Profile of the Month | Nitin Gupta

The CEO of Delta Gems, Nitin Gupta can often be mistaken as just the kid around the block, but this entrepreneur raised in Sugar Land, Texas with very supportive parents is taking up new challenges and traveling around the globe.

Nitin Gupta did a Bachelors & Masters in accounting from UT Austin, and consulted at Ernst & Young for about a year and soon realized his interest in entrepreneurship and so he looked into real estate, franchises, and other ventures. Then during summers spent traveling with his dad for work he absolutely loved the interaction with retailers as well as the buying/selling/logistics aspect of the business.

What is the goal and future plans for Delta Gems?

Expanding and diversifying is necessary in any business and I have introduced 3 new lines in the past 6 years. However, we plan on focusing the majority of our interests in increasing our wholesale imports of loose diamonds and growing our larger accounts as we are heavily focused on a very low margin/high turnover model.

Tell us about your passion with diamonds and precious gems?

I am passionate about entrepreneurship and trading diamonds than the actual diamonds themselves. That being said, I loved the GIA (Gemological Institute of America) Graduate Diamonds course that I took in New York as it really helped me to understand diamonds well.

What do you think about the Houston market in connection with your business?

We supply to retail jewelry stores in most of the major cities across the US so the Houston market doesn’t heavily impact our business one way or the other. However, its always great to have a booming local market as it is at the moment.

What is your favorite thing about Houston and the community?

I was born and raised in Houston and have a lot of Houston Pride – my friends often make fun of me for constantly recruiting the ones that have moved away back to town. I always tell them that it’s the people that make the place and my memories and experiences have been mostly in Houston for the last 30 years.

The desi community is fantastic here and we are lucky to have so many great religious and cultural organizations that celebrate Indian festivals. I am quite involved in Chinmaya Mission Houston as I think it does an excellent job in keeping the Hindu knowledge and traditions alive in our younger generations.

This must be a very challenging business. Tell us how do you cope up with it?

The wholesale diamond business is full of interesting challenges as it’s a constantly changing one with new trends. We deal with suppliers in Belgium/Israel/India/Hong Kong on a daily basis and various changes globally affect the diamond market. I personally would describe the challenges as mostly positive ones as I enjoy the new opportunities that come from them. For example, our travel schedules can get pretty crazy as I will often times have to visit 3 or 4 cities within 5 days. We are constantly traveling domestically and have to go overseas several times a year but we believe in doing the job with a smile.