The Exchanges

Q And, uh, in, in your second journey, if you can just share the specific of, like, uh, how did the acquisition happen with Trend Micro? Is it that you approached Trend Micro or is it Trend Micro found you through some iBanker?

A Uh, iBanker and all those things were very far off from us. Nobody was ready to put money in me. Uh, you know, uh, we, I had, uh, friends, and, and I used to go to a show called RSA. It's an RSA, RSA, a very large security show, which happens in, in, uh, in California every year, and, uh, I used to generally go there more there, more so to learn what are the new technologies coming in, what are, what is the industry moving towards, and, and being there for several years, I had made some reasonably good friends there as well, and they were running various large security companies, And in one of those discussions, you know, I was chatting with, uh, one of the trend bank executives in terms of telling him what I'm doing and what I'm planning to do and stuff like that. And, and, and he said, Hey, uh, you know, we are really building out our application security stack. Uh, and this is something which might be of interest. Would you be open to kind of discussing that? And I said, uh, why not? Let's, I haven't thought about it, but you know, there is, Uh, if there is, uh, enough and, uh, you know, if there is something which we can work well, which will help both of us, uh, I would be happy to look at. So that's how the conversation progressed. Uh, we actually didn't even have a second suit or we didn't even make a second. I think it was, everything worked out quite well, but we didn'…

AI assessment note: “I was chatting with, uh, one of the trend bank executives in terms of telling him”

Q And you always bootstrapped your journey. Was there a specific reason for bootstrapping, or is it that you were never comfortable with VCs?

A I don't think I had an option. And I want to be honest here. Uh, in my ISP business, I think we were bootstrapped and, and the business itself was paying, so we didn't need money. Uh, in the consulting business, again, we were generating, we had a 35, 40% loss, you know, making money, so we were fine there. On the product side of things, when I started raising money, there were so many questions. Will you scale it? Will you, we're building out of India. Do you know how to get quality? You don't know how we can do it. We don't, you know, we can do this and then we will do that and then we will invest. And then finally, during the, when, uh, When they exit, when I was, when I had an offer for exit, there was finally a couple of venture capitalists who were interested in us and said, we will make an investment. Okay, but you know what, we are making, you know, why we need this many things to be done. I'm sorry, I'm done with so many things. I might as well pick the money on the table and establish myself. And with this kind of stamping, when I go next, they will definitely, you know, value me. So, so I, in our, in my second venture in a product venture, I don't think many people backed me or thought I would, and I don't blame them. It's just that it was a stage I did, which was, you know, but, uh, uh, and then in the current, uh, current business, uh, you know, because we had, uh,…

AI assessment note: “I don't think I had an option. And I want to be honest here.”

Q And Ashish, if you have to reflect back and what are the three to five lessons that entrepreneurs can learn from your journey?

A Okay. I think I have a lesson in every venture of mine. When I was playing cricket, I think, uh, uh, you know, one of the things we learned was that we learned the team, you know, it's a team game. And second is never get overawed by your opponents. Right? So For example, we used to play, Baroda was a smaller team, and Mumbai was the de facto almost the entire Indian team, right? And we used to face them every year, and whenever we used to face them, you know, it was over, you know, this overpowering, right, team. But I think what I learned was that we beat them twice in my state, you know, when I was playing for Baroda. And it was all because of, you know, that we, we kind of, we kind of made sure that we went through the process, did the right stuff and got. So I think that made me realize that it is no, nothing can be overpalling if you have the will and the, and, and the, and the grit and the determination to do it. I think that's the first learning I got. And I kind of, I use that always in my every venture. I don't get overawed by, uh, you know, competition or customers or even, uh, even government officials. I mean, that's not something Or anything which is overpowering. I think that was my first learning, uh, from my, uh, from the first venture, I realized, uh, uh, my learning was that you have to envisage that if you are entering into, uh, into an, if you're becoming a…

AI assessment note: “I think I have a lesson in every venture of mine.”

