An interview with Office tiger CEO - Joe

http://in.rediff.com/money/2006/sep/14bspec.htm

In 6 years he earned 250 Million dollars.,
....
However, it was at Princeton that Joe met Randolph Altschuler -- Randy -- and their friendship continued at Harvard too. "Till I went to Harvard, I was not exposed to entrepreneurship. I always wanted to be a bit of an iconoclast. I wanted to do things that are unconventional."

Randy then joined The Blackstone Group in New York and Joe was with Goldman Sachs International in London in the Investment Banking Division. So at night, both had long telephonic conversations about starting something of their own. They spoke at length on various ideas.

Then, "one dark and stormy night when thunder clouds were clapping, both of us had the same experience and the same idea."

Why India?

Joe had been to India (at age 12) and knew India, knew India enough to take risks. "I didn't even think about other countries. It was intuition. It is like falling in love all of a sudden one day. I knew it would work from India. And it worked. That is because the best cross section of talented people is in India."

Why Chennai? "We looked at the various cities in India. And what tilted it in favour of Chennai was my love for masala dosa! I remembered the taste of the masala dosa I tasted when I was 12!" Joe chuckled.

On a serious note, Joe added, coming from the US, he didn't want to be in a bigger city like Mumbai or Delhi. "Bangalore was like the Silicon Valley and we preferred a quieter place. And it has been a great, great experience in Chennai."

On reaching Chennai, they checked in at Hotel Connemara. The hotel receptionist asked them, "How long will you stay here?"

That was in 1999. By 2006, Joe has not checked out yet. He still lives in the same room at the same hotel.

 

Interesting article...from what I know, after Harward, when they joined Goldman Sachs, the work that were doing initially was something that they thought can be streamlined in a factory mode and they headed to India to achieve this.

 

Interesting article.. Thx for post