Employee To Entrepreneur – The Story Of Transition

TechnoparkToday, a portal covering events in Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram (one of the largest IT parks in the country and home to more than 300 IT companies), featured an interview with me this week.

Here are the excerpts from the interview:

TechnoparkToday: What do you feel as your biggest achievement in your career spanning 25 years?

Mukund: I would rather say that there have been two major achievements in my career.

The first one – my stint in Powerway Inc, a leading e-commerce supplier chain management software company based out of the U.S. My stint as Director, Product program management in the company saw me leading multiple project teams with budgets exceeding US$ 4 million. I turned around ‘make or break’ projects, managed the aggressive ramp-up of an off-shore development team with budget of more than US$ 2 million and managed and mentored Program Managers to assume leadership roles.

The other biggest achievement has of course been Suyati. Right from planting the seeds of the company 6 years back to now being one of the leading marketing technology service providers – the journey has been a highly satisfying one. And of course, I feel that nothing can beat the happiness and satisfaction that comes with interacting and exchanging ideas with a 200+ highly talented workforce.

 

TechnoparkToday: From employee to entrepreneur – how has been the transition?

Mukund: To be honest, it was a tough transition. I had given up a job offer with a hefty pay packet in Bangalore and Pune to start Suyati. In the initial days, I often had niggling feelings as to whether this decision was right. The only thing that kept me going was the trust my team, family and my initial set of clients placed on me.

 

TechnoparkToday: What made you choose Kerala as the destination to start Suyati?

Mukund: I was working as Country manager to Sigma Micro, a US based technology company, and when they wound up their operations in Kochi in 2009 due to recession back home, I decided to take over the facility, and they became my first client for Suyati Technologies.

As to what made us choose Kochi for Ind-Sigma, it was a combination of practical and personal reasons. I wanted a tier-2 city that offers great standard of living without the pollution and the congestion of a metro. It also had to have a highly trained workforce that could work on top-notch global projects. Kochi satisfied all these. Plus my wife is from Kochi, and whenever we travelled to Kochi during our holidays, I found myself falling in love with the greenery and the relaxed atmosphere. And the Kerala sadhya!

 

TechnoparkToday: To sum up the interview, can you list your biggest passion outside work?

Mukund: Mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs and budding engineers, and teaching children about financial planning.

You can read the complete interview here.