KATHMANDU- The morning light streaming through the conference room windows illuminates a curious collection of objects scattered across the mahogany table: a pair of designer eyeglasses, a titanium aerospace component, a bolt of silk fabric, and a scale model of a hospital. To most observers, these items would seem unrelated—the random inventory of a particularly eclectic garage sale. To the Thakur family, they represent chapters in an improbable American success story.
Gaurssa Corporate Group didn’t set out to become a $474 million conglomerate operating across a dozen industries. Like many immigrant businesses, it began with a simple premise: work harder than the competition, treat customers like family, and never stop learning. What makes the Thakurs’ story exceptional isn’t just the scale they’ve achieved, but how they’ve maintained their values while building something unprecedented in the modern business landscape.
“My father used to say that every customer who bought glasses from us could see their world more clearly,” recalls Mukesh Thakur, the company’s Chairman and CEO, fingering the vintage eyeglasses on the table. “As we’ve grown, we’ve tried to apply that same philosophy to everything we do—help people see possibilities they couldn’t see before.”
That philosophy has guided GCG through an evolution that defies easy categorization. The company began in 1996 when Ram Dat Thakur, a soft-spoken entrepreneur from Nepal, opened a small optical shop in Kathmandu. His timing was fortuitous—Nepal’s growing middle class was developing both the means and the awareness to invest in vision correction. Within a decade, Thakur’s wholesale network dominated the country’s eyewear market.
But Ram Dat had always dreamed bigger than Nepal’s borders could contain. He encouraged his sons to pursue education abroad, not to escape the family business but to expand its horizons. Jitendra earned an engineering degree in India; Mukesh studied business administration at the University of Pennsylvania. When they returned, they brought with them a global perspective that would transform their father’s modest enterprise.
The first major expansion came in 2017, when Jitendra spearheaded the company’s entry into Chinese and Indian markets. The move required significant capital investment and cultural adaptation—selling eyewear in Shanghai demanded different strategies than serving customers in Kathmandu. But the underlying principles remained constant: understand your customers’ needs, build reliable supply chains, and never compromise on quality.
“We learned that business success isn’t about imposing your culture on new markets,” Jitendra explains. “It’s about finding universal truths that transcend cultural boundaries. People everywhere want products that work, service they can trust, and to feel valued as customers.”
Those lessons proved invaluable when the family made their boldest move yet—relocating their headquarters to Boston in 2021. The decision wasn’t driven by tax advantages or regulatory arbitrage, but by a recognition that their ambitions had outgrown their infrastructure. To compete globally, they needed access to world-class talent, sophisticated capital markets, and the credibility that comes with an American address.
“Moving to Boston was scary,” admits Mukesh. “We were leaving behind everything familiar—our network, our reputation, our comfort zone. But we realized that comfort zones are where dreams go to die.”
The American expansion coincided with GCG’s transformation from a regional eyewear company into something much more complex. Drawing on manufacturing expertise developed in the optical industry, they launched textile operations. Supply chain relationships built for eyewear proved adaptable to automotive components. Customer service principles honed in retail translated seamlessly to hospitality ventures.
Each new industry taught lessons that strengthened the others. The precision required for aerospace manufacturing improved quality control across all divisions. Healthcare infrastructure projects demanded project management skills that enhanced their construction capabilities. Technology automation developed for one sector found applications throughout the organization.
“We don’t see ourselves as twelve different businesses,” says Ram Dat Thakur, the company’s founder and Chairman Emeritus, who splits his time between Boston and Kathmandu. “We see ourselves as one business with twelve different expressions.”
That integrated approach has yielded remarkable results. GCG now employs 419 people across five countries, with revenue growing at rates that would make Silicon Valley startups envious. More importantly, they’ve maintained the personal relationships and community connections that built their reputation.
Nowhere is this more evident than in their philanthropic work. The Nivaran Foundation, established by the family in 2019, has committed to building hospitals in all 77 districts of Nepal—a $18 million undertaking that would challenge most governments. The foundation’s work extends beyond healthcare to education, environmental conservation, and community development.
“Success without service is hollow,” reflects Mukesh. “We’ve been blessed with opportunities that most immigrants only dream of. We have a responsibility to open doors for others.”
That sense of responsibility extends to their business practices. GCG has never conducted layoffs, even during the 2020 pandemic recession. Employee benefits include educational scholarships for workers’ children, regardless of which division employs their parents. The company’s Boston headquarters features a meditation room, reflecting the family’s Buddhist heritage and commitment to employee wellbeing.
Such practices might seem financially naive in an era of quarterly earnings pressure and activist investors. But the Thakurs’ private ownership structure allows them to optimize for long-term value creation rather than short-term profit maximization. “Public companies have shareholders; we have stakeholders,” notes Jitendra. “That includes our employees, our customers, our communities, and future generations. When you take a broader view of success, different decisions start making sense.”
As GCG approaches its thirtieth anniversary, the Thakur family faces questions that would challenge any growing enterprise: How do you maintain culture while scaling operations? How do you preserve family values in an increasingly corporate environment? How do you balance profit with purpose in competitive global markets?
Their answers may not satisfy traditional business theorists, but they’re producing results that speak for themselves. In an economy increasingly dominated by platform companies and financial engineering, GCG represents something almost anachronistic—a business built on relationships, sustained by values, and measured by impact rather than just income.
“The American Dream isn’t about individual success,” Ram Dat reflects, gesturing toward the diverse collection of products on the conference table. “It’s about building something that creates opportunities for others. Every industry we enter, every job we create, every hospital we build—that’s the dream made real.”
Whether that dream can scale to billion-dollar revenues while maintaining its foundational principles remains to be seen. But in a world where corporate purpose often feels like marketing copy, the Thakur family’s approach offers something increasingly rare: authenticity at scale.
