From carpenter’s son to AI innovator: How Kulbir Singh built Designers X from scratch

A difficult adolescence saw him fail his Class 12 exams. Yet his love for sports—he was a state-level sprinter, powerlifter, and water polo player—helped him find direction. “Because of my sports background, I got admission into BCA,” he says.

He soon topped programming subjects and began assisting teachers at St Soldier’s Institute. His first job in Chandigarh paid only ₹3,000 a month but offered priceless exposure. “I worked with Mr Ankush Agarwal, then with Sameer Jain at Net Solutions, where I handled the Bluetooth Lithium project, which was later sold to Yahoo for $300 million,” Singh says.

From design to technology
Despite early success, Singh left his job to join his father’s carpentry workshop in the UAE—a move that didn’t last. “I couldn’t handle the dust and heat. I came back to India without telling him,” he laughs.

Back home, opportunity knocked in an unexpected way. Agarwal offered him an 8,000 sq ft office rent-free for six months—complete with furniture, power, and staff. “That was my first real break,” Singh says.

What began as a small design outfit soon evolved into a full-scale technology company. “Clients came for design but wanted execution too, so we morphed into a software solutions company,” he explains.

Singh’s big global break came with Fentoo, a UK-based startup later acquired by Dell for £40 million. Singh, who held a 15 per cent stake, lost it after a legal clause invalidated his shares. “I lost £6 million. It was a huge blow,” he says.

Soon after, he collaborated with an Australian innovator on e-commerce automation, co-developing the idea of frictionless checkout—one that later earned his partner $180 million when his startup was acquired. “That’s when I realised the power of startups,” Singh says.

Reinventing through resilience
In 2017, he launched 7K Startup, helping founders build technology at a fixed fee. “I became their CTO and built their systems. Only a few survived, but that’s how startups work,” he says.

The pandemic hit hard. “Our clients were in hotel, beauty, and shipping industries—all shut down. The business was reduced to ashes,” Singh recalls. But by 2022, he had rebuilt. Designers X bounced back with $3 million in annual business, driven by automation projects for international clients.

His biggest leap came this year with Rexpt, an AI-powered voice assistant that automates customer communication and reception tasks. “We finished building it in May 2025 and launched it in August after touring the UK and the US. The response was phenomenal,” he says.

Rexpt can create an AI voice agent in just three minutes—a process that takes competitors weeks. His team also cut conversational latency from four seconds to just 750 milliseconds, nearly matching human response time. “That was our biggest breakthrough,” Singh says proudly.

Staying rooted while reaching higher
Today, Designers X specialises in AI-driven automation for e-commerce, healthcare, and customer-support industries, with over 40 clients worldwide. Singh’s next goal is to expand into robotics through collaborations with IIT Ropar and Chitkara University.

Despite his global footprint, Singh remains firmly connected to Punjab. “I love Mohali’s environment—it’s peaceful, clean, and full of potential,” he says. “Once people move here from Bangalore or NCR, they don’t want to leave.”

When he’s not building intelligent systems, Singh returns to a craft that grounds him. “My father was a carpenter, and it’s still my hobby. I built a dollhouse for my daughters, and next I’m planning a treehouse,” he smiles.

From failing Class 12 to losing a multimillion-pound deal and now building world-class AI systems, Singh’s story reflects one constant belief. “For entrepreneurs,” he says, “the only rule is to keep innovating.”