An Evening with Dr. Srikanth Sundararajan

On Friday, May 9, we had an insightful session by Dr. Srikanth Sundararajan, General Partner at Ventureast. He spoke about the mindset and capabilities needed to become an entrepreneur. Dr Sundararajan also shared his perspectives on how to revamp the Indian education system.

About Dr. Srikanth Sundararajan

Dr. Srikanth Sundararajan, General Partner at Ventureast, has been a driving force in India’s startup landscape over the past decade. He has invested in and mentored over 40 startups across diverse sectors. Some of his notable investments include Ather Energy (electric vehicles), MoEngage (customer engagement platform), Kissht (consumer credit), Synup (local SEO automation), eKincare (health records and wellness), and Health Vectors (predictive health analytics).

Dr Sundararajan is not just an investor. He is also a hands-on partner who works closely with entrepreneurs to shape their go-to-market strategy, build strong teams, and navigate the complex early stages of growth. His rich background gives him a unique blend of operational, academic, and strategic insights. Beyond investments, Dr Sundararajan actively contributes to India’s innovation ecosystem through mentoring, startup bootcamps, and policy dialogue, especially in deep tech and frontier technologies. His work has helped create companies that not only scale commercially but also solve meaningful problems in India and beyond.

Journey from Corporate Career to Founder, Mentor, Investor

Dr Srikanth Sundararajan’s MS and PhD in the US were very different from the standard IIT education in India. All the pieces connected. Everything was digital and online. So, he decided to do research in computer science and become a professor. But Dr Sundararajan was exposed to industry very early on and got to meet a lot of people in corporates. He worked as an intern in these companies. This inculcated a desire to go into the market and do something practical with his research. So, Dr Sundararajan moved away from Academia into HP Labs. He learned a lot in that freewheeling environment as he kept interacting with smart people. He decided to do something on his own.

Thus, becoming an entrepreneur was not something which happened overnight. The 5-6 years of grad school and a couple of years of work experience convinced him that it was time to take a risk. By then he was already married, and a father of two, and he already had a home mortgage and a lifestyle. He is grateful to his wife. Without her it wouldn't have happened.

On the Differences Between an Entrepreneur and an Investor

The key difference is that entrepreneurs have very little data and time. They must think on their feet and keep moving forward. Every day is a fight for survival and makes a difference. They must make decisions very quickly.

VCs are sitting on a pile of cash given to them by investors, who trust them. So, they must collect a lot of data, be very careful and follow a rigorous process to ensure they do not pick losers. At the end of the day, VCs are fund managers. They have to say No quite often. They get a lot more time and data compared to being an entrepreneur. But overall, entrepreneurship is always more fun.

On Employment Generation

The entire corporate landscape and org structure will change due to the advent of technology and the need for new skill sets. We will see the death of the typical hierarchical organization. It will be more peer to peer. People who contribute in this digital world will be recognized and visible to everyone. The change is going to be huge. We must be well prepared.

Indian policymakers should realize that the GDP of India can be doubled only through entrepreneurship. MSMEs should be the backbone of the Indian economy. Even in the US about 85% of the businesses are MSMEs and many of them have suffered for a variety of reasons. If we can come up with good policies, MSMEs will thrive. There will be a huge impact.

Innovation and MSMEs

Innovation and MSMEs are natural partners. Large companies typically do not adopt new technologies very quickly. Nor do they generate many jobs for the huge investments they need. MSMEs can be the engine of employment creation.

On when the entrepreneurship bug bites

One is a spark from inside. That spark exists in most people. The whole idea is to create, do and learn something new. But somehow our education system tends to make that spark very dull and extinguish it before it becomes a full, flame.

Then there are other secondary factors. Can we take a risk? Can we take that leap of faith? Do we have the support of our family?

We should also have the passion so that we do not give up easily. We shouldn't have a plan B. If our mindset is that if this doesn't work out, we will go back to a safe job, we are not an entrepreneur.

The urge to be creative, to learn more, do more, only exists when we are young. Over time in in the corporate world, we lose the spark unless we are part of an exciting company. A good example is Mr Shantanu Narayan, Dr Sundararajan’s good buddy from High School.

When Dr Sundararajan was with HP, Mr Narayan was running his first startup. Then suddenly one day he announced that he was giving up and joining Adobe. The Adobe ride was fantastic. Mr Narayan took the company from a very small size all the way to the powerhouse that it is today. So, Mr Narayan got the best of both worlds. Adobe was an exciting product company which scaled in terms of people, IP, R&D and did a lot of cool stuff.

But Mr Narayan’s Adobe story is an exception. Normally, a corporate role will dull us because large companies typically don’t have the ability to innovate. They must bow down to public market pressures and cut costs to show profitability. So, there is no innovation.

