Interviewed with Google? Fidelity? Then you’ve already run into MeritTrac. Their skills-assessment papers bar the doors of these hallowed halls.

Launched in 2000, MeritTrac is today India’s largest skills-assessment company, having assessed over 4 million candidates for more than 400 clients.

“We realized that in the late 90s as more BPO companies opened offices in India, there would be a growing demand for scientifically designed and delivered assessments for hiring quality candidates,” says Murlidhar S, one of the three co-founders of the company. (The other founders are Madan Padakhi and Mohan Kannegal.) Not everyone saw the opportunity.

Armed with a business plan, the 3 co-founders approached venture capitalists for funds. They approached 60 to 70 investors, all of whom said no. Ironically, “many refused to fund because we were targeting IT firms in India and not in the US,” recalls Mr Muralidhar.

Then one day, a coffee plantation owner from Shimoga, T Ranganathan, called to see if they were looking for funds. “We thought it was a joke. Of what interest a skills -assessment company would be to an agriculturist? We didn’t even know what language we should present our pitch in. Would he know English? Should it be in Hindi? What if he understood only Kannada?” But they met him anyway.

The meeting turned out to be just as strange. No interruptions, no questions asked. They thought they would never be called again.

But they were. Mr. Ranganathan became their first investor, investing Rs 1 crore for a 27% stake in the company.