Kiran's Journey - Through my eyes

Where does one even start with something like this......

It's not about the twelve years, as much as how the graph of the twelve years has moved. It's the journey through such intense moments of peaks and troughs that it becomes a story not just worth telling, but almost overwhelming to tell.

from ten years back

What triggered me is when yesterday, on the staircase as he leaves, he turns and says "you remember the movie Guru? I've told you earlier, and I'm telling you again.... I am Abishek Bachan, I am in the making.... and you are my Mithun da, mark my words Smitha"

And I knew that I had to put it together, this story needed to be told.

Let me try chronologically.....

Kiran and I met during the Google hiring tests, back in 2006 ....total strangers, yet in retrospect, we both know something connected on that very day. 

I joined earlier, maybe a month or so earlier and distinctly remember this tall and gangly youngster of about 24, walking in with a Peter Drucker tucked under his arm, trying hard to look like he belonged. Not easy entering the portals of what can be intimidating to the best of us......an epitome of not just smartness and calibre but also of cockiness and fashion, as Google was all of that. They after all have a hiring rate of 0.04 %.

Here was a boy from Kurnool, who had found his way to Hyderabad with a singular burning ambition of joining Google.....had enrolled in Ramakrishna Math to up his language skills, and through sheer grit and perseverance, trying for the seventh year in a row......making it into Google.

And then there was no stopping him. 

The first few years were idyllic, Google was new in India and we were a pampered lot. Work was great, it was a fun bunch, there were unbelievable freebies in the form of the latest phones and tablets, brilliant offsites and travel, trainings and exposure of the kind we couldn't conceive of. And kiran absorbed it all like a hungry sponge.

We've done daily coffee hours for years....... many many cup hours in Hyd and many in the US. We share a common passion for books, cinema, thinking and travel. The picture above is on a road trip to a light house at Rheas point that we did in the US, a wonderful trip.

Five years in, and then came a turning point. He moved to Google, US.

I was in Google Hyd for two more years before I quit, but up until then I would hear these wonderful stories, from him....and about him. He grew to be recognized as one of the best managers, with folks in the US rating him at exceptional levels. The 'sought after guy' not just by his reportees, but also by senior management, and not to speak of the girls.... I have some fascinating stories there as well :)

Life went on....he settled into the US... I quit Google and moved to Bangalore.

And then came that fateful day when he called me from mountain view to say "I think I'm ready to move on, I want to come back, I want to do something of my own"

This was at a stage when he was doing amazingly well... earning a whopping salary, with great esops and perks... with a clearly visible enviable growth trajectory.

But like I said....there was no stopping him.

We spent hours discussing possibilities, he made several visits to Bangalore, and while he had nothing concrete in mind, he said "let me first quit, let me create that vacuum, and I will leave it to the universe to fill it in". 

He gave in his papers. And he moved to Bangalore.

There started the journey of Egnify ....a play of words on Ignify and Education....with a catchy tag line of 'Ignifying Minds'. It's an education analytics company.

This was in 2016.

We would meet as often as we could, discuss vision, culture, hiring, growth, marketing, analytics....anything. I remember his pushing a lot of his hiring interviews onto me :)

And Egnify became his life..... and his crucible test.

Egnify has been a journey that has put him through uncertainties and pressures that are hard to imagine. The ups and downs were so intense that I firmly believe it would have tested and broken anybody with lesser mettle.

Kiran went from a guy having over 50 lakh in his account, a guy who gifted his friends Bose speakers (me included), to a point where  he had to buy a phone for Rs.2000 as he couldn't afford better. For a guy who has been spoilt on the best of Nexus and Motos, I can only imagine what that must have been like.

Even when I offered to buy him one, he said "no, I need this to remind me of what I'm going through....these difficulties are to be experienced and remembered Smitha".

There were days in Bangalore where we've discussed what can be that point of failure, when does one give up, when does it become too much......days he almost cried.

After a gut wrenching period he got his first round of funding, and most serendipitously. Thanks there to Abinica, who I've never met, but feel I know.

For a while he breathed easy. The company grew ..... along with it the joys, the work, the team...and so did the issues.

While on the one hand he was winning awards, being invited to IIT to talk, getting great press, TV interviews, meeting the Nandan Nilakaneni's of the world..........there have also been days when he's hit rock bottom. Days when contracts fell through at last minute. Days he had to set aside all levels of ego and go back to friends to borrow for payment of salaries. I remember times I liquified mutual funds to meet that need....he'd return the amount on the exact said date, and before I could even reinvest he would need it again. Seems almost funny now.

His worst was when from being the son that his parents depended on and showed off, he could not only not give to, but went back to taking from. (he didn't take a salary for the first two years). While they've stood by him, rock solid through it all, it's not been easy for either of them. For what he put them through, I know he died a few deaths in the process. Those are the unshed tears I've seen.

I know this is beginning to sound morose, but trust me it's also a high, and an aspirational space....and this is only a glimpse of what it's been like. In fact there's enough there to fill a book.

I recall this day when he was invited to Malaysia to receive an award, and he didn't have money for the flight tickets. That kind of epitomizes the story.

His health suffered, his morale suffered.......there were days he'd be sitting here and saying "i'm finding it difficult to even breath.... every facet of mine feels empty... energy asala ledhu"

And that was the story of our Thursdays....

The one thing I have to say for him though....at every point he kept in awareness that Kiran and Egnify were deeply connected, but different. He would own Egnify, but it would never own him. A philosophy from the Gita that we've often referred to, and which held him in good stead.

By 2019 he employed 22 tech guys, and to run an office like that needs cash flows, needs that money to flow. In a start up where the product is new and what you're selling is not a better product but a new product, one that's evolving to match vision.....the growth path is wrought with uncertainty.

And he was a lone soldier, the only man in the arena ....and the battle was his. I could only watch from the ringside.... hold out a hand when needed and cheer him on when I could.

Yesterday was special, cause when we met and I was like  "chepu kiran, elaaunnavu .... what's been happening", he was actually overwhelmed when he said "I do have something to tell....inka atuvanti kashtalu ayipoynayi .....those difficulties are finally over"

In a line...... he's reached a stage where VC's and Funders are reaching out to him. His work and effort have been recognized in the market as worth betting on.

It's a changing road.....maybe still an uphill road.....but what matters is that there is an exciting road ahead, a well earned one.

Kiran, Happy Birthday !!