Being insanely curious with Ravi Krishnappa

Sivaguru is in conversation with Ravi Krishnappa, managing partner at July Ventures. He talks about

• How he Started as a mechanical engineer and ERP consultant, then co-founded Accel Venture Partners and Inatech. Transitioned to angel investing and is now a partner at July Ventures, focusing on B2B tech startups.
• He also attributes his success to an intense curiosity and a broad interest in various fields, rather than deep specialization.
• He also believes both nature (innate curiosity) and nurture (experiences and opportunities) play roles in personal development
• He also taks about  learning the intersection of finance and engineering, and addressing inefficiencies in ERP systems, which shaped their business mindset and approach..
• He also talks about developed a solution to locally print data from a mainframe system, leading to a significant licensing deal with Unisys EMEA.
• He reflects on how recognizing and seizing opportunities, even if not fully realized, has influenced his entrepreneurial journey.
• The experience of seeing potential improvements and wanting more control motivated their shift to entrepreneurship

Ravi Krishnappa is a Venture Capital professional, an Entrepreneur & an avid teacher with 35+ years of experience over 2 dozen start-ups in his portfolio.  

He is currently the managing partner at July Ventures (www.julyventures.com)

 He is a mechanical engineer who moved onto the IT sector and is a thought leader in the area of digital applications for the industry. Over the last 30+ years he has worked in several countries including the US, UK and Switzerland. 

His first startup was acquired by Oracle, and he was subsequently it’s global Executive Director. He sold his second venture which was in supply chain applications to a publicly listed company. Since 2010, he has been working to develop the Entrepreneurial eco-system, particularly in incubating ideas and working with early stage startups and their founders as a CEO coach. 

He is a board director and an advisory member in a number of startups. 

He has been an active member in several industry associations including TIE. He is also a trustee at several NGOs working on causes ranging from education to public transparency.