Embracing Digital with Pravin Gandhi

Passion and Commitment, something that you will hear throughout this conversation with Pravin Gandhi, a pioneer in the Indian IT industry. With over 50 years in the industry, Pravin is known nowadays for his angel investing and mentorship of entrepreneurs. What you may not know is that his association with the industry started as a software professional! In his journey over the years, you will hear about spotting opportunities, wanting to solve other people’s problems and dreaming big. In this conversation with Sivaguru from PM Power Consulting, Pravin Gandhi talks about many things, including bringing Digital Equipment Corporation to India and closes with the need to embrace Digital! Other things he speaks about include: -Learning computers and programming in the 60s -Being among the first 100 employees at TCS and them moving to Mafatlal Computer Services -Switching out of the software development industry into an OR role -Moving again, soon into a sales and marketing role to find his calling -Leaving Coca Cola, just before they had to close down in India -Converting an opportunity to join Tektronix, an instrumentation company just as they started introducing computerized instruments , to become a promoter of a new company, Hinditron -About creating a pull by approached the end users -How every entrepreneur should be nimble and read to pivot, when it comes to survival of the business -How they were able to establish partnerships to make and sell PCs and solutions -The experience of working with and selling to government officials -Why he considers punctuality and respect for time to be very important -What is a reasonable measure of success, for an entrepreneur -Being a company builder and not a financier -What the right age would be to start up and what it takes to make it work -The role of a mentor, particularly for startups to grow and scale\ -2 questions he would like to ask entrepreneurs -His experience and lessons learnt from starting a software company to build an ERP solution -We, as a country, needing to dream big and large scale impact -Opportunities in the IT sector for both entry level aspirants and mid-career professionals Pravin Gandhi has over 50 years of entrepreneurial operational and investing experience in the IT industry in India. He was a founding partner of the first early stage fund India – INFINITY. Subsequently a founding partner in Seedfund I & II. With over 18 years of investing experience, he is extensively well networked in investment and entrepreneurial scene and is an active early stage angel investor in tech & impact space. Pravin holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Cornell University, and serves on the board of several private corporations in India. Pravin is a former President of the Manufacturers Association of Information Technology (an IT manufacturers association in India), He is a Past President of TiE Mumbai as well as an Ex-Global Trustee of The Indus Entrepreneurs. He was an Executive Committee of Nasscom in the past. He is on the board of SINE, IIT Mumbai Incubator. He serves on Investment Committee of Aavishkaar Bharat Fund.