Green Quotient on Entrepreneurship

In our continuing series on EMERGE 50, this is our second showcase of the list that represents the hope of the future for the IT sector.GQuotient was declared winner in the EMERGE Startup category.

GQuotient focuses on creating an innovative set of green information and communication technology (ICT) products, processes, and services. The company partners with enterprises to achieve economic and social objectives of green ICT. Cost and carbon reduction promises of enterprises are ensured by enabling a flexible and adaptable ICT architecture that supports the needs of the next-generation enterprise.

Carbon and energy footprint is reduced by GQuotient’s deployment processes by either increasing RoI or reducing TCO. Cost and energy optimization for various business functions in an enterprise are facilitated by GQuotient’s products. The company helps its customers use ICT to reduce their carbon footprint while increasing efficiency and productivity.

Founder team

The founder team of GQuotient represents a hybrid of at least three startups. S. Madhavan and Baskar Subramanian founded Servion prior to GQuotient while Dr. Jikku Venkat and Sravish Sridhar founded United Devices. Madhavan also founded NetLabs, which eventually merged with Servion, while Sridhar is involved in not-for-profit online communities.

S. Madhavan worked in DCM Data Products' R&D team, TVS Electronics, and Digital Equipment India before he co-founded Servion Global Solutions (Servion), a software company in the unified communications, telecommunications, and customer interaction business. Madhavan founded a start-up in the area of network education and systems integration under the brand NetLabs, immediately after leaving Digital. This merged with Servion Global Solutions later. He continues to be a non-executive director on the board of Servion. Madhavan holds a bachelor's degree in electronics from Anna University and a master's degree in management systems from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani.

Baskar Subramanian

Prior to GQuotient, Baskar Subramanian founded Servion Global Solutions, a unified software company comprising communications, telecommunications and customer interaction business, along with Madhavan, and is currently its vice chairman. Baskar was also a resident visitor at AT&T Bell Labs in the business communications division. Baskar is an engineering graduate from NIT Trichy, India with a M.S in electrical engineering from University of Texas, Austin.

Dr.Jikku Venkat Jikku co-founded United Devices, a company that was a recognized industry leader in grid computing and data center virtualization. Prior to joining United Devices, he was responsible for product development of the WebPC at Dell, and set the technical strategy for the office of the CTO. Prior to his tenure at Dell, Dr. Venkat worked at IBM for 8 years where he was an architect/consultant on PowerPC platform development and strategy. Jikku is widely regarded as an industry thought leader and has spoken at numerous conferences on grid computing, cloud computing and its applications, and was voted Austin Technologist of Year in 2002. Jikku holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in computer engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and B.E (Honors) from NIT Trichy.

Sravish Sridhar

Prior to GQuotient, Sravish was part of the founding team at United Devices (UD), where he was in-charge of various roles including global revenue expansion, European consulting organization growth, APAC channel development and engineering team management. At UD, he conceptualized and took to market, customer-focused solutions in the fields of virtualization, cloud, grid and high-performance computing, across various market segments such as life sciences, financial services, oil & gas, telecom, government and academia.Apart from his professional engagements, Sridhar has a unique background of creating and growing two successful online not-for-profit communities with more than 3.5 million members participating from over 175 countries, which looked to help various altruistic causes such as health care advancement and supporting NGOs in various parts of the world. Sridhar holds a degree in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin.

GQuotient’s founder team provides their perspective on entrepreneurship and the ecosystem for entrepreneurs.

1. Why did you take to entrepreneurship? Is your company founded by an individual or a team?

Our company is founded by like minded professionals, with prior experience as entrepreneurs.

We have a larger canvas to paint a vision and work towards realizing it as entrepreneurs.

2. What is your objective through entrepreneurship (e.g. wealth creation, value creation, creating something new, etc.)?

Catalyze societal transformation through entrepreneurial pursuit of excellence and value creation.

3. How do you view NASSCOM’s recognition in their EMERGE 50 list?

We view this as a sign of endorsement and recognition to all the aspiring entrepreneurs – a place under the sun for start-ups.

4. What aspects differentiate you from your competition or industry in general?

Learning organization, ever willing to walk the mile and make a difference, holistic approach to problem solving and agility.

5. How do you view the entrepreneurial ecosystem at present and what can be done to make it better?

• Culturally, the society still does not tolerate failures and the peer pressure to succeed quickly is a bane.
• Ideas do not necessarily attract funding, but teams do, from investors (angels/early stage VCs). Executive coaching for early stage companies is essential, but the cost burden should not be on the companies.
• Earnings multiple may be a financial yardstick, but yearning (passion) multiple should be considered favourably. It is a blend of risk taking and energy levels to succeed.
• To encourage HNIs (High Net-worth Individuals) to invest in start-ups, Nasscom can promote the EMERGE 50 brand to them.
• Facilitate healthy collaboration between larger companies and SMEs that could result in incubation funds to flow.