A Tribute to Jay Pullur — One of India’s Finest Product Entrepreneurs
We got talking in Sydney, sometime in 2006. The conversation was why many companies are not building software products from India. This, after a busy day attending the CeBIT show where I was a part of the Ganesh Natarajan-led delegation. Ganesh as you know is the legendary Ex-Chairman of Zensar Technologies and an industry doyen. Alongside, 16 company founders were also a part of the Indian delegation, organized by NASSCOM’s SME Forum.
Pramati Technologies, a product company, and Jay Pullur the CEO was a part of this delegation. A bustling day it was, and by evening tiredness had crept in but before it could overpower us, Jay suggested that we explore the city, but on foot. A few other founders joined us and we were off — flaneurs exploring the city and building on bonhomie, in the process. That’s when we learnt more about Pramati and Jay’s vision in making India a Product Nation.
Entrepreneurial journey, he said, was an inspiration drawn from Narayana Murthy and how powerful conglomerates are built from scratch — if the vision is right — in a remarkably short time. span. Wipro was yet another inspirational story that he highlighted; how Mr. Premji and his team willed it to be a company rendering global services from India, and most importantly with Indian talent.
Jay’s vision for India even back then, was spectacular! That evening, he translated some of that vision and articulated with great passion on how to build global products from India.
In those days, Pramati was a rightful outlier, standing tall and having earned its place in the Java world. He also frequented global events and was invited to showcase ideas, products, et al, which in turn strengthened the nation’s positioning as a talent hub and its vibrant channels for ideation.
Jay and Pramati played an active role in expanding the product entrepreneurs’ base from Hyderabad and over the decade, many folks from IIIT would learn from Pramati’s product team in the city.
His problem-solving approach through software products left the audience mesmerized and most importantly he was amongst the pioneers who believed that India’s mammoth-sized challenges could be mitigated through this approach. I distinctly remember in one of the meetings he explained how Income tax and allied taxation matters could be automated and how the government should be thinking about solving problems for Indians. Today, it’s box ticked but remember, I am referring to a time that was a decade-and-a-half back.
I have also been very grateful to Jay who sponsored many events whenever I reached out to him. I did reach out to him again in 2012 when we were building iSPIRT and Jay promptly supported the mission. In fact, the very first meeting of iSPIRT (4th February, that year) was hosted by him at Pramati’s Bangalore office.
Jay had sold Qontext to Autodesk which was again one of the few successful acquisitions for an Indian Product company. They later acquired Wavemaker from VMware, which was unheard of at that time — an Indian Product company acquiring from a global major.
Jay played a very active role in M&A which was also a focus area of iSPIRT. He had a deep understanding of the M&A dynamics and he shared his knowledge, a playbook of sorts, that helped many founders subsequently.
Tragically, Jay left for his heavenly abode on 31st July after battling a neurodegenerative disease. He was an alumnus of IIT Kanpur.
I had not spoken to Jay for a long time. We get trapped in our daily battles and drift. It causes pain today that I could not draw more inspiration from him and get his continued contribution as we build the Product Nation.
As I write this, I can’t believe that Jay is no longer with us. He was an amazing human being and was always willing to help and make a difference to society.
But Jay, we will not allow your efforts to go to waste. We will continue with our mission of building India as a Product Nation. Thank you for all your contributions to the Indian Product ecosystem.
