"Startups, by definition, should disrupt" - Ashok Soota of Happiest Minds

At a time when IT Services is hardly the flavour of the season among Venture Capital firms, that Happiest Minds was able to attract brand name investors within a months of its founding is testament to the credibility and experience of its primary founder & Chairman, Ashok Soota. This "seasoned manager" feel is also something that comes across right through this interaction. - The Venture Intelligence Team

Ashok Soota, Executive Chairman, Happiest Minds (Bio)

Interview by Sanjay Anandaram, Founder of Jumpstartup, followed by interaction with students and other entrepreneurs at IIT-Madras on January 5, 2012. Event Co-Hosted by C-Tides, the entrepreneurship cell at IIT-Madras. More photos from the event.



Highlights (click on the links for individual audio snippets):

As a Late Stage Entrepreneur, you need to plan on a larger scale since you don't have the luxury of time

Attracting and Inspiring People: Having a Mission & Higher Purpose

- "Have a (company) name that you have to live up to"

A startup should, by definition be disruptive

- How Happiest Minds is taking on the incumbents by leveraging the emergence of cloud technologies, mobility and social media

Winning the first customers

Decision Making should be through "Head, Heart and Gut"

Don't take "bet the company" type risks

Services and Products are Different

- They Operate to Different Rhythms, Different Risks & Rewards

Click Here to Download the full length audio - 1 hr 33 mins; 43 MB
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"Commitment is the Key" - K.V. Ramani

Fascinating account of the tribulations and success of an early mover in the Indian software industry, who chose - in the mid-1980s - to tread a different path than the common "body shopping" route. - The Venture Intelligence Team










K.V. Ramani, Founder, Future Software (Bio)

Speech and interaction with the students of Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai (recorded on campus on June 23, 2010).

The Podcast (mp3) - 64 minutes, 29.2 MB

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Highlights:

• In the eighties, when banks did not recognize software as an industry that they would lend to and there were so much of red tape, KVR's sheer persistence helped him overcome the odds - even to the extent of arguing a committee of bureaucrats into reversing their decision!
• Future Software, which stuck to its niche of telecom networking software from inception, was the first Indian company to license "protocol stacks" to global telecom vendors in its pusruit of "non-linear growth". KVR insists that Indian IT succeeded because of "talent/skill arbitrage" and not cost arbitrage. "We could have charged three times as much and got away with it," he says.
• KVR's story emphasizes how the founding idea - especially for an IT product company - should be based on something that is likely to become popular 3-5 years ahead. He believes the founders should focus on the vision for the company in the next 5 and leave the job of managing the next few quarters to the operational managers.
• One of the advtantges of starting in a niche market, KVR points out, is that the target clientele is obvious .
• The podcast has an interesting account of how KVR converted the huge problem of its largest customer, Hughes (which accounted for 30% of the business), wanting to set up its own shop in India, into an opportunity.
• KVR also highlights how Flextronics acquired and stitched together what is today Aricent by acquiring 5 Indian communications software companies (including Future Software).