Innovating Web 2.0 Storage: Fabrik CEO Mike Cordano (Part 1)

Mike Cordano is the CEO and co-founder of Fabrik. Prior to Fabrik he served as executive vice president of Worldwide Sales and Marketing for Maxtor Corporation, where he was responsible for the formation and management of the Branded Products business unit. He is a graduate of the University of Colorado.

SM: Mike, take us back to your origins. Where are you from?

MC: I was born in Silicon Valley. My dad was a engineer at IBM and an early member of the storage team. >>>

Building An Indian Outsourcing Leader: MindTree CEO KK Natarajan (Part 7)

SM: What kind of revenue levels did the AIG deal let you obtain?

KK: It was about $16 million in revenue. Unilever was another client who came into the picture around the same time as AIG. Today we have work all over the world just for Unilever. >>>

Interesting Discussion At Forbes

I encourage you to read the discussion that has emanated around my most recent Zero-In column, President Obama: Listen To Entrepreneurs. Please, also participate.

An alarming piece of news just broke: The National Federation of Independent Business said that its index of small-business optimism hit its third-lowest reading in 35 years in October, coming in at 87.5 and down from 92.9 in September.

Building An Indian Outsourcing Leader: MindTree CEO KK Natarajan (Part 6)

SM: Was it easier for you to build expertise in India, or build a larger customer base?

KK: It was definitely easier to build up our expertise, which is one of the reasons we developed our strategy of working to get deep access into our customer base. We also felt we were lucky to have another business, which allowed us to survive the downturn. >>>

Deal Radar 2008: ExpertCEO

ExpertCEO provides its members with an online platform to connect with peers, discuss ideas, give and receive advice and tap into professional resources. Members include CEOs, COOs, chairmen/women, general managers, presidents and other senior executives in small and mid-sized as well as Fortune 500, public or privately held companies. The company can be considered a combination of CEO membership organizations and social networks. >>>

Building An Indian Outsourcing Leader: MindTree CEO KK Natarajan (Part 5)

SM: How much financing did you raise to get started?

KK: We raised $9.5 million for our first round. We learned that when a group of our caliber is formed, expectations are high. Early on we took the calculated risk of taking a higher level of funding to ensure we could grow the business to a certain scale. >>>

Designs of the Week: Furniture

1. Signalement desk

Just Apple-tastic! This desk was created by Dutch design group, Signalement. This is what we’d imagine Apple would make if they did furniture. The design is obviously sleek and simple, but it’s the details that really make this desk pop. They took the extra attention to make the leg height adjustable. It’s also a nice surprise that opening the drawer reveals a saturated yellow color that contrasts with the glossy white backdrop. >>>

Building An Indian Outsourcing Leader: MindTree CEO KK Natarajan (Part 4)

SM: Did the team you assembled focus only on India, or did you have a global view?

KK: We identified people with varied backgrounds intentionally. We went after people who knew the American market well and had worked consulting jobs there. Scott Staples used to work for Gemini and KPMG and was one of the first 10 employees of Cambridge Technology Partners. He knew the solution business very well. >>>