From Developer to Successful Entrepreneur with Exit: ACCELQ CEO Mahendra Alladi (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What year did you start?

Mahendra Alladi: From 2006 to 2007, we were doing services. With HP, there was also a bit of a services element. I was really representing HP to their customers. There, I had a much bigger exposure. That opened up my understanding of this domain.

Sramana Mitra: How did you get into HP?

Mahendra Alladi: The product was built to solve a problem that HP created. They had a solution called WinRunner. It was a test automation tool. They had a monopoly in that domain. They went through some acquisitions and got some new tool, which was more aligned with the web and other technologies that were just coming up. WinRunner had to be sunset. There was nothing similar between these two tools and there were thousands of customers in the first tool.

They needed a migration path that was not so obvious. It was a transient utility. Maybe four to six years lifespan when you’re going through the sunset phase. We were the only solution that worked. Because I come from a deep technical systems background, we were able to write a reverse compiler and translate the code in one language to these newer platforms. Ours was the only viable solution at that time.

Sramana Mitra: There were a thousand customers that HP needed to deal with.

Mahendra Alladi: That’s correct.

Sramana Mitra: We are talking 2008 now?

Mahendra Alladi: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: How long did that journey continue?

Mahendra Alladi: Until 2013. Then we got acquired.

Sramana Mitra: HP acquired you.

Mahendra Alladi: No, another company in India that’s into testing services. Then I started my second journey.

Sramana Mitra: By the time of the acquisition, how big were you?

Mahendra Alladi: We were probably in our teens in million.

Sramana Mitra: Around $13 million?

Mahendra Alladi: Right.

Sramana Mitra: You didn’t have to work for the hiring company?

Mahendra Alladi: I stayed there for one year and then took a break.

Sramana Mitra: Your second company starts in 2015?

Mahendra Alladi: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: Tell me more about what problem you were going after in the second startup.

Mahendra Alladi: If I reflect on it, the first one was more of an accidental entrepreneurship. I was always keen to solve problems. I would say that the opportunity came knocking. With the work I’ve done in the first leg, especially with the HP exposure, I visited hundreds of their customers across the globe. The problem HP was trying to solve was not done. There were a lot of challenges. It was surprising to see. The denominator was common. It was narrated differently.

HP acquired Mercury Interactive. Now they have maybe 40 or 50 tools. Every part that came was just an incremental evolution of Mercury. Even at Gallop, I was planning to do something about it. The operational aspects were very overwhelming and I really couldn’t focus. The second startup was an extension to my thoughts but I gave it a good starting point with a fresh mindset. I expanded on those thoughts and gave it a product shape.

Sramana Mitra: You started that in India?

Mahendra Alladi: I was still in the US. Just to manage costs, offshore was a very good option. I hired a team in Hyderabad, but it was almost impossible to translate the vision. I was getting the work done, but it wasn’t aligning with what I was hoping. I realized that, maybe, it was time to move and be with the team. So I moved here.

This segment is part 2 in the series : From Developer to Successful Entrepreneur with Exit: ACCELQ CEO Mahendra Alladi
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