My Entrepreneurship Journey, and Shiv, one of my dearest friends

Story of how Excelsoft was born:

This is something that all my colleagues should know. My dear friend Shivkumar Shivakumar S was finishing up his studies at IIT Delhi. He is a Gold medalist, for those you may not know is a brilliant cricketer. He also was getting ready to go to the US for his Ph.D.

I had been to Delhi along with my father, and we had stayed at the IIT Guesthouse. We would meet Shiv for dinner every night and keep talking. Just then I had left my job at WIPRO, and, was looking to do a startup.

My father suggested to Shiv, look Sudhanva is trying to do a startup and would you consider joining him. He immediately responded with a “yes”. The next day, he went to meet his Guide Dr.Kanungo and convinced him that he will not pursue his Ph.D. and would return to Mysore.

He has multiple roles in Excelsoft, is the current Head of Administration & Support functions. Much more than that he was very approachable, always smiling, a troubleshooter on Company matters, but most importantly the “GOTO” person for any problem, that any individual may have. Not just related to work. In fact, it will be mostly with personal problems an individual may have. Health issues, financial help, trauma, tragedy in anybody’s family. Shiv is always the first pout of contact, and he will be their Rock Solid and an do everything required, and even the follow-ups. Every time I have had a crisis in my family I know Shiv will always be there, in his inimitable style of quietly organizing everything. And the most humble and accommodative person that I have ever come across.

For all the businesses run by his family, Shiv need not work for a living. He played active cricket with and even captained Javagal Srinath. Whenever we meet Srinath always says if you had not taken him away, Shiv would have played national cricket even before I did.

During the start of the business, we had not really figured out what to, We decided to develop for some retail shops on Devaraja Urs Road, for Rs. 200 a Page, and we would go and stand in front of the shop to collect money. A shop called Rohan textiles.

We did this for many shops on Devaraj Urs road.

We went and got introduced to Mahalingeshwar transport Company in Mysore. That time they had two big trucks and two small trucks. I think the business was doing well. They wanted an MIS system. I sat there and did a detailed requirement analysis for about 5 days. We had provided pricing for about Rs. 3 Lacs and they thought it was too much, and they expected us to give the computer for free. Obviously we did not get it.

This is Shiv! A “True friend indeed”. If there are any who have not taken Shiv’s help, it will be a handful.

Shiv, May God bless you and your family. Our heartfelt Thanks Shiv.