Leadership Lecture Series: Mr. Saumen Chakraborty, CEO & MD, Intellisys

On 9th of August we had with us a very distinguished speaker, Mr. Saumen Chakraborty, CEO and MD Intellisys and ex-KGPian. He talked to us about his initial career and how he started Intellisys. He led the audience through the various stages of an entrepreneur’s development with his personal experiences and witty analogies. He also guided us how to tackle VCs.

He is involved in various knowledge centre projects. He has been allotted land to open a KPO centre in Kolkata and also 15 R&D centres of excellence and research labs. He has established alliances with IT industry and academic institutions. He is also involved in live collaboration components for various modules in electronics and biology He has also linked up with Mr. Kevin Warwick to develop a brain computer interface, and transmit neuron signals. He
is also working for the benefit of mentally handicapped and autistic children.

In his talk, he gave a very realistic solution to the problem of familial opposition towards becoming an entrepreneur. The picture he created was that of a family clinging on to an individual after he has just made , what is thought to be, a very bold decision.

He also highlighted the eternal problem of convincing VCs to fund your start-up/idea. Even as it is unfortunate that you need to be at the mercy of someone’s benevolence, it is essential that you demand the help rather than beg for it.. Belief in yourself is an absolute must.

He also said that he’d be glad to help anyone interested in the fields he is working on.He entertained a lot of questions near the end of his talk, and answered them with the same wit and accuracy that he had maintained in his speech.

A few of the questions asked were :

1. Should you be motivated by interest or the market?

2. How do you decide on a price and how does that decision affect a prospective VC?

3. How do we compete with the big guns of the corporate world?

For more details on the lecture and questions

and answers, please visit

www.ecell.iitkgp.ernet.in