Most of the larger companies have started to create their own hands-on R&D lab called Incubation Centers. They do invite startups and have internships. But the impact is limited.

To allow the spark to become a flame, and keep learning quickly, we should join a startup, not necessarily very early-stage startups. C series D series, E series startups are a great place to learn, because they are almost like MSMEs.

On working with founder CEOs

Dr Sundararajan had the opportunity of working with at least 2 founder CEOs: Dr Shiv Nadar of HCL and Dr Anand Deshpande of Persistent Systems.

When Dr Sundararajan joined HCL, it had gone beyond the startup days. Mr. Shiv Nadar, the CEO, would always give him the opportunity to speak. He felt that if people had a good idea, they should speak their mind so that the spark never went out.

Dr Anand Deshpande needed someone who was a techie and could manage operations and scale it up. Dr Sundararajan fitted in well. He could be both the CEO and CTO and handle sales and marketing. In fact, the company ran without a sales head for about a year, pre-IPO, and still grew.

Dr Deshpande and Dr Sundararajan would have disagreements. Once Dr Sundararajan wanted $500,000 to create an IP licensing business. Dr Deshpande was unhappy, but he gave it, and the move paid off.

Another big decision was to establish a centre in Hyderabad. Again, there was disagreement. But they established the centre in Hyderabad in 2008. Today it is the second largest development centre for Persistent. A lot of cool work is done from here.

On the kind of experience needed before taking a plunge into a startup

A fresh student should spend some time in an incubator and shadow some startups to understand the challenges. It is not advisable to dive into the pool straight away. It needs at least a couple of years of experience. Students should become more aware and also have a network on which they can rely.

The corporate execs should take a sabbatical and join a venture studio which is looking for experienced people to work on ideas. These venture studios do provide a stipend though not as much as their last drawn salary. So, Dr Sundararajan is encouraging the central government to give tax incentives to corporates who contribute to venture studios.

Such venture studios exist in organizations like T-Hub, IIT Madras, Antler Advisory. Some corporates in the real estate tech are also trying to create these studios. But in terms of numbers, it is still very small today.

On how students are responding

Students are showing a lot of interest in becoming entrepreneurs. They have many activity clubs on campuses. They are doing internships, going abroad and gaining access to a lot of material.

On the need for stronger corporate academia linkages

Today, corporate academia linkages are discrete. They need to be strengthened. Stronger linkages will be good for the students, faculty, universities, the corporates, and the parents.

Dr Sundararajan himself is a good example of what academia industry linkages can produce. He has been associated with startups like Aether, Medibuddy, and AIbono. He has also coauthored a book called the IIT Nexus. This book covers the story of 16 IIT Madras Entrepreneur alumni, focusing on their learnings from college and the steps they took towards building million/billion Dollar organizations. These linkages have also led to the IIT Madras entrepreneurs’ group.

On nurturing future entrepreneurs

It is not necessarily the responsibility of colleges to teach entrepreneurial skills. What is more important is to create a good environment. Today, the environment does not support it.

A college cannot teach entrepreneurship in the classroom. But a college can do a lot to encourage entrepreneurship. For example, a college can create its own incubation and innovation hub, which is sponsored by the corporates. Students would have the opportunity to get some credits and some stipend for working on some cool stuff.

Today everything is discrete and inefficient. A private institution can make it end to end and streamlined compared to the government institutions.

On innovation

We set up institutions in India. But we do not understand innovation. Innovation can happen anywhere. It doesn't have to be a tech innovation.

Innovation and Institutional Connectivity

Even the umbrella like stick in mocktails is an innovation. And the inventor of the stick made hundreds of millions of dollars.

Today, something happens in ICFAI or IIT Hyderabad or IIIT Hyderabad. But they are not connected. If we connect them, there will be a good flow of ideas. Then the projects and internships will become interesting. And the students will also start to understand that there is a purpose to their education and career.

On the right career choice: Infosys vs Zepto

When people are young and just fresh out of college, they should join a place where they can learn. Especially, if they want to build their own enterprise, they are better off joining a later stage startup.

In a company like Zepto, we can learn next generation supply chain and logistics. We can learn a lot of cool things which are happening on the floor and use that knowledge in case we want to get into such businesses.

In Infosys, students may be on the bench, then trained for a year or two and after that get placed in a project. They will typically be doing a small part of the project. Initially they may only be doing testing work. Then, after 2-3 years, they will get bored, take a break and do an MBA. After their MBA, they will be confused about whether they should float their own startup or go back to a large corporate. Most likely they will end up going to a large corporate and wait for a good opportunity. But if they join a startup and just learn, and at the right time make the change, they can do something cool.

