SMU management graduate Kaushal Dugar left behind a high-profile job at accounting firm KMPG in Singapore, to modernise the traditional tea distribution located in West Bengal's Siliguri district. He set up an online portal Teabox and decided to raise venture capital to fund it. But what Dugar hadn't accounted for was the lack of connectivity in the small north-eastern town. Not one to give in, he persisted with cold calls on the landline and finally, on the seventh try, managed to convince global early stage investor Accel Partners to travel to Darjeeling to sample his firm's flavours of tea. Within two months of Dugar's successful pitch, Accel Partners invested about Rs 6 crore in the start-up last year.