Sramana: Two years into the company, you started to get consulting revenues. What was the ramp from that revenue from those projects, and how did you staff them? Amith Nagarajan I don’t remember the exact revenue amounts. I know in 1996 we achieved over 1 million dollars in revenue total. We had significant revenue growth
Sramana Mitra: What are the trends in the data you are processing? Rick Kieser: It is difficult to say, because we process more than 300 million comments a year. Since we have such a large platform, we span the major industries – pharmaceutical, transportation, energy, financial services.
Sramana: What was your first product? Amith Nagarajan The first product suite that I built were component tools that allowed people to build user interfaces more rapidly. Back then it was based purely on Microsoft Windows. It evolved quickly from there. Sramana: What path did you follow to get the company launched and find your
Sramana Mitra: The problem you describe is clear and easy to understand: unstructured data that comes through open-ended comment boxes in market research forms. You help process those comments and categorize them. Tell us more about what other trends are driving behavior change inside the corporations that are prompting you to move more in that
Sramana: What led you to found the company that early? Amith Nagarajan There were two things. Early on in life I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur and I had tried my hand out at a few different types of jobs ranging from banking to retail. I felt that my creativity and my desire