![]() ![]() ![]() On the menu, apart from the coffee, were some hard facts: anyone who stayed on at Axiom would do so as an equity holder, which meant that instead of getting salaries, they would scrounge around to raise the starting capital.Īnd, henceforth, the coffee would come from "the neighbourhood Darshinis and not Cafe Coffee Day." Pole-axed by the setback, Rao herded his remaining team of four promoters and two employees to a local coffee shop. The year 2002 was not a happy new year for Rao. Spooked by the anti-outsourcing wave in the US, the VC had decided that Axiom was an idea doomed to fail. The same evening Rao walked into the VC's office to be told that there had been a re-think. The team kept their fingers crossed, and breathed a sigh of relief on December 31, 2001, when the VC sent them a term sheet for a seed capital funding of $1.8 million.īut their euphoria did not last even a day. Rao drew upon his US experience to draft a start-up plan focussed on the auto sector. After an MBA in the US, Rao had worked as a consultant with Ford Motors. Start-ups were the flavour of the season and venture capital was in plentiful supply in the late 1990s. Setting up a design consultancy seemed natural, after Rao relocated to Bangalore in 1996 following a 10-year stint in the United States. Plus, there was the "vibrant culture of learning in Kolkata." He took to it after his father, who would invent devices to ease simple household tasks. "We are an idea-driven company and need to foster creative thinking," says its 42-year old founder and CEO, Satya Rao.įor Rao, a mechanical engineer who began his career in the automobile sector, tooling around was a childhood passion. Encouraging each of his 30-member team to innovate is another principle guiding the four-year old Axiom Consulting. Paranoia is one of the 10 axioms that rule this product design company. Rags to Riches: Designing their own future ![]()
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