Hemant was in town to thank his early investors for supporting him and Torrent Networks. And that is so much like Hemant. A simple and very intelligent person who is grateful to one and all for his success. Hemant is a techie who grew up to know the ways and means of the business world. His talk was impromptu, open, candid and very informative. His advice to the audience was down to earth. As my wife Manjiri put it, it was refreshing.

Commenting on his days at Bell Labs, Hemant mentioned that his focus there was to work on research that’s useful to the real world. When Lucent Technologies was spun off Hemant decided that it was time for him to bring technology into the real world. That’s when he started Torrent Technologies, a company whose primary goal was to productize next generation gigabit routers. This was in Aug of 1996. Knowing well that he had no idea how he would start a company he came to the Bay Area to talk to several of his friends who had done this in the past. He found some angel investors who advised him early on to raise venture capital.

While raising money, Hemant in his inimitable style told the VCs that he was a technologist with no experience in running a company and he would look to them for help in some areas of management. His approach was unique in that "he was clear about what he was not clear about" and he was forthright about it with his investors. Draper Fisher and Columbia Capital, convinced of Hemant’s ability to deliver on technology, invested $5M in Torrent Networks. The company was started with 4 key people on board……all technologists.

Hemant said getting the money was the easy part. He had to overcome tremendous challenges in executing on the plan in the next 18 months before he went for a second round of financing of $18M. Having never been a CEO before and having been a technologist throughout his life Hemant had an enjoyable learning curve to cope with. As CEO he spent a lot of time talking to people on a number of fronts. He gained a lot of knowledge doing so while working real hard on delivering on his commitments. Among the critical things he learnt was the role of marketing or the lack thereof. He said that a lot of mistakes that the company made were in marketing and positioning its products. Jokingly he said that the first "non-essential" person he hired was the VP of Marketing.

Hemant mentioned that building a company is a very family oriented process. One has to nurture its development like you would while raising a family. Besides you need to get buy in from the most important family – at home. He then introduced his wife Dr. Sonal Desai to give her version of what it takes to be involved in a Start-Up.

Sonal opened her remarks by saying that early on Raj Mashruwala asked her whether she was prepared to be involved with the "Start-Up" lifestyle. Having known IITians for more than 20 years she thought this was another example of an IITian inflating the effort needed. Moreover, she had sociologist colleagues who had concluded through research that Americans overestimate the hours they put into work. Sure, she at that time was putting 13 hours of work a day but that included commute time. So she thought that she could rely on Hemant putting in not more than 10 to 12 hours a day hoping that he will continue helping her in all the household chores that they always shared.

It did not turn out that way. On starting Torrent Networks, Hemant gave up on household chores early on. She could not schedule her time around his schedule. It turns out that in a Start-Up environment, Hemant was involved in so many things that he could not maintain a predictable schedule. Planning for child-care, vacations and attending conferences even a year in advance was impossible. "Who would have predicted that on the days she was supposed to be in a conference that she chairs and that she planned for a year in advance, Hemant would be unavailable because he was negotiating the sale of his company to Ericsson?" Sonal asked.

Sonal reminded people that a marriage is a long-term contract in which there are times when one has to yield to each other’s needs. Under such circumstances, she mentioned that it always helps to have a role model. And in her case her Mom, who happens to be a physician, was her role model. Sonal said that her Mom also had to juggle her own career with familial responsibilities.

In conclusion Sonal, the sociologist, said that she could empathize with Hemant when he talked about Torrent Networks most often in terms of its people. I can believe that. Hemant was always a people oriented guy - sensitive to their needs. A Company after all is primarily made of people who are committed to make it a success.

Hemant then opened the event to a Q&A session. He provided the audience with a lot of sage advice as he answered their questions. Here are some of his quotes:

• Take your best shot at everything you do…..
• Always try to get a group of Venture Capitalists who are right for you. They should be able to provide you with contacts and the checks and balances needed in managing the growth of the company. Make sure you have the right chemistry with them and that they compliment the strengths of the company. It is like an arranged marriage.
• Have great people in your company. Spend a lot of time hiring the right people. I spent 50% of my time in the first 18 months in hiring people. Ericsson in the final analysis bought Torrent Networks for its people
• Remember to position your company and its products to differentiate yourself from your competitors who will try to stereotype you. Many competitors (9 in the case of Torrent) will also claim they do what you do. Maneuver to force their hands to show what they really have. Torrent did this by opening their architecture
• A lot of what you do is not all technology related. Be aware of marketing and sales tactics and strategies
• Time to market was critical….no time for building a prototype. Believe in your technology and then hire the best people to build it
• There is no one way of climbing a tree as long as you know that you are headed to the top
• Filing for patents is more a defensive move….
• If market research can discover the product the market needs then you are probably already too late to capture market share for the product…..
• Let fairness be your guide when you distribute equity among employees…..do not do it either for fear or greed. Each employee should have enough of a stake to want to wake up and make a success of the company
• It is not essential to have knowledge in all areas to start a company. Hire top-notch people who have done it well before
• Learn to fire people and cut your losses before they damage the morale of the rest of your team
• Hire people who are constructive in their attitude. It takes 2 to 3 weeks to figure out whether the new hire is working out. The question is how long would it take for you to admit that you made a mistake in hiring and are willing to cut your losses
• If your exit strategy is to sell the company then make sure you are in the face of all your potential acquirers as much as you can
• IIT prepared me to take risks. It’s like taking a tough exam. You prepare well, give the exam and if you fail to do well you just learn from the experience knowing well that there will be another exam another day

At the end, when someone asked Hemant what he plans on doing now, someone else suggested laundry at home at which point Hemant promised Sonal that he would do so for the next year…..Hemant please don’t beat me up for putting this in writing!

It is wonderful to see very nice people do so well!