Rebuilding

I turn fifty on August 23. My partner and I run a company called BIMstream that we built from nothing, in an industry I came to by accident, doing work I have come to believe I was genuinely built for. We work with real estate portfolio owners, architects, engineers and general contractors who need to know, accurately and reliably, what they actually have - not what the drawings from 1987 say they have, but what is physically present, documented with precision.

The work is built around a deceptively simple problem: buildings change, and records don't keep up. What BIMstream does is close that gap. The word "rebuilding" is in our industry's vocabulary by default. It has been in my personal vocabulary for longer.

There is a record of me in federal court archives and in search results. Here it is: I cooperated fully with the United States government as a witness in federal proceedings connected to my father's business activities. By June 2009, every obligation was satisfied.

I was twenty years old when I started working for my father. What followed was a period I carry carefully - circumstances I could not sanction, and choices I should have refused. When I tried to leave, the pressure brought to bear was not gentle. The fault for staying is mine.

What changed everything was the knowledge that I was going to become a father. Something that had been resisting for years finally stopped. I moved to New Delhi in 2004, opened a clean business of my own, and then to Miami. I had already removed myself from my father's business, voluntarily, before the federal proceedings began. My son was born as all of this unfolded. My daughter arrived shortly after. I kept going because they were worth keeping going for.

My cooperation was described by the government as "immediate, truthful, cooperative, candid and forthcoming." I gave more than was asked - not because I calculated it would help, but because the decision to be truthful had already been made before any of it began.

The American justice system gave fair weight to the cooperation and to the context, and then gave me what I needed most: the chance to start again. It is a system built on the premise that the truth, brought out fully, leads to something approximating justice. In my case, it did. I am grateful for it.

In 2010, I set out to build something from scratch on my own terms - working in the Gulf region first, then in India, following the work as it grew. Through a client relationship, I was drawn into a major hospital construction project that redirected everything. When the vendor I'd relied on couldn't meet the standard, I built my own BIM studio rather than settle.

Coming back to the United States was never a question. This is the country that gave me the chance to start again, and when the opportunity came, I took it. I merged the studio into a firm called Aerial Genomics, and that became BIMstream.

The double meaning in the title of this piece is not accidental. What BIMstream does every day is return buildings their full story - not what the records once claimed, but what is actually present, documented and verified. I understand that work at a level that is not purely professional.

I do not expect the public record to update itself. What the record will do is surface alongside whatever first-person account exists. This is mine.

I am fifty. I am looking forward.

Nishan Kohli is Co-Founder and CEO of BIMstream, a digital delivery and reality capture firm.