Their Future Is Now: An Inside Look At Two of The Rising Stars of Western Pennsylvania’s Entrepreneurial Landscape
_____________________________________________________________________

-On this edition of “The Raja Show”, Raja profiles the entrepreneurs behind two award-winning Western Pennsylvania startups.  These companies were recently honored as part of the Second Annual TIE Pittsburgh Start-Up Award/BMR Showcase event earlier this month.   The event featured 10 Western Pennsylvania startups pitching to a panel of seasoned investment professionals, including recent Raja Show guests Sunil Wadhwani of SWAT Capital and Ilana Diamond of AlphaLabGear.

The winning company, which received $10,000, was Rorus, a company that uses advanced forms of nanotechnology to create cost-effective water purification and filtration systems, for use in both developing and developed communities, using hydrological disaster relief in India as its initial market.  The company’s founder, Corinne Clinch, will join Raja on Sunday to discuss how she used the technical education she received at Carnegie Mellon University, and her experience with water purification in Ghana, South Africa, and Haiti, to create a system that hopes to improve water purification techniques throughout the globe.

Next, we’ll talk with Srinith Vaddepally, founder of Ristcall, the second place winner at the event, and as such, the recipient of $3,000, and an additional $2,000 in legal services.  Ristcall aims to be a gamechanger in the medical industry, in terms of bolstering the effectiveness of service as it replaces the traditional “bell” system that an in-house patient in need of treatment would use to notify a nurse with a portable, digital device that enables patients to further classify their requests in advance, enabling nurses to organize and prioritize the patients according to their needs.

For those who enjoy hearing about the next wave of entrepreneurship in innovation in Western Pennsylvania, this show is for you, as we’ll feature two of the best firms in town, ones with the acclaim to back it up.

Paul Mitchell Hair Products.   Patron Spirits.  With Two Billion Dollar Startups Under His Belt, What Is John Paul DeJoria Doing To Go For the Hat Trick?
_____________________________________________________________________

“You’ll never succeed in anything in life!”

When John Paul DeJoria’s high school math teacher uttered those words directly to him, that teacher was probably correct.  After all, at the time, John Paul was a wayward soul that found himself caught in the trappings of a street gang as a youth.

Even AFTER he heard those words, despite being hell-bent on turning himself around at that point, things weren’t much better.   After a stint in the Navy, John Paul wandered from job to job.

Janitor.

Insurance salesman.

Door-to-door Encyclopedia salesman.

A squabble with his first wife left him homeless for a period of time at the age of 22 (not the last time that would happen to John Paul).  He had found himself BACK on the streets, equipped with not much more than the clothes on his back and a fighting determination to prove the doubters (including his high school math teacher) wrong.

Then, in 1979, John Paul DeJoria found himself with $700, half of which he borrowed from his mother.

He hooked up with a friend of his.   They decided to use that $700 to create the artwork for their startup idea, a company that would specialize in hair care products.   When it came time to name the company, they used his partner’s name.

His name:  Paul Mitchell

And suffice to say, from the point they decided to launch their company during some of the roughest times in America’s recent economic history, even though it resulted in a (temporary) SECOND brush with homelessness for John Paul DeJoria, Paul and John Paul never looked back.  Using the same door-to-door approach he had taken with encyclopedias and insurance, only this time with beauty salons, John Paul’s persistence saw him through.  And it has paid off, as Paul Mitchell hair products are a staple of pretty much ANY beauty salon you walk into, some 35 years later.

Ever the entrepreneur, John Paul, in 1989,  had encountered a colleague who made frequent trips to Mexico as part of his architecture business.  He asked him to bring back some of the best tequila that the locals were drinking at the time.  When he did,the tequila had a smoothness unlike anything either John Paul or his colleague had ever consumed.   With the Paul Mitchell business thriving, John Paul decided to purchase 1,000 cases (12,000 bottles) of this unique blend.  He and his colleague would import it, use a little mixology to make it even MORE smooth, then try to market the tequila in the U.S.  Worst case scenario, he thought: he’d have celebratory gifts to give away for decades!

