Outliers

The first time I heard of LoveDoctor, a SnapChat-based counselling service for teenagers, women and even pre-teen kids seeking sex advice, I was blown away. Not just because it’s rare to find a savvy SnapChat user in my peer group, but the whole idea of serving such a real world need, unaddressed largely, fascinated me.

Few days ago, I emailed Avani Parekh asking for updates about LoveDoctor and checking if she would help me explore a deeper narrative on its evolution and the road ahead.

“Well, it’s not alive anymore,” she told me. Parekh who joined Sheroes last year, is now back in that discomforting zone where many startup ideas are born. She wants to revive LoveDoctor.

But this podcast is not just about LoveDoctor’s future. It’s about some hard entrepreneurial lessons on building a community on a new social platform and watching it fail to take off.

Anand Deshpande, 55, and the founder of Pune-based Persistent Systems has been an outlier for nearly three decades. Since he founded Persistent in 1990, he has watched lucrative opportunities in low-end software services come and go across different cycles. Over years, he’s steered Persistent away from low-end outsourcing business towards high-end software product development work for the likes of IBM and so on.

With revenues of nearly $500 million in 2017, it’s been a long, slow journey for Persistent and Deshpande, a former Hewlett Packard engineer.

“It’s not so much about founders. What everybody needs to learn is how to delegate, and that’s a very tricky part for the founders because by mentality all of us believe we know how to do things, and we find it difficult to believe somebody else could do the same thing,” he says.

“There’s a little bit of arrogance that most founders have, including me. How to delegate is the biggest challenge.”

As I sat down with him for this episode of Outliers, I listened to some great insights about building a startup, failing, creating a culture of ownership, and finally, the need to let go the founder’s mentality when required. And, more importantly, the founding team keeps changing with every cycle.

“Every transition is traumatic, but you have to stay on. When a company starts to taper down because of either incumbency of business model or other reasons, you must find a new model. We are in the fourth phase right now at Persistent.”

Anand Deshpande, 55, and the founder of Pune-based Persistent Systems has been an outlier for nearly three decades. Since he founded Persistent in 1990, he has watched lucrative opportunities in low-end software services come and go across different cycles. Over years, he’s steered Persistent away from low-end outsourcing business towards high-end software product development work for the likes of IBM and so on.

With revenues of nearly $500 million in 2017, it’s been a long, slow journey for Persistent and Deshpande, a former Hewlett Packard engineer.

“It’s not so much about founders. What everybody needs to learn is how to delegate, and that’s a very tricky part for the founders because by mentality all of us believe we know how to do things, and we find it difficult to believe somebody else could do the same thing,” he says.

“There’s a little bit of arrogance that most founders have, including me. How to delegate is the biggest challenge.”

As I sat down with him for this episode of Outliers, I listened to some great insights about building a startup, failing, creating a culture of ownership, and finally, the need to let go the founder’s mentality when required. And, more importantly, the founding team keeps changing with every cycle.

“Every transition is traumatic, but you have to stay on. When a company starts to taper down because of either incumbency of business model or other reasons, you must find a new model. We are in the fourth phase right now at Persistent.”

Anand Deshpande, 55, and the founder of Pune-based Persistent Systems has been an outlier for nearly three decades. Since he founded Persistent in 1990, he has watched lucrative opportunities in low-end software services come and go across different cycles. Over years, he’s steered Persistent away from low-end outsourcing business towards high-end software product development work for the likes of IBM and so on.

With revenues of nearly $500 million in 2017, it’s been a long, slow journey for Persistent and Deshpande, a former Hewlett Packard engineer.

“It’s not so much about founders. What everybody needs to learn is how to delegate, and that’s a very tricky part for the founders because by mentality all of us believe we know how to do things, and we find it difficult to believe somebody else could do the same thing,” he says.

“There’s a little bit of arrogance that most founders have, including me. How to delegate is the biggest challenge.”

As I sat down with him for this episode of Outliers, I listened to some great insights about building a startup, failing, creating a culture of ownership, and finally, the need to let go the founder’s mentality when required. And, more importantly, the founding team keeps changing with every cycle.

“Every transition is traumatic, but you have to stay on. When a company starts to taper down because of either incumbency of business model or other reasons, you must find a new model. We are in the fourth phase right now at Persistent.”

Welcome to the Season 2 of the Outliers Podcast.

We start the year with a conversation with Bhumika Goyal, a 22-year old computer science graduate with a passion for the Free and Open Source Software movement (FOSS), and is already among the top-ranked Linux Kernel contributors.

In a year when a lot of talk is going to be focused on job losses in the country’s over $100 billion IT sector, Goyal’s choice of career and passion for Open Source does appear brave.

“I just love the way the open source community collaborates across different geographies and cultures, demographics,” she tells me. “While there is clearly gender bias that works against women in the sector, I am yet to experience it and I believe things are changing.”

It’s tough for me to doubt her optimism, notwithstanding all the challenges faced by women in the technology and startup ecosystem that we keep flagging and chronicling at FactorDaily.

