2. The Hero…
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
5. The Hero…
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!
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6. 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!
7. My Childhood…
• 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!
9. 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
11. 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 exsuperiors
12. 2001 - 2002 – My first Entrepreneurship stint!
13. FST – Friends Soft Technologies
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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 Systems
o Hub
o Shared Dialup Connection – That‟s a funny story
15. FST – Projects
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Legal Diary
Internet Center Automation
Movie Site –
Employed 5 of my friends as programmers
Our First Big Client - Citibank!
o Credit Letters
o CitiBank – RBI Handshake
• Our First Oversees Project
o For a mobile company
o Connections Management Systems
16. How my 1st Entrepreneurship dream ended..
Parental Pressure…
We started taking
our Salaries
17. Where we failed…
All are Techies
Gave up to
family pressure
Failed to grab
the
opportunities
No Vision &
Goals
Failed to take
bold decisions
Haven‟t tried
crazy things
No Marketing
& Sales Team
Too Many
People for a
startup
Never
perceived
19. 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
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23. 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
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o We vowed & took the company to next level
o Where I (re)found my entrepreneurship talent
• Resigned due to Ego War
24. 2012 – It’s all happened over a Cup of Coffee!!
25. 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
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26. 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!
27. Cogzidel - 2014
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Onto our next goal!
Beat TCS & to become #1 IT Company in India
Don‟t know HOW..
But we will Do IT for sure!
28. My Learning's…
Lost 12 years in
pursuing my
entrepreneurship
passion
Build Leaders!
Mentor them!
How to handle
family pressure
Trust the team!
Perseverance!
Need for to be
tough
Need for to be
adamant
Never Give Up..
Have „Go Get IT‟
attitude
Need for to be
demanding
Go for more!