And Patron Spirits was born!  And in the 25 years since, it’s revenues have surpassed even those of Paul Mitchell,

All because of persistence.   For John Paul DeJoria, it’s all about approaching the 101st door with as much enthusiasm and optimism as the previous 100 that have been slammed in your face!

So what’s next for John Paul DeJoria?  The 71-year-old entrepreneur is showing ZERO signs of slowing down, embarking on two new projects, one (or both) of which he is confident will be the third billion dollar enterprise under his belt.  On this edition of “The Raja Show”, John Paul DeJoria joins Raja to discuss his story, the importance of never giving up, and the challenges of starting a THIRD billion dollar company in a time when more and more startups are falling by the wayside than ever before.

He Was I.T. When I.T. Wasn’t Cool:   How IGATE Founder Sunil Wadhwani’s Gamble of a Lifetime Paid Off, and What’s He’s Doing To Foster Entrepreneurship and Innovation In Western Pennsylvania Today
_____________________________________________________________________

OK, regular listeners to The Raja Show…..stop if you’ve heard this before!

A young Indian man with success in his eyes, and hard work and determination in his heart, comes to America in pursuit of the freedom that entrepreneurship can provide.

Upon coming to America, he enrolls in a noted Pittsburgh university to continue his pursuit in one of the most prestigious collegiate programs in the country.

Soon after graduation, he hooks up with a partner to start an IT firm in a small office, in humble beginnings.

He grows that IT firm into a globally-acclaimed company that is among the highest regarded in its industry, propelling him into personal acclaim as one of the top entrepreneurs in the region.

So, we’re talking about this guy, right?

Well….close.   But what if the people in question did it years earlier, during a time when nobody know what I.T. was?

But Sunil Wadhwani did just that.

By founding Mastech (now IGATE), Sunil was a pioneer in what would become a hotbed market for I.T. companies in Western Pennsylvania.   Along with his founding partner, Ashok Trivedi, Sunil grew the company from two people working from an 10′ x 10′ office, to an I.T. juggernaut many thousand employees strong, earning hundreds of millions in revenue in a VERY short amount of time for any industry, let alone an industry that itself could be considered a startup.

But for Sunil and Mastech/IGATE, success was not without its obstacles.  From the company’s early struggles to get customers to buy into its I.T. initiatives, to the substantial hit the company took in its profits when the infamous “dot com bubble” burst in the early 2000′s, the road was not always a smooth one, to say the least.  But thanks to Sunil’s quiet demeanor and steady leadership, the company was able to withstand the slings and arrows and stay ahead of the tech curve en route to massive success on a global scale.

And in April of 2015, for Sunil, it was time to close one chapter of his life, and let another one grow and prosper.  Sunil and Ashok sold IGATE to CapGemini for $4 billion, with the founders walking away with $1 billion in the process.

So Sunil, having achieved the dream he set out to achieve four decades prior, is all set to ride off into the sunset, correct?

Not so fast.  He IS, after all, an entrepreneur.

Sunil and Ashok are in the process of fostering a new generation of innovators and entrepreneurs through their venture capital firm, SWAT Capital.  With a stated goal of finding and investing in eight to ten “Next Big Thing” tech firms per year, they are quickly establishing themselves as kingmakers of the Western Pennsylvania tech scene.   And few, if any, business leaderes are as optimistic about what the region has to offer to the global tech landscape as Sunil Wadhwani.

On Sunday, Raja talks one-on-one with Sunil about his remarkable journey, the lessons he learned about managing hardships and successes along the way, how he stays so humble despite achieving so much, and what he sees as the outlook for the health of the region’s tech sector going forward.  Of the hundreds of entrepreneurs that we’ve talked to on the show, few, if any, “get it” when it comes to how to succeed in business and life, and not lose your head in the process, as Sunil Wadhwani.

(….and be sure to have pen and paper at the ready….you’ll want to take note of every word he says!)