SM: For how long were you chief marketing officer? KK: I held that position from 1992 to 1993. By 1995 I had moved into an operating role.
SM: Was your next professional step a move to Wipro? KK: Yes. It was just starting, so I initially went off to Bangalore for a while before I returned to Chennai to open the office there. I was still not sure how Wipro was going to make an impact in the IT business.
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. Krishnakumar Natarajan (KK) is the CEO of MindTree. Prior to co-founding MindTree, KK was chief executive of the Electronic Commerce & Financial Solutions Division at Wipro. KK has been elected to the Executive Council of NASSCOM for three consecutive terms and works towards strengthening India’s position
SM: With 100 customers what kind of revenue range are you looking at? LC: It is still small, but it is double-digit for 2008. It is growing very fast. We have only been selling for just over a year. Another thing to remember is that our sales cycle is long.
SM: What is the nature of the application delivery kernel? What kind of optimization can you gain? LC: We designed all of our own hardware, and we used mostly merchandised chipsets. Because of that, our hardware is very efficient. We are designed for very fast application layer processing and deep packet scanning.
SM: When you left Foundry in 2004, what was the purpose of your departure? LC: I stayed there for eight years, and I had never stayed anywhere that long. Once the company was well established, and I realized that I had worked in all of the various groups possible, I knew it was time for
SM: Silicon Valley is full of personalities. Steve Jobs is the most iconic, but somehow we are a very individualistic culture. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs are highly idealistic. LC: Absolutely. They are driven and focused. They can set the march and others will follow and achieve their goals.
SM: What happened after Convergent? LC: I had my own company for a while, and then Bobby called me and I joined Centillion. There we built multi-service switches.