A Chandigarh boy left this city almost three decades ago for USA, with nothing but 10 bills of $10 in his pocket. Today, he is a multi-millionaire, having just acquired a subsidiary of BT (British Telecom) Group in a multi-million deal.This is the story of Anil Sharma, the CEO of 22nd Century Technologies. A serial entrepreneur, angel investor and philanthropist, his journey to the boardrooms in the US is one of sheer grit and determination to succeed. In just three decades, his company, involved in IT contracting for the US government, has grown into a $700 million company.Sharma, while talking to The Tribune, said that he reached US with literally no contacts and just $100 with him.“But I had big dreams. My father was in a blue collar job with The Tribune group of Publications and I was the sixth of seven children. I was the only person who went to college and in early 90s and landed a job in National Informatics Centre. But I soon realised that I wanted to do things at a much faster pace than what my government job would allow. So after a friend asked me to come to the US and explore opportunities in IT sector there, I took the plunge,” he recalls.But his ride in the US was initially not smooth. He had to leave his first job within months of joining and with no family support from back home and no one in the US to rely on, he took a friend’s advise and set up a small IT consultancy in a garage. It was then that things changed and since then there has been no looking back. His company employs 7,500 people across all states in USA, with just 10 per cent of those being of Indian origin. He rubs shoulders with the top politicians in the US, and the US Vice President JD Vance is amongst his friends.But this success has not changed him. He remains humble and tied to his place of birth here and has set up a backend operations firm in Mohali, employing 1,000 persons. So what’s next, we ask him. The target is to become a billion-dollar company by 2027, he says.