Industrial evolution has come a long way now, steel is pushing the construction industry towards a safer and more sustainable future. In many countries, if not all, the world of construction and engineering is typically perceived to be male-dominated. However, there’s still always room for positive changes. Over time, countless game-changing women have managed to break the glass ceiling and built their way from the ground up, either rising to the top of their respective companies or building their own venturing as entrepreneurs.

As an exemplary leader for the steel construction industry in the broadest sense, a 27-year-old Shruti Gat has excelled in research, development, and industry infrastructure development over a sustained period. A mechanical engineering graduate, Shruti, from an early age, had a tend towards heavy machinery and its mechanism. She followed her instinct right from the early days. She had quite an extensive and inspiring journey of learning, and trying out different jobs & businesses, before incepting Reclasteel by recognizing the lacuna in the steel construction sector. She always dreamt high and stayed focused towards it. Her resilience to achieve something is unmatchable. This tenacity is now helped her grow her company worth around a whopping Rs.100 crore valuation today.

The devout professional, Shruti has exceptionally proved her staunch leadership quality by being committed to organizing and overhauling the unorganized steel construction sector through her company today.

Recently Shruti engaged in an exclusive interaction with the women entrepreneur magazine. Let’s read on!

Take us through your educational background and prior industry experience.

I am a hardcore mechanical engineer. Basically, it was right during my school years that I decided to enter the engineering field and do business. The excitement and knowledge about things that can make you earn more money got me to multiple places which had heavy machinery and plants. Once, I had a chance to visit a sugar mill in the Kolhapur district (my native) with my father. Finding the gigantic machines there, working effortlessly to produce sugar seemed really interesting to me. While that incident intrigued me a lot to know more about engineering and heavy machinery stuff, I generated good interest in steel and machines and the way the mechanical world runs. I studied in the sixth standard then. Likewise, many other industrial visits and insightful discussions with my father intrigued me to peruse the beautiful world of business. I soon realized where I want to be and where I actually belonged. Hence, it was the orientation or incidents in my early years that created within me the likelihood for machinery and business.

My both parents are doctors running a multispecialty hospital. I really liked the managerial skills they held, handling the business, staff, and especially growth. I learned a lot from them and combining my interest and the field where I wanted to be, I decided to start something that excites me and had a touch of growth & scalability. It was relentless efforts and extreme dedication that helped me catch the growth in the robust world of steel. It was my parents because of whom, this journey was possible. They raised us with the highest possible values and ethics and today this has become the foundation of Reclasteel.

Define Reclasteel. What was the underlying idea that you wanted to bring to life through your company?

Reclasteel (2020), is a steel construction company, that strives to transform the way construction projects are getting executed in the steel industry, backed by an experienced team of tech entrepreneurs having successful track records in understanding customer requirements.

Well, my entrepreneurial and business stint dates back to my school time when I tried out making and selling jewelry with my friends and then followed by a fashion designing studio. Even in those days, I used to make little money by trying out various options and that actually helped me understand customer psychology at a minute level in early age. After completion of my engineering, and working with Fiat India automobiles, I was also involved in the land dealing business with a group of college friends and our first deal was with Mahindra & Mahindra. We knew that this all is temporary, and what I wanted was something scalable and sort of a value addition to the market. Coincidentally, I did my job in Fiat India in supply chain domain. I soon understood the tactics in supply chain of manufacturing sector and realized that this industry needs digital transformation and integrated platforms to streamline the processes. Steel was any way my interest. Once I came across someone in an exhibition who was working in the steel structure industry, and I got a chance to know more about what the market needs, what actually can make a great difference to today’s economy. The Steel construction industry was my instinct to follow for thousands of thoughts I came across.

India is the second-largest manufacturer and second-largest consumer of steel. Looking at it, we know there is always a room for big development and a huge market size, I incepted Reclasteel, with a bigger motive.

Though this is going to take time, we have now developed a remarkable footprint in the market. There were tough times too when we wanted to give up, but we stayed here with immense hardwork and patience. Having spent around five years researching and venturing and doing business we are soon going to launch the virtual ecosystem we developed over this period.