On family support

If the home environment is not supportive, we should not become an entrepreneur. We will be putting a lot of pressure on ourselves. Running a startup is not easy. It is a lonely game. We need everyone's support. It starts at home. We need mental support. We need someone to bounce ideas off. Parental support during the formative years can also be a great enabler.

On nurturing entrepreneurship in the smaller cities

The classic startup story has been overrated. Come up with an idea and then keep getting funded.

We can have an MSME focused fund with much less capital. There will be many good entrepreneurs coming out of the second tier, third tier and fourth tier cities, even villages. With the digital infrastructure and the payment infrastructure in place in the country, the environment is very supportive and location is not a constraint. if we make things more friendly for industries, we will see many more things happening in the smaller towns.

Today, in our country, to start a business, we must take permission from many departments, unless we are within a special zone. We love creating special zones rather than making it easy for businesses to be set up all over the country.

The government itself needs to introspect. How do we become more efficient and improve? The only goal should be doubling our per capita GDP. We have such a large population to support.

On overvaluation of start ups

We must check the founders’ Intellectual honesty and integrity. Usually, they have a track record. We can do thorough background checks. Dr Sundararajan has sometimes spent 18 months with a startup to just study how the founders reacted to different situations. So, he looks at things from the entrepreneur's perspective. Other partners need to check other things.

VCs are essentially fund managers and advisors. So, they must do the financial due diligence, the background checks and make sure that the employment history and the degrees are validated. They must also talk to the person's boss, co-employees and customers.

On validating the start up idea

We must ask ourselves why (that idea) 5 times. If the answer is consistently the same, it means we are onto something. If the answer is different at different times, it's not a good idea.

Before starting a venture, we should also build a network. We should check through this network whether other people are working on similar ideas.

We should not emulate something without understanding the real context. For example, Uber entered India with a shared economy model. Some 73% of the families in the US. own vehicles and the utilization of these vehicles is only 10%. In India, only 3% or 4% of the population own vehicles, 4 wheelers. So, they do not want to rent out their cars. So, Ola decided to aggregate the operators, fleet operators, cabs, etc. Uber soon realized that India is not a shared economy and became a cab operator. Today, both Uber and Ola have the same business model in India.

On the kind of leadership needed today

Earlier, we had a hierarchical set up. Today leaders must be innovators, thinkers and know how to leverage technology. They must be good mentors. They must work with small teams and drive things very quickly. They must take quick decisions. Industry and the academia must collaborate and create programs to develop such leaders.

On strengthening the alumni network

A strong alumni network can do wonders for a university and its students. Today the strength of IIT Madras is its alumni. Many of them went to the US and became entrepreneurs. They keep coming back and giving back to their alma mater.

The alumni have been involved with Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala and with the IIT Madras Research Park. Dr Sundararajan has been mentoring many IIT Madras entrepreneurs and some of these ventures have been hugely successful.

We can create a circular ecosystem inside ICFAI itself, where the alumni come and start projects and also teach and interact with the students. This would be like what Silicon Valley has done.

ICFAI has many campuses and universities. There can be a section in the MBA and the BBA programs, where the students are mostly second-generation entrepreneurs. We can give them exposure, and they will support the university. ICFAI has a huge alumni strength and will also have the support of their parents to make them join their business.

On revamping our education system

We need to make our education system far more flexible. We should reduce the hours of actual traditional teaching. We should integrate the vision of ITIs and the technology schools together, so that it becomes a loop.

We have become very traditional and hierarchical. Even some of the processes at IIT Madras are rigid. They are being followed from 1959.

In NEP 2020, everything has been put in. The old has been retained and new things have been added. So, it is very difficult to administer.

Unless all the Vice Chancellors go together and represent their views properly to the education minister, the education secretary and the AICTE, things will not change. Today the representation is not strong enough.

On reorienting universities

The culture of universities needs to be shaped right from the top, i.e. the board. Teaching and learning should be fun. There is no place for politics or a control mindset. The University of tomorrow must be digital and open.

The standards of any university should be such that every student crosses the bar. Why should someone who gets 74 marks get recruited but not someone with 73? If an employer visits a university like ICFAI, it must be because all the students are great.

Universities have enough autonomy to make the necessary changes. They can be flexible and keep strengthen the industry linkages.

ICFAI itself is a good example. Dr Sundararajan recalls his meeting with ICFAI founder, Mr NJ Yasaswy in 1996. He had a vision. There was a lot of flexibility and plenty of industry interaction those days.

We need to think long term. Today, we have a 5-year thinking. Every time a government is elected, then only something happens and that too not fully.

So, we have not thought of a 20-year budget cycle for education. But a university like ICFAI can think long term and have a 20-year time horizon.