In the Engineering Tales Episode #5 , we had BV Jagadeesh inspire us with his journey from a small village to a Silicon Valley startups to venture capital to his philanthropy activities. BV was awarded Engineering Entrepreneur of theyearaward byASEI in 2016 for his entrepreneurial acivities and leading “Billion Dollar Babies” initiative byTiE to encourage Indian startups to become hyper growth “unicorns”
Jagadeesh grew up in a small village with one bus that went to a major city (Bangalore).
He went to school in Bangalore and managed to live by himself while going to school and college. Ability to manage his own affairs at a young age really gave a leg up when he moved to US in later years.
After an engineering degree from Bangalore, Jagadeesh got his MS from Bombay. One of the major critical events for him happened when instead of going back home between semesters, he decided to work for a small electronic company. The practical training and guidance he got while working for a company in India opened his eyes to the possibility to future entrepreneurship. He made connections at IEEE that opened avenues later in life.
After working in multiple startups, where he learnt tremendously from other people, Jagadeesh co-founded a company called Exodus. Exodus went public and was handling 40% of ALL US internet traffic at one point. It was recognized as a US National asset by White House ( as per President Bill Clinton)
After Exodus, Jagadeesh started another startup, NetScaler, which was sold to Citrix.
As he had worked for and invested in multiple startups, Jagadeesh has a keen sense on what to look for in entrepreneurs. His theory can be summed up in three letters, CPS. Consistency, Persistence and Self-Driven. If an entrepreneur has these 3 qualities, they will succeed.
Jagadeesh currently is Managing Director at KAAJ Ventures which is an Angel Investor in multiple companies. He has been a philanthropist as well and working on solving water issues in India through an organization called OVBI
For full session please see here
*** Contributed by Amrish Chopra from Silicon Valley chapter of ASEI ***
