Our Entrepreneurship Journey

Anand – CEO, Cogzidel Technologies

• Poor / Below Average Student• Athlete• Business Passion from Childhood

• Fish Breeding• Nursery

• Started his career as Entrepreneur & going strong for 14 straight years

• High risk appetite• Wait a minute….• He is not our today’s hero• Maybe some other time

The Hero…

Then who is today’s hero!

It’s me! ksawme! Aka Sam.K aka

Swami.K

Sam K – CTO, Cogzidel Technologies

• Average Student• Passion in Cricket & Dancing• Started my career in IT as System Administrator• Tried & failed as an entrepreneur in 2001 - 2002• Went back to IT career and stayed there during

2002 - 2012• Returned to entrepreneurship at 2012• Don’t want to fail this time!

The Hero…

The Plot…• Relax!• There are not going to be any management

concepts or theories or definitions!• It’s Story Time!• For the next one & half hours!• Please don’t sleep or yawn • I will try my best to keep it interesting!

• Kapil Dev is inspiration for my leadership passion

• My first leadership stint was Cricket Team Captain for our area cricket team

• From Tennis Ball to Cricket ball – Wonderful memories

• I am a very soft leader & never taken tough calls!

My Childhood…

1999 – NIIT – My first job!

NIIT – My First Job• Joined as Machine Room Coordinator aka System

Administrator• Happy as I was surrounded by experienced

people• My joy was short-lived as they left & all of a

sudden I became the Senior Person • Practiced leadership by implementing a complex

networking architecture against many odds

2000 - 2001 – Elmaq

Elmaq – ERP Developer

• Where I understood how IT industry works• Lot of myths have been broken• Gained immense knowledge & experience in ERP

domain• I felt at peace that I got settled in my life…• Then the storm strikes!• I was jobless & was attending interview with my

ex-superiors

2001 - 2002 – My first Entrepreneurship

stint!

FST – Friends Soft Technologies

• Started FST with my friends• “You Dream IT, We Do IT” was FST’s motto• Sobee & Pradeesh are my co founders• Employed 5 of my friends as programmers• Anand was our mentor• Started our office at Sobee’s home

o With 3 Systemso Hubo Shared Dialup Connection – That’s a funny story

Pradeesh, Sobee & ksawme

FST – Projects

• Legal Diary• Internet Center Automation• Movie Site – எங்கே� எனது�வி�தை.• Employed 5 of my friends as programmers• Our First Big Client - Citibank!

o Credit Letterso CitiBank – RBI Handshake

• Our First Oversees Projecto For a mobile companyo Connections Management Systems

How my 1st Entrepreneurship dream

ended..

Parental Pressure…

We started taking our Salaries

Where we failed…All are Techies

No Vision & Goals

No Marketing & Sales Team

Too Many People for a

startup

Failed to take bold decisions

Gave up to family

pressure

Failed to grab the

opportunities

Haven’t tried crazy things

Never perceived

2002 - 2004 – My first Overseas Career

NIIT Ghana• Took charge as Operations Manager• Where Swami became Sam!• Moved into next level of management• Realized that your team members might not

accept you as a leader• Have to resign owing to personal reasons

2004 - 2012 – Where my IT Career Took

off!!

RediSolve• My Entrepreneurship Platform• Joined as Lead Developer• Went onto manage Dev & QC Teams• At 2008, I was handling almost all departments in

the company

Sam – My God, Philosopher & Guide!

RediSolve – My Learnings

• Dev Team• Testing Team• Fobaz – My specialization in Imaging Industry• Hit the growth ceiling & started working on

business venture under the guidance of Sam• Sam’s demise

o We vowed & took the company to next levelo Where I (re)found my entrepreneurship talent

• Resigned due to Ego War

2012 – It’s all happened over a Cup of

Coffee!!

Cogzidel - 2012• Joined as CTO• 1st goal to make this a 250 member company• Found out that lot of things are in haphazard

mode • After huddling with Anand, kickstarted “Adhoc to

Process Oriented” mission• Hell broke loose!• Nothing is going right in 2012…• But Anand & I enjoyed the ride

Cogzidel - 2013• To make things worse, two of our co founders left• We believed in Team Work to get back into the

business• Put our high hopes on our young team• Our Commanders Sid & Shiva led the attack!• I became Director!• We started standing!• Cleared all our debts..• Earned liquidity & invested in infra!

Cogzidel - 2014• Onto our next goal!• Beat TCS & to become #1 IT Company in India• Don’t know HOW..• But we will Do IT for sure!

My Learning's…Lost 12 years in

pursuing my entrepreneurshi

p passion

How to handle family pressure

Need for to be tough

Have ‘Go Get IT’ attitude

Need for to be demanding

Need for to be adamant

Trust the team!

Build Leaders! Mentor them!

Perseverance!

Never Give Up..

Go for more!

Thanks Friends! I enjoyed! How about

you?!