story.
When VDart was founded 15 years ago by our charismatic President & CEO Sidd Ahmed, it was not merely to generate revenue but was the seed that was laid on the foundation of a purpose beyond profits- that of a deep calling to drive change and transform lives in the founder’s homeland, Trichy – a small city in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu – Trichy.
To understand our story and what our purpose is, knowing Sidd’s story is important which goes way back to his childhood. Growing up in Trichy as the youngest of six siblings with caring parents who strove to provide Sidd with “the gift of education”, Sidd had to move out of Trichy upon graduation to seek jobs, something that was not easy to find in his small city, at the time. Leaving his home and his beloved parents, especially his mother, was something that caused Sidd great distress.
To transform the trajectory of lives, to create customer value everyday.
But that did not stop Sidd from realizing the importance of hard work, beginning his career as a door-to-door salesman, growing and reaping rewards as a master salesman. His impeccable talent in sales and a chance job interview in an American technology talent hiring company, pulled him into the world of recruitment, experiencing phenomenal success as a recruiter hiring technology talents. His passionate efforts as a recruiter who could quickly close client requirements, landed him in the US to manage recruitment operations for the company in Pittsburgh on a global scale and growing their business by leaps and bounds.
Although the US was the land of dreams, Sidd’s heart always yearned for Trichy. He knew Trichy had talents waiting to be discovered and utilized. After a decade of working in the US, Sidd took a leap of faith and decided to independently begin his own recruitment firm, selling his house and car in Detroit where he was at the time, to relocate with his family to Atlanta, Georgia where most of his clients were based.
The Birth of VDart
In the year 2007, at the peak of global recession, Sidd began VDart from the living room of his small apartment in Atlanta. Within the 1st year of operations, Sidd landed three major customers successfully kicking off our global professional services in talent management while single-handedly managing the entire sales and operations of the company. Sidd hired his first staff member a year and a half later, growing rapidly and adding more equally passionate members to his Atlanta office.
To touch the lives of all associated with us; to create success and wealth and enhance the quality of life.
Creating Opportunities to Transform Lives.
In 2010, while on a visit to Trichy, he met a few close friends of his and shared his dream of creating opportunities in Trichy. Floored by his passion to give back to his hometown, they got together to set up our India office in Trichy. On the 4th of July, in 2010 a five member team began to work from the terrace of Sidd’s home in Trichy and thus began our journey of creating opportunities and transforming the trajectory of lives in Trichy. Today, in India we have over 750 employees having been able to create opportunities in their own hometowns.
Harnessing the Power of Academic Partnerships & Mentoring Programs .
Back here in the US, we were acquiring customers led by our principle of customer – centricity and growing in revenues while our leadership team grew beyond Sidd. We realized that for a business to truly expand, a mindset of “learning to grow and transform” was imperative to craft a vision of what a company wanted to achieve, its purpose and understand how processes could be streamlined for optimal performance. Our leadership team in Atlanta benefited immensely by the learning partnerships with Tuck School of Business (at Dartmouth) and Northwestern Kellogg School of Management. Simultaneously, we grabbed opportunities and programs extended by Georgia’s Minority Supplier Development Council (GMSDC) to support small businesses run by minority groups by coaching and mentoring them to scale up business and streamline organization processes.
VDart was mentored by Delta Airlines and Accenture which created a huge impact in our transition to a corporate organization. Today these learning programs and invaluable mentorship have been the cornerstone to developing our profound purpose and vision statements and have been pivotal in cultivating and building our immense sense of responsibility to not just our people but also our planet.