He Slept in His Car. Now His Startup Has Raised $10 Million. Shekar Natarajan, founder of Supply Chain AI startup Orchestro.AI, overcame poverty, deportation threats, and homelessness to raise $10 million and take on a wasteful logistics industry.
Key Takeaways
- Shekar Natarajan rose from poverty by living with intent, working hard, and believing in himself.
- He turned setbacks into fuel, pushing bold ideas that changed how companies move goods.
- Now he's building a smarter, greener supply chain to keep a promise to his son.
When Shekar Natarajan shares his three principles for success—intent, hard work, and conviction—they come from lived experience. Born in South Central India, he grew up in a one-room slum with his family of eight, where everything from cooking to sleeping happened in the same cramped space.
"My parents taught us work ethics and integrity," Natarajan recalls. "Those values stayed with us."
His father, who cycled 15 kilometers to work daily on modest wages, spent most of his earnings on treating Natarajan's brother for bipolar depression and helping coworkers' families secure government benefits after deaths.
Three principles that shaped his journey
"Only three things matter in life," Natarajan explains. "Your intent, your hard work, and your conviction."
His first principle—good intent—manifested when facing potential deportation as an international student. Natarajan waited outside a professor's office at Georgia Tech, pretended to be an expected visitor, and successfully pitched himself for funding. "If your intent is great, angels come to your rescue," he says.
After securing university funding, Natarajan worked five jobs simultaneously to support himself, his brother, and send money home—embodying his second principle: "If your work ethics are great, success is delayed but never denied."
His perseverance paid off at Coca-Cola, where an innovative multimedia resume landed him a role leading delivery transformation. That same work ethic became essential when his father suffered multiple strokes in 2005. After exhausting his savings on medical care and making the heartbreaking decision to remove life support, Natarajan returned to America with just $50. He didn't have the money for rent and ended up living out of his car for two weeks. He rejoined Coca-Cola after a family medical leave of absence but wasn't paid until two weeks later.
At PepsiCo, he directed a major transformation by making their distribution infrastructure-agnostic. "Being part of a culture that likes to win builds your confidence," he says. He considers this as a turning point of his career from a scared kid with little confidence into a business professional.
His third principle—conviction—drove him to pioneer crowdsourced delivery at Walmart in 2014. "People thought I was crazy," he recalls of a concept now fundamental to modern delivery services.
Despite these accomplishments, Natarajan found himself chasing external validation. "I became more about checking boxes—VP, SVP, awards. My life became navigating that maze to prove I was successful to others."
Finding true purpose
The birth of his son in 2020 realigned his priorities. "I'm going to leave millions of angels for him, because my father left a lot for me," he promised, holding his newborn.
Observing an increasingly resource-wasteful world, Natarajan founded his company in October 2023 with the mission of cutting a third of resources used in supply chains.
"We're building an open network," he explains. "It's like open-sourcing the entire logistics environment and coordinating it through AI—having many brains solving problems versus one."
The company has raised nearly $10 million from investors including early Google backer Bobby Yazdani, Celesta Capital, Flextronics CEO Michael Marks and Foster Ventures. In just six months, they matched the daily volume that took American Eagle Outfitters years to build.
"I'm not here for the short haul," Natarajan insists. "I'm doing this because I believe in it. I made a promise to my son and everyone like him."
For entrepreneurs facing obstacles, Natarajan's journey offers a powerful reminder: good intent opens doors, relentless work ensures success, and unshakable conviction can transform industries—principles that carried him from a one-room slum to revolutionizing global supply chains.