Everything appears to be working fine until young, female programmers enter the ecosystem. It’s later in their careers that many of them face gender biases.

One only hopes that Goyal and her generation of young, supercoders not just help build a healthy work environment with equal opportunities for everyone but also stun the software universe with their mankind-changing work.

Do listen in and have a fulfilling year ahead!

Welcome to the Season 2 of the Outliers Podcast.

We start the year with a conversation with Bhumika Goyal, a 22-year old computer science graduate with a passion for the Free and Open Source Software movement (FOSS), and is already among the top-ranked Linux Kernel contributors.

In a year when a lot of talk is going to be focused on job losses in the country’s over $100 billion IT sector, Goyal’s choice of career and passion for Open Source does appear brave.

“I just love the way the open source community collaborates across different geographies and cultures, demographics,” she tells me. “While there is clearly gender bias that works against women in the sector, I am yet to experience it and I believe things are changing.”

It’s tough for me to doubt her optimism, notwithstanding all the challenges faced by women in the technology and startup ecosystem that we keep flagging and chronicling at FactorDaily.

Everything appears to be working fine until young, female programmers enter the ecosystem. It’s later in their careers that many of them face gender biases.

One only hopes that Goyal and her generation of young, supercoders not just help build a healthy work environment with equal opportunities for everyone but also stun the software universe with their mankind-changing work.

Do listen in and have a fulfilling year ahead!

Welcome to the Season 2 of the Outliers Podcast.

We start the year with a conversation with Bhumika Goyal, a 22-year old computer science graduate with a passion for the Free and Open Source Software movement (FOSS), and is already among the top-ranked Linux Kernel contributors.

In a year when a lot of talk is going to be focused on job losses in the country’s over $100 billion IT sector, Goyal’s choice of career and passion for Open Source does appear brave.

“I just love the way the open source community collaborates across different geographies and cultures, demographics,” she tells me. “While there is clearly gender bias that works against women in the sector, I am yet to experience it and I believe things are changing.”

It’s tough for me to doubt her optimism, notwithstanding all the challenges faced by women in the technology and startup ecosystem that we keep flagging and chronicling at FactorDaily.

Everything appears to be working fine until young, female programmers enter the ecosystem. It’s later in their careers that many of them face gender biases.

One only hopes that Goyal and her generation of young, supercoders not just help build a healthy work environment with equal opportunities for everyone but also stun the software universe with their mankind-changing work.

Do listen in and have a fulfilling year ahead!

So who is Vijay Shekhar Sharma?

Depending who you ask in India’s technology and startup ecosystem, the answers will range from “that crazy guy” to “overly obsessed entrepreneur”, “trying to fight too many battles at the same time”, “a desi entrepreneur”, “rags to riches story” and so on.

If you ask us at FactorDaily, we’ll perhaps point you to our Code of Conduct that names him as one of the three investors backing our media startup.

But this podcast isn’t about what we think of him; it’s about who he really is.

And as I sat down with him for this special episode Outliers Podcast Season 1, I realised he’s no different from many important entrepreneurs in these times — at the core, they all want to make it big, are inspired by Elon Musk or such, and are very, very lonely.

“When I lost my father few weeks ago, I also lost the only one who understood what I really do. Now, I have no one who understands me, and that will remain a gap forever,” he says.

So who is Vijay Shekhar Sharma?

Depending who you ask in India’s technology and startup ecosystem, the answers will range from “that crazy guy” to “overly obsessed entrepreneur”, “trying to fight too many battles at the same time”, “a desi entrepreneur”, “rags to riches story” and so on.

If you ask us at FactorDaily, we’ll perhaps point you to our Code of Conduct that names him as one of the three investors backing our media startup.

But this podcast isn’t about what we think of him; it’s about who he really is.

And as I sat down with him for this special episode Outliers Podcast Season 1, I realised he’s no different from many important entrepreneurs in these times — at the core, they all want to make it big, are inspired by Elon Musk or such, and are very, very lonely.

“When I lost my father few weeks ago, I also lost the only one who understood what I really do. Now, I have no one who understands me, and that will remain a gap forever,” he says.

So who is Vijay Shekhar Sharma?

Depending who you ask in India’s technology and startup ecosystem, the answers will range from “that crazy guy” to “overly obsessed entrepreneur”, “trying to fight too many battles at the same time”, “a desi entrepreneur”, “rags to riches story” and so on.

If you ask us at FactorDaily, we’ll perhaps point you to our Code of Conduct that names him as one of the three investors backing our media startup.

But this podcast isn’t about what we think of him; it’s about who he really is.

And as I sat down with him for this special episode Outliers Podcast Season 1, I realised he’s no different from many important entrepreneurs in these times — at the core, they all want to make it big, are inspired by Elon Musk or such, and are very, very lonely.

“When I lost my father few weeks ago, I also lost the only one who understood what I really do. Now, I have no one who understands me, and that will remain a gap forever,” he says.