Q And, uh, and, uh, right now, what are the levers, partnerships, and other things that you are leveraging to make sure that, you know, you grow at, uh, 50% year on year from here to, let's say, become a thirty million RR company?

A Uh, actually, uh, We are projecting doubling at every next year. So, so just to, just to start with that, it's not sure people can actually feel, and there are quite a few trigger points. I think the number one trigger point is, uh, we have the capital to infuse. So, you know, we have, we have, you know, we just raised capital only sometime back. So now we have the money to kind of, uh, make sure that we are able to reach out to as many customers possible across the world. Uh, uh, the second other important development has been, you know, Gartner has been a very big, uh, Influence in terms of, uh, you know, technology decision-making, right? And Gartner has a program called Gartner Peer Insights, which is, which is nothing else, but it's a curated program where customers, uh, uh, in our product category would go and independently provide an input in terms of Gartner to Gartner saying that, uh, what technology, what product they use, uh, and they have several parameters they look at. And rate, rate the company, uh, on that perspective. Uh, and it is, and it is the customer's report, right? So, and, and, and Gartner, uh, Gartner comes up with a quadrant within that. And, uh, the ones which has chosen are on the top right quadrant are, are considered to be customer's choice. Uh, so which essentially means you and the, you're, you're the leaders in that segment. From what we hear i…

AI assessment note: “there are quite a few trigger points. I think the number one trigger point is”

Q And, uh, uh, Your wife has been your co-founder, your partner in all of your ventures, right? You both have been professionally co-founders for more than last 20 years. How difficult or easy it is to have your spouse as your co-founder?

A I think both of us had a rule, which was very clear, and we follow it even, we follow that even today. None of us discuss business at home, especially with our kids around or whatever. It's hardly we would talk about business, and that's a rule because that can get sanity in our house. Uh, the number two rule is that I am the CEO of the company. So in office, I am the boss and not she. And, uh, and at home, she's the boss and not me. I think these three simple formulas we continue to follow. Having said that, she's an extremely bright, uh, you know, it's an extremely bright, uh, uh, individual. Uh, you know, she has, uh, it's, uh, uh, I hate it when people kind of tag her with saying that she's my wife and give her credit. I don't think so. I think she's been, she's exceptionally bright. She has done whatever functions she has been told to take up. She has done very well. For example, now she's our CPO, chief people officer and a co-founder. Uh, she's doing phenomenally well. We have been, we just got, uh, uh, you know, great place, great place to work certified, uh, two times in a row. And, uh, from what I know is we have got exceptional scores. So let's see, Uh, we might be even one of the award contenders. We'll see what happens, but, but, but that's the, that's the role she plays, and clearly, uh, with the third party validation, like Great Place to Work, uh, talks, uh, hig…

AI assessment note: “I think these three simple formulas we continue to follow.”

Q At what age you started your first venture and in which year?

A We, uh, so my, our first venture was right after right out of college, right? So I think I was about, uh, 25, 26 years old. And, uh, and, and that part of time, uh, uh, you know, the, Internet service provider licenses had opened up in India, meaning earlier it was all controlled by government. So we, SNL was the only one. They opened it up and Satyam info, which is now called SIFI. They were the ones who had got a license for entire country and they wanted a joint venture partner in India, uh, in Baroda. And we out of schools, uh, you know, my wife and I thought that, you know, this is, uh, this is something which is exciting and we are, you know, it's technology, new cutting edge. We should do something already. Let's get, so we also, We also applied for, uh, to become a partner with them, send them all the data. Uh, but we, at the same time, we knew that, you know, we are just right out of school, just capital and, uh, will not work here. We will need to, we will need to show them something, uh, you know, as to why they should trust us. So both of us, you know, we worked very hard. We figured out, uh, you know, we worked with about thousand plus industries in India, in Baroda, uh, got them to fill a questionnaire and say, Uh, you know, if you are given a good ISP service, uh, would you subscribe? And if you, if yes, how many, how many people would subscribe to this? Stuff li…

AI assessment note: “I think I was about, uh, 25, 26 years old.”