Entrepreneurs, ‘be fast and nimble'

Could we talk about Catamaran Ventures. Why that name, in the first place?

Catamaran Ventures is basically a venture capital and private equity company that is interested in encouraging entrepreneurship. We have made several investments amongst angels, some in late stage. And we need to see over the next five years how these pan out.

Catamaran comes from the Kannada word “ kattu maram ”. Kattu maram means a set of logs that are tied and they serve as a fast and nimble boat. It goes where big ships can't go.

You can go very fast on it. It is inexpensive. In some way this represents what entrepreneurship is all about. That is, you have to be nimble, you have to be simple, you have to be very fast, you can beat bigger ships… That is what we wanted to be.

What is it that you look for in entrepreneurs? New ideas…

There are youngsters who have looked at how to add value in the area of education. There are youngsters who have come and made proposals on how they want to add value in healthcare. We have youngsters who have started e-commerce applications.

Any plans to raise money? You raised about Rs 170 crore…

No, we don't want to take money from others. My wife said very rightly, just because I founded Infosys and ran it with some success does not mean that I know how to manage other people's money. So, she said if you lose your own money, it is okay. But otherwise you will lose reputation. So she said don't take money from others.

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