Praful Nikam
Summary
Principal founder of 2 ventures that offered core, enterprise-wide applications to Banking
and Insurance industry respectively. First metamorphosed in to established banking solutions
vendor and received USD 25.00 million in private equity funding in 2007. The second was
acquired by a publicly listed company for USD 30.00 million in all cash transaction.
Over 2 decades of grass roots entrepreneurship and a resilience to see it through.
Professional Profile
1994 – 2008 : Founder - Systems Task Group International Ltd.(“STG”).
Non-availability of enterprise solutions (to P & C Insurance Industry) on emerging,
non-proprietary platforms is the genesis of STG. Successfully persuaded then employer
(ATIC) to expand scope of development of in-house enterprise application to build Renaissance
– the core software offering of STG. Employee visa status necessitated arrangement to be informal.
It was a boot strapped effort that called for tenacity, ingenuity, resourcefulness and perseverance.
The Numbers.
In 2007, the first full year prior to its acquisition, STG had revenues of approx. USD 20.00 million
and EBITDA of nearly USD 3.0 Million. It had 35+ paying customers and included marquee American
corporations such as GMAC, Ford, White Mountain, Nationwide among others. There were nearly 350
employees of which 275 were employed at its captive offshore center in Mumbai.
Accomplishments.
-
Built self-sustaining, “sweat equity”(zero investment) funded enterprise application company in an
industry in which ventures with as much as $ 60 million in investments have routinely flamed out.
-
Architected algorithm rich and obsolescence-proof solutions that earned respect in the industry.
-
Consistently anticipated industry transformational trends and leveraged those to attain first-mover
advantage.
-
Established offshore center in 1999 and successfully integrated them in core operations.
-
Consistently anticipated and implemented measures to address emerging business challenges.
-
Adept at guerilla business tactics when faced with David v/s Goliath challenges.
-
Early adopter of major technology developments and incorporated them in core products without
disruption to revenue generating business processes .
-
Successfully fought off a predatory move by a large competitor to hijack nascent product in the
founding phase of the company.
-
Entrepreneurial Track record in numbers. Investment – 0, Sale Price – 30 Million.
1989 – 1994: American Transit Insurance Company(ATIC).
ATIC is a mid-size insurer based in New York City. Successful development of a proto-type to
automate a business division’s operations resulted in company’s go-ahead and funding for development
of enterprise application system to automate its core business operations. This system was then
marketed as Renaissance Suite of Insurance Solutions – core product offering of STG.
1987 – 1989 : Consulting Assignments in USA
For nearly 2 years worked as contract programmer in 5 cities in USA primarily on open technology
platforms with development environment as varied as Progress, Linc(Unisys), Foxpro , Oracle among
others. All assignments were associated with Insurance Industry.
1985 – 87 : Founder - Bankware Group.
Principal founder of Bankware Group – initiative targeted at emerging but potentially mammoth
bank/branch automation opportunities in India under the progressive government of the then Prime
Minister – Rajiv Gandhi. Successfully architected and developed comprehensive retail banking software
that was implemented at numerous branches of Public sector banks in Mumbai. In the role as boot-
strapped entrepreneur, fulfilled diverse roles in sales and marketing, finance, accounting,
presentations and proposals, negotiations, crisis management and in those roles, interacted with
executive at the highest level of customer organization.
1983 – 85 : Various.
Joined Mastek in 1983. Entirely involved in development of Media Management System for Rediffusion
Advertising under direct supervision of its CIO – Sudhkar Ram who is currently Mastek’s CEO/Managing
Director. Subsequently joined Wipro as Implementation Specialist for their bank branch automation
software and successfully commissioned the solution for a branch of large Public Sector bank–
reportedly one of the first branch automation of public sector bank in India.
Strengths.
-
Extensive experience and insight in to every aspect of entrepreneurial venture.
-
Capability to perceive emerging (“over the hill and beyond the mountain”) challenges and plan and
implement measures to manage them.
-
Effective communicator particularly in conversational style forums.
-
Exposed to and managed offshore issues associated with employee benefits, regulatory, attrition,
personnel turnover, executive recruitment, retention, quality, motivation, transfer pricing etc..
-
Experience of aligning offshore operations with requirements of business and customers overseas.
-
Insight in to US corporate, legal and regulatory environments.
-
Knowledgeable about M&A,venture funding, raising capital practices.
Education
M.S.(Mathematics) – University of Bombay(Mumbai).
Areas of Interest :