The inspiring story of a million-dollar company
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OrangeScape, one of the most successful start-ups in India, was in the news last month, when it was named the prime technology partner for 'Google App Engine'.
With this, OrangeScape has moved to a different league in the PaaS (Platform as a Service) space. The $5 million company with 50 people is aiming to be a billion dollar company in the next 5 years.
The journey of Suresh Sambandam, founder and CEO of OrangeScape as an entrepreneur, started at the age of 19 in Cuddalore, a small town in Tamil Nadu. Today, he is not only a successful entrepreneur but a man with a few patents to his credit and an angel investor in start-ups in Chennai.
As the CEO of OrangeScape, he shuttles between India and the United States.
Here is Suresh Sambandam's success story...
Growing up in a small town
I grew up in a small town in Tamil Nadu called Cuddalore. I became an entrepreneur at 19 when I was not even aware what entrepreneurship was. I would say I was an amateur entrepreneur then. I did not have this urge to be an entrepreneur; I only wanted to be independent and free.
When I finished my 12th standard in 1990, my father's real estate business was in trouble. So, I had to opt for distant education in Commerce from the University of Madras.
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Having free time in the evenings, I and my friend decided to learn typewriting as it was in vogue then. That was the turning point in my life. Other than the typewriters, the institute also had one computer. Computers were just entering our lives then. When the institute manager offered to teach me computers for Rs 50 a month, I joined the course.
I had no idea what computers were. I just started learning and it opened a new world.
From Basic, I soon moved to dBase and sitting in a remote corner of India, I created an airline reservation system when I had never travelled in an aircraft or seen it at close quarters.
I was so fascinated by computers that I went in the afternoons also to the institute when it was deserted so I got more time to learn.
Starting a computer centre
The idea to start a computer centre came to my mind when I felt that was the only way I would get to work on computers all the time. Five of us (friends) decided to pool in Rs 25,000 and start a centre.
When I asked my father for Rs 25,000, he refused to give me but my persistence worked and I borrowed the amount from him.
I was so happy finally when we opened the centre in 1993. The other four guys were only financial partners as they had other work. I got the centre all to myself.
Our plan was to teach students in the mornings and evenings and also create some products. We had already gone to some industries at the SIPCOT in Cuddalore with proposals, and we got offers to do automation process in many companies. The centre used to make Rs 30-35,000 every month which was just break-even for all of us. The only one who had fun was me.
I went to Pondicherry and bought computer books as there were no such books available in Cuddalore. I was like Ekalavya, I learnt Basic, dBase, Cobol, C, C++, and Unix by reading books.
In 1996, when we decided to close it down, all of us got back what we had invested. It was in addition to what we made every month.
Had internet arrived in Cuddalore at that time, we would have been able to continue the centre for some more time. Anyway, after we closed the centre, I gave the money back to my father!
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From Cuddalore to Bangalore
After finishing my graduation, I decided to work in a company so that I would get an idea of how the corporate sector worked.
At that time, only Bangalore and Mumbai were the places to be if you wanted a career in computers. Chennai was not in the picture at all. So, off I went to Bangalore.
Going from a small town to a place like Bangalore was very intimidating. Even the way I dressed was so different from what others did. Luckily, I had a good command over English as I studied in a convent school.
I literally roamed the streets looking for a job. I must say it was by sheer luck that I got one. Java had just becoming popular and I had learnt it. I saw an ad in the paper that Hewlett-Packard was looking for people who knew Java, and I applied.
I did well in the test and interview, and was offered the job as I was the only one among the applicants who knew Java.
I came to know later that HP selected me because in one portion of a project, they needed someone who knew Java. Later they and I found out that there were only 10 lines of Java code! Anyway, as I was proficient in C and C++, I also did the rest of the 10 million lines.
I started off as a Software Engineer and got three promotions in three years and became Software Analyst.
After finishing my graduation, I decided to work in a company so that I would get an idea of how the corporate sector worked.
At that time, only Bangalore and Mumbai were the places to be if you wanted a career in computers. Chennai was not in the picture at all. So, off I went to Bangalore.
Going from a small town to a place like Bangalore was very intimidating. Even the way I dressed was so different from what others did. Luckily, I had a good command over English as I studied in a convent school.
I literally roamed the streets looking for a job. I must say it was by sheer luck that I got one. Java had just becoming popular and I had learnt it. I saw an ad in the paper that Hewlett-Packard was looking for people who knew Java, and I applied.
I did well in the test and interview, and was offered the job as I was the only one among the applicants who knew Java.
I came to know later that HP selected me because in one portion of a project, they needed someone who knew Java. Later they and I found out that there were only 10 lines of Java code! Anyway, as I was proficient in C and C++, I also did the rest of the 10 million lines.
I started off as a Software Engineer and got three promotions in three years and became Software Analyst.
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