Mr.Rao, are you a first generation entrepreneur in your family? You have obviously enjoyed your entrepreneurial journey, was it difficult?
Yes and No! Entrepreneurship does not run in my family and I have been the first person to go down this path. But it’s not that I started out all of a sudden in entrepreneurship. It was a gradual process. I joined Sonata Software after graduating from IIM B, you can classify this as a bit risky but not totally entrepreneurial. My subsequent jobs were similar in nature and risk levels. I was amongst the initial employees in Microland and started their distribution division & handled various divisions like education services etc. Then Network Solutions happened – I was a partner in the company and we built it up for 8 years before selling it to IBM. Aujas would qualify as the first company that I am attempting to build from ground zero.

A number of our readers are MBA aspirants and are also interested in entrepreneurship. You worked for a start-up after the MBA, any advice for our readers?
Well, I joined IIMB right after my engineering without any work-ex. Actually, I did work for 5 days at a cement plant as an electrical engineer (smiles). In my opinion, having some work-ex before doing an MBA gives more value as you are able to relate the concepts that you study to real business life. For a fresh grad, it will all be just theory. Having said that, for me IIM B was a great experience. I made great friends there, learned a lot and there are absolutely no regrets on doing it right after graduation.

So just before you started out in Aujas, you were working with Cisco. What role did the Cisco environment play to spur you to start something on your own?
I would say whatever Cisco and other big companies do to do well works for them. There are standard procedures for doing things and there is certain amount inflexibility – of course it works for them. But from a personal point of view, there are factors you cannot control and a number of times you have to toe the line – so to say. I had gone to Cisco thinking that I would spend the next 2 years in the company but exited in about 7 months.

What’s your take on serial entrepreneurship? This is your second entrepreneurial venture after Netsol.
Yes, I would say 1990 onwards, the nature of my work has been entrepreneurial. Serial entrepreneurship excites me a lot mainly because when you work in a smaller organization your ability to ‘impact and influence’ is a lot more than when you work for a large company. So that is very encouraging of course. When I worked with IBM after the sale of Netsol to them, my leeway got decreased. Basically the degree to which you can ‘impact and influence’ goes down in such cases.

So what made you stick to IBM-Netsol for one-and-a-half years?
Well, we had sold Netsol to IBM and being part of the top management at Netsol we were legally obliged (also, we felt we were duty bound) to integrate Netsol with IBM. We also had to ensure that the interests of our employees – who had become IBM employees then – were protected in the new environment. Another important reason for my staying around was the protection and enhancement of the several successful Customer relationships we had built by then. So I basically worked until I could safely say that all interests were taken care of.

One major facet of entrepreneurship is the ability to build teams. What has your experience been in the case of Aujas and what major quality of yours has come in handy while forming this team?
Oh! This is an interesting story. Manjula Sridhar (now the Chief Technology Officer at Aujas) was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at IDG Ventures building technology in the area of digital security services. IDG was keen to invest in this space and had been supporting her endeavors. When Manjula’s technology was ready to go into business, IDG asked her to build a suitable team. That’s when she found me on “Linked-in” (http://www.linkedin.com/) and liked my profile. She contacted me and I got interested too. Then we met the IDG team and were asked to prepare a business plan and build the complete start-up team.

As for the other team members, I had known Sameer (Sameer Shelke – Co-founder, Chief Operating Officer & Chief Technology Officer for Aujas) from my days at Netsol. He was with the Professional Services team at Cisco and I represented Netsol in an engagement with Cisco. We had a few things in common too – both had worked at Microland at some point in time and both had worked at Cisco too. He joined us as COO. Our other team mate, Naveen is also a Netsol Alumnus.

Interesting, so you were just an acquaintance with Sameer but obviously you remembered him as someone who could join you. How do you manage to identify people with such qualities?
I basically look for people who have an entrepreneurial proclivity. You may be working for a large company but your entrepreneurial nature is evident a lot of times. A lot of us secretly aspire (smiles) to be entrepreneurs but are worried what might happen if the company goes bust – worried about our security and safety. Many such people need that one spark to spur them on.

Ok. Let’s come to Aujas specifically. How big is the size of the opportunity for Aujas?
A multi-billion dollar global space but a fragmented industry… large opportunity but very few players.

Mr.Rao, a very common problem start-up companies face is in finding the first 1 or 2 Customers. Any advice for them? How did it work out for you?
It’s based on your past relationships and network. 2 of our first 3 Customers have the experience of engaging with me at Netsol. Need a strong network and references.

You say that digital security is a fast growing industry space, how fast do you seen a lot of competition coming in? Especially since Indian players such as TCS, Infy, Wipro and Satyam are masters in the services game, do you see them taking interest?
Oh, they are already starting to take interest in this field. But we intend to be ahead of the curve based on our knowledge, expertise and fast building experience. Time will tell how we handle competition when it grows. Right now our focus is on building capability in this space and mastering delivery.

Closing gradually, where do you think Aujas is headed? You sold off Netsol after building it up for 8 years, did any similar thoughts cross your mind in this case?
I can’t really say anything on that. Our current focus is just on building the company. We started from scratch and now we have 22 associates working for us. As of now all my efforts are going into thinking about Customers, revenue & profits, cash generation and giving my people a chance to express their creativity. Basically we are trying to do whatever it takes to ensure success.

Could you elaborate on that last bit about employee creativity? Also, a lot of people joining Aujas have the entrepreneurial bent of mind (like when you joined Sonata). Do you worry sometimes that they might leave you and move on?
Well, the idea is to give people the freedom to work rather than bind them by rule books. See, the people who have joined Aujas have taken a chance. For them it is a ‘leap of faith’ and it is my job to ensure that they remain happy with us.

Of course we can’t stop all of them from leaving – “this is like a train journey, not all passengers will reach the final destination of the train; some will get down on intermediate stations and some new passengers will board the train at such stations”. Having said that, all of us might have different aspirations but I do think that if we make the right moves for employee happiness, people WILL stay on.

Source:http://i-startups.blogspot.com/2008/08/interview-with-ms-rao-founder-aujas.html