1Mby1M Entrepreneur Bootstrapping an AI Deep Learning Venture to over $5M ARR: Bharath Gaddam, CEO of Data Poem (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Did you try it inside of Omnicom?

Bharath Gaddam: Yes. We were still working at Omnicom. The solution was working, and we wondered how to take it to the world. Our hypothesis is built, and we have proof that it works. It learns, it forecasts, and it can do everything that we had as a problem statement from day zero.

At that time, no one understood neural networks, including us. While I knew that it solves the problem, I, as a communication strategist wouldn’t understand what a neural network is. I could understand investors saying that they don’t understand it and are not the right organization for it.

I saw a future where intelligent systems are making choices. At that point, I was doing great in my career. I was getting into executor roles. But, once I stumbled upon the solution, I saw my corporate career path as the past; I couldn’t live in that past. It was not past in the real sense, but I felt I was living in the past, and I didn’t want to live in the past.

So, I thought, why don’t we do it? Because you cannot live with the fact that you stumbled on it, and someone else builds it, and I end up having to use the solution. I don’t want to be on the sidelines. I can’t live with that fact.

So, back in 2019, we decided that we will do it. We told Omnicom that we will do it ourselves. I very strongly believed that that’s the future. That’s the genesis of Data Poem.

Sramana Mitra: So, you quit Omnicom at that point? Who else was with you? Was there a technical person?

Bharath Gaddam: Yes, I quit Omnicom. I told them that I’m quitting. At that time, my boss was the president of Omnicom for Media. He has also wanted to solve the same problems. So, both of us quit.

There’s a team, who supported and guided us technically. It was a company called Hotify. It was sold later to another US company called Sonos. Both of them no longer exist right now. Ankur, the founder of Hotify, was guiding us in terms of how we do this. Then when their company got acquired, Chinmay, one of the co-founders of that company, joined us as a co-founder. He is our chief of AI now.

Sramana Mitra: Who were the co-founders of this company?

Bharath Gaddam: So, me, Satya, and Chinmay, are the co-founders of Data Poem. Chinmay comes from a background of building a horizontal platform with neural networks. He said, “Okay, why don’t we create the next level of it?” That’s when he got excited. So, that’s where we start our journey.

Sramana Mitra: That’s middle end 2019?

Bharath Gaddam: Almost to the middle end. I moved from India to the US in 2019. It was during my first visit when I first met you and 1Mby1M. That’s when we started – in October 2019.

Sramana Mitra: And your co-founder stayed in India?

Bharath Gaddam: Yes. We didn’t have enough experience of the US market at that time. Chinmay had some understanding because he worked with US clients, but primarily, we were a small team of six at the time. We decided that I’d first go and check the market, understand it, and then we’d build it as we go along. So, the first step was me coming to the US in October 2019.

Sramana Mitra: Then you joined 1Mby1M if I remember correctly?

Bharath Gaddam: Yes, absolutely. I immediately joined, within 15-20 days of coming here. Someone recommended you, and I also saw one of your posts. I don’t recall which one but someone said that, “If you’re a very early-stage startup, go speak to Sramana, and you’ll get guidance.”

Then of course, you directed me to 1Mby1M, and I joined the program. That’s what happened in 2019.

Several people told me that there will be a lot of unforeseen things that you will face when you start a company. The biggest one happened in March 2020, right? The world has seen it, not only us. I’m sure, for a lot of startups, COVID would have been a disaster.

Luckily for us, it helped us survive.

Sramana Mitra: I think what you’re pointing out happened to a lot of companies that were going after the enterprise. Enterprise conversations became a lot easier with COVID, especially for founders from India and founders from everywhere, basically, because all those were Zoom calls, and it no longer required traveling around. It no longer required visits. That actually helped a lot of entrepreneurs.

Bharath Gaddam: Yes. It also opened up calendars a lot compared to, I think, normal times where people had to worry about where there is a meeting room, even meeting room availability was also a barrier. A lot of things opened up. People were open to new ideas.

For us internally also, it gave us a good enough window for us to understand the real gaps beyond the conceptual gaps. We worked on it for the next two years, literally to get our real product version.

This segment is part 2 in the series : 1Mby1M Entrepreneur Bootstrapping an AI Deep Learning Venture to over $5M ARR: Bharath Gaddam, CEO of Data Poem
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