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Latest imagesWould the venture capitalist Kanwal Rekhi invested $250,000 if he had known what MIT stood for?
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Would the venture capitalist Kanwal Rekhi invested $250,000 if he had known what MIT stood for?
by MulaiAzhagi Mon May 28, 2012 1:48 pm
Unlike many of the Indian emigres who have succeeded in the Valley, Chandra lacks a degree from one of his native country's top-level universities. "Chandra was the first person I ever met here who came from an unknown school in India, with no time spent at a US university or a major US company," says Kanwal Rekhi, an early Exodus backer who founded Excelan and sold it to Novell, and then went on to become a leader of the dynamic Indian-American entrepreneurial community. "He told me that he went to MIT, but it turned out that what he meant was the Madras Institute of Technology."
But Rekhi was already hooked. "He introduced himself to me at a conference and gave me his business card, and for some reason I wrote on it that I needed to call this person," says Rekhi. "I could never figure out why I did it, because there are lots of people coming at me all the time. It had to have been not just the idea, but the person, the energy." Six weeks after their first meeting in 1994, Rekhi called Chandra. "He blasted me," recalls Chandra happily. "He looked at the business plan, found the holes. And I said, 'Are you ready to help me?'"
Rekhi put $250,000 into Exodus, which was struggling. He also introduced Chandra to Suhas Patil, the cofounder and former chair of Cirrus Logic, who put in $200,000, and to Chicago investment firm First Analysis (at a time when most Silicon Valley VCs weren't interested in the data center business). In February 1995, Chandra and Jagadeesh agreed to exchange 47 percent of the company for $3.2 million in funding. "I was crying when I came into the parking lot, because suddenly we had life, we had a way to live the dream - but also because now we could be controlled from the outside," Chandra says. Eventually, of course, he stepped aside.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.12/jamcracker_pr.html
But Rekhi was already hooked. "He introduced himself to me at a conference and gave me his business card, and for some reason I wrote on it that I needed to call this person," says Rekhi. "I could never figure out why I did it, because there are lots of people coming at me all the time. It had to have been not just the idea, but the person, the energy." Six weeks after their first meeting in 1994, Rekhi called Chandra. "He blasted me," recalls Chandra happily. "He looked at the business plan, found the holes. And I said, 'Are you ready to help me?'"
Rekhi put $250,000 into Exodus, which was struggling. He also introduced Chandra to Suhas Patil, the cofounder and former chair of Cirrus Logic, who put in $200,000, and to Chicago investment firm First Analysis (at a time when most Silicon Valley VCs weren't interested in the data center business). In February 1995, Chandra and Jagadeesh agreed to exchange 47 percent of the company for $3.2 million in funding. "I was crying when I came into the parking lot, because suddenly we had life, we had a way to live the dream - but also because now we could be controlled from the outside," Chandra says. Eventually, of course, he stepped aside.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.12/jamcracker_pr.html
MulaiAzhagi- Posts : 1254
Join date : 2011-12-20
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