July 2021
3
SIT DOWN WITH SUCCESS
Ashok Singhal, Founder and Chairman of CFD Research Corp. Sitdown with Success is a feature of the Huntsville Business Journal on entrepreneurs and their keys to success. This month’s subject is Ashok Singhal, founder and chairman of CFD Research Corp. For the complete interview, visit huntsvillebusinessjournal.com. According to textbooks, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) uses complex computer algorithms for modeling and simulating the flow of fluids, gases, heat, and electric currents to make technological advances. Ashok Singhal started CFD Research in the basement of his home in Huntsville in 1987. Today, in addition to their headquarters located in Cummings Research Park, Singhal’s company just broke ground on a 13,265 square-foot laboratory that will expand their research and development capabilities in the areas of biomedical and energy, while providing new space to support growth in electronics, virology, and biomechanics. What is it like to start a company in the basement of your home? In the beginning, we were very poor.
We had one idea and one IBM clone computer that cost $1,000. We could have used hundreds of computers, but we couldn’t afford them. Two things happened in the basement. My son Sameer (now the company CEO) made our first business sign that said CFD Research Corporation using a dot matrix printer and he hung it on the wall. In 1987, you bought everything from Service Merchandise because it was moderately priced. We bought these furniture kits and Sameer and his twin brother formed an assembly line to put together the office furniture. It was free labor. Did you ever expect it to get this big? Yes, and so much more. We’re not done yet. In my head it was always the case. Even though we are computer nerds computational dynamics is a hardcore science for computer simulations, but I always wanted to expand the company to do more than fluid simulations, structural controls, and everything
multidisciplinary; but I always wanted to do experiments. What would you say is the secret to your success? Sangeeta, my wife is the true secret to the success of this company, and I mean every word of it, honestly. Not only did she write all my proposals for many years, but she took on other responsibilities for her crazy scientist husband. She allowed me to start the business with two 10-year-old boys and no medical insurance. As we, in her words, continued to go crazy from one field to another field to another, she understood the passion and her resolution allowed me to sleep peacefully through it all. What have been your biggest challenges? My biggest challenge in the business overall is championing new technologies, breaking the barriers whereby people don’t believe you. That is very challenging. How do you handle being in a business most people don’t understand? When I started the company in 1987, I never spelled out the words
By Kimberly Ballard / Photo by Steve Babin
Computational Fluid Dynamics. Those who know what it is will appreciate it. Those who don’t know what it is, won’t get it and it won’t matter anyway. To solve the problem, you’re saying you have a shot at looking at things objectively and coming up with some ideas - some of them may work, some of them may not work, but you’re here to test them experimentally through computer simulation, and to explore possibilities not allowed in the conventional world. The first thing you have to do is open your mind. It is a rare entity, common sense. It takes persistence and patience, patience, patience, and more patience. u
