With an engineering background at the Ford Motor Co., Nagesh Palakurthi’s first inspiration was an innovative concept to OEMs and Tier-1s called full vehicle balancing. While the concept attracted tremendous traction within the automotive community, the scope and logistics were too large for a start-up entrepreneur in 2000.
So as an offshoot of the concept, Palakurthi and a partner founded Nucleon in 1999 with just one employee and 25,000 square feet of facility space to manufacture precision tubular products. He had nothing more than a master’s degree and savings earned through his previous employment. In 2003, he was inspired to develop a new kind of company, though, so he separated and founded Angstrom Holdings LLC, which continues to manufacture precision tubular parts for OEMs and Tier-1s.
Over the years, the company has grown under Palakurthi’s direction. He takes pride in the company’s financial discipline and its drive to be lean, cost competitive and growth oriented. He takes pride in the fact that the company is among consumer giants such as Google and Microsoft on a revenue-per-employee scale.
In spite of the economy – which has clearly hit the automotive industry – the company achieved significant growth while staying unleveraged. Within a span of seven years, it grew at a compounded rate of 90 percent year over year. And today, the company operates out of five manufacturing locations and has more than 250 employees and 500,000 square feet of space.
As the company has grown, Palakurthi has also rewarded the employees who have helped him achieve those successes. He takes great pride in those people and in their diversity, so he’s awarded every employee with a bonus each year since the company’s inception, even during the downturn in the economy.
How to reach: Angstrom Holdings LLC, (313) 295-0100 or www.angstrom-usa.com
