How To Be A Disruptive Entrepreneur S13 Ep9
The hope and dream of every innovator is to come up with an idea that disrupts and transforms industries. To do it multiple times over a career puts that person in to a category of being a disruptive entrepreneur.
Our guest this week, Sachin Dev Duggal, is an innovator, serial entrepreneur, and an advocate of enterprise that create social impact through a creative approach to giving away services to charities along with equity in his companies.
Topics covered in today's show:
- How at 14, he got his start being an entrepreneur following the accidental destruction of a PC.
- Why he started his first company and what he learned from it.
- His entrepreneurial and innovators experience at age 17 inside Deutsche Bank.
- Discussing the dream that inspired him to become a disruptive entrepreneur that shook up the PC industry.
- The challenges of trying to disrupt an established industry.
- His frustration on what he couldn't do with his first major success which was to support more charitable work.
- How he is supporting his foundation/charitable work with his new company.
- How he supports new ideas and opportunities for innovation by support and funding multiple companies.
- His four pieces of advice he would give to new disruptive entrepreneurs? (hint: one is about perseverance)
[shareable cite="Sachin Dev Duggal"]When someone call an idea crazy, I take it as a challenge to prove them wrong.[/shareable]
About Sachin Dev Duggal:
Sachin was the co-founder of nivio, the company that first made Windows available over the Internet. He continued his role of being a disruptive entrepreneur and sits on the board of Planet M (a large Indian retail chain), chairs his original technology solutions company SD 2 Labs, and is an advisor to Eros Digital; the digital arm of Bollywood’ premiere distribution company.
Sachin’s profile is an unusual mix of experiences & disruption. He was an entrepreneur at 15, worked for the United Nations and helped write the declaration of youth rights before he completed his first degree from Imperial College. Sachin has also built a successful software business (www.sd2labs.com) and was a young investment-banker (at Deutsche Bank) building complex trading models at 17. The software company continues to grow year on year and now has just over 100 people in India and the US.
He began his professional career at the age of 15, when he formed SMX Corporation (now sd2labs) along with his best friend. In August 2004, Sachin co-founded nivio with a view to disrupt the old compute model; and got seed funding from two of his bosses! Fast forward to 4 years later, nivio was selected as a technology pioneer at the World Economic Forum . Sachin made history in being the youngest attendees at the WEF in Davos.
To fuilfill his desire to help others, he has put aside stock in all major businesses he works in with Saurabh to their foundation and other notable charities such as Keep a Child Alive. His mission is what he calls 100x50 (100m kids educated in 50 years) through their Sachin & Saurabh Foundation, a not-for-profit set up to deliver that dream.
Sachin’s other accolades include the MIT TR35 Indian Innovator of the Year, the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Leader of Tomorrow, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist, the BBC Young Asian achiever of the Year and UNEP Global 500 Youth Award. Sachin is also the Youth Leader of the National Computer and Electronics Committee of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India.
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