Mumbai: Born into a modest family in Mumbai Nirmit Parekh has established a business worth Rs 9000 crores after leaving a prestigious job at Apple. He made a platform that connects blue-collar job seekers with companies and named it ‘Apna’. In just 22 months since its inception the startup rose to a valuation of USD 1.1 billion (approximately ₹9016 crore). Today more than 150000 companies are registered on Apna including big names like Unacademy BigBasket Licious WhiteHat Jr Flipkart Zomato and Delhivery. In this article we dive into the journey of Nirmit Parekh who promises to inspire several other young entrepreneurs. Nirmit Parekh: Early Life Nirmit Parekh always had the passion for doing something different. When Parekh was only 7 he made a digital watch and by the age of 13 he had learned robotics programming. Nirmit completed his B.Tech from Gujarats Nirma Institute of Technology. At the age of 21 he started his first startup Incone Technologies a company that developed solutions for flood management. Soon after Nirmith started another company called Cruxbox which he later sold to Intel. He then began working at Intel as the Director of Data Analytics. During this time he also completed an MBA from Stanford University. After earning his MBA Parekh joined Apple where he became part of the iPhone product and strategy team. However after looking at the problems in the blue-collar job sector in India Nirmit Parikh decided to leave his job at Apple and return to India. His goal was to create a platform that could connect workers in the unorganized blue-collar sector with employers. Just before the COVID-19 pandemic he launched Apna. ‘Apna’ witnessed a meteoric rise in just 22 months. Growing at an impressive rate of 125% in two years Apna is now used by over 150000 companies across India. These include major names such as Unacademy BigBasket Licious WhiteHat Jr Flipkart Shadowfax Zomato Delhivery G4S Global and Burger King.