Mane Singh wasn’t thrilled about moving to San Francisco from Punjab, India, in 2006 at the age of 19.
“I was in a state of depression for a year. I wanted to go back,” said Shin, now 38, adding, “I was very socially isolated.”
He initially attended a university in the Bay Area, but says he dropped out because some of the credits he earned at the Indian school did not transfer. His mother encouraged him to find a job early, so he worked briefly at a local drug store and then worked as a dispatcher for his uncle’s taxi company, earning about $6 an hour, he says.
Singh then worked in the taxi industry for more than 12 years, first driving himself, then amassing a fleet of five taxis and running his own ride-hailing company, before launching Driver’s Network, an advertising and marketing agency for independent drivers.
Don’t miss: The ultimate guide to using AI to improve your communications
In 2018, Singh decided he needed to do something unrelated to taxis. So in addition to running Driver’s Network, now known as ATCS Platform Solutions, he partnered with local barbershops to open Dandies Barbershop & Beard Stylist in Mountain View in June 2019. He got the idea from his partner Joypreet. Joypreet encouraged him to follow the example of his mother, who owned hair salons in India and later Northern California, he says.
Dandies brought in $1.07 million in sales last year, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. According to the document, ATCS Platform Solutions generated revenue of $1.18 million. Singh, who works full time at Dandies and spends about 20 hours a week on ATCS, says both businesses are profitable.
Here’s how Singh built Dandy from scratch while running another business, and why he says he’s not done with serial entrepreneurship yet.
“I had to sell everything.”
Going from taxi driver to barber shop owner may seem like a big leap, but Singh says he has been preparing for years. After encouraging his mother to get her cosmetology license and open a hair salon in 2007, he helped her run the store, advertise and market it.
But he says the process of opening was a pain, costing him $75,000 from his savings from taxi drivers and ride-hailing jobs.
“We need to get permission. We also need to negotiate with the city,” Singh said. “It took a year to get permission to open the store, so I paid a year’s rent by the time I opened the store.”
Since Shin had no experience as a barber, he opened the shop with the help of a barber friend. Six months later, the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic struck. He closed his shop for about a year because his business partner quit due to family reasons, but he still had to pay the rent.
Dandies’ Mountain View, California store reopened in 2021.
Lucas Mullikin CNBC Make It
Singh received two Paycheck Protection Program loans from the Small Business Administration, one for $68,000 and the other for $18,000, which were ultimately forgiven, he said. He borrowed $20,000 from two friends, another $30,000 from his life insurance policy, and $80,000 in credit card debt. He also liquidated his stock portfolio and reduced spending on necessities such as food, “so that we could continue to operate,” he says.
“I had to sell everything,” he says. “I had to eat less. I literally had to focus on eating $1 a meal to stay in business.”
During that hiatus, Singh enrolled in barber school so that when Dundee’s reopens in 2021, she will be able to offer a wider range of personal grooming services. “As we became more involved with the community, we attracted more people from all walks of life: men, women, LGBTQ, children. Almost everyone wanted to come to Dundee’s,” he says. “So we started expanding our different skill sets and wanted to cater to everyone.”
Singh now owns three Dundee’s stores and employs 25 people, 15 of whom are barbers, with a monthly take-home pay of $7,000, including $3,000 from Dundee’s and $4,000 from ATCS. He has paid off his life insurance loan and credit card debt, and has begun chipping away at his remaining PPP loan, which costs about $300 a month, he said. Dundee’s will become profitable in 2023, he added.
“We’re doing the same thing we were doing 19 years ago.”
It takes a certain kind of mental resilience to borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars and cut food costs to keep a business afloat. Singh’s resilience, he says, stems from his childhood in Punjab, a state heavily affected by the conflict between Sikh separatists and the Indian government.
In 1988, Singh’s father was shot dead by terrorists, but not fatally. Singh said a bomb fell in front of his father’s convenience store in 1991 — and the family spent more time there than at home. The store was further damaged by the floods, adding to the struggle.
Thousands of miles away and decades later, Singh still exhibits the same work ethic and grit that helped him in his childhood, he said. “I don’t feel like anything has changed. We’re doing the same thing we were doing 19 years ago,” he says. “I still work 15-16 hours a day. I still work hard. I still do what I have to do…Those are habits I developed from childhood.”
Mane Singh (center) moved to San Francisco in 2006 from Punjab, India.
money sin
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Singh says he is looking forward to adding a third parallel business to his portfolio. It’s an app called Barber’s Network that allows barbers and their customers to reserve chairs and request appointments at barbershops across the country. He used some of Dandies’ profits to start building an app similar to scheduling apps like Booksy or theCut, he says.
Although Singh works more than the average person, he says he wouldn’t have it any other way and doesn’t expect that to change anytime soon.
“I don’t think I’ll ever retire. I want to work until the end,” he says. “It’s just what I breathe.”
Want to level up your AI skills? Sign up for CNBC Make It’s new online course, “How to use AI to better communicate at work by Smarter by CNBC Make It.” Get specific prompts to optimize your emails, notes, and presentations for tone, context, and audience. Register now using coupon code EARLYBIRD and receive a 20% off introductory discount. Offer valid from October 21st to October 28th, 2025.
Plus, sign up for the CNBC Make It newsletter for tips and tricks to succeed at work, money, and life, and request to join our exclusive community on LinkedIn to connect with experts and colleagues.
