At IIM, I was known as Raghavan Chari or R.R. Chari. One big change after IIM was that I changed my name formally to Srikanth Chari. That’s because hardly anyone knew me as Raghavan – I was either known as Chari or as Srikanth so I decided to simplify things.

 

For me, life has been more like a following a crazy, twisty road than a straight path. After graduation, I ended up at DCM Data Products largely due to a case of the infamous “two offer” system we had. I then moved to UCLA in 1981, got married to Padma the same year, and finished my Ph.D.

 

I was not too keen on academia so in 1989 I decided to move out to industry and have been involved with small companies in Silicon Valley since then. And it has been a crazy roller coaster ride since then with lots of ups and downs.

 

In 1989, I joined a group of friends who had just started a company. We then learned the hard lessons of working with venture capitalists. We raised money for our startup and all of us ended up getting fired soon after that. 

 

We then started another company, CyberMedia, struggled for a long time, raised venture capital again, and finally took it public in 1996. However, we soon ended up with a shareholder lawsuit and finally ended up selling the company to McAfee. 

 

Since 1996, I’ve been involved with a bunch of small startups. Some had muddled through and done reasonably, some failed miserably, but it has certainly been interesting working with smart people who have a great drive and passion. 

 

What I’ve learned is that building a company is not easy and there are few overnight successes. But it is a thrilling journey.

 

Padma and I have two children – Sandhya and Arvind. Sandhya is married to Sudarshan, a person she met while on a two-year assignment in Hyderabad. They have a cute 7 month daughter, Amudha, and I have been privileged to spend a lot of time with my grand-daughter this year in DC (being a grand-father is the best experience!) Arvind is getting married in a couple of weeks in Tennessee.

 

I’m planning to spend time now on meditation (which I do practice), hiking, volunteering, and reading, and playing bridge. It’s a good complement to Padma, who is involved with so many things, it boggles my mind!

 

I am going to try and make it to Goa, but I am not sure. But I welcome any of you passing through San Francisco to contact me. Padma and I would love to see you.