Our guest today is Francisco D’Souza, co-founder and former CEO of Cognizant Technology Solutions. In 2020, after more than 25 years at Cognizant, Francisco stepped back from the IT services giant he helped found and build. He’s now looking ahead at his next innings, as co-founder and managing partner at RECOGNIZE, a US-based private equity firm that will focus on a new generation of deep intellectual property-led tech services ventures.

Notes:

At RECOGNIZE, Francisco has teamed up with Charles Phillips, former CEO and Chairman of Infor and former President of Oracle, and David Wasserman, a former Partner at Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, leading their technology and services vertical. The firm has raised $1.25 billion for its first fund and has already made some investments in companies that Francisco believes will be among the winners in the tech services arena of the future, bringing sophisticated domain knowledge and IP to the game and focusing on real outcomes for their customers.

(00:40) Intro to The Daily Tech Conversation

(00:54) The Big Picture — the first of a series of exclusive conversations with technology’s biggest leaders — our guest today is Francisco D’Souza, co-founder and managing partner at RECOGNIZE

(02:53) A little bit of looking back on the last 12 months

(04:28) How RECOGNIZE got started

(06:50) The big picture changes in technology

(09:52) The opportunity ahead for RECOGNIZE

(14:31) The founding partners at RECOGNIZE and their collective strengths and experience

(20:52) How the firm will work in practice — a PE track for growth businesses and a studio investment track for truly original ideas and startups

(23:45) Cheque sizes of $50 million and bigger, and some examples of investments that the firm has already made

(28:50) Can RECOGNIZE help its portfolio companies build ecosystems that are greater than the individual capabilities of those startups

(33:19) The markets for the next generation of IP-led tech services companies

(35:34) Talent pool in India

(37:18) A decadal fund that can back entrepreneurs for the long haul

(39:36) Enterprises more urgently embracing technology versus consumers becoming more suspicious of big tech

(43:09) The vision for RECOGNIZE three to five years from now

(46:08) Building a culture that empowers employees will be a pre-requisite for the winners in tech services of the future

More about Francisco D’Souza and RECOGNIZE:

https://www.recognize.com/team/francisco-dsouza/

Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds:

https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds